Humanigen Expands Partnership with Catalent Biologics to Manufacture Investigational COVID-19 Therapeutic Candidate Lenzilumab – Business Wire

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SOMERSET, N.J. & BURLINGAME, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Catalent and Humanigen, Inc. (HGEN) (Humanigen) today announced the expansion of their relationship, under which Catalent will provide development, manufacturing and commercialization services for lenzilumab, Humanigens proprietary Humaneered anti-human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) monoclonal antibody.

Catalent is the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies, development, manufacturing and clinical supply solutions for drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapies and consumer health products. Humanigen is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on preventing and treating cytokine storm with lenzilumab, the companys lead therapeutic candidate.

Mayo Clinic recently announced data on the first clinical use of lenzilumab in 12 patients with severe and critical COVID-19 pneumonia, the majority of whom showed rapid recovery and hospital discharge. A Phase 3 study is currently underway evaluating hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Based on lenzilumabs promising clinical data, we are pleased to expand our relationship with Catalent to solidify our ability to manufacture and supply lenzilumab, commented Cameron Durrant, MD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of Humanigen. If we are able to secure FDA approvals or Emergency Use Authorization, Catalent Biologics deep expertise and integrated OneBio solution will accelerate our ability to get this therapy to patients that need it most.

Catalent has partnered closely with Humanigen to develop and supply lenzilumab for clinical trials, commented Karen Flynn, President of Catalent Biologics and Chief Commercial Officer. The experience we already have with lenzilumab, and our OneBio integrated offering from development to supply, make Catalent uniquely suited to support Humanigen in the journey to make this promising therapy available to COVID-19 patients as soon as possible following receipt of regulatory approvals.

To date, Catalent Biologics has provided early-stage development and clinical cGMP drug substance manufacturing for lenzilumab at its facility in Madison, Wisconsin to support Humanigens ongoing clinical trials across various disease categories. Under the expanded partnership, Catalent is also providing clinical supply support for Humanigens Phase 3 potential registration study in COVID-19 from its Philadelphia facility.

Lenzilumab was originally manufactured in Catalents Madison facility using Catalent Biologics proprietary GPEx cell line development technology. As part of the expanded partnership, Catalent intends to provide additional drug substance clinical supply for Humanigens clinical trials, Expanded Access Program (EAP), as well as additional late-stage development and clinical and potential commercial drug substance manufacturing and vial filling at its Madison and Bloomington, Indiana, sites.

Catalent Biologics Madison facility provides development and drug substance manufacturing, including GPEx cell line development, process development, process validation, formulation development, and clinical and commercial cGMP manufacturing. Its Bloomington facility has deep expertise in sterile formulation, with drug substance development and manufacturing and drug product fill/finish capacity across liquid and lyophilized vials, prefilled syringes, and cartridges as well as primary and secondary packaging.

Catalents OneBio Suite is an integrated solution for the development, manufacturing, and supply of biologic drugs. Launched in May 2019, the suite of offerings is designed to integrate activities and accelerate timelines, reduce risk and simplify development with a single contract, program manager, and development timeline from cell line development to supply, with harmonized quality systems.

About Humanigen, Inc.

Humanigen, Inc. is developing its portfolio of clinical and pre-clinical therapies for the treatment of cancers and infectious diseases via its novel, cutting-edge GM-CSF neutralization and gene-knockout platforms. We believe that our GM-CSF neutralization and gene-editing platform technologies have the potential to reduce the inflammatory cascade associated with coronavirus infection. The companys immediate focus is to prevent or minimize the cytokine release syndrome that precedes severe lung dysfunction and ARDS in serious cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The company is also focused on creating next-generation combinatory gene-edited CAR-T therapies using strategies to improve efficacy while employing GM-CSF gene knockout technologies to control toxicity. In addition, the company is developing its own portfolio of proprietary first-in-class EphA3-CAR-T for various solid cancers and EMR1-CAR-T for various eosinophilic disorders. The company is also exploring the effectiveness of its GM-CSF neutralization technologies (either through the use of lenzilumab as a neutralizing antibody or through GM-CSF gene knockout) in combination with other CAR-T, bispecific or natural killer (NK) T cell engaging immunotherapy treatments to break the efficacy/toxicity linkage, including to prevent and/or treat graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Additionally, Humanigen and Kite, a Gilead Company, are evaluating lenzilumab in combination with Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma in a clinical collaboration. For more information, visit http://www.humanigen.com.

About Catalent Biologics

Catalent Biologics is a global leader in development, manufacturing and analytical services for new biological entities, cell and gene therapies, biosimilars, sterile injectables, and antibody-drug conjugates. With over 20 years of proven expertise, Catalent Biologics has worked with 600+ mAbs and 80+ proteins, produced 13 biopharmaceutical drugs using GPEx cell line development technology, and manufactured 35+ commercially approved products. Catalent Cell & Gene Therapy, a unit of Catalent Biologics, is a full-service partner for adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors and CAR-T immunotherapies, with deep experience in viral vector scale-up and production. Catalent recently acquired MaSTherCell, adding expertise in autologous and allogeneic cell therapy development and manufacturing. Catalent Cell & Gene Therapy has produced 100+ cGMP batches across 70+ clinical and commercial programs. For more information, visit biologics.catalent.com.

About Catalent

Catalent is the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies, development, manufacturing, and clinical supply solutions for drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapies, and consumer health products. With over 85 years serving the industry, Catalent has proven expertise in bringing more customer products to market faster, enhancing product performance and ensuring reliable global clinical and commercial product supply. Catalent employs over 13,500 people, including over 2,400 scientists and technicians, at more than 40 facilities, and in fiscal year 2019 generated over $2.5 billion in annual revenue. Catalent is headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey. For more information, visit http://www.catalent.com.

More products. Better treatments. Reliably supplied.

Humanigens Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current knowledge, assumptions, judgment and expectations regarding future performance or events. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such statements are reasonable, they give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and you should be aware that actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Words such as "will," "expect," "intend," "plan," "potential," "possible," "goals," "accelerate," "continue," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our expectations for the Phase III study and the potential future development of lenzilumab to minimize or reduce the severity of lung dysfunction associated with severe and critical COVID-19 infections or to be approved by FDA for such use or to help CAR-T reach its full potential or to deliver benefit in preventing GvHD. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the risks inherent in our lack of profitability and need for additional capital to conduct the Phase III study and grow our business; our dependence on partners to further the development of our product candidates; the uncertainties inherent in the development and launch of any new pharmaceutical product; the outcome of pending or future litigation; and the various risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" sections and elsewhere in the Company's periodic and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

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Humanigen Expands Partnership with Catalent Biologics to Manufacture Investigational COVID-19 Therapeutic Candidate Lenzilumab - Business Wire

All Lives Matter protesters clash with Black Lives Matter protesters in front of Trump Tower – TheGrio

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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, his wife Chirlane McCray and Rev. Al Sharpton help paint a Black Lives Matter mural on Fifth Avenue directly in front of Trump Tower on July 9, 2020 in New York City. In a tweet, President Trump called the mural a symbol of hate and said that it would be denigrating this luxury Avenue. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

The Black Lives Matter street mural in front of Trump Tower has created the perfect hotspot for anti-BLM protesters.

Earlier this month, with the help of Mayor Bill de Blasio, Black Lives Matter painted its slogan outside of President Trumps old home on Fifth Avenue, near Columbus Circle.

This Saturday, protesters promoting the All Lives Matter movement congregated at the newly installed street mural, The New York Post reported.

READ MORE: Mayor De Blasio to install Black Lives Matter mural in front of Trump Tower

There was a clash between the two opposing sides. Some of the anti-BLM protesters could be seen with Blue Lives Matter flags. One flag read thin blue line, which is a police term used to indicate that the police are the force that hold society together.

In some videos, one woman can be seen cursing at the Black Lives Matter protesters while directing exaggerated coughing and sneezing gestures toward them.

The Daily Mail alleges that some of the anti-BLM protesters could be members of the Proud Boys, a violent gang of white young men whose views aligns with the alt-right.

The organization is ahate group, according to the US Southern Poverty Law Center.

According to The New York Post, some anti-BLM protesters decided to kneel while wearing their All Lives Matter shirts and Make America Great Again caps.

The anti-BLM protesters also interrupted a mans live recording about George Floyd. The group taunted the vlogger, screaming fk you! and making rude gestures.

READ MORE:Trump angrily responds to Black Lives Matter mural to be painted in front of Trump Tower

The anti-BLM protesters chanted USA and commie scum to Black Lives Matter members who were already chanting.

Have you subscribed totheGrios new podcastDear Culture? Download our newest episodes now!

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All Lives Matter protesters clash with Black Lives Matter protesters in front of Trump Tower - TheGrio

A day in the life of a 5-year-old boy in 1935 – messenger-inquirer

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A day in the life of a 5-year-old boy in 1935.

And what a day it could be even for a youngster who had to share almost nothing with five siblings.

Like almost every day, this day started about 5 a.m. when he was up and ready to help a mother, a lone parent living on little more than hope.

But that didnt bother the little boy. When you survive life without, you dont know anything about life with.

Mom would be ready to start fixing breakfast after he started the fire in the potbelly stove, and what a meal it would be. Homemade biscuits with grease gravy was as good as it could get.

And his mom liked the way he prepared that meal day after day. His biscuits were broken up into small bites and stacked in a cone-shaped manner. He called it gravy on the treetop.

Then it was up from the kitchen table and out the back door for a day of activities a whole lot like the day before. It started with a walk out of the backyard and onto property occupied by the Illinois Central Railroad. It was his place, he thought, to see if the huge steam engine was ready for its daily trip to Horse Branch and a meeting with a northeast IC train.

The little boy was sort of a pet with the understanding trainmen. They knew he lost his dad at the age of 2 and his part of helping run that railroad yard was deemed very important.

When there was time, Mr. Norman (last name unknown), the yardmaster, would walk him around the engine in a pretense of making sure it was ready for the days run. And he would tell his friend that he thought it was OK.

That railroad yard and the kindness of its employees was a vital part of the youngsters welfare.

When aware of his need for coal, Mr. Adkins, the big strong man who nightly refilled the engines hopper, would intentionally drop several shovels full down between the coal car and hopper so it could later be gathered up by the boy and taken to his coal-heated house.

Also available, thanks to the trainmen, was the ice remaining in the engines cooler when the train returned to the yard every afternoon. It served to keep the familys icebox in working order.

And then there was Owensboro Milling Company, the forerunner of Owensboro Grain, a business that also helped Hamilton Avenue residents with their need for corncobs.

The 5-year-old took advantage of that generosity by keeping a good supply of the waste product that was used to help make starting fires in stoves and grates a lot easier.

