Trump’s properties: A playground for white nationalists, Groypers and other far-right loons – Salon

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Conspiracy theorists, alt-right memers and prominent white nationalistshave frequently appeared at properties owned by President Trump, where they've hosted gatherings, mingled with officials and spent money, according to research obtained by Salon.

Trump properties are well-documented hot spots for MAGA-world luminaries and hangers-on, particularly Trump International Hotel in Washington, where the lobby is frequently a blur of lobbyists, administration officials, lawmakers, corporate leaders and foreign dignitaries the physical embodiment of the president's numerous conflicts of interest.

But in a sense those properties are also real-world iterations of the president's Twitter feed, a running scroll of the same groups. Both are also sprinkled to varying degrees with influential right-wing extremists and internet trolls(Diamond and Silk kicked off their 2019 "Chit Chat Live" tour at Trump Hotel D.C.), someof whomnow are now moving into legitimate electoral politics under the auspices of the Republican Partyin various states, including Oregon, Colorado,Georgia and Trump's new home state of Florida.

And though Trump fandomis little more thanan ironic lark toyoungfringe-right adherents, who see themselves as more pure, edgy and extreme, those places draw an older generation that hasinfluence, but might be looking for someone who knows better how to wield it today.

"Trump properties are the place to be if you're an elected Republican looking to dip your toe in alt-right waters. So no one should be surprised that once-mainstream Republicans and the NRCC are now backing the very QAnon supporters and fringe factions they've mingled with for years,"said Kyle Morse, an American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson.

The more high-profile of these patron-extremists include:

Trump properties are a particularly popular draw for the Fuentes-led Groyper movement, a loose affiliation of far-right and alt-right nationalists who peddle racist and anti-Semitic tropes while mocking mainstream conservatives including some less radical white nationalists as phonies.

As with most things born in the nether regions of the internet, the origins of the Groyper movement are not easy to understand. Its name is drawn from aspecificPepe the Frog pose, in which the alt-right cartoon mascot rests his chin on his interlinked hands.

Marilyn Mayo, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremis, described the movement in a 2019 interview.

"What they're trying to do, there's this whole grouping who refer to themselves as the dissident right, they want to move the Overton window," said Mayo, referring to the shifting spectrum of acceptable ideological and political discourse. "They want to make racism and anti-Semitism mainstream."

Trump made waves this January when he retweeted a clip of Michelle Malkin, the self-described "mommy"ofthe Groyper movement, complaining about online censorship. Trump added his own caption, thanking her:

"The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google. The Administration is working to remedy this illegal situation. Stay tuned, and send names & events. Thank you Michelle!"

That Malkin clip was produced by Fuentes' internet show, America First.

"Donald Trump is watching America First Clips," Fuentestweeted.

Fuentes has attended events at Trump International in Washington,including with friend and fellowGroyper Megan Harris, and both appeared there during the conservative gathering CPAC this year, as documented in a since-deleted Instagram post. The two were joined at CPAC by musician and Groyper Ricky Rebel, who shared a number of pictures from Trump International on his Instagram story.

Fuentes, like several other fringe-right personalities, has also patronized Trump National Doral, the president's golf resort near Miami, where he appeared in an Instagram photo with alt-right internet personality Baked Alaska(Tim Gionet).

Gionet, a former BuzzFeed writer who later got Trump's face tattooed on his arm, has shared Instagram posts from Trump properties three times in the last year: at Doral National, and the Trump International hotels in Las Vegas and Washington. The last ofthoseincluded a photograph of a burger and fries, captioned, "imagine eatin this good."

Three summers ago,Gionet joined Fuentes at the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where he was billed as a scheduled speaker alongside leading white supremacist Richard Spencer. He has tweeted the "14 Words" (a well-known neo-Nazi phrase) and, in since-deleted tweets, shared videos of friends saying that "Hitler did nothing wrong." He's also posted images of people in gas chambers.

In March 2019, Gionet attempted to distance himself from the alt-right, denouncing it as hateful and violent. Following the mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, he posted a video in which he apologized for his contributions to the culture, but a few months later was caught spewing Islamophobia at an ICE protest. He subsequentlylinked up with the Groyper movement and deleted his apologies.

Other fringe-right associates of Gionet have spent time and money at Trump properties.

One of the more well-known names is alt-right personality, Pizzagate truther and noted misogynist Mike Cernovich, whom Gionet engaged in multiple projects. Cernovich hasspent considerable time at Trump properties.

Gionet once spent Christmas with blogger Chuck Johnson, the aforementioned "most hated man on the internet," who reportedly had a hand in vetting Trump Cabinet picks during the transition(working with Facebook's Peter Thiel) and may have acted as aninadvertent conduit betweenWikiLeaks founder Julian AssangeandDonald Trump Jr.

In January 2017, Johnson posted on Facebook that he was "building algorithms to ID all the illegal immigrants for the deportation squads." HuffPost quoted a source claiming to have seen Johnson discussing that same project with "a whole bunch of really important people" at the Trump hotel in D.C. Former Breitbart editor Katie McHugh has said that Johnson asked to be connected with senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller so he could pitch a "way to identify every illegal alien in the country."

In 2018, Johnson was also spotted at Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

Then there's the Posobiec, who while not exactly a Groyper is a fringe conspiracy theorist withanti-Semitic views whom Trump has retweeted a number of times. Posobiec and his wife met Brexit architect Nigel Farage at the Trump Hotel in Washingtonin February, 2017, and have spent both Christmas and New Year'sholidays there.

In July 2019, Posobiec joined QAnon acolyte Tracy Beanz, MAGA alt-right memesmith Carpe Donktum and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sandersfor a conservative conference called AMPFest, held at Trump National Doral. Documents obtained by the Washington Post showed that the Florida property's revenues were "in steep decline" at the time.

Posobiec spread the debunked conspiracy theory that the Las Vegas mass shooter was affiliated with ISIS, but was challenged for credit by right-wing provocateur, Islamophobe and Trumppatron Laura Loomer. The two seemed to smooththings over beforeAMPFest 2019, where Loomer appeared alongside Posobiec.

Loomer is currently running as a Republican congressional candidate in Florida's 21st district home to Donald Trump's private Palm Beach clubMar-a-Lago, where she appeared at a 2019 winter gala that featuredTrump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka and guest of honor Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Just a few days after that, Trump tweeted his support for Loomer's candidacy. And since the 21st is officially his district of residence, he will have the chance to vote for her should she appear on the ballot in November. (Her chances of winning are not strong: Incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel, a Democrat, was re-elected without opposition in 2018.)

On March 3, Loomer was back at Trump International inD.C.

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Trump's properties: A playground for white nationalists, Groypers and other far-right loons - Salon

‘On our way to Mars’: NASA rover will look for signs of life – The Associated Press

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built a car-size vehicle bristling with cameras, microphones, drills and lasers blasted off for the red planet Thursday as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life.

NASAs Perseverance rode a mighty Atlas V rocket into a clear morning sky in the worlds third and final Mars launch of the summer. China and the United Arab Emirates got a head start last week, but all three missions should reach their destination in February after a journey of seven months and 300 million miles (480 million kilometers).

The plutonium-powered, six-wheeled rover will drill down and collect tiny geological specimens that will be brought home in about 2031 in a sort of interplanetary relay race involving multiple spacecraft and countries. The overall cost: more than $8 billion.

NASAs science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, pronounced the launch the start of humanitys first round trip to another planet.

Oh, I loved it, punching a hole in the sky, right? Getting off the cosmic shore of our Earth, wading out there in the cosmic ocean, he said. Every time, it gets me.

In addition to potentially answering one of the most profound questions of science, religion and philosophy Is there or has there ever been life beyond Earth? the mission will yield lessons that could pave the way for the arrival of astronauts as early as the 2030s.

Theres a reason we call the robot Perseverance. Because going to Mars is hard, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said just before liftoff. In this case, its harder than ever before because were doing it in the midst of a pandemic.

Shortly after liftoff, Perseverance unexpectedly went into safe mode, a sort of protective hibernation, after a temperature reading triggered an alarm. But deputy project manager Matt Wallace later said that the spacecraft appeared to be in good shape, with its temperatures back within proper limits, and that NASA will probably switch it back to its normal cruise state within a day or so.

Everything is pointing toward a healthy spacecraft ready to go to Mars and do its mission, he said.

NASAs deep-space tracking stations also had some difficulty locking onto signals from Perseverance early in the flight but eventually established a solid communication link, Wallace said.

The U.S., the only country to safely put a spacecraft on Mars, is seeking its ninth successful landing on the planet, which has proved to be the Bermuda Triangle of space exploration, with more than half of the worlds missions there burning up, crashing or otherwise ending in failure.

China is sending both a rover an orbiter. The UAE, a newcomer to outer space, has an orbiter en route.

Its the biggest stampede to Mars in spacefaring history. The opportunity to fly between Earth and Mars comes around only once every 26 months when the planets are on the same side of the sun and about as close as they can get.

The launch went off on time at 7:50 a.m. despite a 4.2-magnitude earthquake 20 minutes before liftoff that shook NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which is overseeing the rover.

Launch controllers at Cape Canaveral wore masks and sat spaced apart because of the coronavirus outbreak, which kept hundreds of scientists and other team members away from Perseverances liftoff.

That was overwhelming. Overall, just wow! said Alex Mather, the 13-year-old Virginia schoolboy who proposed the name Perseverance in a NASA competition and watched the launch in person with his parents.

About an hour into the flight, controllers applauded, pumped their fists, exchanged air hugs and pantomimed high-fives when the rocket left Earths orbit and began hurtling toward Mars.

We have left the building. We are on our way to Mars, Perseverances chief engineer, Adam Steltzner, said from JPL.

If all goes well, the rover will descend to the Martian surface on Feb. 18, 2021, in what NASA calls seven minutes of terror, during which the craft will go from 12,000 mph (19,300 kph) to a complete stop. It is carrying 25 cameras and a pair of microphones that will enable Earthlings to vicariously tag along.

Perseverance will aim for Jezero Crater, a treacherous, unexplored expanse of boulders, cliffs, dunes and possibly rocks bearing the chemical signature of microbes from what was a lake more than 3 billion years ago. The rover will store half-ounce (15-gram) rock samples in dozens of super-sterilized titanium tubes.

It also will release a mini helicopter that will attempt the first powered flight on another planet, and test out other technology to prepare the way for future astronauts. That includes equipment for extracting oxygen from Mars thin carbon-dioxide atmosphere.

The plan is for NASA and the European Space Agency to launch a dune buggy in 2026 to fetch the rock samples, plus a rocket ship that will put the specimens into orbit around Mars. Then another spacecraft will capture the orbiting samples and bring them home.

Samples taken straight from Mars, not drawn from meteorites discovered on Earth, have long been considered the Holy Grail of Mars science, according to NASAs now-retired Mars czar, Scott Hubbard.

To definitively answer the life-beyond-Earth question, the samples must be analyzed by the best electron microscopes and other instruments, far too big to fit on a spacecraft, he said.

Ive wanted to know if there was life elsewhere in the universe since I was 9 years old. That was more than 60 years ago, Hubbard said from his Northern California cabin. But just maybe, Ill live to see the fingerprints of life come back from Mars in one of those rock samples.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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'On our way to Mars': NASA rover will look for signs of life - The Associated Press

Mars And The Moon Will Align This Friday. Heres When And Where You Can See Them Rise Together – Forbes

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Earth, the Moon and Mars come into alignment this weekend.

So far this summer has been all about super-bright Jupiter and, just 8 away, ringed planet Saturn, which have been dominating the southwestern night sky after dark.

This weekend its the turn of Mars, as the waning Moon passes close to the red planet. Three spacecraft are on their way to Mars right now, and its also a great time to admire it.

Mars is now creeping towards opposition in October, the point in its orbit when its closest to Earth, so as big and bright as it gets. Its already getting visibly bigger and brighter with every passing night.

Mars is rising earlier each evening, and this weekend is now in the sky before midnight, with a 65% illuminated waning gibbous Moon in tow.

Stargazers call this eventwhen two celestial bodies appear to pass close to each othera conjunction.

Look to the east around midnight on Friday going into Saturday and youll easily find a waning gibbous Moon.

Only those in North America will see the closest conjunction, at around 4:00 a.m. EDT on the morning of Saturday, August 8.

The Moon will be close to Mars on Friday night through Saturday morning.

You could even try to catch the Moon at moonrisethe most beautiful time to observe our satelliteby consulting this Moon calculator to get times for your exact location.

In doing so youll also witness a Mars-rise.

Just 0.8 north of the Moon will be Mars, shining at magnitude -1.3. Thats significantly brighter than any stars, so Mars will be obvious.

