Daily Archives: August 14, 2021

CLEVELAND, Ohio More than 14,300 power outages remained in Cuyahoga County early Friday morning as work continues to make repairs following Wednesdays powerful thunderstorms.

Progress is being made ... there were more than 50,000 outages Thursday. Still, FirstEnergy estimates power wont be fully restored to all areas until about 10 p.m. Friday.

In Cuyahoga County, Cleveland was reporting nearly 6,700 outages at 4:45 a.m. Bay Village (2,002) and Cleveland Heights (1,361) and Lakewood (978) also still had high numbers of outage. There spotty outages throughout the rest of the county.

Geauga County had less than 700 customers without power and Lake County had just over 800. Lorain County had about 1,100, nearly all in Avon Lake, which was one of the cities hit hardest by Wednesdays storms. Summit County had 362 outages.

There are chances of more showers and thunderstorms throughout the day Friday, most likely during the late afternoon. But forecasters are calling for cooler temperatures and clear skies through the weekend.

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Progress made, but thousands of power outages remain in Cuyahoga County - cleveland.com

Like so many seasons, the Aspen High School softball team didnt win many games last fall. In fact, it didnt win any games at all, but this isnt a team that necessarily defines success in that way.

After battling through a difficult season overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic, if there is one lesson the players brought into this fall is how much they love the game. One would have to when COVID-19 made so many other factors of life far from enjoyable.

Last year I really think we persevered. Despite COVID and despite everything we always kept our heads up, even if there were complications with scheduling, with mask wearing, anything, Aspen senior pitcher and outfielder Hannah Smith said ahead of Wednesdays practice. We all just stuck it out and we all really helped each other out. I was really excited to get out this year because last year we had a lot of new members and we really worked hard last year and I was really excited to see what everybody has learned and Im really excited to see what we can all do this year.

Aspen softball was one of the few true team sports to have actually played last fall like normal; boys soccer, volleyball and football all played this past spring in an odd and delayed season because of the pandemic. The Skiers are still searching for their first win since beating Gunnison back in the fall of 2018, a win they had been searching nearly a decade for.

Not even a week into practice ahead of the 2021 season and its much too early to tell if the Skiers can add to their bleak win totals. But the fact the roster includes 15 players a strong number for the program and includes nearly all the available players that could have returned from a year ago is a sign the group is excited to be there.

Last year we ended on an OK note and our first practice on Monday, we just picked right up where we left off and it was really great, junior first baseman and outfielder Ella Zane said. Im really excited. When I came as a freshman, a lot of my friends came with me. So weve got a strong group of girls that have been playing for two solid years straight. I think we are going to improve a lot.

The pandemic season of 2020 will most be remembered for all of the odd rules. For instance, teams werent allowed to use their dugouts, shake hands with opposing opponents, and masks were everywhere. Fans were few and far between, outside of a few rebellious parents who found a way to watch from the perimeter.

As it stands, the 2021 fall softball season should feel normal, as in pre-pandemic, as long as local and state rules dont change dramatically with the rising COVID-19 cases.

The benefit of it is it allowed all the girls to stay engaged and decide they really did like the game, longtime AHS coach Dave Fuentes said of the pandemic season. They are dedicated because they did a lot of work in the offseason to work on their skills and keep trying to get a little bit better. And it showed the first couple of practices have been really positive. Im cautiously optimistic that we are going to put together a really competitive team.

The Skiers have a small but dedicated group of seniors, led by Smith and Nikki Harris. Behind that is a strong group of juniors and sophomores, including sophomore Maddie McAllister, who is likely to be the teams primary pitcher. Behind that are a couple of freshmen who are already making a bit of noise and should see the field plenty this season.

Despite the first practice having only been Monday, Aspen is set to jump into action on Saturday with a season-opening doubleheader against Durango, played in Grand Junction. The Skiers then host a pair of games against Cedaredge next Thursday before a single game at Basalt on Aug. 24 will send them on a long break because of experiential education.

The winning has never really been important to me. Ive always just looked at how much progress everybody has made, Smith said. Im looking at this year like the more team bonding we have and the more we are all collaborative and work together and keep our heads up Im just looking for good attitudes and people trying their best. I think thats the only thing Im looking for this year. Ive never really cared too much about the wins.