But coal, corncobs and making sure the big engine was ready for its daily run did not fill the little boys day. There would be games of marbles, pitching washers, sweeping the all-dirt backyard and perhaps making a homemade kite.

There would be walks through the cornfield separating Hamilton Avenue and Daviess County High to watch the older boys playing baseball, and riding his skipmobile down a long sidewalk that stretched from the front of the school to U.S. 60.

And what was a skipmobile? It was a scooter made of 2-by-4s and discarded iron state wheels.

Last but certainly not least would be a relaxing and loved-filled evening with Mom in the front porch swing. She would ask about his day and listen with ultimate interest. And when necessary, she would thank him for the coal and corncobs.

That made a little boy proud on a day in 1935.

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A day in the life of a 5-year-old boy in 1935 - messenger-inquirer

When the Day’s Catch Includes Cocaine and Heroin – Hakai Magazine

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Drug traffickers have been busted using everything from drones to ambulances to run narcotics, but the most valuable cargoes move over maritime routes. Law enforcement has cracked down on smuggling aboard container ships and other large vessels, but drug trafficking by the worlds 4.6 million fishing boats has largely been overlooked, says Dyhia Belhabib, principal investigator of fisheries at Ecotrust Canada.

As a result, the role that fisheries-based drug smuggling plays in a global industry worth US $650-billion a year was largely unknown. Now, a new study led by Belhabib reveals that criminals are increasingly using fishing vessels to smuggle illicit drugs, mainly high-value narcotics such as cocaine and heroin. She estimates that over $100-billion in drugs are trafficked aboard fishing vessels each year.

Crime at sea is not a new phenomenon. The fisheries sector is rife with illegal practices, including human trafficking, slavery, money laundering, unauthorized transshipment between vessels, and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. These activities have been in the spotlight much more than drug trafficking, says Belhabib, and drug traffickers take advantage of the same legal loopholes and trade routes. These illegal operations are frequently carried out by criminal networks and international syndicates, making them types of transnational organized crime.

Vast, unpatrolled oceans provide ideal cover for these illicit activities. Even with the advent of satellite surveillance, we dont have the capacity to monitor the ocean as effectively as wed like, says Teale Phelps Bondaroff, director of research at nonprofit OceansAsia and an expert in fisheries crime who was not involved in the study. The high seas are hotspots for organized crime, as are the waters of developing countries with low enforcement capacity, he says. Where governance is poor, crime will flourish.

To quantify the role of fishing vessels in drug trafficking, Belhabib and her colleagues compiled information on drug seizures from global databases, reports, and media sources. Since most drug shipments are not detected by authorities, the researchers used statistical analyses to estimate the total quantity and value of drugs trafficked between 2010 and 2017.

They found drug seizures aboard fishing vessels tripled in the seven-year period, with the majority occurring on artisanal boats. The drug shipments were small but still high in value, indicating that traffickers are shifting shipments from large vessels to artisanal boats to avoid detection, says Belhabib.

Its a clever strategy, says Phelps Bondaroff. Fishing vessels tend to blend in, he says, whereas cargo ships or other big vessels may draw attention from authorities. Smaller shipments also minimize product loss if a vessel is captured, he adds.

There are multiple reasons why fishers engage in illicit activities, but it basically boils down to reduced catch and lost income, says Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood, a maritime security researcher at Scotlands University of St Andrews who was not involved in the research. To prevent fishers from turning to drug trafficking by necessity, governments should consult fishers and implement policies that supplement their livelihoods, says Okafor-Yarwood.

Even well-intentioned conservation effortssuch as no-take marine protected areascan exacerbate this cycle of poverty, forcing fishers to find other ways to sustain themselves, Belhabib says. Future research should examine why fishers turn to trafficking, she says, because the participation of small-scale fishers in the illicit drug trade is a symptom of something much bigger.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had mixed effects on small-scale fisheries, but has likely not drawn new fishers into drug trafficking, says Belhabib. The diversion of resources to the health crisis, however, is certainly good news for existing smuggling operations, she adds.

For vulnerable artisanal fishers already struggling to make ends meet, a harsh enforcement crackdown will only make things worse, warns Belhabib. Poverty is a main driver, and criminalizing the poor will not solve the problem. It never has.

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When the Day's Catch Includes Cocaine and Heroin - Hakai Magazine

US Turns Screws on Maritime Industry to Cut Off Venezuela’s Oil – Voice of America

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LONDON/WASHINGTON - Several companies that certify vessels are seaworthy and ship insurers have withdrawn services to tankers involved in the Venezuelan oil trade as the United States targets the maritime industry to tighten sanctions on the Latin American country.

U.S. sanctions have driven Venezuela's oil exports to their lowest levels in nearly 80 years, starving President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government of its main source of revenue and leaving authorities short of cash for essential imports such as food and medicine.

The sanctions are part of U.S. efforts to weaken Maduro's grip on power after Washington and other Western democracies accused him of rigging a 2018 reelection vote. Despite the country's economic collapse, Maduro has held on and frustrated the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Maduro's government says the United States is trying to seize Venezuela's oil and calls the U.S. measures illegal persecution that heap suffering on the Venezuelan people.

Washington has homed in on the maritime industry in recent months in efforts to better enforce sanctions on the oil trade and isolate Caracas, Washington's special envoy on Venezuela Elliott Abrams told Reuters.

"What you will see is most shipowners and insurance and captains are simply going to turn away from Venezuela," Abrams told Reuters in an interview.

"It's just not worth the hassle or the risk for them."

The United States is pressuring shipping companies, insurers, certifiers and flag states that register vessels, he said.

Ship classification societies, which certify safety and environmental standards for vessels, are feeling the heat for the first time.

The United States is pressuring classifiers to establish whether vessels have violated sanctions regulations and to withdraw certification if so, as a way to tighten sanctions further, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Without certification, a vessel and its cargo become uninsured. Ship owners would also be in breach of commercial contracts which require certificates to be maintained. In addition, port authorities can refuse entry or detain a ship.

London-headquartered Lloyd's Register (LR), one of the world's leading ship classifiers, said it had withdrawn services from eight tankers that were involved in trade with Venezuela.

"In accordance with our program for complying with sanctions' laws, where we become aware of vessels operating in breach of relevant sanctions laws, LR classification has been withdrawn," a Lloyd's Register spokeswoman said.

Abrams said the pressure on the maritime industry was working.

"We have had a number of shippers that come to us and say, 'We just had our insurance company withdraw the insurance, and the ship is on the high seas and we've got to get to port. Could you give us a license for one week?'" Abrams said.

In June, the United States designated six shipping companies -- two of them based in Greece - and six tankers they owned for participating in proscribed Venezuelan trade.

Another leading ship classifier, Hamburg-headquartered DNV GL Maritime, said it had suspended services for three of those vessels in June.

The company resumed services when the United States removed those vessels from the list of sanctioned entities after the shipping companies that own and operate the vessels agreed to cease trade with Venezuela.

Chilling effect

The United States has threatened sanctions on any company involved in the oil trade with Venezuela, and that has had a chilling effect even on trade permitted under sanctions.

Some oil companies are refusing to charter vessels that have called at Venezuelan ports in the past year, even if the voyage was exempt from sanctions.

"The shipping sector has been at the receiving end of U.S. action on Venezuela and it has caused much uncertainty as no one knows who will be next," one shipping industry source said.

Insurers are also in a bind. They have been conservative in their interpretation of U.S. sanctions to avoid any potential violations, said Mike Salthouse, chairman of the sanctions sub-committee with the International Group association. The group represents companies that insure about 90% of the world's commercial shipping.

"If there is ambiguity as to what is lawful and what is unlawful it makes it almost impossible for an insurer to say whether someone has cover or not," he said.

Even after ships and companies are removed from the sanctions list, they may face difficulties, Salthouse said.

"The stigma associated with a designation may last some time," he said.

Oil majors, for example, may review relationships with companies that own or manage vessels that the United States had designated and then removed to avoid any possible problems with other vessels, he said.

'Real threat

Venezuela is on the list of high-risk areas set by officials from London's insurance market.

"If a vessel sails to Venezuela they have to notify the underwriter and it may be that the underwriter will not be able to cover them," said Neil Roberts, head of marine underwriting at Lloyd's Market Association, which represents the interests of all underwriting businesses in London's Lloyd's market.

The industry faces "the direct and real threat of having its trade stopped by a watchful U.S. administration because of an inadvertent infringement," he said.

"This risk alone is enough to fuel the multiplication of compliance checks."

Some of the biggest global flag registries including Panama and Liberia are also looking more closely at ships that were involved in Venezuela trading as they come under U.S. pressure to withdraw registration for ships violating sanctions.

Maritime lawyers in Panama said its registry is fining vessels that do not comply with the U.S. maritime guidance issued in May. The registry is mostly de-flagging vessels targeted by multilateral sanctions rather than unilateral U.S. sanctions, the lawyers said.

Officials at Liberia's registry did not respond to requests for comment.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a former investor in shipping, helped craft the strategy targeting the maritime sector, sources said.

A Commerce Department spokesperson acknowledged Ross had worked with other government agencies "to determine how to best hold accountable those who are evading U.S. sanctions" on Venezuela.

Abrams vowed to keep up the pressure.

"There are people who don't cooperate ... We'll go after the ship, the ship owner, the ship captain."

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US Turns Screws on Maritime Industry to Cut Off Venezuela's Oil - Voice of America

Growing collection of fallen symbols is a sign of progress, experts say – The Boston Globe

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Activists, scholars, and artists at the forefront of the anti-racist movement said that symbols can be an easy out for powerful institutions still resistant to undoing systemic inequalities. But taken as a whole, they said, the growing collection of fallen symbols is a sign of true progress, an early victory in what will be a long fight for fundamental change.

If we are going to dismantle structural racism, if we are going to address the atrocities of slavery and genocide, if we are going to engage in a process of decolonization, the statues have to come down, said artist and activist Bree Newsome Bass, who in 2015 scaled a flagpole on the South Carolina State House grounds and took down the Confederate flag. I think that sometimes symbolic change is the first step, but it shouldnt be the last step.

A remarkable array of powerful institutions once resistant to calls for change have taken these first steps in recent weeks. The Washington NFL team is changing its long-criticized mascot. Mississippi is redesigning its Confederate emblem-emblazoned state flag; Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, is removing statues of Confederate generals. Quaker Oats retired the Aunt Jemima brand. And in cities across the country and even the world statues and site names enshrining slavers and colonial settlers have been taken down, and public art declaring that Black lives matter has gone up.