The conjunction of two of the night skys top sights isnt that rare, but there are few more pleasing celestial sights to unaided naked eyes than a bright Moon passing a bright, red planet.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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Mars And The Moon Will Align This Friday. Heres When And Where You Can See Them Rise Together - Forbes

Weather satellite and robotic telescope spot Perseverance rover en route to Mars – Space.com

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When NASA's powerful Perseverance rover lifted off into space on July 30, a satellite and a robotic telescope caught unique views of the mission on its way to Mars.

Weather satellite GOES-16, which usually monitors terrestrial and space weather from geosynchronous orbit, spotted the smoke plume of the launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Video from the event indicated the plume showed up easily in visible wavelengths, despite clouds around the site, and the launch appeared as a red streak on the satellite's "water vapor" channel.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which operates the mission along with NASA, shared both sets of footage on different Twitter channels, with separate tweets for the visible wavelength plume and water vapor streak. GOES-16 is sometimes referred to by its geostationary position above the United States, at 75.2 degrees west, as GOES East.

In photos: NASA's Mars Perseverance rover mission to the Red Planet

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that launched Perseverance used two main rocket stages and four strap-on boosters, a particularly powerful format of the vehicle. The extra boost was necessary to lift the car-sized rover, which clocks in at 2,314 lbs. (1,050 kilograms). After the first stage of the Atlas V spent all of its fuel, it separated from the second stage and began tumbling as it fell back to Earth; the stage burned up during re-entry, as planned.

That stage put on a show of its own. The Virtual Telescope Project, which is managed by Gianluca Masi in Ceccano, Italy, an hour southeast of Rome spotted the booster with its 17-inch PlaneWave robotic telescope. The instrument captured a three-minute exposure of the spent booster spinning through space and also grabbed footage of the protective shell that will carry Perseverance to Mars for the next seven months.

"The telescope tracked the fast apparent motion of the [spacecraft]; this is why stars show as trails, while the spacecraft looks like a bright and sharp dot of light in the center of the image," Masi said in a statement on the project's website.

Perseverance is scheduled to land in Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. One of the rover's major goals is to cache potential samples showing signs of ancient life on Mars. If all goes to plan, these samples will be brought to Earth by a future mission for more scientific scrutiny. Although Perseverance went into "safe mode" soon after launch because the rover got colder than expected, the mission quickly recovered with no issue.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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By 2032, space scientists may be able to study a piece of Mars in their laboratories – Scroll.in

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Next spring is going to be a busy time for Mars. In close succession, three spacecraft will arrive at the planet, joining the dozen or so craft already circling Mars. Two of the spacecraft were launched in the past couple of weeks by newcomers to Martian exploration: the United Arab Emirates Al-Amal, meaning Hope, and Chinas Tianwen-1, which means Question to Heaven.

The third vessel will be NASAs Mars 2020, containing the Perseverance rover, which just took off successfully from Florida. While this rover will be just one of many on the red planet, it is our best bet for finding life there for the time being.

The sudden flurry of activity is a result of planetary dynamics: every two or so years, the orbits of Earth and Mars align so that the two bodies are at their closest to each other. This results in a shorter interplanetary transit time, of just over six months. The next such launch window will not be until 2022 when it is expected that the European Space Agencys ExoMars 2022 will join the throng.

It is legitimate to question why we keep sending rockets to Mars. Surely we have acquired enough images of the surface and its landscapes to know that water used to be there, but has now vanished? True enough but there are still mysteries to solve: when did the water go, and why? And, of course, the biggest question of all: is, or was, there life on Mars?

The three missions have different objectives: Hope will orbit the planet for at least two Earth years, equal to one Martian year, acquiring data on Mars weather just like the weather satellites orbiting Earth. Tianwen-1 will orbit Mars and is carrying a rover that will be parachuted down to the surface at Utopia Planitia, where it will analyse the soil and take images of the surface.

Perseverance will arrive almost at the same time but a couple of thousand kilometres away in Jezero Crater. It will be deposited on the surface by sky-crane technology, the same method that delivered Curiosity so successfully in 2012.

Perseverance carries a full complement of scientific instruments that will measure all the usual things that get measured on Mars: the chemistry and mineralogy of the rocks and soil, the amount and type or organic material present at and just below the surface, and so on. But there are two other features of the mission that make it unique.

First of all is the helicopter/drone called Ingenuity that will be released from beneath the rover. This will fly from Perseverance and circle around before landing away from the rover. It is not certain what the range of the drone will be, although the flight will only last a few minutes and Ingenuity will land only a few metres away from the rover.

The idea behind the flight is to test the concept of atmospheric flight on Mars. Eventually, it is anticipated, drones will be able to fly for much longer and for greater distances. This could help guide rovers, identifying features worth investigating and hazards to avoid.

The second unique feature is a drilling and caching system. Perseverance is the first rover to have the capability to drill a core, about 10 cm long and one cm in diameter, and extract it intact from the drill hole. Perseverance will take samples from a range of different rock types as it traverses the crater floor. The drill cores will be left in a small pile a cache for collection, possibly in early 2027, and subsequent transport back to Earth. Estimated arrival time is still not known, but maybe around spring 2032.

Why is it so important to bring samples back from Mars? The instruments carried by Perseverance will be able to undertake fairly sophisticated chemical analyses of the rocks and soil. But even though the instruments and measurements are a tremendous achievement, they do not have the full range of equipment that we employ on Earth to squeeze every drop of information from a rock.

Tests to check for organic compounds and whether they might have a biological origin require a chain of different analyses that are far too elaborate and complex to be undertaken on Mars. Boiling acids, alcohol rinses, addition of chemicals, subtraction of solids, are steps in the chemistry needed to extract and separate organic molecules from their rocky hosts. This just cannot be done on Mars.

The rocks will be weighed and measured practically on a grain-by-grain basis and analysed, in some cases down to the individual atoms from which the material is composed. This will be an international effort there is already a multi-national panel, called MSPG-2, which will draft the requirements for the first sets of analyses and how the samples will be stored, curated and subsequently distributed to the wider scientific community.

There is another set of reasons to bring samples back from Mars the future of human exploration of Mars. If we send humans to Mars, we have to know how to bring them back again. We have not returned anything directly from another planetary body since the Apollo 17 astronauts left the Moon in December 1972. Yes, we have captured bits from a comet and an asteroid and returned them to Earth but those missions did not land, collect and come back.

We have been investigating Mars for a long time: for over 150 years by telescope, 50 years from orbit and 20 years by rovers. Only another 12 years, then, before we can analyse Mars in our own laboratories.

Perseverance to get things done is a gift of humanity. Heres hoping that the rover will live up to its name.

Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University.

This article first appeared on The Conversation.

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By 2032, space scientists may be able to study a piece of Mars in their laboratories - Scroll.in

The mysteries of Mars have long been a part of human culture, history – USC News

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Mars seems so far away, even though its been close to people for so long.

Even before spaceflight was possible, the red dot in the night sky captured human fascination as reflected in stories. Throughout human history, Mars has been embraced in myths, religion, literature and cinema. It has been an icon for nations, a spot on the calendar, an erotic symbol, a god of warfare and the potential home of little green men.

On Thursday, NASA is scheduled to launch a new rocket to Mars to learn more about this mysterious rock orbiting near Earth. The rocket carries a rover, Perseverance, that will collect samples and conduct tests to help determine if the planet ever harbored life in the past or could accommodate human visitors in the future.

Mars has filtered into our unconscious cultural matrix, said Brandon Bourgeois, assistant professor of classics at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Mars has always been with us, in how we conceptualize gender and its roles, militarism and pop culture.

Scorned by the Greeks, the war god Ares got a makeover by the Romans, who intertwined the story of Mars with the citys foundation. The Romans rebranded him not only as a force for carnage but also as a god of agriculture, a father figure and a martial and civic emblem of virility the divine mascot for Romes empire and civilized life. Blood red and hovering overhead, Mars was represented in mythology by shield and spear, which later became the iconic circle and arrow symbol for male gender, Bourgeois explained.

Modern fascination with Mars grew with technology advances. Telescopes brought the red planet nearer, human-powered flight opened the possibility of space travel and mass media distributed science fiction far and wide.

By the early 19th century, most people believed that all the planets in the solar system were inhabited by strange creatures. Mars in particular fascinated people; it was near enough to see yet far enough to be beyond verification, a blank canvas for projecting human imagination, explained Vahe Peroomian, associate professor of physics and astronomy at USC Dornsife.

Mars became a blank slate, and you could imagine there might be a more advanced civilization and so many different imaginings of life on Mars and how it affects Earth, he said.

Mars has filtered into our unconscious cultural matrix.

Brandon Bourgeois

In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli saw what appeared to be channels on Mars. The U.S. astronomer Percival Lowell later mistakenly interpreted them as canals built by ancient Martian civilizations to survive a dying planet. That notion inspired English author H.G. Wells to write War of the Worlds in 1898, which became the famous radio broadcast about a Martian invasion on Halloween in 1938.

Meanwhile, in 1911 author Edgar Rice Burroughs produced the first of several science fiction novels, A Princess of Mars, about a Confederate soldier who awakens on Mars endowed with superpowers to fight space aliens and woo women.

In 1949, author Joseph Campbell published Hero with a Thousand Faces, a review of the structure of mythical hero stories worldwide. Core to such tales is a hero who breaks from the mundane world into a realm of supernatural wonder and extraordinary forces where he achieves victory and returns with powers to help others. The book was a direct inspiration to George Lucas and his Star Wars films.

The following year, Ray Bradbury published The Martian Chronicles, a set of short stories about the conflict between Earthlings and Martians as humans seek to colonize Mars because they ruined Earth.

These landmark works of science fiction, astronomy and mythology inspired generations of comic book superheroes and blockbuster movies. John Carter, Superman and Luke Skywalker trace their DNA to such works, USC experts say.

Today, many Americans believe that aliens have visited Earth to help create the world, said Tok Thompson, USC Dornsife professor of anthropology and communications. Interplanetary travel and space aliens are a very strong belief, parts religion and a sacred modern mythological story, stories that tell how the world was created or developed. On a cultural level, this is very hot stuff and explains how Americans view this.

Indeed, beyond the mythological and metaphysical, Mars also represents the metaphorical aspiration of something beyond us, something up there and above us and in the heavens, said Thompson, an expert in mythology, folklore, superstitions and beliefs.

Up is like heaven; it has divine blessing, the notion that if we go there, were doing something closer to the heavens and to God, he added. Its part of an escapist fantasy, to leave Earth and recreate a more perfect life somewhere else, the anthropocentric vision of getting off our planet to reach higher ground. Getting to Mars is not just about science; it is a cultural priority.

When the Mars rocket launches at 4:50 a.m. PDT, it will blast off from one world to another, though the two have long been connected by human imagination.

More stories about: Anthropology, Astronomy, History

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Lava Tubes on Mars and Moon Wide Enough to Host Planetary Bases – HeritageDaily

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The international journalEarth-Science Reviewspublished a paper offering an overview of the lava tubes (pyroducts) on Earth, eventually providing an estimate of the (greater) size of their lunar and Martian counterparts.

This study involved the Universities of Bologna and Padua and its coordinators are Francesco Sauro and Riccardo Pozzobon. Francesco Sauro is a speleologist and head of the ESA programmes CAVES and PANGAEA, he is also a professor at the Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Bologna. Riccardo Pozzobon is a planetary geologist at the Department of Geosciences of the University of Padua.

We can find lava tubes on planet Earth, but also on the subsurface of the Moon and Mars according to the high-resolution pictures of lava tubes skylights taken by interplanetary probes. Evidence of lava tubes was often inferred by observing linear cavities and sinuous collapse chains where the galleries cracked, explains Francesco Sauro. These collapse chains represent ideal gateways or windows for subsurface exploration. The morphological surface expression of lava tubes on Mars and the Moon is similar to their terrestrial counterpart. Speleologists thoroughly studied lava tubes on Earth in Hawaii, Canary Islands, Australia and Iceland.

We measured the size and gathered the morphology of lunar and Martian collapse chains (collapsed lava tubes), using digital terrain models (DTMs), which we obtained through satellite stereoscopic images and laser altimetry taken by interplanetary probes, reminds Riccardo Pozzobon. We then compared these data to topographic studies about similar collapse chains on the Earths surface and to laser scans of the inside of lava tubes in Lanzarote and the Galapagos. These data allowed to establish a restriction to the relationship between collapse chains and subsurface cavities that are still intact.