Basalt, which has a new head coach this season in Amy Bollock formerly an assistant with the team doesnt open its season until playing at a tournament Aug. 20 and 21, hosted by Class 3A preseason No. 1 Eaton. The Longhorns first home game will be that Aug. 24 contest against the Skiers.

Of note, former BHS softball standout Emily Hendershot, a 2018 graduate, is on board as an assistant coach with Aspen this fall.

Neither Aspen nor Basalt received any votes to be ranked in the preseason poll through CHSAA. The highest representative from the region is Delta, which is effectively No. 12 to open the season. Cedaredge also received a couple of votes.

acolbert@aspentimes.com

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Aspen High School softball team chasing progress more than wins as season starts - Aspen Times

UT will unveil the bronze statues on Sept. 2 in the plaza outside Gate 21 at Neyland Stadium.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. The University of Tennessee announced that they will be paying tribute to four Black student-athletes from Vols football history who were trailblazers for racial equity.

The four players being commemorated are Lester McClain, Jackie Walker, Condredge Holloway and Tee Martin.

The bronze statues will be unveiled on Thursday, Sept. 2 at UT's first game of the season against Bowling Green. The statues will be located in the plaza outside of Gate 21 at Neyland Stadium.

The unveiling will be "a kickoff to Neyland Stadium's year-long centennial celebration" according to UT Athletics.

"It's an honor for this university to be able to permanently recognize the impact of these men in such a powerful way," said Director of Athletics Danny White. "I hope it serves as a reminder of those who came before them and paved the way for progress."

UT Athletics say that due to space limitation, attendance for the ceremony will be limited. However, the event will also be livestreamed on UTsports.com and the Tennessee Athletics YouTube channel.

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UT to honor Black student-athletes who paved the way for progress with statues at Neyland Stadium - WBIR.com

COLORADO SPRINGS It's still one of the top complaints coming into the Colorado Attorney General's Office. In fact, people in our state have reported more than 50,000 unwanted calls to the FTC since the start of the year. While progress is being made to identify robocalls, consumer protection advocates say more action is needed.

According to the experts at RoboKiller, in July each of us got on average 21 spam calls. While extremely annoying and even dangerous with the potential for scams, data analysts say overall robocalls nationally are down 3% from June.

This reflects a successful first month of the FCC's new anti-caller ID spoofing framework, STIR/SHAKEN, now required to be put into place by the major cell phone providers. This led to 145 million fewer spoofed spam calls in July than in previous months of 2021.

"Now that that's kind of been out in the wild for the first 30 days we are seeing signs this has started to make a slow but sure impact in reducing spam calls and also reducing caller I-D spoofing that a lot of spammers use to trick you into answering the phone," said VP of RoboKiller Giulia Porter.

But even in the midst of progress some calls are still getting through unchecked. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser tells News5 smaller phone companies were given an extension until June 2023 to implement the robocall prevention technology and he has joined law enforcement leaders in every state calling for that deadline to be moved up.

"That creates a loophole because if you can't source where a call is coming from you can't validate if it's a real call or not. That's what's an issue, some companies delaying deploying this technology hurts the rest of us," said Weiser.

While we might begin to see some relief from robocalls, fraudsters appear to just be shifting to another way to get into our phones. This time through spam text messages. According to RoboKiller Americans are on track to receive more than 86 billion spam texts in 2021, a 55% increase from 2020.

"Our hope is we can continue to generate more awareness about the spam text problem so this isn't kind of like our Achilles heel," said Porter. "Our hope is long term that some kind of similar or a tag-along framework to STIR/SHAKEN can kind of be followed to stop spam texts before they become such a persistent and prolonged issue like spam calls have."

The bipartisan and nationwide coalition of attorneys general is asking the FCC to require the remaining smaller cell companies to come into robocall compliance as soon as possible and no later than June 30, 2022.

To report robocalls and suspected scam calls visit:https://stopfraudcolorado.gov/

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Progress being made on robocalls, officials want faster compliance from all cell carriers - KOAA.com Colorado Springs and Pueblo News

CDC: Over 90% of US counties have substantial, high COVID-19 transmission

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said on Aug. 12, 2021, that more than 90% of U.S. counties are reporting substantial to high transmission of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 surge that is sending hospitalizations to all-time highs in parts of the South is also clobbering states like Hawaii and Oregon that were once seen as pandemic success stories.

After months in which they kept cases and hospitalizations at manageable levels, they are watching progress slip away as record numbers of patients overwhelm bone-tired health care workers.