The national phenomenon has not passed over Massachusetts. Bostons art commission voted to take down the Emancipation Memorial, which depicts Abraham Lincoln towering over a kneeling formerly enslaved man, and the city is weighing whether to permanently remove a statue of Christopher Columbus. The state Senate is considering replacing the Massachusetts seal and flag, which shows the disembodied arm of colonist Myles Standish wielding a sword over Wampanoag leader Massasoit, and prohibiting use of Native American images as mascots in public high schools. Community artists collaborated with the city of Boston to paint a Black Lives Matter street mural in Nubian Square. An activist group has renewed its calls for renaming Faneuil Hall.

Monica Cannon-Grant, the founder of Violence in Boston and the organizer behind some of the citys largest anti-racism protests, said she is concerned that momentum will stop there. My frustration is when white people use [symbolic change] against us. They say, We let you write Black Lives Matter in the street, and were like, Yeah, we asked for systemic change.

Still, Cannon-Grant and others voice support for the artists writing Black Lives Matter in the street and activists advocating for the removal of problematic statues. In a rapidly-changing public landscape, they said, symbols shape how we see the world and reflect who holds power in it.

I think that symbolic change is real change of sorts because of the importance of the stories we tell ourselves about personhood, nationhood, and citizenship, said Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and a professor of law and history at Harvard.

Some symbols are so noxious they perpetrate a type of violence: Confederate flags hearkening back to treason and chattel slavery still flying over state houses, for example.

While these kinds of questions might seem at once kind of cosmetic, theyre also telling us something about history and whos valued where, said poet Kevin Young, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

That deeper cultural significance is what gives symbolic change its power. And, so does action backing it up.

Its not just saying Black lives matter but showing how they do. Supporting artists, supporting change, putting their money where their mouth is I think thats the thing that reveals commitment, Young added. And I think commitment is more important than sincerity.

The difference between cosmetic and authentic change may depend on where its coming from, said Christy Coleman, a public historian and executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.

A healthy skepticism may be in order, Coleman warned, when powerful institutions voluntarily dispense with a logo or historic site name, sometimes as a diversion. Traditional power sources will rarely give that up, or theyll give just enough to say were making progress without really doing the heavy-duty work, she said. In real movements, in real change, it is a ground-up swell.

Many of the cities that have made symbolic gestures in support of Black activists and communities in recent weeks have also declined to cut police budgets as drastically as activists had hoped Boston included. At the national level, little progress has been made so far on sweeping policy reforms that would bring criminal justice, economic, health, and educational systems in line with protesters demands.

Brown-Nagin said this is a sign that communities and institutions must be attentive to what comes next: What changes in everyday practices and policies will follow?

It is a question Raul Fernandez, a Brookline select board member and associate dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion at Boston Universitys Wheelock College, said he posed to his fellow elected officials when they decided to raise a Black Lives Matter banner. You have to understand that that is a commitment. Its also an invitation to the community to hold you accountable, he said.

In Boston, said City Councilwoman Julia Mejia, next steps should include reviewing who is given power in the city through appointments to boards and commissions, and making historic sites such as Faneuil Hall engines of economic empowerment for people of color.

Were at a point where we need to do what is hard, Mejia said. That is what these times require: to go beyond symbols and statues to repair the harm.

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley agreed: If we are going to paint Black Lives Matter murals on the street, that declaration must also be reflected in our city budgets.

Pressley said immediate steps must include economic relief as well as educational and social services for those hit by COVID-19 within the context of structural racism; in the longer term, she is proposing sweeping criminal justice reform legislation endorsed by the Movement for Black Lives.

Seeing such changes through, activists and scholars agreed, will require constituents to hold their leaders feet to the fire.

Newsome Bass noted that it took five years for the effort to remove Confederate and colonialist symbols to gain real traction. She also warned activists to be vigilant against institutions that co-opt the language of the movement without making real change.

You just have to keep pushing, she said. These mayors are patting themselves on the back for Black Lives Matter murals, but their police officers are still brutalizing people.

For Dart Adams, 44, who was born and raised in Roxbury, questions of statuary and progress quite literally hit close to home. Adams now lives just minutes away from Park Square, where the Emancipation Memorial stands awaiting removal on an avenue named for Christopher Columbus.

He sees a parallel for the current moment in the story of another generation of Black Bostonians, the enslaved and free people who fought for and won emancipation eight decades before Lincolns national proclamation.

For 10 straight years, they fought through the legal system and petitioned and protested until they got more and more wins, he said. Until they achieved what was once unthinkable, and in 1783 slavery in Massachusetts was abolished.

Dasia Moore can be reached at dasia.moore@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @daijmoore

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Growing collection of fallen symbols is a sign of progress, experts say - The Boston Globe

P&G Embraces Natural Climate Solutions to Accelerate Progress on Climate Change and Will Make Operations Carbon Neutral for the Decade – Business Wire

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CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) announced a new commitment to have its global operations be carbon neutral for the decade through a series of interventions that protect, improve and restore nature. Recognizing the next decade represents a critical window for the world to accelerate progress on climate change, P&G will go beyond its existing Science Based Target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by additionally advancing a portfolio of natural climate solutions. These efforts will deliver a carbon benefit that balances any remaining emissions over the next 10 years, allowing P&G operations to be carbon neutral for the decade. Based on current estimates, the Company will need to balance ~30 million metric tons of carbon from 2020 to 2030.

P&Gs priority continues to be reducing emissions. P&G has an existing goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and purchasing 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and is on track to deliver on its 2030 commitments. In addition, P&G will continue pursuing new wind, solar and geothermal projects to further accelerate the transition to renewables. These eorts are aligned with what climate science says is needed to help ensure the Company does its part to limit global temperature increase and will continue well beyond 2030. However, based on todays technologies, there are some emissions that cannot be eliminated by 2030. By investing in natural climate solutions, the Company will accelerate its impact over the next 10 years.

A Critical Window

Recent reports have highlighted that the world is falling short of the greenhouse gas emission reductions needed and that the next decade represents a critical window to reduce emissions and be on a path to limiting temperature increase to 1.5C. That task will get much harder if society doesn't start curbing emissions before the decade ends. By 2050, carbon emissions must fall to zero, or close to it. Failure to act now will put future generations at greater risk from climate change impacts and make achieving the global targets of the Paris Accord more difficult.

"Climate change is happening, and action is needed now, said David Taylor, P&G Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. By reducing our carbon footprint and investing in natural climate solutions, we will be carbon neutral for the decade across our operations and help protect vulnerable ecosystems and communities around the world.

Natural Climate Solutions: Nature alone can solve up to one-third of climate change

P&G will partner with Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to identify and fund a range of projects designed to protect, improve and restore critical ecosystems like forests, wetlands, grasslands and peatlands. In addition to sequestering more carbon, an important aspect of natural climate solutions is the potential to deliver meaningful environmental and socioeconomic co-benefits that serve to protect and enhance nature and improve the livelihoods of local communities. As P&G moves forward, the company will seek to identify, measure and communicate relevant co-benefits from its investment in nature.

P&G is developing a detailed project portfolio and investing in projects across the globe. Projects already identified include:

- Philippines Palawan Protection Project with Conservation International - To protect, improve and restore Palawans mangroves and critical ecosystems. Palawan is the worlds fourth most irreplaceable area for unique and threatened wildlife.

- Atlantic Forest Restoration Planning with WWF - In the Atlantic Forest on Brazils east coast, laying the groundwork for forest landscape restoration with meaningful impacts on biodiversity, water, food security and other co-benefits for local communities.

- Evergreen Alliance with Arbor Day Foundation - Bringing corporations, communities and citizens together to take critical action to preserve the necessities of life affected by climate changeincluding planting trees to restore areas devastated by wildfires in Northern California and enhance forests in Germany.

Nature must be a key part of any strategy to combat the climate crisis, said Dr. M. Sanjayan, CEO of Conservation International. Research shows that we cannot meet our climate goals unless we protect, restore and improve the management of carbon-rich ecosystems. Done right, these efforts can deliver a third of the emissions reductions needed within the next decade, and importantly, support the livelihoods of communities on the front lines of climate change. Were delighted to be working with Procter & Gamble to protect nature an investment that is a win for people and our planet.

Weve worked with P&G to drive climate progress and safeguard forests for over a decade, because the scope of their business means they can deliver results at a scale that matters, said Carter Roberts, U.S. President and CEO of WWF. Importantly, that progress hasnt been limited to their own corporate footprint. P&G was an early partner in the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, which has helped expand corporate renewable energy procurements across the United States. Todays announcement marks further progress by putting a greater focus on the role that preserving nature can play not just in absorbing carbon emissions, but in providing the services and resources that sustain life on earth. We look forward to working with P&G to achieve these new commitments over the next decade.

P&G Brands take the lead on carbon footprint reduction and climate positive habit changes

Committing to going beyond its Science Based Target for reducing operational emissions is important, but the Company will not stop there. For more than two decades, P&G has been committed to harnessing the scientific rigor of the Life Cycle Assessment of its products to better understand the emissions from its supply chain and consumer use of its products (Scope 3 emissions). Up to 85% of P&Gs Scope 3 emissions are from consumer use of its products. P&G reaches five billion people through its brands, and with this scale comes a responsibility to give consumers the power to reduce their own carbon footprints with products that are designed to help save energy, water and natural resources.

- More than 60% of a laundry detergents footprint is in the consumer use phase, mostly related to the energy used to heat the water. Ariel and Tide have been optimizing detergent formulas for high efficiency in low temperature washing and inspiring positive Turn to 30 and Cold Water Wash laundry behaviors. The goal is to have 70% of machine loads be low-energy cycle loads, and major progress has been achieved by educating consumers in the U.S. over the last ten years on the benefits of low-energy wash cycles. P&G estimates that since 2015, the avoided emissions from consumers increasing their use of low-energy laundry cycles have been roughly 15 million metric tons of CO2, which is equivalent to taking three million cars off the road.

- Busting a popular myth, Cascade is showing consumers how the dishwasher is designed to be more water and energy efficient than washing in the sink. Cascade and Fairy Automatic Dish Washing Tablets allow consumers to skip pre-wash and save water and the energy needed to heat the water. Fairy and Dawn Dish Washing Liquids grease cutting power enables water and energy savings: by reducing the water temperature 20C (36F), consumers can save up to 50% CO2 of the total footprint every wash.

Our role as leaders is to make a lower emission economy and lifestyle possible, affordable and desirable for everyone, said Virginie Helias, P&Gs Chief Sustainability Officer. It is our responsibility to protect critical carbon reserves and invest in solutions that regenerate our planet. Consumers also want to do more to address climate change. As a company, we touch five billion people with our brands; we are striving to make a difference every day by encouraging responsible consumption with products that are effective and intuitive to enable adoption of new lower emission habits.