Researchers found that Martian and lunar tubes are respectively 100 and 1,000 times wider than those on Earth, which typically have a diameter of 10 to 30 meters. Lower gravity and its effect on volcanism explain these outstanding dimensions (with total volumes exceeding 1 billion of cubic meters on the Moon).

Riccardo Pozzobon adds: Tubes as wide as these can be longer than 40 kilometres, making the Moon an extraordinary target for subsurface exploration and potential settlement in the wide protected and stable environments of lava tubes. The latter are so big they can contain Paduas entire city centre.

What is most important is that, despite the impressive dimension of the lunar tubes, they remain well within the roof stability threshold because of a lower gravitational attraction, explains Matteo Massironi, who is professor of Structural and Planetary Geology at the Department of Geosciences of the University of Padua. This means that the majority of lava tubes underneath the maria smooth plains are intact. The collapse chains we observed might have been caused by asteroids piercing the tube walls. This is what the collapse chains in Marius Hills seem to suggest. From the latter, we can get access to these huge underground cavities.

Francesco Sauro concludes: Lava tubes could provide stable shields from cosmic and solar radiation and micrometeorite impacts which are often happening on the surfaces of planetary bodies. Moreover, they have great potential for providing an environment in which temperatures do not vary from day- to night-time. Space agencies are now interested in planetary caves and lava tubes, as they represent a first step towards future explorations of the lunar surface (see also NASAs project Artemis) and towards finding life (past or present) in Mars subsurface.

Researchers also point out how this study opens up to a completely new perspective in planetary exploration, which is increasingly focusing on the subsurface of Mars and the Moon.

In autumn 2019, ESA called up universities and industries with a campaign seeking ideas for developing technologies for lunar caves exploration. They are specifically looking for systems that would land on the lunar surface to operate missions exploring lunar tubes, clarifies Unibo professor Jo De Waele, who is one of the authors of the study and a speleologist. Since 2012, in collaboration with some European universities including Bologna and Padua, ESA has been carrying out two training programmes for astronauts focusing on the exploration of underground systems (CAVES) and planetary geology (PANGAEA). These programmes include lava tubes on the island of Lanzarote. So far, 36 astronauts from five space agencies have received training in cave hiking; moreover, six astronauts and four mission and operation specialists have received geological field training.

UNIVERSIT DI BOLOGNA

Header Image Credit : VillageHero

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Lava Tubes on Mars and Moon Wide Enough to Host Planetary Bases - HeritageDaily

NASA Just Left For Mars. Heres How Many Humans Will Be Needed To Colonize The Red Planet – Forbes

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About 110 people would be needed to colonize Mars successfully, says a new report.

NASA just safely launched its robotic Mars 2020 mission, but when it finally does send people to the red planet how many humans would need to live on Mars to create a successful self-sustaining colony?

It could be one of the most important questions ever asked.

After all, humanity could be threatened with extinction due to some cataclysmic event; global warming, a deadlier pandemic, all-out war on Earth, or an asteroid strike.

If we ever becomeperhaps if we need to becomea multi-planet species, exactly how many settlers would be needed for survival on another planet?

The answer, according to a paper published inScientific Reports, is about 110 people.

The number of people that could be sent to another planet would be rather limited, says Jean-Marc Salotti at the Bordeaux Institut National Polytechnique, the author of The Minimum Number of Settlers for Survival on Another Planet.

A mathematical model can be used to determine the minimum number of settlers and the way of life for survival on another planet, writes Salotti. The minimum number of settlers has been calculated and the result is 110 individuals.

That figure is interesting. SpaceX is currently working on its Starship, something of a reusable interplanetary spaceship that would be capable of sending 100 passengers at a time to Mars. However, Salotti has doubts about reusability and thinks that developing a vehicle that can both land and relaunch from Mars could take several decades.

Developing a vehicle that can both land and relaunch from Mars could take several decades to ... [+] perfect.

Concepts of crewed Mars missions take about six months for between three and six astronauts to reach the planet, along with a few dozens of tons of consumables. Although it may be possible for some resources to be obtained from Marscarbon dioxide from the atmosphere, water ice from the soil to produce oxygen and organic compounds, hematite to produce iron, silicates to produce glasswere decades away from understanding if any of that would be practically possible.

Salottis calculations are based on the ability of a group of individuals to survive if cargo drops from Earth were stopped. That could perhaps be because a colony is becoming too expensive to send cargo to, because of war on Earth, or because the colonists decide to go it alone and declare an independent Martian republic.

It takes into account factors like how long the colonists would need to to spend mining, producing metal, ceramics and glass, chemicals and clothes, and recommends that colonists use three guiding principles:

If this relatively low number is confirmed, survival on another planet might be easier than expected, writes Salotti.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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NASA Just Left For Mars. Heres How Many Humans Will Be Needed To Colonize The Red Planet - Forbes

"D2C helps us build a frictionless consumer experience" Mars on entering the direct-to-consumer channel with Foodspring – just-food.com

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Jean-Christophe Flatin and Marc Hermann

Relative to the recent flurry of activity in setting up direct-to-consumer services, Mars was ahead of the curve somewhat last year when the owner of the M&Ms confectionery brand acquired a majority stake in Germany's Foodspring, a manufacturer of sports nutrition and health-and-wellness products.

The acquisition was conducted through Mars Edge a division set up in 2017 to explore opportunities in better-for-you foods which went on to launch an incubator programme early last year to nurture start-ups in the nutrition space. It was a matter of months after that Mars made its investment in Foodspring, a Berlin-based business set up in 2013.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) has gained in prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic, with noticeable interest among a raft of packaged food manufacturers.

Some major food companies think Nestle, Unilever and Arla Foods already had direct-to-consumer services but, before the virus hit, the nascent channel was mostly being used in only selected categories and, more broadly in FMCG, for non-food products. However, more packaged-food companies have recognised the importance of engaging with the consumer directly, particularly as more shoppers have embraced digital services amid empty shelves in supermarkets in the early days of the crisis, difficulties in securing deliveries from major supermarkets and reticence of visiting stores.

D2C has become a channel a growing number of senior executives in the food industry expect to stay relevant beyond the pandemic, including Jean-Christophe Flatin, who, as well as being president of innovation, science and technology at Mars, heads up the Mars Edge unit.

Flatin says Mars' move to invest Foodspring rests in the US giant's "omni-channel approach", with an aim to "build consumer engagement in a very close manner to the consumer needs".

"I think the combination of being in this one-to-one direct dialogue is very virtuous for your innovation, it is also quite virtuous for listening and catching as early as possible the new consumer trends that are emerging," Flatin explains. "D2C is only one part of omni-channel and it should serve the opportunity to serve unique consumer problems that cannot be solved in another manner."

Flatin is speaking to just-food alongside, Marc Hermann, a co-founder of Foodspring and its marketing director. The business manufactures a range of nutrition snacks and bars, protein shakes and cereals, and supplements.

But why did Foodspring choose D2C instead of a more traditional approach of producing products to be sold directly through retailers?

"The beauty of D2C is the direct connection with the consumer," Hermann says. "So hearing the feedback, understanding the needs of the customer, we said well, we can actually recreate this category and we can do that through D2C in educating our consumers on how these products are beneficial for their lifestyle."

He continues: "We saw a shift in user behaviour in our category, so when we had a look at the landscape for sports nutritional supplements that was really the area that we got started in: protein powders, amino acids, supplements we just broadened our portfolio along the way," Hermann says. "But what we noticed was, this industry was very much driven by a niche target audience which was body builders back in the days and when we had a closer look we saw that actually there's a need for the more mass-market user.

Foodspring works with partners on manufacturing and logistics but research and development, marketing and customer service are in-house.

"Our approach at Foodspring was always to outsource everything which is non-mission critical and in-source everything which is mission critical," Hermann says. "The partnership works so well from both sides because Mars has a certain skill and capability set which they built over centuries food safety, regulation and innovation are definitely things where we have continuous dialogue with Mars."

Foodspring is primarily focused on the European market, more specifically the DACH countries [Germany, Austria and Switzerland], France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium and has just instigated a "soft launch" in the UK and Scandinavia. While Foodspring plans to expand geographically, Hermann was guarded in revealing a time frame and specific locations.

Common in Mars strategy are three levers of building, buying and partnering, Flatin says, with Foodspring generally falling into the latter bracket. However, he acknowledges Mars had a lot to learn in terms of e-commerce and D2C, which is where Foodspring came in.

"We are convinced that Foodspring brings to us this unique set of capabilities of initiating, building and nurturing this one-to-one consumer relationship," Flatin explains. "However, we want to go faster, and therefore sometimes in combination with building, partnering is a great opportunity and a great solution to bring those capabilities closer to us, and that's what we did with Foodspring."

Early this summer, Mars launched an online store in India in partnership with delivery platform Swiggy, including the brands M&Ms, Mars, Galaxy, Bounty, Doublemint and Orbit. Further D2C initiatives are in the pipeline for Mars, too, although Flatin was reserved in offering any details.

"We have a lot of plans, some that I can share and some that I cannot. We see direct-to-consumer not as a goal in its self D2C is one part of the equation to build a frictionless, painless consumer experience along the shopping, education and information journey for consumers. So in that respect, yes, we will continue to develop direct-to-consumer models, either as businesses themselves, or as an extension of existing businesses.

"But I want to be clear, that's not a goal in itself. When we build a D2C business on the back of an existing one, we always want to make sure that this is to serve a unique opportunity to solve the consumer problem or consumer pain point."

From Foodspring's perspective, Hermann says the company plans to develop new products that offer nutritional solutions but with a more personalised slant to cater to individual needs. But the business is also considering adapting its model.

"It's also about the online channel development of Foodspring. We started as a digital-only brand but we also need to bring Foodspring more into the offline world because the face-to-face interaction with consumers enables us to build even stronger ties," he says.

Hermann was coy about offering any details about turnover or profits but did provide an essence of the current operating environment in the midst of a pandemic, which he says "put us in front of a big challenge and required us to rapidly adapt to the new situation", mainly in how it communicates with the consumer and gets products to front doors.

But what lessons has Foodspring learnt during the crisis? "It's about being relevant, and that was definitely a topic beforehand," Hermann says. "I think this crisis really amplified how important it is to be close there and to also make drastic and radical changes."

Covid-19 has spurred food manufacturers into action, with Kraft Heinz and PepsiCo among the majors that have entered the D2C channel in recent months. Flatin believes for many companies it had already been on their shopping lists and the pandemic has brought their plans forward, particularly given the rapid change in consumer behaviour.

"The way I look at it, I think the pandemic has been an accelerator or an amplifier, not a revealer," he says. "The other impact is probably the emergence of new consumer groups and digital commerce that were not there before."

Flatin continues: "So there is this amplification in magnitude to this new consumer group, these new consumer practices, which is why for a company like Mars, when your sole reason for being is to always find the most frictionless, painless opportunity to connect with consumers, it was something that was already on our radar screen, too."

Direct interaction with the consumer also brings benefits for innovation, but as well as getting feedback from its own research team and Mars Edge, Foodspring has also been working with Fonterra, which supplies the company with whey protein, and which had been an early investor in the business before the deal with Mars.

"We formed this relationship, and then we developed solutions based on this raw material. Fonterra gives us ideas and we come to them with our ideas, and then develop a product that is unique for Foodspring," Hermann explains.

From the point of view of Mars, Hermann says the US group and Foodspring "complement each other very well".

Hermann adds: "Everything that has to do with the digital side of the business and direct-to- consumer, I think we bring a lot to the table. If we are looking into the bricks-and-mortar side of things the food safety, regulatory and product innovation part, and also I would say more process building in the company this is definitely something where Mars offers a lot of support for Foodspring and helps us to go beyond what we are today."

In the early days of setting up, Hermann says the biggest challenge for Foodspring was finding manufacturing and logistics partners because of the financial impediments and staffing levels for a new business. And convincing a co-manufacturer to partner with you was a difficulty in itself due to the minimum order requirements.

"This was very challenging in the early days because you would really need to find a partner who believes in that vision and believes you will grow the business continuously, and therefore make it an interesting business for them," he says. "From a logistical point of view, it's a similar topic."

So given your experiences, what advice would you give to anyone considering launching a direct-to-consumer business?

"The key is listen to the consumer and incorporate it in everything you do," was Hermann's response. "It's really about what the consumer wants and to deliver that to them. On top of that, it's about building a strong brand, and also to accept that it takes time to build a strong brand. Try to differentiate yourself from existing offerings offer an advantage to the consumer."

Flatin says: "The ability, curiosity and omni-channel. So the ability it's not because you have been around for a long time and that you know everything be clear on what you know and what you don't know."