Oregon like Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana in recent days has more people in the hospital with COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic. Hawaii is about to reach that mark, too.

This, despite both states having vaccination levels higher than the national average as of last week. Arkansas and Louisiana were significantly below average, while Florida was about even.

FILE - A doctor at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, one of four public hospitals in Los Angeles County tends to COVID -19 patients in the specially constructed secure isolation area.

RELATED: No staffed pediatric ICU beds left in North Texas region, hospital official says

"Its heartbreaking. People are exhausted. You can see it in their eyes," said Dr. Jason Kuhl, chief medical officer at Oregon's Providence Medford Medical Center, where patients are left on gurneys in hallways, their monitoring machines beeping away.

In other developments, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize COVID-19 booster shots for certain people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients, to give them an extra dose of protection.

The U.S. is seeing the virus storming back, driven by a combination of the highly contagious delta variant and lagging vaccination rates, especially in the South and other rural and conservative parts of the country.

New cases nationwide are averaging about 123,000 per day, a level last seen in early February, and deaths are running at over 500 a day, turning the clock back to May.

RELATED: COVID-19 booster for immunocompromised to be approved 'imminently,' Fauci says

For the most part during the pandemic, Hawaii enjoyed one of the lowest infection and death rates in the nation. In recent days, though, it reported record highs of more than 600 new virus cases daily.

On its worst day in 2020, Hawaii had 291 patients hospitalized with the coronavirus. Officials expect to hit 300 by the end of this week.

Despite the promising demand for COVID-19 shots early on, it took three weeks much longer than expected to get from 50% to 60% of the vaccine-eligible population fully vaccinated. Vaccinations have since plateaued. Nationally, the rate is about 59%.

The biggest hospital on Hawaiis Big Island is feeling the pressure. Out of 128 acute beds, 116 were taken Wednesday at Hilo Medical Center, and the hospitals 11 intensive care unit beds are almost always full these days, spokeswoman Elena Cabatu said.

RELATED: 'COVID fee': 2 colleges in West Virginia, Alabama billing unvaccinated students

"If someone out there has a heart attack or a sepsis or gets into a bad accident that requires intensive care, we will have to hold that person in the emergency department," Cabatu said.

"Im surprised we landed here," she lamented. "The hope during the mass vax clinics was just so high."

Hilton Raethel, president and CEO of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, disputed any notion that the rebound in tourism in Hawaii is largely to blame.

"The tourists have been a source for infection, but theyve never been the predominant source of infection," Raethel said. "Theres a lot more concern about people from Hawaii, residents who go to the South, go to Vegas, to other places, and they come back and spread it."

RELATED: CDC urges COVID-19 vaccinations for pregnant women amid delta surge

In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown announced this week that nearly everyone will have to wear masks again in indoor public spaces, regardless of their vaccination status.

For the second straight day Wednesday, the state reported a record number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients 665. The previous peak of 622 came during a November surge, before the vaccine became available. ICU beds across the state are about 90% full.

Throughout the pandemic, health officials have described Oregon as a success story, largely because of its tight restrictions, which were lifted at the end of June.

California, which is below the national vaccination rate, is also seeing alarming spikes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Los Angeles County, the nation's largest county, faced 1,573 hospitalizations as of Wednesday the highest since the end of February. The city of Los Angeles is working out a possible vaccine requirement to enter indoor spaces.

RELATED: CDC: More than 90% of US counties have substantial or high COVID-19 transmission

Meanwhile, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said more people are getting vaccinated in states with the highest infection rates, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

"Were getting more shots in the arms in the places that need them in the most. Thats what its going to take to end this pandemic," he said.

In Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has steadfastly blocked mandatory mask-wearing, some emergency rooms are so overcrowded that doctors are sending patients home with oxygen and small, portable oxygen-monitoring devices to free up beds for sicker patients.

___

Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon, Eileen Putman and Terry Tang contributed to this report.

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COVID-19 surge: States that showed progress now seeing waves of new cases - FOX 2 Detroit

Sizing up Disneys pivot to streaming during the companys fiscal third-quarter earnings call, CEO Bob Chapek said, Were in the first inning of the first game of a long season.

The company got into the direct-to-consumer game in earnest less than two years ago, Chapek maintained. In that time, Disney+ has expanded to 61 territories, but the company is continuing to learn and maximize profits from bundling and different approaches to distribution and marketing, he said. (Reflecting the companys new orientation, it disclosed in an SEC filing after the call that it had spent $350 million to buy out the National Hockey Leagues stake in its streaming unit.)