Today at 8am EST/2pm CET, P&G is convening experts and climate leaders for a roundtable hosted by National Geographic to discuss the power of nature as a climate solution. Participants include P&G CEO David Taylor, P&G Chief Sustainability Officer Virginie Helias, Conservation International CEO Dr. M. Sanjayan, Word Wildlife Fund U.S. CEO Carter Roberts, and climate activists Clover Hogan, Jiaxuan Zhang, Kehkashan Basu and Vanessa Nakate.

To learn more about P&Gs new commitment to advance natural climate solutions and become carbon neutral for the decade, visit our Multi Media Release site.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always, Ambi Pur, Ariel, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Dawn, Downy, Fairy, Febreze, Gain, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Lenor, Olay, Oral-B, Pampers, Pantene, SK-II, Tide, Vicks, and Whisper. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit https://www.pg.com/ for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands.

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P&G Embraces Natural Climate Solutions to Accelerate Progress on Climate Change and Will Make Operations Carbon Neutral for the Decade - Business Wire

This Dietitian’s "Feel Good" Cards Will Help Heal Your Relationship With Food and Your Body – POPSUGAR

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Image Source: Courtesy of Lauren Cadillac

Lauren Cadillac, RD, CPT, calls herself the "Feel Good Dietitian" because she helps her clients break the cycle of diet culture and shift the way they view food from "shame" to sustenance. But, she knows how hard it is to change your mindset when it comes to body image and daily meals, especially if you've consistently had a negative relationship with both. That's why she's offering decks of affirmation cards to aid in that journey.

Cadillac's Feel Good Flash Cards ($30) are set to launch on August 20, and in the deck of 54 phrases you'll see words like "I treat my body with kindness," "I give my body permission to change," "eating is an act of self-care," and more. She describes the color-splashed and inspiring cards as being for food freedom and body acceptance. "Food freedom means living free from the stress and rules of dieting," she explained to POPSUGAR. She uses it synonymously with eating intuitively though another RD we've spoken to in the past maintains that intuitive eating is a tool to achieve food freedom.

Cadillac also says food freedom is defined as "eating in a way that honors your body," or "listening to the cues it is giving you in order to make decisions about what, when, and how much to eat or not eat. It means finding a style of eating that nourishes your body, honors your palate, and allows you the freedom to live a life where you are no longer consumed by thoughts of food or weight."

Cadillac recommends these cards are for anyone recovering from an eating disorder, wanting to improve their body image or outlook on food, and wishing to reject diet culture. However, she notes that the cards are not a substitute for individualized care that qualified health professionals can give.

"The affirmations are essentially the antithesis of the lies we've been sold by diet culture," Cadillac said. "We've been sold harmful and negative messaging our entire lives so that someone can sell us the solution, and because of this, most of our automatic thoughts tend to be negative." Our thoughts influence our belief system, which impacts our emotions and our behaviors, she noted. Her cards will help "create new neural pathways so they can shift the automatic thoughts from negative ones to more positive ones." This will, in turn, guide people to have a more supportive belief system.

You can preorder the cards right now on Cadillac's website. She suggests reading and repeating these affirmations for five to 10 minutes, one to two times per day consistency is key in order to see a shift from negative to positive self-talk.

"Because we are changing the way we talk to ourselves and the way we perceive ourselves, I truly believe doing this work has the power to impact so many other areas outside of eating, from career to relationships," Cadillac said. "If we talk to ourselves in a more positive way, the stronger our sense of self-worth will be, and we'll be able to show up more confidently for all parts of life."

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This Dietitian's "Feel Good" Cards Will Help Heal Your Relationship With Food and Your Body - POPSUGAR

Tens of Thousands of Protesters Challenge the Kremlin in Far East Russian City – TIME

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(KHABAROVSK, Russia) Mass rallies challenging the Kremlin rocked Russias Far East city of Khabarovsk again on Saturday, as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest the arrest of the regions governor on charges of involvement in multiple murders.

The massive unauthoritized crowds gathered despite local officials attempts to discourage people from taking to the streets, citing the coronavirus epidemic and an alleged averted terrorist threat.

Local media estimated the rally in the city 3,800 miles east of Moscow drew 15,000 to 50,000 people, while city authorities put the number at 10,000. Hundreds of people have rallied in the city every day this week against the arrest of Sergei Furgal, reflecting widespread anger over the arrest of the popular governor and a simmering discontent with the Kremlins policies.

Furgal, the Khabarovsk region governor, was arrested on July 9 and flown to Moscow where he was put in jail for two months. Russias Investigative Committee says he is suspected of involvement in several murders of businessmen in 2004 and 2005.

Furgal has denied the charges, which relate to his time as a businessman importing consumer goods ranging from timber and metals. Khabarovsk residents dismissed the charges against him as unsubstantiated and denounced the Kremlin for targeting a governor they elected.

Its not only about this (whether Furgal arrest is legal or not). People are fed up with the way we are treated, that they can simply take away our choice, protester Mikhail Yerashchenko told The Associated Press on Saturday.

A member of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, Furgal was elected governor in 2018, defeating the Kremlin-backed incumbent. His victory was unexpected: Furgal didnt actively campaign and toed the Kremlins line, publicly supporting his rival.

People voted for him nonetheless, delivering a humiliating blow to the main Kremlin party, United Russia, that has been losing seats in regional governments over the past two years.

During his two years in office, Furgal earned a reputation of being the peoples governor. He cut his own salary, ordered the sale of an expensive yacht that the previous administration bought, met with protesters when rallies happened and significantly reduced flight fares for residents in remote areas.

Furgal became a political symbol for the residents of the region, and all accusations no matter how grave are from another, non-political dimension, political analyst Abbas Gallyamov said in a Facebook post.

Last Saturday, crowds of reportedly up to 35,000 people rallied in Khabarovsk. Protesters demanded that Furgals trial be moved to Khabarovsk, with one saying we have elected him and its up to us to judge him. Some questioned the timing of the arrest, pointing to Furgals decade-long stint as a lawmaker in the Russian parliament before running for governor, during which the murder charges never came up.

The unauthorized protests are the largest ever in Khabarovsk, a city of 590,000. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the situation not standard this week. Moscow has not yet appointed an acting governor 11 days after Furgals arrest.

Police didnt interfere with Saturdays rally. Protesters held banners demanding Furgals freedom and chanted I, you, he and she the entire country is for Furgal.

Smaller rallies in support of Furgal also took place Saturday in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, another big city in the Khabarovsk region, and in the city of Vladivostok in the neighboring Primorye region.

Though Im almost 70, I worry sincerely about my region, about Russia and our nation, about Furgal and freedom. I want us to be free, Alla Sokolova, a protester in Khabarovsk, told the AP.

__

Litvinova reported from Moscow.

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Contact us at editors@time.com.

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Tens of Thousands of Protesters Challenge the Kremlin in Far East Russian City - TIME

Freedom and peace on a Cotswolds family holiday – Telegraph.co.uk

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It could be the setting for a cracking Poirot novel. It is July 14, and Cotswolds country house hotel Lucknam Park is opening its Georgian doors the first time in four months. A reduced staff is busy polishing windows, clipping unruly hedges and setting out special trays at the reception desk (one for sanitised ballpoint pens, another for used ones).

Just fifteen of the 42 rooms and their canopied four-poster beds are occupied, meaning that the curious assortment of guests (including a journalist, an antique couple on Zimmer frames and a pair of Korean influencers wearing what appear to be frilly lab coats) wonder the leather-bound library, walled rose garden and arboretum in a state of uncanny solitude. The renowned spa is locked up, the bijou summer house too. The pool is drained dry. And in the world beyond, a global pandemic is simmering.

Its mile-long beech-lined drive and 500 acres of paddock and parkland have always lent Lucknam the air of being a world apart from the stresses of real life. This Covid-induced quiet is, however, unusual since its award-winning spa, Michelin-starred restaurant and refined service traditionally ensure that it hums at near-capacity. Today, occupancy is limited to 50 per cent and it rather suits both the hotel and my pretensions of grandeur. Wondering its stately rooms and grounds alone, I feel more like one of its historic residents than yet another modern grockle.

It also suits our plans. Lucknam has three self-catering cottages within its grounds, the largest and newest of which Squires Cottage is perfect not only for social distancing but also for multi-generational breaks. After four months of cruel separation from grandparents, all I want is to celebrate the resumption of hugs, so I take both children and my mother.

Squires has its own lavender-bordered garden, behind which is a charming childrens playground set bucolically against hay bales and horse fields, two tennis courts, and a five aside football pitch. The children borrow rackets, balls, bikes and helmets and, for the first time in four months, find themselves blissfully free to peddle and play beyond the spoilsport sight of their mother. I, meanwhile, am equally elated to read a book in peace, and to have an uninterrupted, unpixelated chat with my mother.

Squires has four double bedrooms (all gloriously marbled and under-floor-heated) and a vast, open-plan sitting room and kitchen with a dining table long enough for eight to celebrate. In ordinary times the dcor that anonymous hotel luxe defined by gargantuan TVs and papered feature walls would leave me cold.

Post-lockdown, however, I am gleeful to check out from real-life responsibilities and the rules of good taste and order a jubilantly OTT room service breakfast of French toast piled with bananas, hazelnuts and Nutella (currently delivered to the patio, and without the usual tray charge, to promote social distancing).

Pandemic alterations are all but invisible inside the cottage, but its influence is more evident in the main hotel. Staff in the reception and restaurant wear smart navy masks, matching their uniforms. Paper check-in documents are still in use, but pens are carefully separated into the aforementioned trays. Bar and restaurant menus are given the same treatment, while discreet hand sanitisers dot the public rooms.

There are, too, some obvious absences in usual service. A lesson in horse whispering or equine therapy at the hotels Equestrian Centre entrances us all, but the sight of the locked pool directly opening our cottage is dampener for my mother (an avid swimmer) and the children (enthusiastic splashers). Id give my left arm to use the spa. Thistles have pushed through the playgrounds rubber flooring during the empty months. Food service is charming but slow, presumably because of staff reductions.

Then theres the food itself. The casual, family-friendly Brasserie is another victim of Covid-closures, so we are offered its menu in the formal setting of the Michelin-starred Restaurant Hywel Jones. When our sea bass arrives overcooked and accompanied by similarly dry fries it is a blow. Especially as the wine list is stuck at Michelin prices.

Its also baffling because the rest of the food we are served is divine. The hotel has introduced picnics in response to the pandemic, so that guests can collect a wicker hamper and retreat into the hotels picturesque grounds. Inside ours are lobster rolls, sublime Scotch eggs, homemade crisps, individual trifles and more. We eat on a picnic blanket under a towering oak tree, giggling at the influencers taking endless selfies in the distance. It is exactly the tonic all three generations need. Right now, effortless social distancing on such a grand scale feels like the greatest of all luxuries a hotel can serve up.

Squire's Cottage sleeps eight and is available from 1,550 a night (lucknampark.co.uk)

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Freedom and peace on a Cotswolds family holiday - Telegraph.co.uk

Renaming the Army Bases – The New York Times

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To the Editor:

Re More Heroes, Fewer Traitors (editorial, July 12):

By presenting a sample of true American heroes as suggestions for new names for Army bases now bearing the names of Confederates, you showed the breadth of our countrys people who have served us with skill and honor.

Any of them would be inspirations for todays soldiers as well as yesterdays stationed at any of those bases. Renaming bases is just one small step toward a more perfect union that we can take together.

Jim EngelkingGolden, Colo.

To the Editor:

I and nearly all of my friends agree that the base names should be changed. But your editorial shows little understanding of Southerners and empathy with those who so often feel the condescension of people in the Northeast and in the liberal media.

That is epitomized by your recommendation of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who is best remembered by most in the South not for setting aside land for settlement by former slaves but for his scorched-earth policies.

Changing the names is an opportunity for reconciliation, not further division.

Pete CornishLittle Rock, Ark.

To the Editor:

Re How Mandatory Minimums Are Weaponized, by Sandeep Dhaliwal (Op-Ed, July 6):

The enactment of mandatory minimum sentences has been a nightmare of unfairness. It has resulted in a substantial reduction of trials. The prosecutor threatens to charge a crime that requires a minimum mandatory sentence unless the defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser crime. This places the power to determine the sentence in those cases in the hands of the prosecutor, where it does not belong.

A mandatory minimum sentence means that the judge must impose that sentence, no matter what the judge thinks of the fairness of that sentence. Unlike the legislators who mandated the sentence, the judge knows the actual facts of the case and the background of the defendant. The judge knows these facts from the trial she presided over or the plea she took, from the probation departments sentencing reports and from the submissions of the prosecutor and the defense.

There is simply no valid reason for the existence of mandatory minimum sentences. There is no reason to doubt and every reason to trust sentencing judges to do the right thing because only they and not the legislators who enacted the mandatory minimum sentences have all the facts in each case necessary to make the fairest sentencing decision.

Irwin RochmanWater Mill, N.Y.The writer is a criminal defense lawyer and a former prosecutor.

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Renaming the Army Bases - The New York Times

Liberal Zionism begins to make the journey towards a one-state solution – Middle East Eye

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Peter Beinart, an influential liberal commentator on Israel and Zionism, poked a very large stick into a hornets nest this month by admitting he had finally abandoned his long-cherished commitment to a two-state solution.

Variously described as the pope of liberal Zionism and a bellwether for the American Jewish community, Beinart broke ranks in two essays. Writing in the New York Times and in Jewish Currents magazine, he embraced the idea of equality for all - Israelis and Palestinians.

Recognition of the structural racism towards these 1.8 million Palestinian citizens... was a clear sign that he had begun poking into the dark recesses of Zionism

Beinart concluded: The painful truth is that the project to which liberal Zionists like myself have devoted ourselves for decades - a state for Palestinians separated from a state for Jews - has failed It is time for liberal Zionists to abandon the goal of Jewish-Palestinian separation and embrace the goal of Jewish-Palestinian equality.

Similarly, the NYT article was headlined: I no longer believe in a Jewish state. Beinarts main point - that a commitment to Israel is now entirely incompatible with a commitment to equality for the regions inhabitants - is a potential hammer blow to the delusions of liberal Jews in the United States.

His declaration is the apparent culmination of a long intellectual and emotional journey Beinart has conducted in the public eye. It's a journey many American liberal Jews have taken with him.

Once the darling of the war-mongering liberal establishment in Washington, he supported the illegal attack on Iraq in 2003. Three years later, he wrote a largely unrepentant book titled The Good Fight: Why Liberals - and Only Liberals - Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again.

There is no heavyweight publication in the US that has not hosted his thoughts. Foreign Policy magazine ranked him in the top 100 global thinkers in 2012.

Why Peter Beinart's call for a one-state solution misses the mark

But his infatuation with Israel and Zionism has been souring for years. A decade ago, he published a seminal essay on how young American Jews were increasingly alienated from their main leadership organisations, which he criticised for worshipping at the altar of Israel even as Israeli governments lurched ever further rightwards. His argument later formed the basis of a book, The Crisis of Zionism.

The tensions he articulated finally exploded into physical confrontation in 2018, when he was detained at Israels main airport and nearly denied entry based on his political views.

Beinart has not only written caustically about the occupation - a fairly comfortable deflection for most liberal Zionists - but has also increasingly turned his attention to Israels behaviour towards its large Palestinian minority, one in five of the population.

Recognition of the structural racism towards these 1.8 million Palestinian citizens, a group whose identity is usually glossed over as Israeli Arabs, was a clear sign that he had begun poking into the dark recesses of Zionism, areas from which most of his colleagues shied away.

Beinarts two essays have been greeted with hesitancy by some of those who might be considered natural allies.

Understandably, some Palestinians find reason to distrust Beinarts continuing description of himself as a Zionist, even if now a cultural rather than political one. They also resent a continuing western colonial mentality that very belatedly takes an interest in equality for Palestinians only because a prominent liberal Jew adopts the cause.

Beinarts language is problematic for many Palestinians too. Not least, he frames the issue as between Palestinians and Jews, implying that Jews everywhere still have a colonial claim on the historic lands of Palestine, rather than those who live there today as Israelis.

Similarly, among many anti-Zionists, there is disappointment that Beinart did not go further and explicitly prescribe a single democratic state of the kind currently being advanced in the region by small but growing numbers of Israelis and Palestinians.

But the importance of Beinarts intervention lies elsewhere. The American is not the first prominent Jewish figure to publicly turn his back on the idea of a Jewish state. Notably, the late historian Tony Judt did the same - to much uproar - in a 2003 essay published by the New York Review of Books. He called Israel an anachronism.

The most fundamental tenet of liberal Zionism - that a Jewish state is necessary, verging on sacred - is already being tested to the breaking point

But Judt had been chiefly associated with his contributions to understanding European history, not Zionism or Israel. And his essay arrived at a very different historical moment, when Israelis and Jews overseas were growing more entrenched in their Zionism. The Oslo Accords had fizzled into irrelevance at the height of a Palestinian uprising.

Beinarts articles have landed at a problematic time for his main audience. The most fundamental tenet of liberal Zionism - that a Jewish state is necessary, verging on sacred - is already being tested to the breaking point.

The trigger for the articles is the very tangible threat from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government, backed by the Trump White House, to annex swaths of the West Bank.

The significance of Netanyahus position on annexation, as Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard has noted, depends not simply on whether annexation is realised on the ground, now or later. The declaration itself crosses a Rubicon.

Netanyahu and the right-wing faction who now control Israel unchallenged have made it explicit that they do not consider the occupation to be a temporary arrangement that will eventually be resolved in peace talks.

Why are Israel's allies suddenly concerned about its latest annexation?

The intent to annex, whether or not the US allows such a move, now taints everything Israel does in the occupied territories. It proves beyond any doubt - even to liberal Jews who have been living in deep denial - that Israels goal is to permanently seize the occupied territories.

That, in turn, means that Israel has only two possible approaches to the Palestinian populations living in those territories as long as it denies them equality: It can either carry out ethnic cleansing operations to expel them, or rule over them in a formal, explicit arrangement of apartheid. That may not constitute much of a tangible difference on the ground, but it marks a legal sea change.

Occupation, however ugly, is not in breach of international law, though actions related to it, such as settlement-building, may be. This allowed many liberal Jews, such as Beinart, a small comfort blanket that they have clung to tightly for decades.

When challenged about Israels behaviour, they could always claim that the occupation would one day end, that peace talks were around the corner, that partition was possible if only Palestinians were willing to compromise a little more.

But with his annexation plan, Netanyhu ripped that comfort blanket out of their clutches and tore it to shreds. Ethnic cleansing and apartheid are both crimes against humanity. No ifs, no buts. As Sfard points out: Once Israel began officially striving for annexation - that is, for perpetuating its rule by force - it lost this meagrealibi.

Sfard makes a further important legal observation in a report written for the human rights group Yesh Din. If Israel chooses to institute an apartheid regime in parts of the occupied West Bank - either formally or through creeping legal annexation, as it is doing now - that regime does not end at the West Banks borders. It would mean that the Israeli regime in its entirety is an apartheid regime. That Israel is an Apartheid state.

Of course, one would have to be blind not to have understood that this was where political Zionism was always heading - even more so after the 1967 war, when Israels actions disclosed that it had no intention of returning the Palestinian territories it had seized.

But the liberal Zionist condition was precisely one of willful blindness. It shut its eyes tight and saw no evil, even as Israel debased Palestinian life there for more than half a century. Looking back, Beinart recognises his own self-inflicted credulousness. In practice, Israel annexed the West Bank long ago, he writes in the New York Times.

In his two articles, Beinart denies liberal Jews the one path still available to them to rationalise Palestinian oppression. He argues that those determined to support a Jewish state, whatever it does, are projecting their own unresolved, post-Holocaust fears onto Palestinians.

In the Zionist imagination, according to Beinart, Palestinians have been reinvented as heirs to the Nazis. As a result, most Jews have been manipulated into framing Israels settler-colonialism in zero-sum terms - as a life-or-death battle. In that way, they have been able to excuse Israels perpetual abuse of Palestinians.

Or as Beinart puts it: Through a historical sleight of hand that turns Palestinians into Nazis, fear of annihilation has come to define what it means to be an authentic Jew. He adds that Jewish trauma, not Palestinian behaviour, has ended in the depiction of Palestinians as compulsive Jew-haters.

Annexation has forced Beinart to confront that trauma and move beyond it. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of Israels supporters have been reluctant to follow suit or discard their comforting illusions. Some are throwing tantrums, others sulking in the corner.

The Zionist right and mainstream have described Beinart as a traitor, a self-hating Jew, and a collaborator with Palestinian terrorism. David Weinberg of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security called Beinart a shill for Israels enemies who secretes poison.

The view of Israeli Jews will change, just as white South Africans' did, when they suffer a harsher international environment and the resulting cost-benefit calculus has to be adjusted

Dan Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel, described Beinarts advocacy of equality as a disaster in the making, while Dani Dayan, Israels consul general in New York, accused Beinart of wanting Israel to drop dead.

The liberal Zionist establishment has been no less discomfited. Aaron David Miller, a former US Middle East envoy, warned that Beinarts prescription was an illusion tethered to a fantasy wrapped in an impossibility.

And Beinarts friend, Jeremy Ben Ami, head of the two-state lobby group J Street, snatched back the ragged remains of the comfort blanket, arguing that peace talks would be revived eventually. In a standard Zionist deflection, Ben Ami added that Israel was no different from the US in being far from perfect.

But to understand how quickly liberal Zionist reasoning may crumble, it is worth focusing on a critique of Beinarts articles by the Israeli newspaper Haaretzs in-house liberal Zionist, Anshel Pfeffer.

Pfeffer makes two highly unconvincing arguments to evade Beinarts logic. Firstly, he claims that a one-state solution - of any variety - is impossible because there is no support for it among Palestinians and Israelis. It is, he argues, a conceit Beinart has absorbed from Jews and Palestinians in the US.

Lets overlook Pfeffers obvious mistake in ignoring the fact that a single state already exists - a Greater Israel in which Palestinians have been living for decades under a highly belligerent system of apartheid, laced with creeping ethnic cleansing. Still, his claims about where Israeli and Palestinian public opinion currently lies are entirely misleading, as is his assumption about how Beinarts attack on liberal Zionism may impact regional possibilities.

Israel's annexation plan is the Nakba revisited

The views of Palestinians in the occupied territories (Pfeffer, of course, ignores the views of refugees) have been undergoing radical and rapid change. Support for the two-state solution has collapsed. This is far from surprising, given the current political context.

Among Palestinians, there are signs of exasperation and a mirroring of Israeli Jewish intransigence. In one recent poll, a majority of Palestinian respondents demanded a return of all of historic Palestine. What can be inferred from this result is probably not much more than the human tendency to put on a brave show when faced with a highly acquisitive bully.

In fact, increasingly Palestinians understand that, if they want to end the occupation and apartheid, they will need to overthrow their compromised leaders in the Palestinian Authority (PA), effectively Israels local security contractor. It is an uprising against the PA, not polls, that will seal the fate of the two-state solution. What may inspire Palestinians to take on the risk of a major confrontation with their leaders?

A part will be played, however small, by Palestinians understanding of how a shift from a struggle for statehood to a struggle for equal rights in one state will be received abroad. Liberal Jewish opinion in the US will be critical in changing such perceptions - and Beinart has just placed himself at the heart of that debate.

Meanwhile, a majority of Israeli Jews support either Greater Israel or an end-of-the-rainbow two-state solution, one in which Palestinians are denied any meaningful sovereignty.They do so for good reason, because either option perpetuates the status quo of a single state in which they prosper at a heavy cost to Palestinians. The bogus two-state solution privileges them, just as bantustans once did white South Africans.

The view of Israeli Jews will change, just as white South Africans did, when they suffer a harsher international environment and the resulting cost-benefit calculus has to be adjusted.

In that sense, the issue isnt what Israeli Jews think now, when they are endlessly indulged, but what Israels sponsors - chiefly the US - eventually demand. That is why Beinarts influence on the thinking of liberal American Jews cannot be discounted. Long term, what they insist on may prove critically important.

That was why Beinarts harshest critics, in attacking his two essays, also warned of the current direction of travel.

Jonathan Tobin, editor of the Jewish News Syndicate, argued that Beinarts views were indicative of the crisis of faith within much of American Jewry. Weinberg described the two essays as frightening because they charted liberal Jews intellectual journey towards anti-Zionism and self-immolation.

Both understand that, if liberal Jews abandon Zionism, one leg of the Israeli stool will be gone.

The other problem Pfeffer inadvertently highlights with liberal Zionism is contained in his mocking dismissal of Beinarts claim that the justification for a Jewish home needs to be rooted in morality.

Pfeffer laughs this off as utopianism, arguing instead that Israels existence has always depended on what he vaguely terms pragmatism. What he means, once the euphemism is stripped out, is that Israel has always pursued a policy of might is right.

Beinart is doubtless ahead of most liberal Jews in the US in rejecting Israel as a Jewish state. But it would be foolish indeed to imagine that there are not many others already contemplating following in his footsteps

But Pfeffers suggestion that Israel does not also need to shape a moral narrative about its actions - even if that narrative bears no relation to reality - is patently implausible.

Israel has not relied solely on its own might. It has needed the patronage of western states to help it diplomatically, financially and militarily. And their enthusiastic support has depended on domestic perceptions of Israel as a moral agent.

Israel understands this only too well. It has presented itself as a light unto the nations, a state that redeemed a barren land, and one that has the most moral army in the world. Those are all moral claims on western support.

Beinart has demonstrated that the moral discourse for Israel is a lost cause. And for that reason, Israels chief allies now are states led by covert, and sometimes overt, antisemites and proud authoritarians.

Beinart is doubtless ahead of most liberal Jews in the US in rejecting Israel as a Jewish state. But it would be foolish indeed to imagine that there are not many others already contemplating following in his footsteps.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

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Murder hornets, unexpected court rulings and nasty politics: 2020 has it all – Bangor Daily News

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So far, 2020 has been quite the year.

President Donald Trump continually attracts news coverage, until even he was upstaged by the novel coronavirus departure from China. Black Lives Matter rose up, protestors burned police precincts, and defund the police became a politically-viable policy position.

Confederate monuments have been (rightly) removed. But how were murder hornets only a thing for a week? And, not to be outdone, police in Tennessee have warned about meth-gators. That latter one may be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but Japanese bears have undisputedly learned to use nunchucks.

Eventful is probably an understatement.

With all that and more going on, you may have not seen what happened in Washington with Native Americans. No, Im not talking about the football team formerly known as the Redskins.

Im talking about McGirt v. Oklahoma.

Plenty of popular ink has been spilled surrounding some of the Supreme Courts other cases this past term. Subpoenas over Trumps records created rancor, even though they had seven justices including Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Brett Kavanaugh in the majority. Abortion cases garnered their fair share of political attention.

But McGirt v. Oklahoma is a pretty compelling story. Jimcy McGirt was a convicted sex offender in Oklahoma. However, he is a member of the Seminole Nation, so he claimed the state could not legally prosecute him. In 1885, Congress passed a law known as the Major Crimes Act that said any Indians committing certain crimes within the Indian country must be tried in federal court.

Compelling background, right?

The wrinkle for McGirt concerned the definition of Indian country. Our nations history with Native Americans is complex, to say the least.

Going back to 1832, Congress made a treaty with the Creek Nation. The United States received the land of the Creeks east of the Mississippi while guaranteeing them their lands to the west. Those lands are now in Oklahoma.

Ill jump to the punchline. In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court of the United States held that 19 million acres essentially the entire eastern half of Oklahoma remained Indian country for the Creek Nation. So McGirt could not legally be tried by the state of Oklahoma; federal authorities would now need to charge him.

Gorsuch wrote, essentially, that Congress had legally ratified the treaty and would be held to it. If they wish to change it or the underlying statute, that is their prerogative, but they must actively do so. A valid treaty, however old, deserves enforcement.

It is also telling that Gorsuch was the author of the LGBT cases this term. Again, he wrote that Congress duly-enacted statutory text should be applied. Which led to the liberal result.

This is great perspective to keep as we head towards what seems as if it will be the worst part of 2020: the general election. Even with the primary over, the onslaught of ads attacking Susan Collins and bolstering Sara Gideon has not abated. And outside groups will undoubtedly try to make the Supreme Court painfully political in their attempt to win a Senate seat.

But it is the legislative branch of government which makes law. Gorsuch confirmed by Sen. Collins, attacked by Gideon recognized that. If Congress passes a bad law, so be it; that is their prerogative. Yet it is not for the courts to override the foolishness of legislators, but rather incumbent on legislatures to go to work and attempt to make better laws.

Although this process may be slow, Gorsuch reminds us unlawful acts, performed long enough and with sufficient vigor, are never enough to amend the law.

The same should hold true as we approach November. Political acts, performed vigorously through the remainder of election season, will hopefully not turn the Supreme Court into a mere political battleground. If they do, that will be the worst outcome of this crazy year.

Michael Cianchette is a Navy reservist who served in Afghanistan and in-house counsel to a number of businesses in southern Maine. He was a chief counsel to former Gov. Paul LePage.

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Murder hornets, unexpected court rulings and nasty politics: 2020 has it all - Bangor Daily News

Banning TikTok takes a big espionage tool away from China: US NSA – The Indian Express

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By: PTI | Washington | Updated: July 15, 2020 12:42:26 pm Trump administration is looking not just at TikTok but at WeChat and some other Chinese apps as well, because the Chinese are big consumers of Americas personal data. (Representational)

China will lose a big tool of espionage and surveillance if America and some western European countries ban Chinese apps like TikTok as done by India, US National Security Advisor Robert OBrien has said.

India last month banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok and UC Browser, saying they were prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.

OBrien told Fox News Radio in an interview that the Trump administration was very seriously taking a look at TikTok, WeChat and some other apps coming out of China.

India has already banned those apps, as you know. And if they lose India and the United States, they lose some western European countries, that takes a big tool away from the espionage work or the surveillance work of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), he said in response to a question on the dangers posed by apps like TikTok.

The kids who are using TikTok and it can be a lot of fun but there are a lot of other social media platforms they could use. TikTok is getting facial recognition on you, OBrien said. They are getting all of your personal, private data, your most intimate data. They are getting to know who your friends are, who your parents are. They can map all your relationships, he added.

All the information is going straight to the massive supercomputers in the cloud in China, OBrien said. So China is going to know everything about you. They are going to have biometrics on you. You ought to be very careful regarding who you give such personal information to, he said.

The Trump administration, he said, is looking not just at TikTok but at WeChat and some other Chinese apps as well, because the Chinese are big consumers of Americas personal data. They will either try and get you to give it to them for free through WeChat or TikTok if they cannot get it that way, they will steal it, OBrien said.

China, he said, has hacked into Marriott and stolen the personal data of hundreds of millions of people, including their passport numbers.

They have hacked into Experian and other credit rating agencies to get most intimate credit details. They have hacked into Anthem healthcare so that they can get medical details. So this is not just an advertiser trying to find out what you are interested in searching for on Google so they can sell you a different brand of car, this is a country that is looking to get every bit of personal, private information they can, so they know everything about you, OBrien said.

He said there were social credit scores in China for people based on how compliant they are with the Communist party dictates.

They are going to be able to put social credit scores together on all Americans and everyone in the world soon because of artificial intelligence and supercomputing, he said. We need to make sure that does not happen, the US National Security Advisor said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week said the US is certainly looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok.

The American leaderships remarks on the Chinese social media apps came amid growing tensions in bilateral ties with Beijing on a range of issues, including on the coronavirus outbreak and the controversial national security law imposed in Hong Kong.

The US has banned Huawei from their 5G networks over concerns of security and Washington has been pressuring other countries to restrict the operations of the Chinese telecom firm.

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Singapore reports 257 new COVID-19 cases – Outlook India

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By

Gurdip Singh

Singapore, Jul 19 (PTI) Singapore on Sunday reported 257 new COVID-19 cases, taking the country''s total count to 47,912.

Among the new cases in the community, two are Singaporeans (citizens) or permanent residents (foreigners) and six are foreigners holding work passes living outside the dormitories.

There are also five imported cases, all of whom had been placed on stay-home notices upon their arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health in its daily update.

Among the new cases, 249 are foreign workers living in dormitories.

There are currently 169 confirmed cases who are still in the hospital.

Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in the intensive care unit while 3,626 are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

In all, 43,833 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, including 256 discharged from hospital on Saturday. PTI GS NSA

Disclaimer :- This story has not been edited by Outlook staff and is auto-generated from news agency feeds. Source: PTI

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Singapore reports 257 new COVID-19 cases - Outlook India

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Mars inspires a new generation of astronauts, like Alyssa Carson – Business Insider – Business Insider

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Alyssa Carson attended her first space camp at 5 years old. She graduated from the Advanced Space Academy program at 16, the youngest person ever to do so. Before the pandemic hit, the rising college sophomore had planned to spend her summer flying airplanes.

The eventual goal: fly to Mars.

Carson is one of a small group of young people who are already positioning themselves to be astronauts in the US's next phase of space exploration. They are attending advanced preparation programs and building social media personas to put themselves on NASA's radar now, all with an eye towards being in the astronaut class sent to the red planet in the next couple of decades.

The group, mostly teenagers, talks online about the latest developments in space exploration and works to broadcast their interest to a wider audience. Carson's online personality is NASA Blueberry she uses the name on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

"We're kind of translating space talk and doing science experiments on TikTok," she told Business Insider. "It's definitely a lot of the science geeks trying to learn this new TikTok thing, but it's about being entertaining while talking about science."

Going to Mars has been Carson's dream since she was 3 years old and watched an episode of "The Backyardigans" about astronauts going to Mars. She's the only person who's attended every NASA space camp. When she was 12, she was invited to speak at NASA about her interest in the red planet. She's currently pursuing an astrobiology major at the Florida Institute of Technology.

The draw is that stepping onto the red planet is something no one has done before, she said.

NASA aims to send humans to Mars in the 2030s. A crucial though preliminary step in that effort launches later this month, when the Perseverance rover will begin its journey to the red planet. Assuming it lands there safely, the robot is expected to search for signs of life and measure Mars's weather, dust, and water conditions. This information could help set up future crewed missions.

An artist's concept of astronauts and human habitats on Mars. JPL/NASA

Carson considers herself and her "science geek" friends part of the "Mars generation." For people her age who are into science and space, she said, Mars is the new moon.

But she believes that a push from the public, especially young people, is what's needed to make sure the mission happens.

"The whole reason why we went to the moon was because there was so much public interest around it," Carson said. "I definitely think that Mars kind of needs that same push. So it's kind of either teaching or inspiring or helping people to either want to get involved in the space program in some way or just want to support it."

Alyssa Carson in a flight simulator at Advanced Space Academy. Bert Carson

NASA Blueberry, the username Carson coined, references her time at the Advanced Space Academy. It's her "call sign" the nickname astronauts use for each other when they are giving commands over the radio.

"I got 'Blueberry' because the second time I went to space camp, when I was really little, I wanted one of the blue flight suits that I saw everyone wearing because I wanted to be an astronaut, so I wanted to look like one. I was too short and small to fit in any of the flight suits, so my dad ended up finding this knockoff, like not really the right shade of blue," she explained.

"When I wore it everyone told me it made me look like a blueberry. So after that, throughout the day and the rest of the time at space camp, they would just say, 'Oh, Blueberry, can you do this?'"

Carson said she looks to female astronauts of the past as her role models.

She met former astronaut Sandra Magnus once at a career day for young women interested in science and technology. Magnus chatted with Carson and explained that she'd decided to become an astronaut at a young age.

"That inspired me and told me that it didn't really matter how old I was when I decided this, that I could actually successfully do it in the future," Carson said. "So it's just kind of been a little push and a little motivation to kind of keep me working towards my dream."

After finishing her schooling a PhD in astrobiology is a possibility, she said Carson plans to apply whenever NASA puts out its next call for astronaut applications. The space agency usually accepts applicants every few years.

"Then just hopefully applying until I get selected," Carson said, adding, "ideally, I just want to contribute in some way to the space program whether that is the mission to Mars being on it or whether that's doing work on Earth for the mission, or any other mission."

But her real hope, she said, is to be in space by the time she's in her 30s.

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Ironhand Wins NASA Commercial Invention of the Year Award – BioSpace

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STOCKHOLM, July 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ironhand is the world's first active soft exoskeleton for the hand, based on Bioservo's SEM Technology in combination with Robo-Glove, invented by NASA and General Motors. Robo-Glove and the commercialized version Ironhand has won the NASA Commercial Invention of the Year Award for 2020.

In the Inventions and Contributions Board's motivation, they write: "The winning invention, "Robo-Glove," is the world's first soft robotic muscle strengthening system for professional users. In developing the Robo-Glove, NASA set out to assist astronauts, improve the efficiency of spacewalks, and extend its capabilities in space exploration. Co-developer General Motors sought to improve the safety and effectiveness of the production operators working in its manufacturing plants. Robo-Glove in its commercial product form of "Ironhand" has far exceeded the current state of the art which includes: uncomfortable hand exoskeletons, passive grip strengthening gloves, or low strength rehabilitation gloves used by individuals who, for medical reasons, cannot create simple grasps. General Motors workers are using Ironhand on automobile assembly lines and performing well. No other currently available grasp assist glove is effective in performing these types of demanding manual assembly tasks."

"We are very proud of receiving this award which recognizes a lot of hard work over the last years." Says Petter Bckgren, CEO at Bioservo and continues, "without the close collaboration with and the continuous feedback from our development partners, such as General Motors, we would not have been able to make Ironhand so intuitive, comfortable and ergonomic."

Read the NASA announcement here

For more information, please contactPetter Bckgren, CEO of Bioservo Technologies ABPhone: +46 (0)8-21-17-10petter.backgren@bioservo.com

Mikael Wester, Marketing Director of Bioservo Technologies ABPhone: +46 (0)8-21-17-10mikael.wester@bioservo.com

About Ironhand

Ironhand is the world's first active soft exoskeleton for the hand, designed to improve the health for workers that perform grip intensive, repetitive and static work tasks. Ironhand mimics the user's grasp movements and gives extra strength and endurance to the grip. The extra strength relieves the muscles and conserves the energy of the user, improving productivity as well as the well-being by the end of the shift. In short, the system helps to keep the workers healthy and efficient.

About Bioservo Technologies

Bioservo Technologies AB (publ) is a world leading company in wearable muscle strengthening systems for people in need of extra strength and endurance. All our innovative products and systems are designed to keep people strong, healthy and efficient.

The company has a unique global position within soft exoskeleton technology for the hand, both for industrial applications to improve the health for workers and to improve quality of life for people with reduced muscle strength.

Bioservo Technologies was founded in 2006 in collaboration between researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology and a doctor at Karolinska University Hospital. Bioservo Technologies is a Swedish public limited company with headquarters in Stockholm.

FNCA Sweden AB, +46(0)8-528-00399, info@fnca.se is the Company's Certified Adviser on Nasdaq First North Growth Market.

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http://www.bioservo.com

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Future of astrology: Is there a place for pseudoscience in newspapers? – Press Gazette

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Astrologys claims that the position of the sun, moon and planets at our birth informs our character and future are without evidence, and yet horoscopes continue to be published in national newspapers.

More often than not they appear without any disclaimer. Its the only section of a newspaper knowingly printed without facts supporting the claims made on the page.

As the war on disinformation has stepped up during the coronavirus pandemic, with fake news now potentially risking lives, professional journalisms basis in evidence is its key weapon in the fight against the tech giants. Horoscopes would seem to undermine this.

But for many horoscopes are seen as part of the fun of the popular press, fulfilling the brief that newspapers should both inform and entertain.

NASA described astrology in a recent blog postas something else. Its not science. No one has shown that astrology can be used to predict the future or describe what people are like based only on their birth date.

Still, it went on, like reading fantasy stories, many people enjoy reading their astrological forecast or horoscope in the newspaper every day.

Press Gazette polled readers from Monday to Wednesday this week asking them: Should news publications carry horoscopes/astrology?

Of the 428 respondents, the majority (50%) said yes, I dont believe in them but theyre harmless while nearly as many (45%) said no, theyre fake news. A further 5% said yes, I believe in them.

For those wondering, your Zodiac sign is the constellation the sun appeared to be in, relative to the Earth, when you were born. It was the Babylonians who first divided the stars along the ecliptic the path the sun appears to take in the sky as Earth orbits around it into 12 sections.

Victor Olliver, astrologer for the The Lady magazine and spokesperson for the Association of Professional Astrologers International, said: Astrology is not a science. Therefore it cannot be a pseudo-science.

Its more useful to think of it as a symbolic system rooted in ancient ideas and practices. Many, many people relate to astrology through their star sign but theres a lot more to astrology than just star signs.

Media horoscopes offer an opportunity to readers to reflect briefly on their lives to view situations and events as part of something spiritually bigger.

This offers a valuable contrast to the world of hard fact that drives a newspaper or magazine its worth remembering that a publication serves many different purposes, as information provider, entertainment and as a thoughtful prompt. Not all life can be driven by literal fact. Sometimes, truths of another kind help to inspire, guide and comfort readers.

Olliver said media horoscopes have been going since the 1930s, with roots in the 19th Century, and are part of the success story of popular print media.

In the UK, the Sun, Mirror, Express, Star, and Mail titles continue to run horoscopes in print and online. They were prevalent across nearly all newspapers at one stage, but seemed to fall out of favour in the 2000s.

The Guardian seemingly stopped running horoscopes in 2009 and the Telegraph in 2016. A number of magazine titles, such as Hello!, and some regional newspapers also continue to publish them.

But the Sunday Times Style magazine fired its resident astrologer Shelley von Strunckel this month after 28 years. Von Strunckel told Press Gazette that Style editor Lorraine Candy said she no longer wanted the column.

Ive worked with editors whove ranged from being huge fans to literally being uncomfortable with me in the room but they got that readers liked it and in this case the story is they were cutting back content but its just not [Candys] thing, said Strunckel.

Newspapers are also fond of writing about astrology, often with a critical eye but sometimes without any caveats to its unfounded claims.

An article dated 6 July this year on thesun.co.uk stated: Horoscopes are a prediction of events, offering a fascinating insight into a persons future, from possible romantic relationships to finance and work issues.

Neither Reach, publisher of the Mirror, Express and Star titles, the Sun or the Mail provided a comment for this article.

Astrology has long had a role in entertainment the Suns Mystic Meg and Mirrors Russell Grant were household names in the 1980s and 1990s, with Grant appearing as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2011.

The practice has had something of a rebirth in recent years, which some tie to millennial meme culture. In fact it was in the news again just this week, with discussions about the so-called 13th sign of the Zodiac.

While horoscopes are still seen as harmless fun by some, a media landscape in which trust is falling and disinformation can reach us all has forced newspapers to restate their value as purveyors of quality information.

Michael Marshall, project director at the Good Thinking Society, said: It isnt hyperbole to suggest theres a crisis in confidence in the media right now, with low public trust in the accuracy and objectivity of journalism.

It is hard for the industry to argue on the one hand that the public should have confidence in the factual content of their newspapers, while on the other hand knowingly publishing anti-scientific nonsense.

As someone who has spent over a decade investigating the impact of unscientific beliefs, I would argue that there are no harmless pseudosciences accepting one bad idea softens the ground for other unproven beliefs to take root.

The UK news media should be aiming to leave their readers more informed; they should not be party to leaving their readers more inclined to believe untrue things.

Well give the last word to Shelley von Strunckel: Newspapers are relentlessly depressing, even womens features are cautiously factual; the stars (in the right hands) are often the only reflective words in print, so serve that purpose.

Picture: Pixabay

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Solar Orbiter Captures Closest Images of the Sun; Reveals Presence of Millions of ‘Campfires’ – The Weather Channel

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Solar Orbiter spots campfires on the Sun. Locations of campfires are annotated with white arrows.

NASA and ESA have released the first images of the Solar Orbiter, including the closest pictures ever taken of the Sun. These images were captured when the spacecraft completed its first close pass of the Sun in mid-June this year.

These unprecedented pictures of the Sun are the closest we have ever obtained, said Holly Gilbert, NASA project scientist for the mission at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

He further added: These amazing images will help scientists piece together the Suns atmospheric layers, which is important for understanding how it drives space weather near the Earth and throughout the solar system.

Launched on February 10, 2020, the Solar Orbiter mission has carried several cutting-edge instruments to monitor the environment of the Earths closest star. Aboard the Orbiter are six remote-sensing instruments, or telescopes, to snap images of the Sun and its surroundings, along with four other in-situ instruments.

Through this mission, scientists aim to gain an in-depth understanding of the solar wind, and how it releases the stream of charged particles that influence the entire Solar System.

The first images from the mission detail the presence of millions of miniature-size solar flaresalso referred to as 'campfires'near the surface of the Sun. NASA describes solar flares as sudden explosions of energy caused by the tangling, crossing, or reorganising of magnetic field lines near sunspots.

The images were captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on May 30, 2020, from a distance of 77 million km from the Sun. During this time, the Solar Orbiter was at the periheliona point in its elliptical orbit measured to be closest to the Sunwhich is roughly half the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

The EUI is programmed to take high-resolution images of the solar coronathe outermost layer of the Suns atmospherewhich usually remains unexposed due to the bright light of the Suns surface and is, therefore, difficult to capture.

The campfires are little relatives of the solar flares that we can observe from Earth, million or billion times smaller, said David Berghmans of the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB), Principal Investigator of the EUI instrument in an official statement. The Sun might look quiet at first glance, but when we look in detail, we can see those miniature flares everywhere we look, he added.

Meanwhile, space scientists are still trying to understand if these campfires are just smaller versions of solar flares or a different phenomenon altogether.

Scientists have, however, hypothesised that these campfires may be the reason behind coronal heating. The corona layer is the part of Suns upper atmosphere, which burns at temperature worth millions of degrees. This layer also extends to millions of kilometres into the outer space.

With the help of more Orbiter data, scientists are aiming to demystify the mysterious coronal heating phenomenon and figure out what causes the corona to be so hota problem considered to be among the most vexing in astrophysics.

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Push On To Rename Schools, Including In Long Beach – Gazette Newspapers

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A push to change names and remove statues represents a nationwide call by Black activists and others for society to reexamine which historical figures the country lauds, create a more comprehensive understanding of these past leaders beliefs and attitudes, and an understanding of how monuments, eponymously named buildings and other symbols honoring them underpins systemic racism.

But some people have argued that the effort to expunge historical figures from buildings has gone too far.

Take, for example, Long Beachs Wilson High School.

That campus, part of the Long Beach Unified School District, is named for President Woodrow Wilson.

Wilsons legacy, historians say, is checkered: He backed the Ku Klux Klan and screened in the White House The Birth of a Nation, a film that, while revolutionary from a cinematic perspective, presents a revisionist history of the Civil War and early Reconstruction Era.

But when Jon Meyer, an LBUSD school board member, heard of a petition calling for Wilson High to get a name change, he was conflicted.

Meyer graduated from Wilson and met his wife there. His father was part of the first graduating class.

I completely understand the Black Lives Matter movement and this nationwide thrust to get rid of anything that was tainted by racism in the past, Meyer said. I understand that, but to some extent, its a little misguided.

Meyer said he supports removing statues of Confederates, such as former Vice President John C. Calhoun, but questioned how far the country should go.

What about (President Thomas) Jefferson, (President George) Washington and others? It gets more complicated, he said. Rather than attack the name of a high school, lets build a plan where we charge forward from this day and try to make our world better.

But Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said its especially egregious for racially diverse school districts to pay homage to those who perpetuated and condoned racism and oppression.

That includes, Hutchinson said, LBUSD, which also has a Millikan High named after the Caltech physicist Robert A. Millikan and a Jordan High School, which honors David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University and a known proponent of human sterilization.

To have (Wilsons) name on a high school in Long Beach with a near-majority of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and students of color, Hutchinson said, is a travesty and insult to a diverse city such as Long Beach.

Hutchinson said America is currently undergoing a reckoning over who the country honors and schools, which educate the future of America, should be at the forefront.

The line should be drawn by expunging their names from these schools, Hutchinson said.

Questions remain, however, about how much momentum there is at specific schools and districts to change the names.

The Wilson High petition does have more than 3,000 signatures. But its unclear how many of the signatories are local.

And at an LBUSD school board meeting last month, few people during public comment relative to the total number of speakers discussed changing the name of Wilson. And of those who did, most favored keeping the names.

We understand both sides and we understand the importance of symbolism, district spokesperson Chris Eftychiou said. Thats one of the reasons we have changed school names in the past. The question is, how far do we want to go?

The creator of the Wilson High petition did not respond to requests for comment.

LBUSD has, in fact, changed school names in the past, as Eftychiou said. In 2014, the district changed Peter H. Burnett Elementary School, named after the first governor of California and a known racist, to Bobbie Smith Elementary, honoring the school districts first Black board member. Two years later, it changed the name of Robert E. Lee Elementary to Olivia Herrera Elementary, a well-liked local educator.

But the district has no plans, at the moment, to rename its high schools though Long Beach City Councilman Rex Richardson, who is Black, has suggested naming the school after another Jordan, such as musician Louis Jordan, civil rights leader Barbara Jordan or basketball legend Michael Jordan.

Long Beach is far from the only place where the discussion has taken center stage.

Michael Chwe was surprised and motivated to act.

The UCLA economics professor received his bachelors degree from the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, and remembers well the reverence for Robert A. Millikan, a renowned physicist and the universitys first president, around campus.

The Nobel Prize recipient, Chwe said, represented a sort of demigod.

But then, the current racial justice movement sprang up, in the wake of the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd. And Chwe, through various conversations, learned that Millikan was a leader in the Human Betterment Society which actively promoted sterilizing people with disabilities.

Millikan, whose name adorns several Caltech buildings and who has a bust dedicated to him on campus, was an ardent proponent of eugenics and supporter of Nazi Germany.

It wasnt just that he believed in eugenics, Chwe said, but he was a member of a group that actively promoted it. They took pride and communicated with the Nazis.

Chwe knew he had to act. He created an online petition calling for Caltech to remove Millikans name from all buildings, spaces, and programs, as well as the bust of him. The petition which also demands Caltech stop honoring fellow eugenicists E.S. Gosney, A.B. Ruddock, Harry Chandler and William Munro is just shy of 1,000 signatures.

Caltech administrators, for their part, say they created a task force to study and advise on the school policies toward naming buildings.

We take seriously the concerns raised by members of our community on this matter, said university spokesperson Kathy Svitil.

The engraved legacy of Millikan at Caltech, however,

California schools and universities have been among the targets.

From San Juan Capistrano, in south Orange County, to major Southern California cities such as Los Angeles and Long Beach and even as far north as Berkeley education officials have faced campaigns to rename schools dedicated to slaveholders, Spanish colonials and eugenicists.

It is not possible for Caltech to retain the names of Millikan, Ruddock, Chandler, Munro, and Gosney on its campus and claim moral decency, Chwes petition says. If Caltech does not act, it admits to being comfortable with lower moral standards than (other) institutions.

In San Juan Capistrano, administrators at JSerra Catholic High School have also said they will stick to the name despite recent controversies surrounding Junipero Serra.

Serra founded the California missions in the 18th century, but also facilitated Spanish colonialism and Native American persecution.

The school, which unveiled a statue of Serra in 2018 on the third anniversary of his canonization, recently had to work with the Orange County Sheriffs Department to prevent potential vandalism, after other Serra statues in California were toppled.

JSerra teaches students the entire legacy of its namesake, school President Rich Meyer said good and bad. Ultimately, he said he believes, Serras legacy is that he gave his heart to the people of California.

Its with great pride we bear Father Serras name, Rich Meyer said. We are not going to shy away from who we are.

Other school districts, meanwhile, acted quickly to excise the names of controversial figures.

In Berkeley, for example, the school board recently voted to change the names of Washington and Jefferson elementary schools because both men owned slaves.

And Fullerton High School recently changed the name of Plummer Auditorium. Its namesake, Louis Plummer a former Fullerton Joint Union School District superintendent reportedly had ties to the KKK.

Yet, other school districts have taken a more methodical approach.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is looking at what to do with its Jordan High School.

We have people looking at these areas, as well as other ways we can directly address the issue of systemic bias and institutional racism, LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner said recently as he addressed issues with campus policing. This moment cannot be about more words and false promises. It has to be about real change based on logic, reason and genuine engagement.

Caltech, with its newly created task force, recently held a virtual town hall to discuss removing the names of Millikan and his brethren.

We are committed to building upon these conversations, Svitil said, and to seizing this moment to take direct steps toward a campus where every member of our community has the access and support to achieve their full academic and professional potential.

Staff writer Jeong Park contributed to this report.

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Push On To Rename Schools, Including In Long Beach - Gazette Newspapers