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"D2C helps us build a frictionless consumer experience" Mars on entering the direct-to-consumer channel with Foodspring - just-food.com

Muzzin injury mars Toronto win as Leafs level series with Blue Jackets – The Globe and Mail

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Muzzin was conscious and could be seen talking and moving his extremities before a backboard was slipped beneath him and he was wheeled off on a stretcher with his head tightly restrained. Players on both teams tapped sticks against the ice as he was taken away.

Andre Ringuette/Freestyle Photo/Getty Images

The Maple Leafs were less than two minutes from celebrating a critical victory on Tuesday night when one of their key players crumpled to the ice with a possible neck injury.

After banging his head against an opposing players knee, Jake Muzzin attempted to get up but was unable. The game, which Toronto won 3-0 to even its best-of-five playoff qualifying series against the Columbus Blue Jackets, was delayed for 15 minutes as he was tended to by trainers and medical workers.

It is difficult to see a guy everyone loves so much lay down and not be able to get up, Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen said.

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With 1 minute 52 seconds remaining, Muzzin was knocked down behind his own net by Pierre-Luc Dubois of the Blue Jackets. As he tried to stand, Muzzins head struck the leg of another Columbus player, Oliver Bjorkstrand.

His worried teammates kneeled and watched in silence as a trainer supported Muzzins neck as he lay on his back. Team president and alternate governor Brendan Shanahan stared down, concerned, from a suite in Scotiabank Arena. As he looked on, Nick Foligno, a veteran Columbus player, shook his head.

Muzzin was conscious and could be seen talking and moving his extremities. Eventually, a backboard was slipped beneath him and he was wheeled off on a stretcher with his head tightly restrained. Players on both teams tapped sticks against the ice as he was taken away.

Its a little worrisome when you see the stretcher come out, Leafs forward Mitch Marner said. We are praying for him. There are a lot bigger things than hockey.

Head coach Sheldon Keefe said that Muzzin was alert as he was taken to hospital for an assessment. Even if he could return to play, it is unclear how long he would have to quarantine after leaving the bubble that has been established to protect the NHLs Eastern Conference teams from the spread of COVID-19.

The decision rests with the hub sites medical and event directors and depends on the type and degree of exposure he is subject to outside the secure zone.

The apparent injury to Muzzin, one of only two players on the Toronto roster to have won a Stanley Cup, cast a pall over an otherwise encouraging performance by the Leafs. They outshot Columbus 39-20 and dominated the contest from start to finish.

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Torontos goals came on a deflection by Auston Matthews with four minutes remaining in the second period, on a breakaway by John Tavares nearly five minutes into the third and on an empty-netter by Morgan Rielly with 43 seconds left.

Andersen turned away all 20 Columbus shots and has now stopped 53 of 54 in the two games. On Tuesday he became the first Leafs goaltender to record a shutout in the playoffs since Ed Belfour had one against the Ottawa Senators in April, 2004. Game 3 of the series will be played on Thursday night.

The victory kept Toronto from falling into an 0-2 hole in the Return to Play series, whose winner will advance to the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. In 56 previous best-of-five-game postseason series before this year, only one team has ever won after losing the first two.

The Blue Jackets took the lead with a 2-0 victory on Sunday in which goalie Joonas Korpisalo was impeccable and their defence severely limited the Leafs chances. The sequel was much different, with most of the the action occurring at the Columbus end of the ice. Its offence was so lifeless that John Tortorella, the visiting teams head coach, was seen shouting at Dubois as he sat on the bench during the third period.

Every game is going to be slightly different and have its own personality, Keefe said. Today I thought we fore-checked really hard right from the start and some loose pucks became available and gave us an extra opportunity to attack the net.

Our guys brought it to another level today from a competitive standpoint and that really helped us in all regards.

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Korpisalo stood out again, stopping numerous dangerous shots that appeared destined for the back of his net. It took the Leafs 96 minutes and 55 shots to finally get one by him. At one point, Tavares was so frustrated that he skated off the ice with eyes cast skyward as if he could not believe what he had just seen.

I thought there was a couple [of shots] that were deflected and were a little bit more fortunate on his side, but hes obviously playing really well, Tavares said. He is a really good goalie and made some great saves. I just tried to focus on the next shift and the next opportunity.

It took him eight shots before he finally beat Korpisalo with a shot below his right arm on the breakaway.

On the goal, I was our last forward coming back and I kind of anticipated that the puck might be coming the other way, Tavares said. I was able to get a good bead on it and lucky enough to get that opportunity. It was nice to finish it off, especially after some of the chances I had.

Toronto outshot Columbus 15-6 in the first period, but failed to score despite having two power plays. The Blue Jackets were so overrun that it looked as if they were simply trying to survive the first 20 minutes and get back to their dressing room to regroup.

Korpisalo made a handful of tough saves, including snatching a hard puck out of the air off of a wrist shot by Matthews.

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Andersen, who was beaten by Cam Atkinson on a low shot to his right side on Sunday, was immediately tested in the same spot by Boone Jenner. This time the Toronto backstop deflected it away.

Kyle Clifford seemed to energize Toronto early on with a crushing hit on Dean Kukan behind the Leafs net. Clifford, acquired from Los Angeles because of his grit and playoff experience, barely played three minutes in the series opener. He previously won two Stanley Cups with the Kings.

Nearly all of the second period was played in Columbuss end, as the Leafs controlled possession. Korpisalo continued to thwart them, rejecting shots by Matthews, Kasperi Kapanen and Tavares multiple times. They finally scored on a nice exchange of passes between Matthews and Zach Hyman as they charged down the ice.

After taking a feed from Matthews on the right wing, Hyman skittered the puck in front of the net, where Matthews deflected it over the goalkeeper.

I was excited, said Matthews, who failed to score on six shots on Monday. Its the postseason, everything is tight out there and goals are hard to come by. It was nice to get that one and kind of jump-start a nice push.

The Leafs emerged from the game in a much better position than when they entered it, but their biggest concern is the health of Muzzin.

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Its very tough seeing one of your teammates go down, especially him, Tavares said. You know the type of warrior he is. What he brings to our team is unmeasurable.

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Muzzin injury mars Toronto win as Leafs level series with Blue Jackets - The Globe and Mail

The urban migrant and the ritual tug of home – The Hindu

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Did our urban, means-ends rationality get it wrong again? Was it lockdown-related job loss that poisoned the well and led migrant workers, mostly single men, to head for their villages? Or, was there something non-economic, not quite this-worldly either, that turned their stomachs?

The migrant worker, when in crisis, is not seeking material help from his family in the village; they are, anyway, much poorer than he is. What disturbs him profoundly at such times is the fear of dying alone with nobody to perform the rites for him.

Also read | Cabinet clears affordable rental housing for urban migrants

In nearly every religion, the family plays a central role in the observance of mortuary rituals. Not just that, these have to be performed correctly so that the departed soul can easily negotiate the afterlife.

It is considerations of this kind, more than financial hardship, that prompt single migrant workers to leave for their rural homes. The Indian labouring classes are much less rattled by joblessness as unemployment is a frequent, if unwelcome, visitor at their door.

This is clearly an outcome of the fact that 93% of our economy is informal. Ironically, the Industrial Disputes Act encourages this trend. It mandates employers to pay severance wages, and other benefits, only if workers are hired, and on the rolls, continuously for over 248 days.

This law has had the unintended consequence of making it attractive for management to periodically flip labour around. As a result, only a minuscule minority stays employed for long.

Also read | After turning their backs during lockdown, cities now want migrant workers back

Most other workers suffer joblessness for long periods in the bear pit called the city. Yet, it took just two days of the lockdown for a large number of male workers to start the trudge to their respective villages.

When faced with an imminent threat to life, the tug of home and family is much stronger for the migrant worker than the industrial glue that comes with an urban occupation. This job could be well paid and the worker may have even held it for some time.

There are no laboratory conditions to settle this issue, but a comparative approach might help. In Surat in 1979, when there was a widespread fear that a satellite was going to fall smack in the city centre, causing untold deaths, a large number of migrants there left for their villages.

Again, in Surat, in 1994, the plague scare prompted over 6,00,000 to leave their work stations for the railway station. In both these instances, jobs were not threatened, but there was this perceived fear of death.

On the other hand, when demonetisation happened in 2016, only a few migrant workers left because this distress was primarily economic, without a threat to life. Later, in 2020, when COVID-19 started killing wantonly, there was a radical shift; now, men without families went home because they did not want to die alone.

We missed paying attention to this fact in the latest pandemic exodus because it was accompanied by an economic downturn. It also satisfied our middle-class mentality because, from our angle of vision, economic lenses provide the right focal point.

For the better off, even a temporary job loss can be traumatic. Besides a bruised self-esteem, there are also equated monthly instalments, or EMIs and mortgages to be paid. It is not uncommon, under these conditions, for a middle class person to turn to the family, as the first port of call.

A 2018 CBRE survey shows that 80% of young Indian millennials live with their parents. Further, a YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey conducted in 2020 tells us that they depend on their parents real estate property and savings to give them a start.

No wonder, Census figures show that joint families are growing, albeit slowly, in urban India, but declining in the villages. But the short, bullet point is that unemployment does not send migrant workers to their villages because their families there are in no position to help them financially.

What brings them home is the dread of dying on alien soil without the necessary prayers.

Also read | Two-thirds of migrants have returned to cities or wish to do so: survey

Among Muslims, washing of the body as well as the lowering of the shrouded corpse are important aspects of death rituals and ought to be performed by the immediate family. Despite regional variations, certain aspects of Islamic mortuary customs are constant.

Death rituals vary among Hindus too. There is no consensus, for instance, on how many days must elapse before major mourning rituals such as chautha and shraddha can commence. Also, most Hindus are cremated, but some are buried too.

Only the family would know the minutiae of these details. Further, among Hindus, male blood kin alone can perform the pind daan and the ritual erasure of debts, or (rin), of the dead relative.

If these, and other rules, are not followed correctly, the soul of the dead person could suffer perpetual torment in the other world. It will take more than a job somewhere to overcome the fear of dying anonymously, without proper ceremonies being performed.

Forced by poverty, workers can take economic hardship on their chin and stomach at the same time. They may have a face for radio and a voice for silent films, but in the theatre of survival, they move adeptly, playing their part.

Also read | Migrant workers returning to cities to reclaim jobs, Solicitor General tells Supreme Court

It is in the theatre of death that they need their families to provide the props. If about 90% of slum dwellers in Dharavi stayed put, post lockdown, it was because most of them lived with their wives and children and did not fear a death without rituals.

Newspapers were quick to notice that it was mostly men walking on highways, or leaving from train stations and bus stands. Though the image of vulnerable women and children in the midst of all this is much more wrenching, their numbers were not that many.

This is not a trivial observation because women actually form 55% (or, the majority) of rural migrants to urban India. If there were fewer of them on highways it was because arranged marriages have brought most of them to the city, not a flimsy job prospect.

This makes their transition more permanent because they now generally have properly anchored urban husbands. These women, in the fullness of time, make a home, birth a family and nobody in that unit need any longer fear dying alone and un-prayed.

On the other hand, rural men migrate with tentative employment prospects and it will be a long time before they can, if at all, imagine getting their families over. Of course, a stable job, with entitlements, would let them live that dream. Till then, the thought of death and a frantic bus ticket home will always be paired.

Even so, despite economic uncertainties, and underemployment, about 72% of slum dwellings are owned, not rented. This shows the overwhelming preference the poor have for family life, only if they could afford one.

When urban workers rush to their rural homes, it is because they fear a death where nobody prays for them more than a life where nobody pays them.

Dipankar Gupta is Retired Professor of Sociology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

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The urban migrant and the ritual tug of home - The Hindu

Bhoomipujan 2020 is like Balakot 2019, the surgical strike that washes all sins – ThePrint

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If you watch the news today, there are only two big issues in India: the building of a temple and the messy investigation looking into the suicide of a Bollywood actor. And both these issues seem to be linked to electoral politics.

The Sushant Singh Rajput case is being used by the Bharatiya Janata Party, and its ally Janata Dal (United), to deflect from the growing unpopularity of the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar. The Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal opposition is so weak that attacking it alone wont be enough. Hence, actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death has come in handy for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar to deflect and rule.

Theres a lot in Bihar that needs deflection: the unstoppable growth of the Covid pandemic, floods, the failure of its prohibition law, the poor handling of the migrant crisis, a lockdown that failed to flatten the states Covid curve, and a general anti-incumbency plaguing three-term chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Also read: Whose Ram Rajya does Ayodhya temple bring Gandhis or Modis? Ambedkar can answer

We see the same script play out on a national scale today, with the ground-breaking ceremony for the building of a new temple that appeared to be more like some kind of coronation ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Fans and haters, alike, will talk about Ram Mandir for days.