The streaming numbers beat Wall Street expectations, with Disney+ reaching 116 million subscribers and ESPN+ and Hulu also posting strong gains. Earnings of 80 cents a share were way ahead of estimates and up tenfold from the year-ago quarter. Total revenue rose 45% to $17 billion, reflecting the reopening of many businesses under the tent after a brutal period of Covid shutdowns.

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I feel really great about our subscriber trajectory on Disney+, Chapek said. He added that he is really pleased with churn given recent price increases. In many territories, he said, churn has declined even as prices have increased.

Chapek, who rose through the ranks as a cost-conscious operator of theme parks and home entertainment, said results in each new territory have exceeded internal forecasts. Still, he took pains not to express overconfidence about the future. Disney is now halfway toward its stated goal of 230 million to 260 million Disney+ subscribers by 2024, but there is still a learning curve given the companys traditional-media roots.

As we learn, weve found out that there is tremendous seasonality to this business, Chapek said. Our sub adds arent necessarily going to be linear [meaning in a steady line upward]. I think a lot of the marketplace expects these things to sort of be straight-line math and its not really turning out that way.

Japan is one example of a market with plenty of upside. Technically, Disney+ has been up and running in the territory since June 2020, but CFO Christine McCarthy described it as a soft launch via wireless carrier NTT Docomo. We believe that our IP is going to resonate when the full launch in Japan happens in October. Chapek noted that the service has had fairly limited distribution in Japan, but also cautioned that the country remains under a state of emergency due to alarming increases in Covid infection.

Taking a page from Amazon and other tech companies, Disney plans a Disney+ Day on November 12, the two-year anniversary of the launch of the service. Chapek said it will be a balanced approach between global and local product. New titles like Home Sweet Home Alone will be made available and Jungle Cruise will enter its no-fee window on Disney+. Other programming and incentives to be announced will be aimed at spurring more new sign-ups. It gives us an opportunity to provide a focal point for consumers who may not have tripped over to Disney+, Chapek said, giving a shot of excitement and energy to the overall streaming effort.

The Disney Bundle has been a key driver thus far, lifting Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ to 174 million total subscribers. A majority of well, not a majority, but a good chunk of our marketing is going toward the bundle, Chapek said. Thats because, while we enjoy very low churn rates on our individual services, the churn rates for the bundle are even lower. Surprisingly low, even for us.

While several analysts asked for metrics, Chapek and McCarthy did not offer any.

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Disney CEO Bob Chapek Gauges Streaming Progress, Teases Disney+ Day: Were In The First Inning Of The First Game Of A Long Season - Deadline

With a single remark, President Joe Biden did more to undermine progress in medical science than any president in recent memory. While speaking to reporters, Biden expressed his support for an effort at the World Trade Organization to cancel intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines.

The mere suggestion of such a policy by the leader of the free world was enough to shake confidence in the ecosystem that enables biomedical innovation. If the effort succeeds, it wont be large drug companies who are most harmed. It will be the small start-ups working on tomorrows medicines for patients across the world.

We must hope that the president rethinks his support for this proposal.

Small companies are responsible for the vast majority of new medicines invented each year. And the WTO proposal poses a threat to their very survival.

The central assumption behind the WTO waiver proposal is that IP protections are keeping poorer countries from accessing COVID-19 vaccines by restricting manufacturing. By stripping biotech firms of their IP rights, the thinking goes, policymakers can empower more generics factories to meet vaccine demand.

This justification doesnt withstand scrutiny.

Production is limited because there arent enough qualified manufacturers capable of producing these vaccines and there arent enough raw materials. This is why Modernas decision to temporarily waive the patents on its revolutionary vaccine hasnt done anything to increase the supply of its shots.

Further, global production is on overdrive thanks to intellectual property protections. Merck is helping produce Johnson & Johnsons vaccine, Sanofi is helping produce the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and generic producers in India, South Africa and elsewhere are producing the vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca as quickly as they safely can. These partnerships exist because the innovator companies know their proprietary data and research is protected by IP rules.

As ineffective as an IP waiver might be in expanding access, it would still do irreparable damage to the industry thats helping to end this crisis. So it could stymie medical progress for years to come.

Inventing a new medicine is extraordinarily risky. Of the medicines that enter clinical trials, just 12% are ultimately approved by the FDA. And that figure doesnt include the countless drug candidates that are abandoned in the lab.

Innovation is also massively expensive. A Tufts University study estimates that the creation of a single successful drug costs just shy of $3 billion, on average.

Attracting investment for these high-risk projects requires the promise of a reward should a medicine succeed. By enabling firms to sell their inventions exclusively for the few years following a drugs approval, IP protections give companies and investors the assurance that they might turn a profit.

If investors arent confident in IP rules, this system breaks down. Yet by backing the WTO waiver, Biden has vastly undermined confidence in IP protections.

Thats why this move could curtail if not decimate research at small start-ups. Small biotechs are responsible for nearly two in three new medicines and depend on regular influxes of cash from private investors to stay in business. As Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, recently put it, Bidens support for waiving patents (could discourage) the thousands of small biotech innovators that are totally dependent on accessing capital from investors who invest only on the premise that their intellectual property will be protected.

Funding for new research will dry up quickly if the WTO waiver succeeds. Indeed, Bidens support for the effort has already sapped investors confidence, resulting in double-digit drops in the share prices for vaccine-makers Moderna, BioNTech and Novavax.

Some argue that if the biotech industry collapses, the task of developing new medicines can be left to universities. But this is a fantasy. Even academic institutions like Harvard Medical School, where I taught, is ill-equipped for the kind of aggressive investment and risk-taking that biotech innovation demands. High-stakes research and development can only occur in the private sector.

The small companies that create life-saving therapies and vaccines already face impossibly long odds. Now, at a moment in which the industrys value to the world has never been more apparent, Biden has added to the burdens these start-ups face, threatening the very existence of the companies that drive medical science forward.

Dr. Wolfgang Klietmann is a former clinical pathologist and medical microbiologist at HarvardMedical School.

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Klietmann: With one move, president threatens medical progress - Boston Herald

I am blessed and privileged. While I have the honour and responsibility of being the Chairman of Wipro, I also have the opportunity to be fairly engaged with the work of the Azim Premji Foundation. This has given me the chance to see very different views of the world of the tremendous potential and success technology has brought to our lives and the tremendous deprivation and inequity that still exists all around us.

This reality is visible, but often not noticed. While we are all familiar with the economic hardship of many Indians, the figures tell us how deep this issue is. Even before the pandemic, the median household income in India was Rs 15,000 per month. That means a family of four at the median income level lived on just Rs 125 per day per person for all their expenditure on food, clothing, housing, healthcare, festivals and more. Half of India lives with less than that. It isnt a surprise that one health emergency can crush an entire family economically even at the median income level and this happens to fellow citizens in our country every day.

The bottom 25 per cent of households (about 300 million people in India) lived on an income of less than Rs 8,500 per month or Rs 70 per day per person. For the bottom 10 per cent these numbers are even more gut-wrenching. And these numbers do not account for the economic devastation that the pandemic has caused.

None of these numbers capture stark inequities and injustices across gender, caste, regions, and more. Can we even imagine what circumstances many of our fellow citizens live in?

There is no doubt that from the wonderful day when India became free in 1947 to today we have made enormous progress. However, we still have work to do to build the India that we promised to ourselves in our Constitution.

To make progress on these inequities, I propose we add an additional key measure to that of the GDP the Human Development Product (HDP). I believe deeply that you achieve what you measure. However, at times you must dig deeper, to the next level of measures, to truly understand the real health of the situation you are assessing. It is critical to narrow down to these vital few measures without forgetting that as time and circumstances change, these vital few measures may also need to be revised. What is special about these measures is that they themselves align and reflect the progress on many other measures.

I propose that the HDP consist of the following five parameters: First, the female labour force participation rate. Depending on what definition you look at, currently this number is 11 per cent or 22 per cent. It is shockingly low. The empowerment of women through their economic independence is central to human development. Second, gender income parity: A comparison of both, the median and the 75th percentile, of wages of men and women. There is no point in more women participating in the labour force if we continue to give them insecure and lower-paying jobs than men. Third, stunting. Stunting amongst children is about 35 per cent. This number reflects many things directly, for instance, the state of our public health, the nutritional status of our people, and environmental conditions. Fourth, water quality and availability. This is more difficult to measure, but tracking a few important indicators can suggest the national trends. So, I suggest we measure the quality and flow of 10 key rivers at specified geographical points and periodicity, as well as measure groundwater levels and quality in some of the most stressed areas. All this could give us an aggregate water health index. Fifth, the quality of polity. For this, we can measure the percentage of members of all our legislatures state legislatures and Parliament against whom criminal cases are pending or have convictions.

The natural debate that follows is why only five measures and why these five. There is no perfect answer to this. I have tried to pick the vital few which I believe will measure the progress of the most fundamental things in our country and reflect human progress. Like former US President Barack Obama once said, if you want to see what a country is like, go and see how it treats its women. The two measures on women empowerment that I have chosen balance each other and reflect deep structural issues, both in the economy and in society. So, any progress on these two will happen only when there is broad-ranging progress across multiple factors such as education and an increase in employment opportunities.

Stunting is not only one of the cruellest things that society accepts but is also reflective of widespread conditions of public health, nutrition and public education.

I also worry deeply about climate change. India will be ground zero for all effects of climate change it will affect livelihoods, health and more. We must tackle climate change and its effects on multiple fronts, and these can be measured in many ways. But I cannot think of anything which will hurt the average person more and is already doing so, than water. Lastly, a country is as good as its polity and vice versa.

I am deliberately calling it the Human Development Product, because these measures are a product of innumerable important factors education, health, livelihoods, societal norms, political climate, environmental conditions, and more. Improvement in HDP will reflect and happen only with improvement on all these factors.

I am an amateur in these matters. Others could perhaps propose better parameters. What I am arguing for is a measure of true human progress, which if left behind will negate all the progress we make in our GDP and as an economic power of the future.

On this eve of the 75th anniversary of our Independence can we commit to ourselves that the HDP growth rate will be as much or higher than the GDP growth rate?

This column first appeared in the print edition on August 14, 2021 under the title Our GDP needs the HDP. The writer is Chairman, Wipro Ltd.

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We need a way to measure true human progress - The Indian Express

An overview report on official controls for fruit and vegetables in Europe covering a number of years has shown improvement, but areas of concern still remain.

European Union laws aim to ensure the microbiological safety of fruits and vegetables. To check these rules are followed by food businesses in primary production and processors, the authorities in all EU countries carry out official controls.

Audit reports found that, while certain shortcomings exist and persisted, progress had been made over time. Countries adapted and improved their official control systems with a greater focus on emerging microbiological risks in fruit and vegetables, and have responded to recommendations made by the EU Commission. However, there was significant room for improvement in controls on frozen soft fruits and vegetables.

An initial series of audits by DG Sante between 2013 and 2016 began after serious foodborne outbreaks in the EU were caused by food of non-animal origin (FNAO). Another round of audits started in 2018. Countries visited included Poland, Germany, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Hungary and Greece.

Growth of risk-based approachThe first focus was on official controls of food hygiene at the primary production stage of FNAO intended to be eaten raw and checking the traceability of seeds for sprouting and sprouts, applicable microbiological criteria, the approval of sprout-producing establishments, and controls of imported seeds for sprouting.

At first, numerous shortcomings were identified. Systems for primary producers were not planned to address the risk of microbiological contaminants and there were no controls related to risks of such contaminants other than over the use of irrigation water. Official samples to verify contamination were rarely taken.

Improvements were observed as the series progressed. Member states started to adapt and improve their official control systems with more focus on emerging microbiological risks of FNAO.

In the second series, the scope of audits was extended to include frozen fruits and vegetables another food source associated with outbreaks.

The first six of these follow-up audits demonstrated that progress had been made on official controls at primary production but checks on frozen soft fruits and vegetables could be better.

Audits reviewed planning and implementation of official controls, control procedures, sampling and laboratory performance and enforcement.

Examples of areas to improveIn some nations, the scope of responsibilities for conducting official controls at farms producing FNAO was not clear, resulting in a gap in checks on producers at pre-harvest and harvest. In several audits, follow-up and enforcement actions were not considered a priority and not carried out.

Registration of farms was incomplete in about half of member states. This implied they were not part of the official control plan and could be excluded from checks for reasons that were not risk-based, contrary to EU law.

In some countries, approvals at sprout-producing sites were granted without verifying that shortcomings had been rectified and maintaining approvals was not justified based on poor hygienic conditions or recurring non-compliances not being followed-up.

In the majority of member states visited, primary production of FNAO intended to be eaten raw had been considered low risk. Consequently, the frequencies of official controls focusing on microbiological risks were low or very low. Some smaller producers were inspected less or not included in control plans at all.

The low number of sprout-producing sites causes difficulties for official controls. In most countries an official only has the opportunity to do these inspections between one to four times a year, posing problems in maintaining experience at a high level, according to the report.

Risk-based planning showed major deficiencies with official controls at freezing establishments including the lack of supervision. For sampling, weaknesses were observed in the majority of audits.

DG Sante found FNAO are rarely tested for viruses. National authorities in some member states didnt have tools to check reliability of findings and not many analyze and get accurate results.

Despite a Listeria monocytogenes outbreak linked to frozen corn, auditors found national authorities didnt initially take measures to improve the system. As a result, official controls and enforcement would have not been able to help prevent further possible Listeria contaminations in frozen FNAO, or limit the risk of non-compliant products being placed on the market.

A positive was the private sector such as retailers, discount stores and supermarkets, developing their own food safety standards and control systems. This has been done through private certification systems aimed at primary production (pre-harvest and harvest) and processing, trade and sales.

(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News,click here.)

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EU report shows progress on fruit and vegetable checks - Food Safety News

Its been a week since NeoWiz and Round8 Studio launched the controversial free-to-play MMO Bless Unleashed on PC. Originally a console release on Xbox and then PlayStation, Bless Unleashed PC targeted the Steam PC distribution platform as its first PC based launch. Weve had a whole week to play hands-on with this PC version of the Bless IP and contrary to the many apparently mixed reviews I, personally, have been having fun. Indulge me if you will as I go over what Ive seen within the first 40 hours of playtime.

When I volunteered to spearhead coverage of Bless Unleashed PC, I knew I was treading into waters that was full of many sharks in the gaming community. There are a lot of angry gamers in the community that tried Bless in one of its other incarnations who walked away feeling cheated and disgruntled. Its not for me to say if those are accurate grievances or not as I have little firsthand experience with such claims. But because of all this negative feedback, of Bless Online, many gamers, perhaps several whove never tried a Bless game, wont begin to give Bless Unleashed PC a fair chance. And for many gamers that will be a missed opportunity.

In my personal experience I tried Bless Online which started on PC back in 2018. The guild I was in was hyped up for it. I fell flat on the game weeks in and left. I was disappointed that capturing pets, which drew me to the game in the first place, cost a lot to capture your second pet as well as level them up. Then in early 2020 a slightly different version of Bless was released on consoles, first exclusively on Xbox in March of 2020. I gave this variant of the game a try and played several weeks before falling out of it as well. Mainly because no one I knew played and I had so many other MMO choices and objectives to fulfill in those MMOs. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my time in Bless Unleashed for Xbox for the most part.

Flash forward to August of 2021 and I find myself volunteering to play and review Bless Unleashed for the PC. The game has only been out for a week, and Ive spent 40 hours playing it to date. While the early stages are pretty much a repeat of what I saw in the Xbox version Im no less having just as much fun. A friend, and guildmate of mine in our quite large, multi-game guild (who are not supporting this game) is also playing Bless Unleashed PC. He summarized it perfectly on how we both are feeling, I almost feel dirty playing this game because of all the negative feedback about it. But I'm actually having [fun] regardless of all the negatives about the game.

I think it all comes down to individual taste and concept of fun and Im sure a lot of the naysayers will disagree with my analysis. While I think for the most part Bless Unleashed PC has had a strong opening week (no login queues, no desktop crashes, etc.) it will probably be considered by many as a good backup MMO to play. Its one that can fill the void when we tire of our main games, or when we cant play them for some reason or another. Its not that Bless Unleashed PC has been terrible its just that its pretty much standard fare for an Asian MMO brought to Western shores.

When you first start up Bless Unleashed PC, youll be able to choose from five standard fare Fantasy classes: Berserker, Guardian, Mage, Ranger, and Priest. These are locked behind specific race choices without gender lock. The game has a decent character creation tool but not quite on par with say a Black Desert Online. Typically, I play Tank classes in MMOs but for some reason this is now the second time Ive been drawn to Bless Unleasheds Mage class and thats where I initially landed.

Graphically speaking the game is very pleasing at times

Bless Unleashed PC is an action combat MMO, meaning you need to point your reticule (mouse cursor) at whatever you want to beat up on. Pressing on the scroll button on your mouse locks on to the target but that seems to be a bit glitchy. Glitchy to the point of not being a deterrent, more to the point of being an annoyance. It seems to occasionally lose lock while youre kiting or dodging. Thankfully, the developers are making updates to this mechanic in their next major update called Awakened. Nevertheless, this never impacted the fun factor for me mostly because graphically speaking spells and actions are a beauty to behold while youre dancing and dodging. Some have said that the combat is slow, but I dont see that. I dont think its as fluid as Black Desert Online but once again it didnt impact the fun.

The game also flawlessly transitioned from keyboard/mouse to an Xbox Controller I plugged in. I went from one to the other while the game was running and saw no issue. In the end I chose the mouse/keyboard form of input. The only change was I remapped the jump key to the ALT key for me since the Space bar is used for dodging. One change I would love to see is support of double key tap for dodging, a la Guild Wars 2.

The underlying design behind the action combat also lies a combo system. Stringing together combos for the most part is straight forward as the UI gives you a hint on screen in the middle of the battlefield where your eyes will be. Combine this will skill level upgrades and Blessings which you can earn and switch in and out with other Blessings for different passives, etc. makes for a fun system overall.

Bless Unleashed PCs story is standard fair stuff. Its a tale of ancient betrayal and one which earthshaking disaster has led to thousands of years of enmity between the mortal and the divine. Now, the mad mistress of the dark, great, and terrible Lumenas, has returned to destroy the race of man and sink the earth into endless night! Oh my! For the most part youre not going to be emotionally attached to any character like you would in a Final Fantasy game. Youll most likely skip through the dialogue fast enough to get to your rewards and hasten to the next open world fight.

Open world boss fights have been fun.

While its nothing new in MMOs, so far, the most fun for me has personally been in the regional quests and open world boss fights. Of course, this is all fun and games if there are other players in-game to join in, so far thats not been an issue. While there is only one North American server the server has many channels. Jumping to a different channel is as easy as entering the Z key. Assuming you can read the global chat channel you can always answer a cry for help in a different channel.

Open world PvE battles works well with other players as anyone who tags a mob seems to get credit. Also, if you happen to expire, i.e., die in battle, anyone can resurrect you on the spot.

Speaking of global chat, the chat display in Bless Unleashed PC is horribly awkward to use. And it doesnt matter how many times we build a free-to-play MMO but more times than not the global chat suffers from a deluge of RMT spammers. Supposedly some chat display changes are coming in the previously mentioned Awakened update. Lets hope spammers is addressed because global chat in its current state is useless.

As you venture through the games story campaign (five acts, Im only 33% through Act I after 40 hours) youll take part in Trials. These are two-man PvE boss arena fights, these are fun as well and yield chests of rewards, upgrade tokens and marks.

Main menu shows you a lot of areas, nothing revolutionary but nevertheless robust.

So far, the game has thrown a considerable number of freebies our way. It is a free-to-play game with a Bless Pass season pass and a real-money upgrade to the pass for a Premium Pass track. Bless Unleashed PC hands out daily attendance login rewards as well as rewards for playing a certain number of hours. The development team has also been great at handing out compensation rewards for maintenance windows.

Exploration, while not entirely secret in implementation, is rewarded. Small chest icons show up on your mini map. Opening these chests rewards, earns you a bag piece. After collecting so many of these bag pieces you can trade them in at the associated NPC and you earn inventory bag slots at no cost.

Fishing is intricate

Crafting is straight forward so far along with equipment fortification (level upgrades). It seems like as you level you open additional recipes. Resource gathering is abundant and easy to accomplish so far throughout the areas. Equipment fortification is done using upgrade tokens which can basically be earned by salvaging equipment.

Bless Unleashed PC has the obligatory fishing component but its quite different from other games and not as forgiving. You control the power of the cast and then must wait for a hook to see some real action when the reticule goes full green. One mouse click is performed to hook the fish followed by a series of mouse clicks to reel in your prize in. So far, more times than not, Ive lost the fish, so this is an area that requires further practice. Especially since there is a fishing competition and fishing feeds into fulfilling your Bless Pass.

Even though Ive put in 40 hours alongside a server wide +50% PvE experience gain buff Im still only level 16 of a maximum 45. It kind of signals that there is a bit of a grind here. Even so it really hasnt felt that way because Ive never had a lack of new things to do. Even gathering contributes to your leveling XP. