BRAKE CHECK TO DONATE OVER $26,000 TO BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF SAN ANTONIO WITH HELP FROM SPURS FAST BREAK PRO… – Spurs.com

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SAN ANTONIO (August 4, 2020) San Antonio Spurs partner Brake Check has announced that it will donate $26,909 to Boys & Girls Clubs of San Antonio, thanks to itsKeep the Changeinitiative and the Spurs Fast Break promotion.

Through its longstanding Spurs Fast Break promotion, Brake Check pledges $20 per fast break point scored by the Silver and Black, totaling nearly $17,000 through March of 2020, and continuing through the NBA restart in Orlando. TheKeep the Changeinitiative has raised nearly $10,000 from customers who offer to round up their service repair ticket to the nearest dollar.

The Boys & Girls Club provides so much to our community, said Brake Check President David Peveto. Brake Check and our customers take pride in being able to help support them for over 20 years and look forward to continuing these efforts well into the future.

Through the donations, Brake Check continues its 20-year tradition of helping Boys & Girls Clubs of America to provide a safe environment, high-quality programs, and unique experiences to level the playing field for all kids.

About Brake Check

Founded in 1968,Brake Checkis a family owned and operated company which is proud to have been serving Texas for over 50 years. Brake Check services brakes as well as performs oil changes and alignments. The foundation of the business is, and always will be, to Do It Right! By providing only the highest quality parts, transparent information and customer fairness, Brake Check will continue to deliver drivers peace of mind today and tomorrow.

About The Boys and Girls Clubs of America

For more than 150 years,Boys & Girls Clubs of Americahas enabled young people most in need to achieve great futures as productive, caring, responsible citizens. Today, more than 4,300 Clubs serve nearly 4 million young people through Club membership and community outreach. Clubs are located in cities, towns, public housing and on Native lands throughout the country, and serve military families in BGCA-affiliated Youth Centers on U.S. military installations worldwide. They provide a safe place, caring adult mentors, fun and friendship, and high-impact youth development programs on a daily basis during critical non-school hours. Club programs promote academic success, good character and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles. In a Harris Survey of alumni, 54 percent said the Club saved their lives. National headquarters are located in Atlanta.

-spurs.com-

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BRAKE CHECK TO DONATE OVER $26,000 TO BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF SAN ANTONIO WITH HELP FROM SPURS FAST BREAK PRO... - Spurs.com

Austin protesters clash with police in the wake of Garrett Foster’s death – The Texas Tribune

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Throughout the summer, cities in Texas and around the country have seen protests and demonstrations against police brutality. On Saturday, protesters and law enforcement clashed in Austin, a week after protester Garrett Foster, who was openly carrying an AK-47 rifle which is legal in Texas was shot and killed by Daniel Perry, a U.S. Army sergeant, when he approached his car. Perry drove away, then called the police. Perry was released without being charged. Since then, questions have been raised about who was the aggressor.

Fosters death fueled tensions Saturday night in the downtown streets of the state capital as demonstrators again gathered and local and state police turned out in massive force. Tribune photographer Jordan Vonderhaar was there to document the protest. Heres what he saw.

First: Armed protesters ride in the back of a pickup truck from a rally at the University of Texas to a memorial for Garrett Foster in downtown Austin, minutes after hearing of clashes between other protesters and police. Last: A man with a sniper rifle slung over his shoulder stands among protesters who have gathered at the Garrett Foster memorial in downtown Austin. Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune

First: Mounted officers from the Austin Police Department clash with protesters on the corner of Fourth Street and Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. Last: Police officers on horses and bicycles advance toward protesters. Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune

State police were present large numbers. Jordan Vonderhaar for the Texas Tribune

First: A woman with her hands zip-tied waits to be loaded onto a bus after being arrested during protests against police brutality in downtown Austin. Last: Police load arrested protesters into a Travis County Sheriff Department bus. Jordan Vonderhaar for the Texas Tribune

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Austin protesters clash with police in the wake of Garrett Foster's death - The Texas Tribune

Understanding files: 4 types of files and their uses – AZ Big Media

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Are you trying to figure out more about different types of files? Read this article to learn about differen types of files and their uses.

It seems like technology these days is little more than a constant stream of acronyms: PDF, HTML, DOC, XLSX sometimes its hard to keep up, no matter how tech-savvy you are.

These acronyms are usually codes for different file types. But how can you tell which is which? Read on to find out about the most common types of files and how to use them.

One of the most common document types used today is the Microsoft Word Document, which ends with .doc or .docx.

These documents are specifically built for word processors like Microsoft Word, sotheyre easily editable. If youre going to be making changes to a document, DOC is definitely the way to go.

DOC files are also pretty much universal. In other words, you dont need Microsoft Word to open them. Any word processor will do.

PDFs are another common document file type, so its helpful to compare the two when youre choosing a file type. PDFs arent as easily editable as DOCs, which can be a strength or a weakness.

On the one hand, its much harder to edit your work once its in PDF form.On the other hand, this permanence means that if you send a PDF over email or print it out, youre much less likely to run into weird formatting changes made automatically by your word processor.

So if you have a document thats not likely to change, consider using a PDF to distribute, store, or print it. If you have a DOC file that you want to convert, try using a free DOCX to PDF converter.

JPEG files are the most popular type of image file out there today.

Why? JPEGs are extremely lightweight in terms of size.They cut out extraneous data and only keep things that are visible to the human eye. This makes them very compact and easy to send, upload, or transfer.

One thing to keep in mind with JPEGs is that each time one is saved and re-saved, it loses a little bit of its quality. If you save one over and over again, youll start to see it get grainy because it gets more and more compressed each time you save it.

JPEGs are also universal, meaning that they can be opened on any computer or device. Theyre especially useful for web design or social media because of their small size. They load quickly and easily, making them the ideal format for image files.

PNGs are similar to JPEG files, but they have some different advantages. Whereas JPEGs are valued for their small size, PNGs are larger files and will take longer to load.

But PNGs make up for their large size with image sharpness and color retention. PNGs also support transparent backgrounds, which is an advantage over JPEGs, which dont.

These four types of files are just a smattering of the many, many file types out there today. That being said, these are probably the most commonly encountered files and are a must-know for any tech user. The better you get to know them and their uses, the more tech-savvy youll become!

Looking to learn more to get the most out of your tech devices? Be sure to browse the rest of this site.

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Understanding files: 4 types of files and their uses - AZ Big Media

How to remove restrictions from a PDF with free programs? – Explica

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Many times, the authors or owners of a PDF documentThey decide to put restrictions on it so that no one is able to modify them without their consent. But if you are not the creator of that file or have bad intentions, you probably want to be able to make some modifications to it. Therefore, in this article, we want to show you how remove restrictions of an easy, fast and free PDF.

The first thing you have to bear in mind is that restricted PDF documents greatly limit our range of possibilities. In general, in these cases we will not be able to copy the content of the document, open it if you have a password, edit the text, make annotations or prints, etc. As we can see, any restricted PDF document becomes almost useless most of the time.

Luckily, today we have some free software that has been specially designed so that we can remove these restrictions. Next we are going to talk about some of the best, so that you can take a look at them, and decide which is the best one for your needs.

Of course, you have to bear in mind that you will always need the password to access the PDF document. Otherwise, you will not be able to apply any of these modifications. However, it is common for restricted PDFs to have their password released, so we have thought about those specific circumstances.

Online2pdf.com is the first of the free programs to remove restrictions from a PDF that you should consider. Once you have used it, you can convert formats, rotate pages, rearrange them and more.

Its main strength has to do, however, that it is able to remove restrictions from several PDF files at the same time. In fact, you have the chance to upload 20 PDF files at a time. Another good option is to configure it to get separate PDF files on output. Likewise, you must consider certain limits: 100 MB for a single PDF, 150 MB for multiple PDFs.

Its operation is extremely simple, although it does not have any additional features. If the original PDF doesnt have a password, you can add one of your own and manage new permissions.

PDF2Go is the second of the alternatives that we want to recommend. It is quite similar to the previous one, inviting us to carry out actions such as, for example, search within the document, change the size of each page, repair errors, unlock it, and even protect it with a password.

Again, you can unlock multiple PDF files or single PDF according to your requirement. As for the ways to upload files, it supports many different ones: from the Desktop, from cloud storage, from a URL, or from an online PDF. Therefore, it is not necessary to download them first.

This service can be used without registering or with a free account, although we suggest that you sign up to enjoy some extra features, such as a larger file size.

As its name implies, PDF Restrictions Remover is a free and quite intuitive software. It is powerful enough to batch remove restrictions from PDF files. You can also add different PDFs, add access passwords and many others.

Once you are done, of course, you will overcome the printing, copying and editing restrictions.

Something that you will have to bear in mind is that it is impossible to establish or configure an output folder. Therefore, we have to take for granted the one that automatically generates to store all the results of your operations. Beyond that, it has no other major cons.

And we conclude with PDF Unlock. A simple tool, up to a point somewhat limited. However, you will be able to add your PDF documents to the extent that you are able to unlock them by password.

Here you can select an output folder that makes it easier for you to later reach the unlocked PDFs.

Remember, once you have finished and removed all restrictions to the PDF document, then you can carry out many other tasks with these files. Without going any further, it is possible to convert a PDF to another format. You only have to download the program or application that is necessary for it.

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How to remove restrictions from a PDF with free programs? - Explica

Berkeley has put $580K behind the arts. The caveat: no one can congregate to enjoy them – Berkeleyside

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The Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza will soon be getting a 50-minute sound installation by Thea Farhadian (pictured) and Dean Santomieri called A New Sense of Place. Photo: Dean Santomieri

Museums are shuttered and theaters remain silent as the tomb, but the arts in Berkeley are not kaput. The city is moving forward with plans for new public art and, in a recent special meeting, approved grants for nearly 100 artists, organizations, and festivals totaling almost $580,000.

The catch? In order to proceed, artists and festival organizers must show they wont allow any groups to congregate you know, basically what festivals and the performing arts are all about.

Its really challenging; however, people are rising to the challenge, said Lisa Bullwinkel, chair of Berkeleys Civic Arts Commission. They got their grant money and have been asked to file a new report about how theyre going to I hate to use the word pivot but that seems to be the vernacular right now pivot onto some other platform.

I think its so important we do support these arts organizations for a couple of years, she said. And it IS going to be a couple of years until were able to meet in theaters again or in big groups outdoor at festivals or concerts. Its going to take a long time, not only for the vaccines and medicines to work but for people to feel comfortable psychologically to be in a group like that.

The city originally wanted to allocate zero funds for festivals this year. But it changed its mind and released $80,000, about half the usual annual amount, after realizing that some festivals could go online.

Not all of them translate, however. Chahar Shanbeh Suri, the Persian New Year celebration that has people ritualistically leaping over bonfires, will not have an official Berkeley analog in 2021. There was no way that could pivot and go online, Bullwinkel said.

But some of the larger ones are proceeding in transmogrified forms. The Bay Area Book Festival, for instance, is holding an online, one-day mini-fest on Oct. 4 called Berkeley Unbound featuring local activists and luminaries like Steve Kerr, W. Kamau Bell, Alice Waters, and the legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky. (Watch the teaser.)

Were at this real inflection point in the history of our country, I mean probably more than since the Civil War, said Cherilyn Parsons, executive director of the Bay Area Book Festival (for which Berkeleyside is a media sponsor). Here in Berkeley we have extraordinary intellectuals and thinkers and writers, so we thought, What does Berkeley have to say about this really key point? What is its vision for forging a better society out of this time?

Theater lovers are also in luck, as local troupes seem to be adapting to the new age.

The theaters are uniquely dangerous places to be when youre in a space with somebody who has COVID, says Patrick Dooley, founding artistic director of Shotgun Players. One person coughing in the back of the theater with the HVAC blowing air all over the building could infect a hundred people a night, you know?

Commuters on I-80 might notice something missing in the public-arts landscape soon. Berkeley Big People, the grand-scale figurative sculptures that have guarded the pedestrian overpass to the Berkeley Marina since 2008, are getting the heave-ho as reported by Berkeleyside last year. We were in the process of planning that when COVID struck, said Jennifer Lovvorn, the Civic Arts Commissions secretary. But it will be happening at some point in the future maybe this year or next year. Ive offered the city to refurbish them with no cost to the city and maintenance-free for 15 years, says the sculptures creator, Scott Donahue, who indicates he might still be in negotiations with Berkeley about the artworks future but cant offer more due to legal advice.

So what Dooleys group is doing is delivering props, sound equipment and green screens to its players so they can erect their own home studios. A costume designer virtually rifles through their closets to see what clothes they should wear. The actors then stage performances via Zoom that are sprinkled with the magic of live theater.

I saw a cat come and kind of walk through once, says Dooley. Weve had dogs barking, phones ringing, neighbors knocking on the door. You think youve worked out everything, and then somebody starts ringing the doorbell.

People bold enough to go outside can expect to see some new public art this year, too. The Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza will soon be getting a 50-minute sound installation by Thea Farhadian and Dean Santomieri called A New Sense of Place. The artists say they hope that people traversing the plaza will appreciate encountering something familiar, or something strange, coming from the multichannel, overhead speaker array, and for some moments be roused from their thoughts, conversations, or devices by the unexpected gift of music. (Thea Farhadian is the featured photo for this story, taken by Dean Santomieri. Hear two audio excerpts from the composition.)

And Cube Space, the public-arts display in the Center Street Garage on Addison Street, is switching up exhibits this fall. The Oakland-based digital/video artist Leila Weefur is curating a next year-long show, featuring three African American artists presenting different material over separate four-month periods.

So what else is on the arts horizon for 2020 and beyond? Some of the winners of the recent arts grants chatted with Berkeleyside about their pandemic plans. (See the full list of grant awardees.)

The center is using its grant to showcase a series of digital exhibitions, supplemented by a virtual artist panel instead of a physical opening reception, about art that advocates for environmental activism. Currently on view is Art/Act: Local Wild Places, our annual juried show which features four Bay Area artists exploring the importance of connecting to nature, says Sibel Gner, communications and development manager. Our next exhibition [in October] will be Art/Act: Award, which will be on view for an entire year and features the work of National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting.

We planned to open [last] weekend, but given the announcements about school closures and all that it seemed like a really weird time to do that, says executive director Daniel Nevers. We will reopen sometime. Were watching the [COVID] numbers, and in the meantime are proceeding with our exhibition schedule, some of which were going to share online as well as create original digital content like artist interviews and digital publications. The just-installed exhibition Experiments in the Fieldfeatures art about the intersection of climate science and personal and cultural identities, and will be available to extremely small groups of people (think two, wearing masks) to physically tour by appointment.

The gallery is lettings its arts fellows transform the interior into a constantly evolving creative lab that might feature different material depending on the week you visit (by appointment only, of course). This show, titled Residency Projects in Flux, will last through September and features the works of print artist Jonathan Herrera Soto, who explores collective memory and historical instances of state-sponsored violence, photographer and book artist Sara Press, whose fascinations include dog fighting, feral children, and our co-evolution with snakes, and many others.

Shotgun Players thought about canceling their 2020 season but instead have gone all-in on livestreamed and prerecorded shows on a pay-what-you-can basis ranging from free to $40. Playing now is The Niceties, a show about a black student and a white professor debating slavery, truth, and the American Revolution. (Tickets available here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/theniceties) Up next in early August is Quack, about a doctor who runs a popular TV show for women who encounters a savage media take-down. (Tickets here: https://tinyurl.com/shotgunquack)

Shunning the Zoom craze, Aurora has decided to embrace the format of an old-fashioned audio drama. Were known for being intimate the audience is only four-rows deep all the way around three sides of the stage. Youre very close to the actors, and we bring in some of the best actors in the Bay Area to do nuanced, high-quality acting with a real emphasis on language, says artistic director Josh Costello. Trying to replicate that in Zoom didnt feel right, but an audio drama has a sense of intimacy, because its a voice in your ear. The play, which will be released on an undisclosed platform in October, is about three neighbors who all live in a Berkeley triplex due to an extended shelter in place, says Costello. And ultimately its about how people deal with a shifting world and how we move forward as a community at a time when the existing structures and systems are no longer serving us.

The organizers of the annual Juneteenth Festival in Berkeley do not have plans for an alternative event at this point.

Freight & Salvage is exploring different options for its next traditional-music fest, which will take place likely online in 2021, but in the meantime will provide free music lessons to all middle schoolers in the Berkeley Unified School District in the fall. It also has developed a robust schedule of online music classes for adults, such as this one about jug bands. The cool thing right now is were not limited by classroom size or geography, says executive director Sharon Dolan. So our enrollment is higher than it would be for some classes, and we have teachers from around the country.

The new shape of the kite festival is thousands of kitemaking kits that people are picking up for free at our solar-powered kite shop on wheels at the Berkeley Marina, says festival founder Tom McAlister. People can grab them on weekends, weather permitting, and assemble them at home. We really believe that now more than ever we should be encouraging families to get outdoors, safely, in small groups, while social distancing, and enjoy the universal wind, he says.

The delightful melding of sweet treats and sidewalk art is losing its street-fair component. Were going to have people do artwork at their own homes and sidewalks and send pictures to us, and well upload it virtually, says organizer Lisa Bullwinkel. And instead of having people buy chocolate tickets and walk around to stores and eat chocolate, were just going to get prizes and gift certificates from the merchants for chocolate items that well distribute as prizes for the artwork after its judged on the website.

Theater artist Bruce Bierman received an individual-artist grant to produce the first West Coast adaptation of Sholem Aschs controversial 1906 Yiddish drama, God of Vengeance. I served as the Yiddish dance dramaturg for the Tony-Award winning play, Indecent, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Washington, D.C.s Arena Stage last year, Bierman says. Paula Vogels play Indecent recounts the turbulent history of the play God of Vengeancewhen it first came to America in 1922 and was shut down for obscenity and the actors thrown into the slammer. Yep. First lesbian-love relationship ever seen on Broadway.

Jazz performer Faye Carol is putting together a yet-to-be-announced group of renowned musicians for a virtual concert. Im developing a suite of music around social-justice themes arranged for an all-star sextet that will premiere in December in an online livestream, she says. The sextet will feature collaborations with some amazing musicians and name artists in the jazz world. ThisYouTube video, she says, will be emblematic of what shell be doing this year.

Paulina Berczynski says shell be using my individual-art grant to continue work on an ongoing project making story quilts with unhoused individuals and communities through my collaboration Feral Fabric (with artist Amanda Walters). Theyre inviting housed Berkeley community members to help finish the quilts, if youre interested check out their website.

Lena Wolff and her graphic-design collaborator Lexi Visco are making at least 20,000 posters to promote voting that they plan to ship across the country and put on billboards prior to the November election. We see the project as a timely public-service announcement and critical public-art campaign, with the goal of boosting enthusiasm around voter engagement ahead of the most significant election of our lifetime, Wolff says.

Our main goal this upcoming year is bringing La Pea online, says fundraising and operations associate Dainiz Almazan. The center has three types of programs planned: free online classes about the organizations cultural art forms, social-justice dialogues about civic engagement and the arts, and a sponsorship program for artists to livestream content to make up for pandemic-related lost work. The center is also launching its first online program this week about immigrant detention and prison reform; find more info here.

The nonprofit book distributor plans on using its grant funds to help small-press publishers adapt to the challenges of COVID, says executive director Brent Cunningham. To that end weve started a series of SPD summer school workshops online. Were also planning to revive our reading series in online form for the fall, have added 10 new spots to our ad programs, and are featuring authors and books in our new social-media reading series, where we will be posting minute-long recordings from SPD authors of their work. And, as always, there will be new poetry and fiction books coming out in the fall, some by local authors.

The center is using its grant to sustain its weekly online dance classes for ages ranging from infants to seniors. The program includes traditional modern and ballet classes, alongside expanded styles and forms that serve more students, both locally and nationally, such as adult jazz with Antoine Hunter with American Sign Language, Big Movement in Small Spaces Contemporary for Teens with Julie Crothers, and Stepping/Body Percussion with Antwan Davis, says executive director Rebecca Johnson. Its also producing the work of local dance choreographers online and will have a virtual Queering Dance Festival in mid-September that highlights the artistic work and issues on the minds of the queer, trans and gender-nonconforming dance community in the East Bay.

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Berkeley has put $580K behind the arts. The caveat: no one can congregate to enjoy them - Berkeleyside

SpaceX splashdown: Watch live as NASA astronauts return to …

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Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley strapped into Crew Dragon prior to the launch scrub May 27.

Update, Aug. 2, 11:54 a.m. PT: Crew Dragon has successfully splashed down. Read about it here.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission has been smooth sailing so far for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley launched to the International Space Station in late May and are now almost back to Earth.

Crew Dragon successfully undocked from the ISS at 4:35 p.m. PT on Saturday. NASA has been broadcasting the return process through a livestream onNASA TV.

Splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico is on schedule for 11:48 a.m. PT. There will be about an hour of excitement prior to that moment as Crew Dragon deorbits and re-enters Earth's atmosphere.

NASA and SpaceX are planning on a water landing off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, on Sunday while continuing to monitor any impact from Hurricane Isaias.

This will be the first crew recovery at sea of NASA astronauts since 1975 at the end of the Apollo moon exploration era, the space agency tweeted on Sunday.

A post-splashdown news conference is set for 1:30 p.m. PT on NASA TV.

The reentry process is dramatic. "Crew Dragon will be traveling at orbital velocity prior to reentry, moving at approximately 17,500 miles per hour. The maximum temperature it will experience on reentry is approximately 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit,"said NASA in a statement on July 24.

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

A SpaceX recovery vessel will meet Crew Dragon (which the astronauts named Endeavour) to collect the spacecraft and parachutes from the water. Endeavour will be hoisted onto the ship and Behnken and Hurley will be greeted by a medical team.

There's a lot riding on a safe, uneventful return for Crew Dragon. "This is SpaceX's final test flight and is providing data on the performance of the Falcon 9 rocket, Crew Dragon spacecraft and ground systems, as well as in-orbit, docking, splashdown and recovery operations," NASA said in a release.

If Crew Dragon passes these final tests, then SpaceX will be able to provide regular, operational flights to the ISS starting later this year. And it would end NASA's reliance on Russian spacecraft for the first time since the shuttle era.

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SpaceX splashdown: Watch live as NASA astronauts return to ...

NASA completes another testing milestone on its next-generation Artemis rocket – Digital Trends

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NASAs next-generation rocket for the Artemis mission to the moon, the Space Launch System (SLS), has been through its share of troubles. But progress continues on the project, and NASA has announced that it has reached a milestone in progress toward firing the engines in the first hot fire test.

The SLS rocket core stage is currently undergoing a series of tests called Green Run, in which all of the hardware that makes up the stage is tested. This includes testing the flight computers, propellant tanks, propulsion systems, and more.

In total, Green Run consists of eight tests including the propellant tanks being loaded for the first time, checking the feed systems which carry propellant to the tanks, firing all four of the stages engines for the first time, and recreating the environment of the launch in terms of vibrations and temperature to check the hardware stands up to the rigors of launch.

Now, the first four of these eight tests have been completed. The most recent test was the checking of the propulsion system components which connect to the engines, to ensure that nothing is leaking and that everything works as intended. Instead of using actual rocket fuel for this test, NASA engineers used nitrogen and helium gases, pushing them through the system over a period of three weeks to look for leaks.

With test gases flowing through this many parts of a complex rocket stage, we expected the test team to encounter some issues, Jonathan Looser, who manages the SLS core stage main propulsion system, said in a statement.

Historically, theres never been a NASA human-rated launch vehicle flown without one or more full-up tests before flight, and they have all encountered first-time issues. As expected, we found a few with valves and seals and addressed them, and now were ready to complete the next four Green Run tests.

The tests are conducted at NASAs Stennis Space Center near Bay St Louis, Mississippi, where staff are preparing for the next set of tests culminating in a full firing of the four engines in the hot fire test before the stage is sent to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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All Clear on the Western Front – nasa.gov

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In the early morning hours of August 5, 2020, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite got a clear view of Western Europe and its lights. The landscape was also well lit by the Moon, which was just one day past full. The following day was also mostly clear, as observed in the early afternoon by NASAs Aqua satellite.

The image was acquired through the use of the VIIRS day-night band (DNB), which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as city lights, wildfires, airglow, and reflected moonlight. Since the launch of Suomi NPP in late 2011, scientists have been using VIIRS to provide unprecedented views of Earth at night. (See our gallery here).

Suomi NPP passes over any given location on Earth at roughly 1:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. local time each day, observing the planet in vertical strips from pole to pole. VIIRS is a spectroradiometer, detecting photons of light in 22 different wavelengths. The instrument produces an image by repeatedly scanning a scene and resolving it as millions of individual picture elements, or pixels.

The day-night band takes it a step further, determining whether to use its low, medium, or high-gain mode to ensure that each pixel accurately depicts the amount of light emitted. It can make quantitative measurements of light emissions and reflections, distinguishing the intensity and the sources of night light down to the scale of an isolated highway lamp or fishing boat. The sum of these measurements gives us a global view of the human footprint on Earth.

By mid-2000, at least 500 peer-reviewed journal papers have been published based on day-night band data, with another 120 combining DNB data with the older Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) observations. Subject areas have included social science (often demography and economics), atmospheric composition, civil engineering, biology, and natural resource monitoring and management.

Nighttime imagery provides an intuitively graspable view of our planet, said William Stefanov, a remote sensing scientist for the International Space Station science office. City lights provide a fairly straightforward means to map urban versus rural areas, and to show where the major population centers are and where they are not. They are also an excellent means to track urban and suburban growth, which feeds into planning for energy use and urban hazards, for studying urban heat islands, and for initializing climate models.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using VIIRS day-night band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Story by Michael Carlowicz.

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All Clear on the Western Front - nasa.gov

NASA’s Innovative New Telescope Will Study Jupiter, Its Rings, and Two Intriguing Moons – SciTechDaily

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The moon Io orbits Jupiter in this image from NASAs Cassini spacecraft. Jupiter and Io appear deceptively close in this image, when in fact the moon is orbiting 217,000 miles from the gas giant planet. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Jupiter, named for the king of the ancient Roman gods, commands its own mini-version of our solar system of circling satellites; their movements convinced Galileo Galilei that Earth is not the center of the universe in the early 17th century. More than 400 years later, astronomers will use NASAs James Webb Space Telescope to observe these famous subjects, pushing the observatorys instruments to their fullest capabilities and laying the groundwork for far-reaching scientific discovery.

A diverse team of more than 40 researchers, led by astronomers Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley and Thierry Fouchet of the Observatoire de Paris, have designed an ambitious observing program that will conduct some of Webbs first scientific observations in the solar systemstudying Jupiter, its ring system, and two of its moons: Ganymede and Io.

It will be a really challenging experiment, said de Pater. Jupiter is so bright, and Webbs instruments are so sensitive, that observing both the bright planet and its fainter rings and moons will be an excellent test of how to get the most out of Webbs innovative technology.

Cyclone storms encircle Jupiters North Pole, captured in infrared light by NASAs Juno spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM

Jupiter

In addition to calibrating Webbs instruments for Jupiters brightness, astronomers must also take into account the planets rotation, because Jupiter completes one day in only 10 hours. Several images must be stitched together in a mosaic to fully capture a certain areathe famous storm known as the Great Red Spot, for examplea task made more difficult when the object itself is moving. While many telescopes have studied Jupiter and its storms, Webbs large mirror and powerful instruments will provide new insights.

We know that the immediate atmosphere above the Great Red Spot is colder than other areas of Jupiter, but at higher altitudes, in the mesosphere, the atmosphere appears to be warmer. We will use Webb to investigate this phenomenon, de Pater said.

Webb will also examine the atmosphere of the polar region, where NASAs Juno spacecraft discovered clusters of cyclones. Webbs spectroscopic data will provide much more detail than has been possible in past observations, measuring winds, cloud particles, gas composition, and temperature.

Future solar system observations of the giant planets with Webb will benefit from the lessons learned in these early observations of the Jovian system. The team is tasked with developing methods for working with Webb observations of solar system planets, which can be used later by other scientists.

NASAs Galileo spacecraft captured an image of Jupiters ring system, including the diffuse outer gossamer ring. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University

Rings

All four of the gas giant planets of the solar system have rings, with Saturns being the most prominent. Jupiters ring system is composed of three parts: a flat main ring; a halo inside the main ring, shaped like a double-convex lens; and the gossamer ring, exterior to the main ring. Jupiters ring system is exceptionally faint because the particles that make up the rings are so small and sparse that they do not reflect much light. Next to the brightness of the planet they practically disappear, presenting a challenge for astronomers.

We are really pushing the capabilities of some of Webbs instruments to the limit to get a unique new set of observations, said co-investigator Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley. The team will test observing strategies to deal with Jupiters scattered light, and build models for use by other astronomers, including those studying exoplanets orbiting bright stars.

The team will look to make new discoveries in the rings as well. De Pater noted that there may be undiscovered ephemeral moonlets in the dynamic ring system, and potential ripples in the ring from comet impacts, like those observed and traced back to the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994.

Ganymede

Several features of icy Ganymede make it fascinating for astronomers. Aside from being the largest moon in the solar system, and larger even than the planet Mercury, it is the only moon known to have its own magnetic field. The team will investigate the very outer parts of Ganymedes atmosphere, its exosphere, to better understand the moons interaction with particles in Jupiters magnetic field.

There is also evidence that Ganymede may have a liquid saltwater ocean beneath its thick surface ice, which Webb will investigate with detailed spectroscopic study of surface salts and other compounds. The teams experience studying Ganymedes surface may be useful in the future study of other icy solar system moons suspected of having subsurface oceans, including Saturns moon Enceladus and fellow Jovian satellite Europa.

NASAs Galileo spacecraft catches Io in the midst of a volcanic eruption. Credit: NASA/JPL/DLR

Io

In dramatic contrast to Ganymede is the other moon the team will study, Io, the most volcanically active world in the solar system. The dynamic surface is covered with hundreds of huge volcanoes that would dwarf those on Earth, as well as lakes of molten lava and smooth floodplains of solidified lava. Astronomers plan to use Webb to learn more about the effects of Ios volcanos on its atmosphere.

There is still much we dont know about Ios atmospheric temperature structure, because we havent had the data to distinguish the temperature at different altitudes, said de Pater. On Earth we take for granted that as you hike up a mountain, the air gets coolerwould it be the same on Io? Right now we dont know, but Webb may help us to find out.

Another mystery Webb will investigate on Io is the existence of stealth volcanoes, which emit plumes of gas without the light-reflecting dust that can be detected by spacecraft like NASAs Voyager and Galileo missions, and so have thus far gone undetected. Webbs high spatial resolution will be able to isolate individual volcanoes that previously would have appeared as one large hotspot, allowing astronomers to gather detailed data on Ios geology.

Webb will also provide unprecedented data on the temperature of Ios hotspots, and determine if they are closer to volcanism on Earth today, or if they have a much higher temperature, similar to the environment on Earth in the early years after its formation. Previous observations by the Galileo mission and ground observatories have hinted at these high temperatures; Webb will follow up on that research and provide new evidence that may settle the question.

Team Effort

Webbs detailed observations will not supplant those of other observatories, but rather coordinate with them, Wong explained. Webbs spectroscopic observations will cover just a small area of the planet, so global views from ground-based observatories can show how the detailed Webb data fit in with whats happening on a larger scale, similar to how Hubble and the Gemini Observatory provide context for Junos narrow, close-up observations.

In turn, Webbs study of Jupiters storms and atmosphere will complement Juno data, including radio signals from lightning, which Webb does not detect. No one observatory or spacecraft can do it all, Wong said, so we are very excited about combining data from multiple observatories to tell us much more than we could learn from only a single source.

This research is being conducted as part of a Webb Early Release Science (ERS) program. This program provides time to selected projects early in the observatorys mission, allowing researchers to quickly learn how best to use Webbs capabilities, while also yielding robust science.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the worlds premier space science observatory when it launches in 2021. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

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NASA's Innovative New Telescope Will Study Jupiter, Its Rings, and Two Intriguing Moons - SciTechDaily

Reporters Committee amicus brief in Alasaad v. Wolf – Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

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Amicus brief filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and 12 media organizations

Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

Date Filed: August 7, 2020

Background: Representing several international travelers, including journalists, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the heads of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing that suspicionless searches of electronic devices at the U.S. border violated Fourth Amendment protections.

The district court agreed with the plaintiffs, but held that border agents needed to meet only the reasonable suspicion standard, rather than the more stringent probable cause standard, before searching a travelers devices. The government and the plaintiffs both appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Our Position: Border officials should be required to seek warrants based on the higher probable cause standard before they can search electronic devices.

Quote: Electronic device searches are highly invasive, especially for journalists. The contents of electronic devices can reveal the stories a journalist is developing, with whom she is communicating, and her specific travel plans. Disclosure of such information can expose sensitive newsgathering methods and deter potential sources from speaking to members of the media.

Related: This is the second friend-of-the-court brief that the Reporters Committee and the Knight First Amendment Institute have filed on behalf of the plaintiffs in this case. At the trial court level, when DHS, CBP, and ICE asked the district court to dismiss the case, the Reporters Committee and the Knight First Amendment Institute, represented pro bono by attorneys from Jenner & Block and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, filed a brief urging the court to deny the governments motion. The court allowed the case to continue.

According to a Reporters Committee analysis of U.S. Press Freedom Tracker data, journalists reported being subjected to secondary screenings, questionings, or searches by U.S. Customs and Border Protection 16 times in 2019, compared to 11 in 2018 and 16 in 2017. Seventy-five percent of the stops in 2019 occurred at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Reporters Committee amicus brief in Alasaad v. Wolf - Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Meet the Judge Who Thinks a Black Man Walking Around Is a Crime – Rewire.News

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Each month, Rewire.News is examining the Trump judges behind some of the worst decisions in recent weeks. Read our previous columns here.

Judge Allison Jones Rushing, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, is one of President Trumps youngest judge picks, having ascended to the federal appellate bench at only 37 years old.

To be fair, unlike some of Trumps other picks, Rushing did have some experience in the law before getting the nod for the bench. She spent several years at a fancy Washington, D.C., law firm, but her real appeal was likely that she clerked for then-Judge Neil Gorsuch when he was on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and for Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court. She also spent time at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a group well known for its anti-LGBTQ stance.

But in her recent ruling in U.S. v. Mitchell, Rushings animus was aimed at Black people.

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The case started with a bar fight in Huntington, West Virginia. When police responded, a bystander told them a Black man wearing red pants and a black shirt had a gun and had walked away from the scene. Based on that minimal information, one of the officers stopped and frisked James Mitchell, a Black man, who was walking a block away. The officer found a firearm and arrested Mitchell.

Mitchell appealed, arguing that the police violated his Fourth Amendment right not to be subjected to unreasonable search and seizure.

The facts of the case werent great for the police. Officer BenjaminHoward, who took the report from the bystander, was not the same officer who stopped Mitchell. At Mitchells trial more than four years after the incident, Howard testified he had no doubt he was on the scene that night as he routinely responded to calls from that bar. However, he also could not specifically remember the night in question and could no longer remember who gave him the description of a Black man in red pants and a black shirt. There was no warrant. There was no evidence the tip was credible, particularly since the officer couldnt remember who gave him the tip. There was no particularized suspicion, which is a requirement before the police stop and frisk someone: They cant just stop a person because they feel like it or they have a vague sense the person did something wrong.

When police are allowed to stop whomever they want, you get what happened in New York City from 2002 to 2011, where police performed 5 million stop-and-frisks, overwhelmingly of Black and Latinx people. Nearly 9 out of 10 of those stopped turned out to be totally innocent.

Additionally, the Supreme Court decided 20 years ago that you cant just stop someone because they happen to be in an area of expected criminal activitywhich is really all the police had to go on in this instance.

Rushing threw all that law out the window.

She, along with Judge Marvin Quattlebaum, another Trump appointee, held that the officers actions were fine, in part because they were commonsense judgments and inferences about human behavior. Thats a backhanded way of saying its just fine if police officers are suspicious of Black men who happen to be nearby when a fight breaks out.

And the fact Mitchell was carrying a gun? West Virginia is an open carry state that doesnt require alicense to carry a firearm as long as youre over 18. It was only after the police took Mitchell into custody for the crime of walking near a fight and being Black that they learned he wasnt eligible to carry a firearm because he had previous felony convictions.

Plus, the tipster hadnt said that the Black man in red pants and a black shirt was involved in the assault that occurred at the bar brawl. Police couldnt recall who tipped them off about the Black man walking away from the fight. The tipoff itselfthat Mitchell had a gunwas about a thing that isnt illegal in West Virginia. But for Rushing, it was entirely reasonable that Mitchell was stopped based on a 911 call about a fight and a tip that a Black man was walking away and had a gun.

Judge James Wynn, an Obama appointee, dissented, in an opinion that can only be called blistering. His introduction to the dissent says it all: So, at the end of the day, this is what the majority opinion holds: police officers may lawfully stop anyone in the vicinity of reported unlawful activity whom a bystander says has a gun.

In the end, Mitchell was, as Wynn put it, simply a man with a gun near a disturbance, and thats not nearly enough to take away someones Fourth Amendment rights.

Rushings decision gives police a racist road map: Rely on a sketchy tip, violate someones rights and search them, and then hope that after theyre arrested, you can find a justification for your actions. Protests over the killing of George Floyd have been met with wave after wave of police brutality, and the last thing we need now is an easy way for police to ignore the Fourth Amendment.

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Meet the Judge Who Thinks a Black Man Walking Around Is a Crime - Rewire.News

Who will police Springfields cops? – The Boston Globe

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Under the Trump administration, the US Department of Justice has largely abandoned its oversight and accountability mandate over local police departments. In fact, since Trump took office more than three years ago, the DOJ has launched only one investigation into unconstitutional policing and systemic misconduct in local law enforcement departments, compared with almost two dozen during the Obama administration. The target? The police force in Springfield, the third-largest city in Massachusetts.

Its easy to see why after reading the findings of the DOJ probe, revealed last month and detailed in a recent Globe story looking at the history of misconduct at the Springfield Police Department. Its an appalling collection of blatant police abuse. The DOJ, in its 27-months-long investigation, found that officers in Springfields narcotics unit routinely escalated encounters with civilians when there was no need and used excessive force, including punching people in the face and using head strikes, in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Whats more, officers who engaged in these practices faced little to no consequences. One narcotics detective told a 15-year-old suspect being questioned: I could crush your [expletive] skull and [expletive] get away with it, as he was captured on camera.

The DOJ concluded it was a pattern directly attributable to systemic deficiencies in policies, which fail to require detailed and consistent use-of-force reporting, and accountability systems that do not provide meaningful reviews of uses of force.

And yet, contrary to what is common practice, the DOJ did not force Springfield Police to sign a consent decree, or a court-mandated agreement, to ensure reform. Instead, the report concluded with four recommendations for the department: to improve procedures for reporting use-of-force incidents; to implement new use-of-force training; to revise policies for internal investigations; and to implement more accountability mechanisms. These remedies, while urgent steps in the right direction, are mere suggestions without mandated enforcement from the feds. Had the DOJ negotiated and entered into a consent decree with the Springfield police, similar to one of the 14 consent decrees signed by the Obama administration, the reform plan would have been supervised and enforced by a federal judge. Instead, any policing reform is left to Springfield police leadership.

The pattern of brazen misconduct and brutality in Springfield is shocking. There is the 17-year-old punched by an officer as he rode a motorbike past members of the narcotics unit as they made unrelated arrests, the Globe story notes. And the slight middle-aged man punched in the face during a drug arrest despite not acting aggressively himself.

Naturally, civilians have sued the department repeatedly. Between 2006 and 2019, the city has paid more than $5.25 million settling police misconduct suits. Its an outsized cost to Springfield taxpayers.

For her part, Springfield police commissioner Cheryl Clapprood has pledged to collaborate with DOJ and follow the federal recommendations, some of which she has already started to implement. She also said that upon reading the DOJ report, she immediately ordered plainclothes narcotics detectives to wear body cameras.

But a consent decree may still be possible and may even be in Clapproods best interest. According to one review of DOJs civil rights cases, many police chiefs who have been through the process of a DOJ investigation said that the end result was a better police department with improved policies on critical issues such as use of force, better training of officers, and more advanced information systems that help police executives to know what is going on in the department and manage their employees. They added that, in some cases, consent decrees have been instrumental in giving chiefs the authority and the resources to act.

Indeed, the investigation is exhibit A in why the feds need to get back into the business of consent decrees in Springfield and across the country. This is an era when DOJ has already retreated from its congressionally mandated duty of policing local police misconduct, a dereliction that has come under bigger scrutiny recently after George Floyds death at the hands of four officers from the Minneapolis Police Department, an agency that the DOJ should be probing to find out whether cops there systematically violated civil rights. Reforms may come to the Springfield police, but without an enforceable agreement, theres a real risk that progress will stall. Given the severity of the findings, Springfield residents deserve a rock-solid assurance for change, and thats only possible if the federal government polices the police with tough recommendations that have consequences if theyre not met.

Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us on Twitter at @GlobeOpinion.

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Who will police Springfields cops? - The Boston Globe

‘Defund the police’ is not a real reform strategy – The Maine Wire

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The last few months have been tense, marked by social distancing and physical isolation amid the outbreak of a new virus. In-person communication and deciphering nonverbal cues is made more difficult by widespread use of facial coverings and plastic barriers. The American public has watched as the chasm between them and their government widens, mostly from ever-lengthening, amorphous states of emergency.

Not to discount the persistent issue of violent crime in our cities, among the population, the many accounts of gratuitous violence at the hands of public officials has brought the most hardened supporters of law-and-order to the table to discuss how American society can reform its police and restore accountability.

But, how can this be solved? Police departments are run at the local level. Budgets are allocated through the little-understood mechanisms of city, town, and county government. To many Americans, it can seem like a long way to reform.

Not every police department needs reform. The vast majority of law enforcement officials (LEOs) enter the force to protect and serve their communities, and maintain that commitment throughout their service. Policing would be a dangerous job under the most limited and accountable form of government.

Today, officers are tasked with enforcing numerous laws and rules that do not enhance public safety. This has led to a greater divide between police and the people they serve in many areas of the U.S. and especially our metropolitan areas. To help to remedy this situation, state and local policymakers should look to a myriad of reforms to bridge this divide.

Increase Accountability in Police Union Contracts

A point that cannot be overlooked in this larger debate is the role that public-sector labor unions play in obfuscating their members from full accountability. This facet is on display no more than within police union contracts. By reforming these contracts, policymakers can balance the scales between the powerful, politically-connected bargaining units and city leaders, who delegate managing their forces to their police chiefs.

At a basic level, public officials must be held to the same standards as the people they serve, whether they be police officers, bureaucrats or politicians. When individual police officers receive numerous complaints from the public, union contracts should not get in the way of proper discipline. Yet, quite often, they do.

Stephen Rushin, a Loyola University law Professor, in an interview with CBS News, gave an example from San Antonio, Texas, where all officers accused of a civil service rule violation are required to receive access to all sorts of evidence against them, such as video, GPS coordinates, witness statements, and affidavits before they can be questioned.

The union for the citys officers, the San Antonio Police Officers Association, noted that those requirements do not apply to criminal proceedings, but many officers are unlikely to face criminal charges for breaching standards of conduct. The union signaled that they understand that the winds of change are blowing in the direction of increased accountability, noting that as we move forward in time and our industry adapts to changes, there will be a need to make modifications.

In many cases dealing with alleged police misconduct, local taxpayers are likely to shoulder the financial burden. In just 2019 alone, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) paid out nearly $69 million in settlements; this number does not count the settlements paid in cases settled out of court.

Since the June 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, public employees are no longer required to financially support their union as a condition of employment. If individual police officers are concerned about losing their communitys trust, they may withdraw union support and form smaller, more accountable professional organizations bound by their own values.

While local leaders will need massive political will to take on these powerful public-sector unions, there are solutions that individual officers may pursue in order to strengthen the reputation of their profession and relationship to those they serve. An initiative called the Thick Red Line aims to reach local police officers and empower them to restore the trust and faith in the police by organizing with their colleagues, either with or without their union, into a department-wide refusal to enforce any law or regulation that doesnt have a real victim.

Eliminate Civil Asset Forfeiture in Every State

The next step in examining the interplay between LEOs and the public requires following the money, so to speak. This must include a hard look at the policy of civil asset forfeiture, which allows police to seize personal property simply through the suspicion of a crime.

The tricky thing about this problematic policy, is that it is adjudicated in civil court, instead of criminal court. In these proceedings, the state flips due process on its head, prosecuting your property for its involvement in a crime. This means that the individual whose property was seized must prove the innocence of their property by demonstrating that it is more likely than not (a preponderance of the evidence) that their property was not involved in the commission of a crime.

In many areas of the U.S., police rely on this tool to make up significant portions of their budgets. Because many jurisdictions allow police to keep much, if not all, of what they seize, a perverse incentive exists for officers and departments at large to engage in this type of activity. The positive side of this is that Maines laws on civil asset forfeiture are recognized as one of the best in the country.

Instead of seizure of property through a criminal conviction of an individual for a specified crime, police need only be suspicious that a crime took place using the property, in order to seize it under civil asset forfeiture. This practice should be ended in every state in order to protect the Fourth Amendment rights of Americans. No one should be punished with a loss of property without due process.

Roll Back Excessive Fees and Fines

Many laws, ordinances, and regulations are on the books all across the country that local governments rely on to pad their budgets.

A survey by the Institute for Justice, a liberty-focused national public interest law firm, found that in three Georgia municipalities that rely disproportionately on the accumulation of revenue through fees and finesdescribed as taxation by citationcontributed to significantly lower levels of trust in government, particularly among African-American communities, those most likely to be ticketed under these schemes.

By limiting ordinances to those that truly protect community health and safety, localities would greatly limit the incentive for police to become revenue collectors. Some local police budgets around the country depend on ticket fines for minor violations of traffic laws, and numerous other code infractions. An egregious case involving the town of Pagedale, Missouri showed ticketing for ordinances prohibiting barbecuing in front of a house and having holes in window screens.

By getting rid of the incentive for officers to accumulate revenue through fining the population for trivial offenses, such as the examples above, taxpayers may rest assured that local governments are spending their tax dollars more wisely while also maintaining a healthy relationship with those they serve.

Treat substance use and abuse as a public health issue, not one of criminality

Our nations outdated drug laws and enforcement regimes cause LEOs to view the drug user and the drug-addicted through a lens of criminality, instead of viewing the issue as it is, one that requires a holistic public health response. As my colleague, Julia Bentley argues, our current drug laws are more draconian than necessary for a free society, and have caused much more harm than good, whether measured in fiscal, public health, or social impact.

By reducing criminal penalties, and removing drugs from the criminal sphere altogether, we can eliminate the incentive for police to accost drug users who are not committing any type of violent or property crime. We can also reduce the societal stigma on drug use in order to prompt the drug-addicted to enter voluntary treatment. Yes, this would be a large shift in the mindset of Americans to drug use, but these policy changes will increase the likelihood that those who are addicted will seek therapy for their illness.

The idea of seeking harm reduction as a priority for policymakers has gathered greater popularity as public understanding of addiction as a mental illness has come to the fore. Looking at countries who have embraced this policy, namely Portugal, we see that use of drugs among the population, and especially among minors has decreased since the beginning of that policy. The drug-addicted have also been more willing and able to seek treatment and pull themselves out of a deadly downward spiral.

A white paper by journalist Glenn Greenwald published by the Cato Institute in 2009, noted that prior to decriminalization of individual possession of small amounts of drugs in 2001, The most substantial barrier to offering treatment to the addict population was the addicts fear of arrest. Portugal continues to hold drug trafficking and production as criminal offenses, but treats individual drug use as a public health issue, offering easier access to treatment. As a result, factors such as new HIV infections have substantially dropped over the last 20 years, reports the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

De-militarize Local Police Forces

In the late 1990s, the federal Department of Defense began the 1033 program, through which local police departments may accumulate excess military equipment from the Pentagon. The equipment has become excess because of updated congressional allocations to the military, rendering previous tools obsolete. The 1033 program equipment is provided to local law enforcement agencies by request, and at little to no cost to localities. Police departments in Maine covering college campuses, the wardens service and small towns and cities have received nearly $10 million in military equipment from the Pentagon since the beginning of the program.

The largest receipt of military gear went to Sanford since it houses the only SWAT team in Southern Maine. This may well be necessary, as long as use of SWAT force is reasonable given the circumstances. The Bangor Daily News reports that Sanford police have ordered more than $1.5 million in military equipment, including two Navistar Defense MaxxPro Mine-Resistant Ambush Protection vehicles, which were designed to protect U.S. soldiers from deadly mines during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2014, after clashes between police and protesters as a result of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, President Obama restricted the parameters of the 1033 program, but President Trump restored it in August 2017, after heavy police union lobbying. If the use of this equipment, if ever justified, is used in a reasonable manner, it is unlikely to draw much ire from the public. But combined with the aforementioned excessive fines, fees, and criminalization of victimless offenses, these disbursements can have the effect of further dividing the ethos of local police (to protect and serve) and their communities.

Societys goal for effective police reform, as it should be for any application of government force, should be a system that requires everyone to follow the same laws so all can be held accountable to the same standard. We must ensure the greatest possible level of human-to-human understanding between agents of the state and the public they serve.

Though not an exhaustive list, by enacting some or all of these reforms, policymakers may well be able to begin to heal the divide between police and some of the communities they serve, avoiding the vague, unnecessary, and unproductive calls from activists to defund the police.

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'Defund the police' is not a real reform strategy - The Maine Wire

Learn the SEO and social media tactics to build a truly thriving online business – The Next Web

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TLDR: The SEO and Social Media Ads Certification Bundle explains how to market, grow audiences, and convert sales in the online world.

If you dont feel 100 percent comfortable that youve got a full command over how to reach and market to potential customers online, dont be discouraged. Between constantly changing avenues and best practices that can shift almost daily, pinning down the best way to get the word out about your products and services to a receptive audience is incredibly tricky.

Not impossible, however. There are methods that can increase your chances of reaching your target audience and finding the customers you seek. The training in The SEO and Social Media Ads Certification Bundle ($29.99, over 90 percent off from TNW Deals) can give you a strong leg up in smart, battle-tested approaches for pushing your brand forward on the web.

The collection brings together six courses that examine different tactics for crafting a visible online presence that can drive sales.

In Introduction to SEO Split Testing and Optimization, youll not only learn how search engine optimization (SEO) works but also how to use the tools to conduct split testing to determine which approaches are effective and which ones arent in unlocking SEO success.

With How to Start an Online Store Using WordPress and WooCommerce, students explore the steps to help newbies and seasoned pros alike build a digital storefront that can have a fully-stocked online business up on its feet using WordPress and its business-minded plug-in WooCommerce.

The path to success comes down to finding and converting customers, so the How to Build Funnels with ClickFunnels training explains various ClickFunnel types to help craft lead generators and sales paths that can spark actual sales and profits.

Social Media Automation and Instagram Marketing and Ads Success offer methods for using automation apps to have quality social media posts happening all the time, even when you arent around to post; as well as focused Instagram-specific tactics for understanding users on the platform, creating impactful Instagram ads, and boosting your engagement with potential customers.

Finally, Peak Productivity for Anyone steps outside the digital world a bit, offering insightful approaches to help anyone increase their productivity, embrace better time management, declutter their life and basically put yourself in the best position for professional and personal success.

Each course in this bundle is a $199 value, but with this offer, all six are on sale now at about $5 each, just $29.99.

Prices are subject to change.

Read next: Theres no workplace equity for women in STEM and COVID-19 made it worse

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Learn the SEO and social media tactics to build a truly thriving online business - The Next Web

Heaven and the mundane – Big Issue North

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As San Francisco enjoyed the Summer of Love in 1967, Londons Swinging Sixties were already in motion, allowing the citys young residents to live their utopian dream. The capitals downbeat post-war image was eclipsed by the bright colours of fashion and Pop Art. This new era also paved the way for political protest, set to a psychedelic soundtrack featuring the likes of Cream and Pink Floyd.

My Canadian editor once said: I know what youre doing, Mitchell. Youre making your own Middle Earth, arent you?

Although the counterculture revolution later drew criticism, it nevertheless helped to shape the collective consciousness and proved that creating a better society was achievable. This vibrant yet turbulent period in modern history is the setting of Utopia Avenue, the highly anticipated new novel by Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell, in which a band of the same name climb rock stardoms precarious ladder.

Utopia is otherworldly, says the 51-year-old, speaking via Skype from his home in County Cork, Ireland, where he lives with his wife and two children. Its only really a place you can glimpse, but those glimpses are crucial and without them, you are in a dystopia. Even if by some chance you do get there, it rarely stays that utopia for long. Utopia Avenue is in the real world its an impossible thing alongside a very mundane, suburban thing, so the band and I like the name because its an oxymoron.

Mitchell was born in Ainsdale, Southport in 1969, where he has fond childhood memories of playing in the sand dunes. He moved to Worcestershire with his family, aged six, and later graduated from Kent University with a masters in comparative literature.In 1994, after a year in Sicily, he moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he worked as an English teacher. There, he met his wife, Keiko, before writing his debut novel, Ghostwritten, which was released in 1999 and awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. A further six novels followed, including his seminal work Cloud Atlas, which was adapted into a motion picture starring Tom Hanks. Was being a writer always an aspiration?

It would have been a bit of a stretch at times to call it an aspiration, or even a daydream, but even if I couldnt always express it, I think Ive always had an affinity with language, explains Mitchell, a proud patron of the British Stammering Association an affliction he has himself suffered with throughout his life.

I also got pleasure from world-building, narrative building and imagining people who werent real. I noticed that long before I ever formulated it in a sentence.

The novel pays homage to the 1960s timeless sounds as the fictional band rub shoulders with real-world artists. Like his latest characters, music has shaped Mitchells life immeasurably.

The biopic of your life has its own soundtrack, he says.There are songs from your youth that licensed you to act and think in certain ways. Songs that contain different versions of yourself and songs that you play for their mood-altering properties. The marriage of lyrics and music can alter how you feel in life-enhancing ways and I wouldnt want to live in a world without that.

Over eight novels and counting, Mitchell has created a multiverse within his ever-expanding ber novel. He is masterful at interlocking stories often across continents, genres and time periods earning him a loyal fan base. It is also a favoured trait to introduce past characters into someone elses tale.

Shakespeare did it, so I cant claim to have invented this and I wouldnt, admits Mitchell, whose previous novel, Slade House, originated from experimental storytelling on Twitter.

When a character in an earlier novel walks on stage in a new novel they come with luggage and associations. The prime directive has always been that if this book is the only thing by me that you ever read, then it must make complete sense as a standalone novel. But if you have a popular character in an earlier book, then why not use the luggage theyre bringing in the present book? Its kind of irresistible.

Mitchells body of work is akin to the popular fantasy of JRR Tolkien and George RR Martin in terms of its ambitious worldly scale.

My Canadian editor once said: I know what youre doing, Mitchell. Youre making your own Middle Earth, arent you? laughs the two-time Booker Prize nominee.I began to dispute it, but then I thought about it and they were essentially right. I want to write this cathedral-sized literary undertaking bigger than Westeros in terms of world size and I also dont want to do that, because if I tried to, it would be at the expense of everything else. The ber novel lets me do both.

Following shows in Europe, Utopia Avenue travel Stateside on tour, bridging their utopian dream with the American Dream. Such journeys mirror Mitchells globetrotting, which was vital to his early novels before starting a family.

The days where I could put everything I owned in a backpack and go off for six months, living as cheaply as possible, are pretty much long gone now, but I have brilliant memories of those days, he reflects, having had his planned book promotion schedule affected dramatically by Covid-19.They were really important in terms of replenishing the compost heap of experience that I could draw from. I like to visit a place as if Im a location scout, thinking, what use could this place be for narrative? There are good valid reasons to do things, in and of themselves, but theres often a secondary, more novelistic reason for going to a place or saying yes to an invitation.

When his son was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, Mitchell came to understand the challenges faced by those living with the condition, who often find the modern world overstimulating and difficult to navigate. To think of it as a disability, much less an illness or a curse, is a grave disservice, he says, after co-translating two novels on the subject by Naoki Higashida from Japanese to English with his wife.

It can be hard, but often these hardships come about by the neurotypical world not knowing how to make the world more friendly for autistic people. If I could spare my son the hassle, pain and future problems, I would remove those obstacles. However, I am very grateful to him and autism for teaching me about neurodiversity.

Beyond its central focus on music, one of Utopia Avenues wider themes is the collision between idealism and reality.

[In the late 1960s] it was believed by a critical mass that if you willed it strongly enough, you could change some of the foundation blocks upon which society is built, says Mitchell, of movements including civil rights, the CND and feminism.

Many of the organisations that have an influence on the world, such as Greenpeace or Amnesty International, can trace their roots back to this exciting time. Any institution we value including the NHS, universal suffrage or the welfare state was at some point somebodys dangerous, subversive and utterly unrealistic utopian dream, viciously suppressed by the powers that be.

Despite this period sparking much-needed progress, Mitchell believes that society has continued to neglect the disadvantaged over subsequent decades.

Our society assumes that youre healthy and middle class and if you dont fit into those categories then youre in trouble. Thats not a society. A society only deserves to call itself that if it is taking proper care of those who need it, he says passionately. I know everything costs money, but the levels of inequality are so pharaonic they make the Victorians look fair. Its despicable, its wrong and the answer is not revolutionary. The answer is just fair taxation or a fairer idea of fair that would do so much. Why does it make you a raving, drooling Marxist for saying: We can do better than this?

Mitchell considers the issue of homelessness. If you have a roof over your head and food in the fridge then youre already one of the lucky ones. One stroke can take your life off script suddenly you need other people and having a decent income isnt enough anymore. If you have a kid who will need help when youre no longer around, you start thinking about this more.

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, societal inequalities continue to be put under the microscope. The utopian dream of the Swinging Sixties has been replaced by an all-encompassing movement for a permanent change to the longstanding status quo. Although divides remain, recent surges in community spirit and increased government scrutiny by the press have done much to unite society. Mitchell contemplates whether the tide is turning.

I am hopeful. Our better angels are there in the newspapers and media. They are there in the behaviour of many of our neighbours too, especially right now.

As long as this is not exterminated, snuffed out or misappropriated by murky forces, then there is no reason to believe that this hope cannot be nourished into something much stronger.

Its important to believe, but you cant stop there either. Hope is not enough. You need hope and action.

Utopia Avenue out now (Sceptre Books, 20)

A Day in the Life by The Beatles from Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles in a single song: groundbreaking yet grounded, dream-like yet quotidian, edgy Lennon and melodic McCartney, ending with one of the all-time great final chords.

I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl by Nina Simone from Nina Simone Sings the Blues

A sumptuous two minutes 32 seconds in praise of sensuality and bluesy longing. Curvaceous sax solo thrown in for free.

All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan from John Wesley Harding

A windswept harmonica, urgent bass and drums, and lyrics that project feverish flickering images from stories or visions.

My Back Pages by The Byrds from Younger Than Yesterday

A crackling, yearning, soaring Dylan cover. Busier than the original, this version serves the lyrics better. Roger McGuinns 12-string guitar solo is brief but heart-breaking.

White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane from Surrealistic Pillow

In 1967 psychedelic songs were 10-a-penny and five-a-cent: psychedelic songs as irresistible, catchy and sinister as this were rare. The song itself, like Alice in Wonderland, has become a cultural touchstone.

Montague Terrace (in Blue) by Scott Walker from Scott

A prose poem of seedy bedsitland belted out by a heartthrob-turned-chanson powerhouse, set to a lush orchestral arrangement. Astonishing. They dont make em like this anymore. They didnt make many like em back then, either.

Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones from Flowers

An evergreen portrait of a woman with an elegant melody, coloured by Brian Jones on recorder. Vulnerable and curiously un-Stones-like.

Im Waiting for the Man by The Velvet Underground from The Velvet Underground & Nico

This jangling two-chord song about scoring drugs sounds as fresh, listless and immediate today as it did half a century ago when, surely, it must have sounded like a song from another planet?

A Change is Gonna Come by Aretha Franklin from Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

The Queen of Soul fully inhabits Sam Cookes song, buoyed by piano and organ. For as long as prejudice and injustice exists, the song will be not only moving and beautiful, but relevant.

Little Wing by The Jimi Hendrix Experience from AxisBold As Love

Tender lyrics and an intricate guitar part that interweaves with the vocal like a backing singer. I wish Little Wing was three times as long.

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Heaven and the mundane - Big Issue North

730DC Has Launched a New Newsletter About Events. They Take Place 100 Years in the Future – Washingtonian

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A scene from "Dispatches From 2120." Art by Josh Kramer.

The cherry blossom trees are dead. The federal government is moving to Colorado. But theres good news for anyone pining for statehood for the District of Columbia: It will happen! In 100 years.

Thats the setting for Dispatches From 2120, a speculative fiction newsletter from the terrific local things-to-do newsletter 730DC that debuted Thursday. A new 2120 newsletter will appear weekly, as will a related comic on Instagram. Both will be created by Josh Kramer, a freelance journalist and artist whos lived in DC on and off (mostly on) since he enrolled in American University in 2005. Kramers fascinated by transportation and urban infrastructure, and last year he created a comic for CityLab about how a commute might look in a dystopian future.

While the newsletter will describe happenings in the new commonwealth of Douglass (whose citizens rejected the names Washington and Columbia because of their namesakes troubling histories), the comic will tell the story of a resident who works for the Department of the Interior, has a relationship, and has to decide whether to move to Colorado to keep his job.

Theres a couple of things that are just like mentioned, literally in one or two lines in the newsletter, Kramer says, and they end up being a huge setting for an entire chapter of the comic. If that sounds like a fictional universe to you, youve understood the project, he says. He compiled a bible of things that are canonically true about the world in Dispatches From 2120, but he hopes people will want to contribute sanctioned fanfic in whatever form they like. For someone who is really invested in sports or local music or food, he says, there would be so much that they could do here.

Technology is often where fiction about the future stumblesnot every sci-fi author imagined that wed all would walk around with a powerful computer in our pockets, for instance. There is a lot of technology in there, he says. But it is specific to certain areas that were talking about. For example, in the first newsletter, theres an event (sorry, its sold out) where an arborist will present a plan to bring cherry blossoms, which died out due to climate change, and a reference to the Governor-elects remarks on public messaging, AKA that notification you couldnt swat away yesterday.

The idea is I bet there will be notifications of some sort, he says. And you can dismiss them or not.

Douglasss governor to be is named Angela Beal, and if that last name sounds familiar to you, theres a reason why: Kramer constructed a name generator for the project using the names of DC ANC commissioners, the Washington Mystics, and the Washington Wizards. Some characters are referred to with they/them pronouns, as well: In the future, Kramer reckons, around a third of the population will prefer such forms of address.

If that sounds like progress, please note that in the future of Dispatches From 2120, ANCs still exist. We definitely early on decided that we did not want this to be a full on utopia or a full-on dystopia, he says. People around the US dont always understand that DC is a city with its own culture and government, an issue Kramer doesnt expect time to erase. I wanted to see a version of the future that grappled with that.

The Washington Post still exists in 2120, and theres a publication called CHEERS that Kramer views as similar to the now-shuttered Express.I was curious whether my employer might exist a century from now, something Kramer says he hadnt considered. After a few moments of discussion, we decided that it would, but its name would have to change, too. I do hope my descendants will enjoy working at Douglasstonian.

Dispatches From 2120 will appear every Thursday until September 10. Current subscribers will already receive the newsletter and you can alsosign up here and look for comic updates on 730DCs Instagram. Kramer will appear in a live Q&A on 730DCs Instagram at 7:30 PM on August 17.

Join the conversation!

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730DC Has Launched a New Newsletter About Events. They Take Place 100 Years in the Future - Washingtonian

WW3: Satellite images catch THOUSANDS of Chinese troops stockpiling weapons across border – Daily Express

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Back in May 20 Indian soldiers were killed in border clashes with their Chinese counterparts which were fought with metal bars, rocks and clubs.An unconfirmed number of Chinese troops are also believed to have died in the hand-to-hand fighting.

However according to Indias The Print news service, a large concentration of Chinese troops has gathered in the Akasi Chin border region.

Indian military sources told the service this was making the Indian Army cautious about the disengagement process.

They added: There is a fear that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is intentionally delaying the disengagement process to sustain it till winter and then open a new front, possibly in the Northeast.

China withdrew troops from the contested Ladakh area following Mays deadly border clash, but the region remains tense.

Indian media reports satellite images from Shiquanhe in the Tibet Autonomous Region show the build-up of 5,000 Chinese soldiers and their equipment.

Movements were allegedly first detected by Indias EMISAT spy satellites.

In addition to the troops the images purportedly show a large quantity of heavy vehicles and tents.

New helicopter landing sites are also said to be pictured.READ MORE:China threat - Fearsome new Indian fighter jets warn China of conflict

Speaking to The Print an Indian Government figure said New Delhi had boosted its own forces in response.

They said: China has built up troops in large numbers.

We, too, have brought in a large number of troops into the Ladakh sector.

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China no longer enjoys the surprise factor.

They had the first-mover advantage in Ladakh initially but they have been countered there and everywhere now.

Following Mays deadly clashes anti-Beijing protests broke out across India.

The Indian Government responded by banning a number of Chinese apps, including TikTok, on national security grounds.

Simon Tack, an analysis from the US Stratfor group, emphasised how important the region is for China.

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald he said: Controlling the source and course of rivers that run from Ladakh also provides a great deal of environmental security for China, as the Himalayan mountains in the region are an important source of water to the areas below them on either side.

China initially launched its military push into Ladakh in May, when the region's snow- and ice-covered valleys had just started to thaw.

But as winter begins to settle in November, the entire region will once again be covered in deep snow, which will make a continued build-up of both Chinese infrastructure and troops in Ladakh difficult.

China and India fought a localised month-long war along their contested border in 1962.

The conflict, which left several thousand dead, ended with an uneasy ceasefire.

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WW3: Satellite images catch THOUSANDS of Chinese troops stockpiling weapons across border - Daily Express

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Iran humiliated as they bungle sinking of replica US warship and block vital naval port – Daily Express

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The Revolutionary Guard had been bombarding the mock vessel in the hope of "symbolically sinking" it in the Strait of Hormuz prior to re-floating it so it can be reused for similar purposes in the future. However, US naval expert Hal Sutton said all has apparently not gone to plan since the exercise, which was dubbed "Prophet Mohammed 14th".

He added: "It is meant to be reusable and has been symbolically destroyed twice already.

"But now it really has sunk. And in very much the wrong place."

Mr Sutton explained: "It is just outside the harbour entrance to Bandar Abbas, near to the main approach channel.

It is so shallow that other ships face a very real risk of catastrophic damage if they sail over it

Hal Sutton

"It is so shallow that other ships face a very real risk of catastrophic damage if they sail over it.

"In fact, at least as of a couple of days ago, it was partly above water. This is a serious shipping hazard."

Last week's drills saw speedboats swarming round the replica of aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, before ground forces launched attacks and a helicopter fired a missile.

JUST IN:Coronavirus map LIVE - UK death toll rises by 65

However, the sinking of the vessel appears to halted Iran's hopes of a repeat performance, certainly in the near future.

If the replica has sunk the bottom of the Strait, Mr Sutton told Forbes Iran would not be able to raise it again - and given how shallow the waters are, it has the potential to pose a major hazard to any ships attempting to enter the harbour.

The use of dummy American warships has become an occasional feature of training by Irans Revolutionary Guards and its naval forces.

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In 2015 Iranian missiles hit another mock-up, also resembling a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.

Tensions between the US and Iran have rocketed since US President Donald Trump withdrew from Irans 2015 Joint Plan of Comprehensive Action (JPOCA) nuclear deal with six powers and reimposed sanctions which have severely impacted Tehrans oil exports.

Irans Guards in April vowed to destroy US warships if its security is threatened in the Gulf.

Iranian officials have also repeatedly threatened to block Hormuz if Iran is not able to export oil or if its nuclear sites are attacked.

There have also been regular stand-offs between the Iranian Guards and the US military in the Gulf in recent years.

US officials have said closing the Strait would be crossing a red line and America would take action to reopen it.

Iran cannot legally close the waterway unilaterally because part of it is in Omani territorial waters.

However, ships that sail it pass through Iranian waters, which are under the responsibility of the Irans Guards naval force.

Last year, the Stena Impero, a UK-flagged vessel, was seized by the Revolutionary Guard and detained at Bandar Abbas for two months.

Continued here:

Iran humiliated as they bungle sinking of replica US warship and block vital naval port - Daily Express

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China accused of ‘global domination’ plot via COVID-19 spread as ‘Xi wants to rule world’ – Daily Express

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Asia political expert and author Gordon Chang accused China's President Xi Jinping of using coronavirus to even the playing field for his dreams of world domination. President Xi Jinping and Chinese officials have repeatedly denied that there is any coronavirus conspiracy and that they have willingly spread the deadly disease, however. During an interview with Express.co.uk, Mr Chang claimed President Xi is keen on China dominating the world rather than see a strong influence from the West.

Mr Chang said: "China wants to rule the world.

"First of all it is a communist country and communism is a world-wide revolutionary movement.

"Also, Xi Jinping has been hinting that the world should be ruled by China.

"He talks about these notions of world-wide Chinese rule. And uses the same imagery and the language of Chinese emperors in that regard.

DON'T MISS:China warned Donald Trump prepared to cut all ties with Beijing

"Xi Jinping is making it clear that there shouldn't be a Western civilisation of competing states but there should be this global harmony, essentially China ruling the world."

Mr Chang also claimed he believed China had behaved maliciously during the coronavirus crisis and spread the virus willingly, despite the denial from the Chinese Government.

He said: "China maliciously spread this disease beyond its borders.

"We, of course, don't know what was in Xi Jinping's mind.

"But after having seen what the coronavirus did to cripple China, if he wanted to level the playing field by spreading the disease beyond his borders, he would have done exactly what he did do."

Mr Chang also highlighted past instances that suggested this could be the communist leader's future plan.

He said: "His foreign minister Wang Yi in September 2017 wrote an article that said Xi Jinping thought and it is important to remember that a thought in communist party lingo is an important ideological body of work.

"He wrote that Xi Jinping thought he had made innovations on and transcended 300 years of western international relations thinking.

"If you take 2017 and subtract 300 years you almost get to 1648, so along with his time he was referencing the treaty of Westphalia which established the current international order.

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"By use of the word transcended he was saying that he should be no sovereign states or no more of them than China."

Mr Chang concluded that when combined with Xi Jinping's statements it creates a dangerous rhetoric.

Mr Chang said: "When you put this in connection with Xi Jinping's statements using these imperial era notions we have got to be concerned. We have got to be concerned China doesn't want to compete with Britain or the United States. He wants to overthrow that order with world-wide Chinese rule."

Despite the claims, China's ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming has insited Beijing is willing to work in harmony with the UK.

"It is hard to imagine a global Britain that bypasses or excludes China," he said. "Decoupling from China means decoupling from opportunities, decoupling from growth and decoupling from the future."

The Chinese official added that once the Brexit and COVID-19 issues are dealt with, "there will be unlimited prospects for China-UK co-operation in areas of trade, financial services, science and technology, education and healthcare".

He said he hoped the two countries have "enough wisdom and capabilities" to manage their differences "rather than allowing anti-China forces and Cold War warriors to kidnap the China-UK relationship".

"Great Britain cannot be great without independent foreign policies," he said.

Meanwhile China has consistently urged the United States to stop what it describes as virus slander.

The US should stop wasting time in its fight against the coronavirus and work with China to combat it, rather than spreading lies and attacking the country, the Chinese government's top diplomat Wang Yi said in May.

State Councillor Wang, speaking at his annual news conference on the sidelines of China's parliament, expressed his deep sympathies to the United States for the pandemic.

"Regretfully, in addition to the raging coronavirus, a political virus is also spreading in the United States. This political virus is using every opportunity to attack and smear China," said Wang, who is also China's foreign minister. Some politicians have ignored the most basic facts and concocted too many lies about China and plotted too many conspiracies," he added.

"I want to say here: Don't waste precious time any longer, and don't ignore lives," Wang said. "What China and the United States need to do the most is to first learn from each other and share their experience in fighting against the epidemic, and help each country fight it."

"China has always advocated that, as the world's largest developing country and the largest developed country, both of us bear a major responsibility for world peace and development," he said. "China and the United States stand to gain from cooperation, and lose from confrontation."

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China accused of 'global domination' plot via COVID-19 spread as 'Xi wants to rule world' - Daily Express

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From emperor penguins to 96-year-old graduates, here’s the good news this week – iNews

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Emperor penguins

Researchers have discovered 11 penguin colonies in Antarctica increasing the number of colonies known about by 20 per cent. Satellite images revealed distinctive stains on the ice from droppings. The discovery was hailed as exciting and Philip Trathan, of the British Antarctic Survey, said the region needs to be closely monitored in light of climate change.

The 96-year-old, who has lived through childhood poverty, war and, most recently, the coronavirus pandemic, sailed through an exam that makes him Italys oldest university graduate. Last week, the former railway worker stepped forward to receive his diploma and laurel wreath, applauded by his family, teachers and fellow students more than 70 years his junior. Mr Paterno said he struggled a little with the video calls that replaced classroom teaching during the coronavirus shutdown, but he was not put off by the disease itself after the war and everything else he had been through in life.

Plans to build a 6.5-acre park in Manchester were revealed this week following concerns about access to open space during the coronavirus lockdown. Mayfield Park will be Manchesters first city-centre park in more than a century. The Government said it will contribute 23m to help transform the area between Piccadilly Station and Mancunian Way.

BP has pledged to almost halve its oil and gas production within a decade and shift its focus to renewable energy as the company reinvents itself to survive in a greener future.

Despite the lack of a music festival season, retailers say that shoppers have been busy buying tents, sleeping bags and cooking equipment. Many staples have sold out, as part of the UK staycation boom.

Efforts to restore British native populations have been given a boost of nearly 1.2m to recreate habitat for the shellfish around the coasts. The Zoological Society of London, and partners Blue Marine Foundation and British Marine, have been awarded 1,180,000 by the Peoples Postcode Lottery.

A three-year-old British boy has become the youngest person to reach the summit of a 10,000ft mountain, while his seven-year-old sister became the youngest person to climb the mountain unaided. Jackson Houlding, the son of professional climber Leo Houlding, and his sister Freya, made it to the top of Piz Badile in the Alps on the border of Switzerland and Italy. Mr Houlding said: My daughter climbed it all by herself, all the way, including all the hiking and everything it was very impressive.

A prototype of the companys next-generation Starship has successfully flown to an altitude of 150m, paving the way for a craft capable of carrying humans to the Moon and Mars. The uncrewed test vehicle, which the company hopes to use one day to colonise Mars, rose up on a plume of exhaust before deploying its landing legs and touching down softly.

The detectorist is toasting success after discovering a hoard of silver English Civil War-era coins worth at least 100,000 in a field owned by his local pub in Suffolk. It comes after a decade-long search for treasure which has taken him around the globe. To make sure the haul was not pilfered, he stayed up for three nights to deter any so-called nighthawks.

The first really effective treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) could be available within five years after researchers raised hopes that they had discovered the holy grail of MS therapy. Scientists have identified a natural mechanism in the body that could be boosted with an existing diabetes drug to protect against the nerve damage at the centre of the disease. This would not only halt progression of MS but may partially reverse it as well. At the moment, treatments help to alleviate the symptoms of relapsing remitting MS, the milder, more common form of the disease although these do little to slow its progression.

The 85-year-old widow was reunited with her long-lost wedding ring after hundreds of people turned online detective. The gold band was found in a plant pot by tour guide Debbie Davidson when she took up gardening to pass the time during lockdown in Edinburgh. She shared her find on social media, where users tracked down Alices daughter, who shared the news with her mother.

Britains pubs and restaurants enjoyed their busiest Monday of the year following the launch of the Governments Eat Out to Help Out scheme. Chancellor Rishi Sunaks initiative allows diners 50 per cent off meals Monday to Wednesday in August at partaking restaurants, with a 10 cap per head on the discount. The restaurant-booking platform Opentable said there was a 10 per cent jump in the number of diners on Monday compared with the same day last year.

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From emperor penguins to 96-year-old graduates, here's the good news this week - iNews