You wont feel this is a country going through a historic economic crisis. Indias economic growth was already hurt badly even before Covid, and now the pandemic is taking us into a rare depression.

The triumphalism over the ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday, with Modi crowned as head of a Hindutva state, will make you forget that on Monday India had reported the worlds highest number of Covid cases and deaths. As Modi inserts himself into the story of the Ramayana, India will forget how he had assured us in March that defeating Covid will take only three more days than the 18 days it took to win the Mahabharat.

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In the larger canvas of history, the building of the Ram Mandir is one big step in the diminution of Indian pluralism, under which all citizens could be equal regardless of the faith they practiced. But in the limited horizon of 2020, the Ayodhya temple comes as a distraction from a series of Modis failures. Since India can not get the Chinese to disengage from its border, it must sing bhajans to Lord Ram in the news.

Also read: Unseen photos of how Babri Masjid demolition was planned and executed in 1992

In that sense, the Bhoomipujan of 2020 is like the Balakot surgical strikes of 2019. Its the magic wand that will make all of Modis failures go away. That event and its political exploitation was an important reason why the BJP won a massive 303 seats by itself.

But there is one difference. The Balakot airstrikes took place about 3 months before the Lok Sabha elections. Today, nobody can say the NDA was going to lose Bihar assembly elections in November and the Ram Mandir will save them. The NDA wasnt going to lose that election to begin with. The caste matrix and an inept opposition will ensure an NDA victory, even with an unpopular chief minister, Ram or no Ram. Yet, Lord Ram cant solve one problem in Bihar how to hold elections amid a pandemic. That seems to be an increasingly difficult thing to do.

Similarly, the BJP-led coalition is going to win Assam 2021 anyway, and the Mandir wont bring it any more Hindutva-minded voters than it already has in West Bengal, or anywhere in India. What the Ram Mandir does is that it helps the BJP retain its Hindutva-minded voters. Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh, who may have been upset over the encounter of a criminal who happened to belong to their caste, will be asked by the BJP to think of Lord Ram, and his new Hanuman Narendra Modi.

Also read: Let Ayodhya Ram Mandir be a reminder: Indian ancestors died for it, up to us to rebuild

Since there is no major election for another three months, not all is lost for the opposition. If the opposition tries hard and acts smart, it can defeat the BJP despite Ram Mandir and myriad other Hindutva political ploys. Just as UPA-1 returned to power in 2009 despite not going to war with Pakistan over 26/11, the opposition can defeat the BJP by taking up governance issues in a big way.

The more the BJP indulges in identity politics, the more its opposition should focus on governance-oriented politics. This will create some contrast that would be hard for voters to not notice, even with a co-opted media. But who in the opposition has the imagination to take out a rath yatra against unemployment? All that our opposition leaders can do is to tweet their support of the Mandir.

The author is contributing editor, ThePrint. Views are personal.

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Bhoomipujan 2020 is like Balakot 2019, the surgical strike that washes all sins - ThePrint

COVID-19 crisis: Small businesses in Maharashtra, Delhi to be hit most by reverse migration – Business Today

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Rising cases of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns are deterring migrant labourers from returning to their workplaces and will impact small businesses the most, particularly in Maharashtra and Delhi, a report said on Wednesday. Despite the labour shortage accelerating a shift to automation, entities in the manufacturing sector will be facing headwinds in the near term like low capacity utilisation, higher production cost; and hence, a contraction in profit margins, India Ratings and Research said.

Desperation led lakhs of people living in cities to return to their villages in the initial days of the total lockdown in March and April this year, in a reverse migration, as their livelihoods had disappeared and living in the city entailed huge costs, it noted. With the process of unlocking getting started, the agency said hopes are pinned on the revival in the economic activity.

"The recent surge in COVID-19 positive cases and subsequent lockdown imposed by various states are preventing the return of migrant labourers to their workplace, though such measures are necessary to control the outbreak," it said. The manufacturing sector will be at the forefront of the disruption particularly micro, small and medium enterprises in Maharashtra and Delhi, it added. The agency said it assessed the dynamics and impact of reverse migration triggered by the pandemic on Indian states and sectors.

Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal and Gujarat are the top five migrants receiving states and the analysis pointed out that industrial units in Delhi and Haryana are highly vulnerable to reverse migration while Maharashtra Gujarat were the least vulnerable. Manufacturing will be among the sectors bearing the brunt, it said, pointing that it employs 60 lakh inter-state migrants. The unavailability of skilled labourers, who have moved back to their respective states, has led to significant pressure on the output, leading to underutilised capacity.

"In fact, some micro, small and medium enterprises witnessing some demand recovery from exports are operationally challenged due to the labour shortage," it said. An increase in manufacturing cost is led by either loss of economies of scale or higher wages of workers, as demand exceeds supply. This will, in turn, impact the margins for such companies in Q2FY21, it said.

Construction has a higher dependency on intra-state migrants but even as movements within a state are possible, the dented real estate demand and subsequent hit to construction activity will have an impact on labour. Bihar may be the biggest contributor of migrant labour to rest of the country, but itself depends on people from other states for its agriculture, it said, adding that 85 lakh such people from other states work in its farms which will result in challenges on the agricultural front.

Also read: 'At this stage of my life, I don't seek to defend my performance': Ratan Tata to court

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COVID-19 crisis: Small businesses in Maharashtra, Delhi to be hit most by reverse migration - Business Today

Couple create interactive Muslim map of Poland to show the many faces of Polish Islam – The First News

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The Muslim map aims to lift the lid on Islam in Poland. Anna i Karol Wilczyscy

A Polish couple have made an interactive map of Poland marking sites and communities connected with Islam in an effort to demonstrate that there is more to the country than Tatars when it comes to the Muslim faith.

The map has been prepared by Anna and Karol Wilczyscy, who run the Islamista blog and are spending their summer presenting the unknown faces of Polish Muslims.

The maps creator, Anna and Karol Wilczyscy.Anna i Karol Wilczyscy

The couple has specialised in Islam and Arab culture for over 10 years. This time, due to the pandemic, rather than travelling to Asia to explore the Islamic life they have focused on unknown treasures hiding in their own country.

Before World War II, Poland was a melting pot of religions and cultures, with a vibrant Muslim Tatar community living in the area for over 600 years.

Tartars are a minority within a minority, Anna told TFN. The majority of Muslims in Poland at the moment are people with migration experience. This means that they are partly Muslims from the Middle East, partly from Pakistan, India, Central Asia, or Tajikistan and the Caucasus. There are also Muslims from Ukraine, from Russia, so here we have a full cross-section of different countries, and also traditions.

The interior of a mosque in Gdask.Anna i Karol Wilczyscy

Culture-curious travellers should definitely visit Kruszyniany and Bohoniki in eastern Poland. Still inhabited by Polish Tatars, they are the best places to learn about their traditions, as well as see wooden mosques and mizars Muslim cemeteries.

However, the Polish Muslim community not just the Tatars. Anna and Karol made sure to connect with communities who have started to build their lives in Poland more recently. While there is no precise data, it is estimated there are 3,000 Tatars in Poland and even 20,000 other Muslims immigrants and converts.

A ruined mosque Kocielec.Anna i Karol Wilczyscy

We have tried to show the diversity not only within Islam, for example, the different approaches to the faith of Tartars and migrant Muslims, but also how diverse the community is, explained Anna. This diversity isnt caused just by religious differences, but also by other characteristics. Even in Poland, Islam is not a monolith.

The Muslim Map of Poland will include interviews with community leaders and members who will present their different views. The guests will include Mufti Nidal Abu Tabaq, the head of the Muslim League - the biggest Islamic organisation in Poland - Imam Youssef Chadid from Pozna, and Dagmara Sulkiewicz one of Polish Tatars living in Biaystok.

Other spots on the map and places of interest are the mosque in Kocielec near Koo which has never been used for prayer, the cemetery in Studzianka, a mullahs grave in Sochaczew, or the Turkish House in Krakw. Many of these places are tended to by local guides, who are happy to share their vast knowledge and understanding of these places' unique character and history.

The tombstone of Tatar Major Jan Okmiski.Anna i Karol Wilczyscy

All the information will be posted on the couples blog. Anna, who graduated from Arabic Studies, and Karol, who wrote his Ph.D. on Arab philosophy, have been running their website since 2016 and the height of the migration crisis. They felt that using their knowledge they could debunk some of the very emotional media coverage and begin a moderate and fact-based discussion.

It was a period of intense coverage on the topic of the migration crisis, Anna said. A lot of scandalous news was reaching us and very little reliable information.

We wanted to start a conversation on a difficult topic in Poland and Muslims are still a difficult topic, she added.

The tombstone of General Jzef Bielak, a Tatar who was also a Knight of the Order of Virtuti Militari, dating back to 1794.Anna i Karol Wilczyscy

Even the name of their blog could spark controversy. In Polish, for many years the word Islamista meant an expert on Islam. But recently the word acquired a second connotation taken from English a radical practitioner of Islam.

Not many people realise, that this word is insulting to an average Muslim, Anna explained.

Now, using their knowledge and travels, Anna and Karol hope to bring the many faces of Muslim culture even closer. With their publications, podcasts, and videos, which will culminate in the interactive map, they want to invite everyone to get to know the history, monuments, and people connected to Islam in Poland.

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Couple create interactive Muslim map of Poland to show the many faces of Polish Islam - The First News

It’s time to take outrageously bold decisions to reimagine the economy: Yunus – Livemint

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New Delhi: It is time to reimagine the economic model we follow, keeping the poor and marginalized sections of society as its centrepiece rather than trying to hurry back to the pre-covid scenario marked by income inequality, automation-led job losses and climate change, said Nobel laureate and founder of Bangladeshs Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus in a conversation with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday.

Yunus who set up the bank that gives credit based on trust and without collateral to the poorest in rural Bangladesh said that the coronavirus pandemic has given an opportunity to think anew. This, he said, was a make or break" chance for a new inclusive economy.

Now, let's go a different way... this is the time to take bold decisions, outrageous decisions right now," Yunus said in the conversation.

Yunuss comments came in the backdrop of one of the biggest migrant workers crisis which the country has witnessed in the recent history, including thousands of them walking trans-state to reach homes during the national lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

We have to recognize these people (migrant workers). Economics doesnt recognize these people. They call it informal sector. Informal sector means we have nothing to do with them, they are not part of the economy. Economy begins with the formal sector, we are busy with formal sector," he said, adding that there was a need to finance them and take care of them.

While the issue has been a key bone of contention with Opposition parties attacking the government for not doing enough to take care of migrants, the latter has announced a series of steps in the past few weeks for their welfare, including free food grain scheme, jobs scheme in worst-affected districts and special credit facility for street vendors among others.

Gandhi said that the migrant crisis was massive for India. the micro entrepreneurs suddenly found themselves stranded, and I spoke to quite a few of them and I saw first-hand what they were going through," Gandhi told Yunus, adding that India had missed a huge opportunity as a nation by not having a reset approach to the situation.

Gandhi has started a series of video conversations where he engages with experts on sector-specific issues to discuss the socio-economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. In the past, he has engaged with former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan, Nobel Prize winning economist Prof. Abhijit Banerjee, managing director of Bajaj Auto Ltd Rajiv Bajaj and Nicholas Burns, a former US secretary of state, along with public health experts and nurses.

While some estimates suggest Indian economy will contract in FY21 in the range of 5%, some economists suggested that Indian economy may stay steady or even end up with a marginal growth this fiscal.

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It's time to take outrageously bold decisions to reimagine the economy: Yunus - Livemint

Migration to Australia has fallen off a cliff will it take the economy with it? – The Guardian

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If Pritam Deb had waited another year, his dream of moving to Australia with his young family probably would not have come true.

The 35-year-old data analyst arrived in Australia from India in June 2019, after successfully applying for a permanent visa for skilled workers. After a few months searching, he now works as a contractor for a large telco.

I was lucky enough to get in with my family before it broke, he says. And I was lucky enough to find a job. The timing was really, really important, and Im quite fortunate.

A year on from his arrival, Australias borders are essentially closed and migration has fallen off a cliff.

Since March, non-citizen non-residents cannot enter the country, the Australian government is advising people to reconsider the need to apply for Australian visas, and Australians are banned from leaving, with even dual citizens requiring special permission to leave the country.

The tough border closures, a key bulwark against Covid-19, mean that net migration is now almost at zero, and is certain to be just a sliver of previous government forecasts in the year ahead. In May, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, estimated annual migration of 34,000 in the year ahead a far cry from pre-coronavirus estimates of around 270,000, and from the 2019 figure of 210,700.

Even with a vaccine and reopened borders, it could be years before Australia can meet those targets again.

Hamsini Addagatla is not as lucky as Deb.

The 27-year-old graduated from her postgraduate degree at a university in Sydney in December and planned to use her temporary graduate visa to do a professional year program, which includes an internship. Then she wanted to apply for a permanent visa and build an IT career in Australia.

Instead, she is stuck in the United States as the time left on her visa ticks down. In early March, a family emergency called her away to visit her sister in San Francisco, with a return flight booked for 4 April. Morrison announced the border closure on 19 March, to begin the very next day.

I was completely devastated because I didnt expect it to be so soon, she says. Then I thought, OK, Im a student, maybe theyll allow me in in July, but Ive just been waiting, waiting.

Her visa expires in September 2021 and she needs a year left on it when she begins the professional course, which she cannot do remotely, and which she has carefully saved for.

That means if she does not make it to Australia by September 2020, theres basically no point in coming back, she says.

She has applied for exemptions from the travel ban three times but has been rejected. She is still paying rent, utilities, phone bill and insurance for her life in Australia.

Its emotionally and physically draining me, because theres nothing I can do at this stage apart from just applying again and again, she says.

Apart from the immense personal impact on people like Addagatla, the nosedive in migration is certain to have a significant impact on the economy. But exactly what that impact entails depends on who you ask.

Australias entire economy is based on immigration, says Liz Allen, a demographer at the Australian National University.

Migration is the major driver behind Australias population growth, which in turn has driven economic growth.

The dramatically reduced numbers of international students coming to Australia has already hit the higher education sector. But Allen says thats just the tip of the iceberg.

Migrants contribute to demand and supply sides of the economy and bolster the socioeconomic wellbeing of this nation in ways many dont realise, she says. The food we eat, homes, towns, hospitals all rely on migrants, and businesses depend on them.

Without migrants, Australias future feels less certain, because the grim reality is that the economy needs the inputs of migrants to ensure our standard of living doesnt decline, she says.

As a result, the Covid-induced cut to immigration will probably have significant and lasting impacts that may take years to realise.

Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the immigration department, agrees. The virus and the drop in net migration will combine to hit us very, very hard, says Rizvi.

Rizvi says that migration and the economy normally follow each other very closely, though which drives which is a chicken and egg question.

But the chief economist for the Australia Institute, Richard Denniss, says that unimpressive economic growth is not always a bad thing for individual Australians, drawing a distinction between GDP and GDP per capita.

Slowing population growth will lead to slower economic growth. Full stop. No debate about that at all, Denniss says. But that doesnt mean our income per person is going to slow down. Theyre quite separate.

He says that despite Australias heavy reliance on population growth to drive economic growth, for decades weve been silent about whether the benefits of that growth were flowing to individuals.

Rizvi says that Australia targets skilled migrants, who get relatively well-paying jobs relatively quickly, which adds a positive per capita impact on the economy.

Slowing the populations ageing improves per capita economic growth, he says.

Australias migration program targets people from about 20 to 35, and because of their relative youth, migrants will have disproportionately more children in the future. Migration has made Australia among the youngest developed nations on the planet, with a median age of 37.

That means that a fall in migration will decrease the birth rate and accelerate the Australian populations ageing, he says.

Those are just almost givens now, Rizvi says. That will hurt us.

The debate about Australias immigration and its effect on unemployment rates is vexed and groups as disparate as One Nation and the ACTU have been critical of the system, even during a strong jobs market.

But unemployment is now predicted to exceed 9% by Christmas.

Some suggest this means we should be slow to welcome migrants back, lest they take jobs Australians could fill. Labors home affairs spokeswoman, Kristina Keneally, came close to this argument in a May op-ed that said Australia should change the size and composition of the migrant intake after the crisis.

Australia should [shift] away from its increasing reliance on a cheap supply of overseas, temporary labour that undercuts wages for Australian workers and takes jobs Australians could do, she argued, describing reliance on high migration levels to fuel economic growth as a lazy approach and advocating for investment in skills and training.

Rizvi and Allen told Guardian Australia that migrants dont tend to take jobs Australians would otherwise do, because theyre either bringing skills Australians lack or doing low-skilled jobs that Australians dont want to do.

Australias migration scheme is demand-driven, meaning migrants arent stealing locals jobs, Allen says. Migrants do more than fill jobs locals cant or wont do. Migrants help build consumer sentiment and so have a bit of a turbocharge impact on the economy.

Denniss says the effect of restarting the migration program on unemployment levels is nearly impossible to predict.

Weve now got 1.5 million people on unemployment benefits. Its not at all clear whether bringing in an extra 250,000 people is going to lead to unemployment rising or falling, he says. Theres two offsetting effects: 250,000 people coming here and spending money will create some demand. And 250,000 people coming here and saying can I have a job is going to increase the supply of labour. Which effect will be bigger?

Weve never played this game before. Theres no historical or international comparator, Denniss says. So choose your poison.

By reducing demand for housing stock, the fall in migration will likely affect the housing market.

We have a chronic undersupply of housing generally, which is one of the reasons Australian housing is so expensive, says Michael Fotheringham, the executive director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

Because the construction sector generally keeps pace with a growing population and demand for residential construction, the fall in migration will leave that sector with spare capacity, Fotheringham says. While that could lead to unemployment and underemployment, it also creates an opportunity to rethink how housing development occurs in this country.

Fotheringham suggests the construction of social housing as a solution that would help both the construction sector and those who are struggling to afford accommodation.

Falling migration will also affect the urban environment. The impact will be felt most strongly in Sydney, Melbourne and south-east Queensland, where migrants tend to settle, Fotheringham says.

It gives decision-makers more time to consider how these cities should be shaped in the years to come.

We can do it carefully, not slowly, but more thoughtfully than when were chasing our tail, Fotheringham says. If in the past, supply was chasing to meet demand, weve got the opportunity for supply to shape and direct demand.

Assuming a vaccine is developed and Australia can reopen its borders in the next year or so, what will happen next?

Rizvi and Allen believe it could take years for Australia to get back on track. Forecasts of annual migration of about 270,000, laid out in the 2019 budget, will not be met for the rest of the 2020s, Rizvi suggests.

As the borders reopen, overseas students, visitors and working holiday-makers will gradually start returning and pumping money into the economy.

But unemployment is likely to still be high, so the reopening should be done strategically, Rizvi says. Decision-making should not be about just going for numbers [but] about designing it right.

Skills will have fallen away because of the recession, and there will be urgent demand for skills that cannot be generated through short courses.

Attracting skilled migrants is more difficult in a weak economy, and the government needs to make sure visa arrangements make Australia competitive for those highly skilled people. However, it is a huge advantage that Australia has done comparatively better in the pandemic than most other countries, Rizvi argues.

Deb says that moving to Australia was already a huge risk before the pandemic, and it might be too much for some even once borders open.

Ive seen a lot of people talking [online] about this and their apprehension about how it has impacted the markets, he says. People like myself, if you had a stable job back home and you had permanent residency, youd be reluctant to take a chance in these troubled times.

For some, like Addagatla, the reopening will be too late. She cant extend her graduate visa, and she feels like the doors of permanent migration to Australia are closing to her.

I just dont see why they dont allow visa holders to come back in, especially students and recent graduates, she says. This is why we came to Australia. Ill be doing the quarantine for 14 days, I dont see why Ill be a risk to the community.

Whenever the reopening happens, the experts Guardian Australia spoke to see an opportunity in the crisis to reshape policy.

This is the sort of thing to give us pause to think about what sort of society we want to create going forward, Fotheringham says.

The current crisis allows an opportunity of reform, and Australia should grab that opportunity with both hands and run with it, Allen says.

A cohesive population policy incorporating climate measures, gender equality provisions, and promoting social equality can help us pave the way out of this mess. It will take hard work, but nows the time. From this crisis we can build a stronger and fairer nation, it just takes commitment and leadership.

Originally posted here:

Migration to Australia has fallen off a cliff will it take the economy with it? - The Guardian

How Are The Children In India Receiving Their Mid-Day Meals Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic? | Nutrition – Swachh India NDTV

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Highlights

New Delhi: With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, United Nations State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, forecasts that the coronavirus could push over 132 million more people into chronic hunger by the end of 2020. This figure will be over and above the existing 690 million undernourished people, the study says. This setback further weakens the possibilityto achieve the Sustainable Development Goal Two, which aims for zero hunger by 2030, the report concludes. Among various government schemes on food and nutrition, an important aspect of helping Indias children meet their nutritional needs, is the governments flagship Mid-Day Meal (MDM) programme.

The MDM Scheme has played a significant role in increasing enrolment and improving attendance of children in the schools, but it has far deeper implications as it is one of the crucial ways to ensure the nutritional security of children. As per the government data, in the year 2018-19, MDM scheme served about 9.17 crore children in 11.35 lakh schools across the country. However, the scheme has faced massive challenges, when the COVID-19 lockdown was announced and schools and Anganwadis were shut down.

Union Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD), Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had announced when the lockdown was imposed, that the mid-day meals will be provided to students even during the lockdown and the subsequent summer vacations.

Mr Pokhriyal had also announced an increased allocation for the smooth distribution of the mid-day meals with an additional expenditure of about Rs 1,700 crores.

Also Read: COVID-19 Crisis: Deaths Related To Hunger Among Children May Increase By 12.8 Lakh This Year Due To The Pandemic

He further said that in wake of COVID-19, the annual central allocation of cooking cost (or procurement of pulses, vegetables, oil, spices and fuel) under the mid-day meal scheme has beenenhanced to Rs 8,100 crore from Rs 7,300 crore allocated for April 2020, an increment of nearly 11 per cent.

While the top-level has made the necessary arrangements and allocation for the smooth and uninterrupted nutrition of the children via mid-day meals. What is the status on the ground?

Antaryami Dash, Nutrition Head from Save The Children Foundation, tells NDTV that while the governments aredoing their job and forming policies, the implementation powers remain at the district level.

The HRD Ministry in order to ensure each child gets the meal that they are entitled to give all the states and districts across the nation three options either serve hot meals to their doorstep, provide them monthly ration kits or provide them the money conversions also known as Food Security Allowances. Lets assume a mid-day meal costs about Rs. 10-15 a day for a kid, so for a month it will be approximately Rs 300, so each beneficiary is entitled to this sum. But the entire implementation of MDM in this condition, depends upon the individual setup of each state. So, if the collector, state authorities are on their toes, they might do it well, if they want to. Im not saying throughout the states children are not receiving MDM, Im sure they are receiving in some places but there will be inter-district variations as well as intra-block variation. Everything comes down to their administration and their will and zest, thats just how Indian development programmes function on the ground.

Mr Dash said that through Save The Children Foundations concurrent assessment across 15 states, covering 7,235 respondents, they found that around 40 per cent of the eligible children have not received the mid day meals during this lockdown. He further said that these 15 states and UTs, include Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, NCT of Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

Through another non-profit organisation, Roti Abhiyan, NDTV reached out to some children, who are beneficiaries of MDM, belonging to a few of the above-mentioned state, to find out more about the on-ground situation of implementation.

Also Read: India Observed A Decline Of 60 Million Undernourished People In 2019, Reveals The Latest UN Report

In Delhi, 8-year-old Gudiya is a resident of Lal Gumbad Camp, near Panscheel Park where she lives in a five member family. Before lockdown, her mother used to work as a domestic help and her father worked as a delivery boy in Zomato, however at present, both of them are out of work. Gudiya and her siblings, all older than her, study in a government school, where they were provided with MDM. Her mother told NDTV that she hasnt received any mid-day meals or compensation,

Due to certain reasons, I do not have a ration card and we have not received any money or MDM since the lockdown. We are struggling to make ends meet. I asked in my kids school about the MDM but our area is sealed as it is a containment zone, so we have never received anything. Even my sister who lives in a camp near Rohini and has 2 children, says that they havent received MDM or money for MDM.

On the other hand, 7-year-old Rishi from Bihars holy town of Gaya said that they received their mid-day meal in the month of April which stopped by May. His mother told NDTV,

We did get the MDM in April, consisting OF eggs and even milk but by May, our school authority told us that a few people tested positive from their MDM team so they have stopped cooking food and will send us money. We are waiting for money but until today I havent received any money.

11-year-old Paulimi from Durgapur in West Bengal has received her mid-day meals, her mother said,

Paulimi received her school meals until June and for the month of June we received Rs 350 in my husbands account and we were told by her principal that its for her lunch. In July, we have received ration, as the principal of his school told us that this month theyre distributing rations. I asked them why the variations, so they said that they want to provide in whichever way it is convenient for them each month.

11- year-old, Vijay Kumar from Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh, is the son of a daily wager. Vijays mother Meena told NDTV,

It is very tough time for poor families like ours and our financial condition does not allow us to feed our children fruits, milk or other nutritious food items. Ever since the lockdown, my son is not getting the nutritious meals that he used to get in school. The distribution of dry ration and security compensation by the state government is yet to be provided to us. The security compensation and dry ration will prove to be very beneficial in our lives as it will help to feed the entire family.

Also Read: Fight Against COVID-19: Government Of Tripura Distributes Vitamin C-Rich Fruits For Free To Boost Immunity

According to nutrition experts, for a large chunk of the children of India mid-day meal is their only source of nutrition in the day, therefore the importance of mid-day meals for children cannot be undermined. Talking to these families, it is a mixed record, wherein many places children are neither receiving their mid-day meals (MDM), nor any Take Home Rations (THR), or even reimbursement in cash.

According to UNs World Food Programme (WFP), even though MDM is the best route to food and nutrition security for children, the government is issuing extra food rations and inclusion of pulses for the next five months to families under PMGKY (Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana) during COVID lockdown. This will be helpful to meet their food needs. A spokesperson from WFP told NDTV,

All in all, most of the States and Union territories in the country are implementing the mid-day meal in line with the above-mentioned government guidance. For instance, in Odisha, where we work with the state government, students were distributed dry ration for 3 months in advance through Public Distribution System outlets. Coupon with unique ID was assigned to them and the students or their parents would draw rations (rice and other commodities) from Fair Price Shops (FPS) on the production of coupons. The coupons will to be later reconciled to settle the accounts with the FPS owners.

However, supporting Mr Dashs point, WFP also highlighted that fact that India is a large country and the quality of implementation may vary from State to State and even within a State, from district to district. The spokesperson added,

WFP India has been tracking the implementation of both the Mid-day meal scheme as well as the food component of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme at State level since the beginning of the pandemic through media reports, government websites and telephonic calls to government counterparts and development partners. Media reports about the situation in the state of Bihar, where failure to implement delivery of mid-day meals in-line with the government guidance, led the children in certain districts to start waste collection or begging to survive, was unnerving.

Also Read:Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana To Provide Free Rations During Coronavirus Lockdown Extended, What Does It Mean For People On The Ground?

Another important factor, which is a significant on-ground reality for distributing the midday meal, is the disparity in urban and rural areas. While in the urban areas, the distribution of MDM has remained difficult and negligible, rural areas have not really faced major challenges until now.

NDTV reached out to Nisha an ASHA worker from the village Majawada near Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Nisha told us that all the ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers and other volunteers associated with the Anganwadis and schools are responsible for home delivering ration kits for the children. She explains,

We have a list of all the children who attend Anganwadi and schools. We get the ration kits consisting 2 kg wheat and 1 kg Chana Dal and we are all responsible for delivering these kits to each and every student in every 25 days.

Another ASHA worker, Shanta Garg from Dulawato Ka Guda village in UP, tells NDTV that they are not just responsible for delivering mid-day meals, but also to check childrens growth. She said,

In order to ensure the children are getting optimum nutrition, we also check their weight, height and any symptoms for COVID disease when we visit them to deliver the ration kits.

While the system seems to run smoothly in rural areas, in the national capital, the MDM has not been served at all, says Amrita Johri from Roti Abhiyan, a Delhi-based NGO. She said,

NGO Mahila Ekta Manch filed a Public Interest Litigation in Delhi High court, in which IT sought directions to the Delhi government to provide cooked midday meals or food security allowances to eligible children during the COVID-19 lockdown when schools in the national capital are shut.

Also Read:Fighting COVID-19: Plant-Based Diet Can Boost Resistance Against Invading Pathogens, Say Experts

The Delhi government had on June 30 told the bench that funds for providing mid-day meals to children in its schools were yet to be received. However, The Centre informed the Delhi High Court on Monday that it has released over Rs 27 crore to the AAP government as recurring central assistance under the mid-day meal (MDM) scheme. The counsel appearing for the Centre said Rs 9 crore was released on April 29 and over Rs 18 crore was released on May 1 and sought time to file an affidavit on it.

While this has turned into a political he said-she said, at the end of the day it Is the children who are suffering without the meals. How are we to achieve the Zero Hunger target by 2030 is this continues? It is no secret how big of a crisis malnutrition in India is.

Mr Dash explained his opinion on the disparity between urban and rural areas, as he said that the problem mainly is not being able to reach the beneficiaries due to COVID-19.

Earlier, even us the people working with non-profits could easily visit the children on the ground. But now we also have to monitor and maintain records on telephones due to the coronavirus. Moreover, most of the organisations are not able to reach people who are distressed, in person. But when it comes to MDM, rural areas, until now, were doing better with MDM, as Anganwadi workers can easily track and visit these households which they do on a routine basis. The lockdown instructions were followed and adhered to in the urban areas more than the rural areas.

He further added that in urban areas, issues being faced by administrations were that either some were the children of migrant workers who have either gone back or are unable to be tracked. But the main issue is that most urban areas, according to Mr Dash, are containment zones, hotspots, where curfews and lockdowns are frequently happening.

So it is difficult to go there and distribute mid-day meals because these are locked up places, he added.

Also Read:Opinion: Nourishing The Undernourished In Quarantine During COVID-19 Times

However he said that rural areas may face issues now as gradually, we are seeing the prevalence of COVID spreading towards the rural areas.

I think they will face the problem now because initially to start with, from April to June, it was only the urban areas which were the epicentre of the issues. But due to the migrant population returning home, as one of the important factor, the virus is spreading more and more in the rural areas and we fear that children might face issues there, beginning now. However, Im pretty positive that rural areas still are easier to manage as compared to urban areas.

Soha Moitra, Regional Director, Child Rights and You (CRY), talked to NDTV about the MDM programme been badly hit. She asserts that MDM is a crucial nutritional support programme for many school-going children to supplement their dietary needs to combat malnutrition.

Unavailability of a freshly cooked nutritious meal might leave a long-term effect on a childs development. Even if the distribution of dry ration and food security compensation is the new substitute to MDM, there is a need to develop a monitoring system at panchayat level to ensure that marginalised families are actually benefitted with the same.

Mr Antaryami Dash says that the country cannot afford to see an increase in an already huge burden of child malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies among children.

Thus, further realignment is required for MDM service delivery strategies with clearly more focus in urban areas to increase the coverage, Mr Dash asserts.

WFP highlights that with the on-going food support, what is missing is the diversification of food rations and inclusion of cash for women to buy vegetables and eggs can provide further support.

Given such a huge migrant crisis and an ongoing pandemic, it will be crucial to closely monitor the food and nutrition situation among vulnerable communities and provide appropriate responses, if needed. The values and advantages of Mid-Day meals are multiple and immense, and we trust that these programmes will restart immediately, when the schools reopen, the WFP spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure the mid-day meals are received by every child entitled to it in urban areas, WFP suggests that the School Management Committee (SMC) and/or Parents Teacher Associations (PTA) in these times will need to step up and take control of the monitoring.

NDTV DettolBanega Swasth Indiacampaign is an extension of the five-year-old BanegaSwachh India initiative helmed by Campaign AmbassadorAmitabh Bachchan. Itaims to spread awareness about critical health issues facing the country.In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases.The campaign highlights the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children to preventmaternal and child mortality,fightmalnutrition, stunting, wasting, anaemia and disease prevention throughvaccines. Importance of programmes likePublic Distribution System (PDS), Mid-day Meal Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyanand the role ofAganwadis and ASHA workersare also covered. Only a Swachh or clean India wheretoiletsare used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of theSwachh Bharat Abhiyanlaunched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and become a Swasth or healthy India. The campaign will continue to cover issues likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workersandmenstrual hygiene.

1,88,09,199Cases

67,47,115Active

1,13,54,419Recovered

7,07,665Deaths

Coronavirus has spread to 188 countries. The total confirmed cases worldwide are 1,88,09,199 and 7,07,665 have died; 67,47,115 are active cases and 1,13,54,419 have recovered as on August 6, 2020 at 4:00 am.

19,64,536 56282Cases

5,95,501 9257Active

13,28,336 46121Recovered

40,699 904Deaths

In India, there are 19,64,536 confirmed cases including 40,699 deaths. The number of active cases is 5,95,501 and 13,28,336 have recovered as on August 6, 2020 at 2:30 am.

DistrictCases

Akola757

Aurangabad1974

Dhule228

Jalgaon1039

Mumbai45478

Mumbai Suburban5363

Nagpur692

Nashik1575

Palghar1421

Pune9920

Satara629

Solapur1291

Thane13660

Yavatmal150

Ahmednagar190

Amravati291

Beed54

Bhandara41

Buldhana88

Chandrapur32

Hingoli208

Jalna201

Kolhapur646

Latur139

Nanded176

Nandurbar42

Parbhani78

Raigad1462

Ratnagiri350

Sangli145

Gadchiroli42

gondia69

Osmanabad125

Sindhudurg114

Wardha11

Washim13

The rest is here:

How Are The Children In India Receiving Their Mid-Day Meals Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic? | Nutrition - Swachh India NDTV

Reduce gratuity payment period to 1 yr, extend it also to daily wagers Parliament panel says – ThePrint

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New Delhi: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, in its report on Code on Social Security, 2019, has recommended that the time limit for payment of gratuity to an employee after termination of employment should be reduced from the current five years of continuous service to just one year.

The committee, which submitted its report to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla Friday, also said the provision of gratuity should be extended to all kinds of employees, including contract labourers, seasonal workers, piece rate workers, fixed term employees and daily/monthly wage workers.

Recommending the reduction of time limit, the committee noted in its report, most people are employed for a short duration period only, making them ineligible for gratuity as per extant normsthe committee desires that the time limit of five years as provided for in the code for payment of gratuity be reduced to continuous service of one year.

This code will replace nine existing social security laws and is pending before Parliament. The parliamentary committee, headed by senior BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, had examined the code referred to it by the Lok Sabha last December.

Also read: Migrant workers, freelancers must be under social security net, Parliamentary panel suggests

Considering the migrant crisis, which had unfolded in the wake of a nationwide lockdown, the parliamentary panel has also recommended that inter-state migrant workers be mentioned as a separate category in the Code on Social Security, 2019 and a welfare fund be created exclusively for them.

The fund should be financed proportionately by the sending states, the receiving states, the contractors, the principal employers and the registered migrant workers.

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The funds so created should exclusively be used for workers/employees not covered under other welfare funds, the committee said.

ThePrint had reported on 30 July that the parliamentary panel has also recommended universalisation of social security coverage to include domestic workers, migrant workers, gig workers (freelancers), platform workers (who access other organisations using online platforms and earn money, such as Uber, Ola drivers) and agricultural workers.

To address issues of identification and help in inter-state portability while extending welfare aids, especially at the time of distress and exigencies like Covid-19 pandemic, the panel has called for the creation of a central online portal and database of registered establishments as well as migrant workers, including building and other construction staff.

The parliamentary panel has said it should be made mandatory for all establishments, including agricultural, non-agricultural, contract as well as self-employed workers to register under one body, instead of multiple organisations. This body should remain responsible for provision of social security for all types of workers in the country.

The parliamentary panel came down heavily on states for under-utilisation and misuse of the Building and Construction Workers Welfare Fund.

The committee is perturbed to note the latest audit findings on underutilisation of BOCW funds by as many as 24 states and misutilisation of such funds by one state. It is a matter of serious concern that states are sitting on thousands of crores of rupees collected towards the welfare of construction workers, even as labourers have been left to fend for themselves amid the prolonged lockdown period arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic, the report states.

The committee has recommended an enabling mechanism in the code itself for portability of Building and Construction Workers Welfare Fund among states so money due to beneficiaries can be paid in any state irrespective of where the cess has been collected.

The Building and Construction Workers Welfare Fund is raised by levying a cess of 1 per cent of the construction cost. It is part of the Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act, 1996, which regulates employment and working conditions of construction workers and also provides for their safety and welfare measures.

Also read: Directly employed, self-employed also migrant workers under Modi govts new definition

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Reduce gratuity payment period to 1 yr, extend it also to daily wagers Parliament panel says - ThePrint

"COVID response: Bengaluru is overlooking every management lesson from history" | – Citizen Matters, Bengaluru

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Turf wars and frequent transfer of bureaucrats have made the handling of COVID difficult in Bengaluru. Pic: Javed Anees, Wikimedia Commons

Read up. You really should. There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before. These are famous lines from Arthur Conan Doyles A Study in Scarlet. A problem or its solution have all transpired before. But have we missed the lessons?

It has been nine months since the first case of COVID-19 was reported from Wuhan, China in November 2019. The problem took a life of its own and knocked on Indias shores through Kerala in January 2020. It became Bengalurus problem in March of 2020.

While Bengaluru started out well in keeping the pandemic under check, we later slipped into chaos. We have struggled with its management. Lockdowns, restrictions, dissemination of information, healthcare we have wrestled with every aspect so badly that Henri Fayol is calling from his grave, offeringfree lessons in management. Because at the end of the day, effective management is the only thing that will allow us to beat this problem.

But where did we go so wrong? This isnt the first time our city has faced a health crisis. The bubonic plague of 1898 wasnt minuscule. What are the lessons we missed from history? What are the parallels?

I return to some of Fayols 14 principles of management, because sometimes we have to start from the basics:

When the bubonic plague broke out in Bengaluru in 1898, K Madhava Rao was appointed to the newly-created post of Plague Commissioner. He took over in 1898 and held the post till 1901, before being promoted as the Diwan of Mysore. In 1895, Ronald Ross, Nobel laureate in physiology, was recalled to Bengaluru on special sanitary duty to contain the frequent cholera outbreaks at the time. He stayed on until he was posted to Secunderabad in 1897.

Lets look at the current scenario. City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao was transferred in less than a year (he had taken over in August 2019). This is in line with the spate of transfers we have been seeing of late. A fortnight ago, the government had abruptly transferred about 60 IAS officers and 200 KAS officers who were involved with various levels of COVID management.

I elucidate on some of them here. The BBMP core team that led the fight against COVID included five IAS officers Dr M Lokesh, Ravikumar Surpur, D Randeep, Hephsiba Rani Korlapati and Basvaraj led by BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar. M Lokesh has been transferred as Excise Commissioner, and Ravikumar was posted to the Agriculture Department. BBMP Commissioner Anil Kumar too was shunted out less than a year after he took over. Captain P Manivannan, who was the Principal Secretary of both the Labour Department and the Department of Information & Public Relations, was similarly shunted out.

The transfers of officers who were part of the core team that initially controlled the pandemic, certainly throws a spanner in the works. But if that isnt enough to derail management, the officers who replaced them also hold other portfolios.

In 1898, the special post of Plague Commissioner was created so that there would be focused attention on the problem. Whereas N Manjunath Prasad, who just took over as the BBMP commissioner, already has two other portfolios to manage. So, forget allowing for focused attention, we dont even have a whole Commissioner. What we have is one-third of a Commissioner to deal with a problem of this magnitude.

Similarly, when Maheshwar Rao who took over from Manivannan, he was already the Principal Secretary, Department of MSME and Mines. He was brought in at the height of the migrant crisis, when the Labour Department was struggling to deal with the situation on the ground.

Reynold Ross, when he linked the poor sanitary condition of the city to the cholera outbreaks, brought out a document emphasising the short-sightedness of the government in waste management. Short-sightedness of governments is a problem even today, hampered further by political interests.

A large part of the recent transfers have been attributed to the turf war between MLAs and corporators ahead of the BBMP elections. The supposed turf war between R Ashok and C Ashwathnarayan, the corporators demanding a more visible role, are all not helping create solutions.

Similarly, we can examine each of Fayols principles Scalar Chain, Order, Initiative, Esprit de Corps, Unity of direction, Unity of command, etc. and find enough examples of how each of these have been breached. The flareup between Ashwathnarayan and Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao, BSYs anger with Anil Kumar you dont have to look to hard, its all right there. Writing them all would make this article too long.

Fayols principles no longer hold prime position in management texts because they are considered common sense these days. One has to wonder just how common they are.Because it seems like we are currently writing the script for Kissa Kursi Ka Part 2 the political satire movie from 1977 that was banned and whose prints were burnt for mocking the then-government.

The movie, a poor mans Jaane Bhi Yaaron, has a plot very reminiscent of the mismanagement of our times. In the movie, the government is dealing with a rat problem. Its harbinger scheme of buying cats from a foreign country in exchange for Indian dogs goes kaput because corruption has meant that no cats were delivered. They then come up with another solution offering a certificate and cash prize to people depending on the number of dead rats they produce.Needless to say, the idea goes to hell in a handbasket very quickly, and chaos ensues. It is a predicament like the one we find ourselves in.

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"COVID response: Bengaluru is overlooking every management lesson from history" | - Citizen Matters, Bengaluru

Even If Joe Biden Wins in a Blowout, the ‘Global Economy’ Is Not Coming Back – IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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New economic imperatives are forcing nations to make a choice.

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback

The writer is a market analyst and commentator. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) COVID-19 has not only presented the global economy with its greatest public health challenge in over a century, but also likely killed off the notion of Americas unipolar moment for good. That doesnt mean full-on autarky or isolationism but, rather, enlightened selfishness, which allows for some limited cooperation. Donald Trumps ongoing threats to impose additional tariffs on a range of EU exports are exacerbating this trend as the old post-World War II ties between the two regions continue to fray.

Even the possibility of a Biden administration is unlikely to presage a reversion to the status quo ante. Regionalization and multipolarity will be the order of the day going forward.

Many will regard these developments as chiefly driven by geopolitical prerogatives. But over time, the driving engine of the process will be a combination of maturing technologies that are rewriting the laws of profitability in manufacturing and production for advanced economies. The various capacities that enabled a far-flung global supply chain and sent the economies of Asia into hyperdrive over the past 40 years have continued to mature.

The rise of China, South Korea and Japan in this period is just a phase of a larger series of advances that are now likely to become more distributed and at the same time reshuffle the geopolitical trend lines we currently experience.

The reshuffling is coming in large part because Americas historic military dominance has less relevance in a world where the new forms of competition place greater weight on access to advanced research and technologies, rather than the projection of brute military force (especially given the increasing proliferation of nuclear technologies and the rise of asymmetric warfare).

Furthermore, the lack of American manufacturing capacity has left it open to a significant loss of influence to the benefit of other regions, notably China (in Asia), and Germany (in the European Union). China in particular will likely remain both a geopolitical and economic rival to the United States for the foreseeable future, especially as it already supersedes the United States in some areas of technology (such as 5G), and is increasingly becoming the locus of economic activity in Asia. As yet, Asia is by no means a cohesive economic or strategic bloc (such as the European Union), especially given the ongoing American influence in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

But longer term, it is hard to believe that an independent democratic Japan would embrace a foreign policy stance that risks antagonizing a country of almost 1.4 billion people with nukes. According to some projections, by 2050 Japan will likely constitute about one-eighth of Chinas GDP, South Korea much less.

On the basis of that size disparity, strategic triangulation is a non-starter. Japan will no more be able to balance China than Canada today can contain the United States. It is likewise difficult to envisage Seoul continuing to have its own relations with the North being continuously subject to the vagaries of Pentagon politics in D.C. Heightening instability on the Korean peninsula is hardly in the long-term interests of either Seoul or Pyongyang.

By the same token, the idea of a broad but shallow trilateral United States-EU-Japan bloc against China is also a fantasy because the European Union, like Japan, increasingly finds its own interests clashing with those of the U.S. These tensions have manifested themselves fully in the current dispute over Huawei, Chinas largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer. The Europeans, especially Germany, may well be too invested in China to side with the United States in this particular dispute given its strong pre-existing commercial ties with the former, as Wolfgang Munchaus Eurointelligence highlights:

China is Germanys biggest trading partner. Merkel continues to seek dialoguewith China and insisted that ties with the country are of strategic importance to the EU. If this can be called a strategy it is clearly motivated by economic interests. These days, German car makers are dependent on the Chinese market,where record sales in Q2 compensated for the fallout from the pandemic in other markets, the FAZ reports.

This also applies in the specific case of Huawei, where the U.S. is spearheading an attempt to limit the Chinese companys global reach on national security grounds. Berlin in particular is seeking to balance the tensions of preserving an increasingly fraying relationship with the U.S. versus safeguarding emerging German commercial interests in China. The Merkel government is expected to make a definitive decision on Huawei by the autumn when the German parliament reconvenes; this will have significant implications for Europe as a whole, as an increasing number of EU member states are moving away from the firms 5G wares.

German political opinion remains sharply divided on the issue of Huawei. The decision is also complicated by the fact that Deutsche Telekom, a 32%-state-owned company, is the countrys largest mobile provider and already relies heavily on Huawei equipment. It has lobbied strongly against any action that would make it harder for it to roll out 5G, according to the Economist. If the Berlin government fails to follow the lead of the United Kingdom (which recently reversed an earlier decision to incorporate Huawei equipment in its growing 5G infrastructure), it will send a very powerful political signal in terms of how Germany prioritizes its long-term interests, which are no longer axiomatically tied to the U.S.

However Germany decides on Huawei, Atlanticism as a concept is largely dead in Europe. Even before the onset of the pandemic, for example, Italy had already become the first European country to join Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in response to ongoing economic stagnation. COVID-19 has, if anything, accelerated this Sinification of the Italian economy, given the ham-handed response of Brussels to the countrys plight (and which is still governed by old prevailing austerity biases). Although the tangible economic benefits of the BRI have likely been overstated, Rome-based journalist Eric Reguly has written:

The Italian government rolled out the welcome mat to Chinese President Xi Jinping in part because it is desperate for foreign investment. Italy suffers from crushing youth unemployment and never fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. It felt it was more or less abandoned by the U.S. and the rest of the EU on the investment front. The anti-EU sentiment among Italians rose during the migrant crisis, when other countries of the bloc refused to relieve Italys migrant burden, and rose again earlier this year, when Brussels ignored Italys initial pleas for help to fight COVID-19.

It is important to note that Huawei is but a symptom of a broader EU disengagement from the U.S. Even if Huaweis role in Europes future 5G networks is minimized, the big winners will be European companies, Nokia and Ericsson, not American ones. The 5G deficiency is but one illustration of how Americas failure to prioritize a robust manufacturing sector has contributed to a loss of influence and leverage in Europe.

That in turn explains the relatively tepid response to American pressure in many European capitals. Many EU member states have made the calculation that their interests are no longer inextricably tied to those of the U.S. One also sees this in response to American threats over new Russian natural gas pipelines, which the EU is largely ignoring. Europe has outgrown the suffocating embrace of Cold War exigencies.

The one outlier might well be the United Kingdom in its post-Brexit incarnation. Via the Five Eyes intelligence coordination among the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it is possible that there will be a further tightening of the Anglosphere countries. Their current convergence on Huawei is one illustration of this, although Huaweis Chief Digital Officer, Michael MacDonald, concedes that the battle over 5G dominance is small fry compared to the total Digital Economy, which is generally accepted to contribute as much as 25% of the worlds gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025-26, [and] will be worth approximately $20 trillion, with 5G contributing just 0.2%. And here the U.S. has everything to play for, given its ongoing dominance through American Big Tech behemoths such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.

As far as the U.S. itself goes, that also means a narrow but deep North America strategy (United States/Mexico/Canada), especially given the American governments increasing proclivity to view economic warfare through the prism of national security considerations (as it did during the original Cold War). Those national security calculations have changed somewhat: In a reversal of old Cold War norms, whereby the strategic importance of Japan via Americas offshore naval presence was paramount, Mexico is now being prioritized, at least in regard to manufacturing and investment flows via the new North American trade agreement.

As U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer writes in Foreign Affairs, the newly reconfigured United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement reinforces this trend by overhaul[ing] the rules of origin that govern trade in the [automobile] sector, increasing the threshold from 62.5 percent under the old NAFTA to 75 percent under the new USMCA.

These concerns are becoming bipartisan, as both parties are now tacking increasingly toward an overt form of economic nationalism.

Multipolarity need not usher in a Hobbesian-style world of eternal conflict. But as it becomes more of a reality, it signals the increasing eclipse of America as a preeminent superpower of one. Asias rise in particular simply returns the distribution of economic activity to what it was before the first industrial revolution. Thats not a bad thing, except for those rooted toward an embrace of American hegemony that must be retained at all costs, peacefully or by war.

If anything, one could argue that Americas status as the worlds sole global superpower ushered in considerably greater global instability, given the absence of any restraining counterweight, as Washington went from one unilateral war of choice to another. A Joe Biden victory in November may temporarily arrest these trends, but the die has been cast. [IDN-InDepthNews 31 July 2020].

Image source: Midas FinServe Private Limited

IDN is flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate.

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Even If Joe Biden Wins in a Blowout, the 'Global Economy' Is Not Coming Back - IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters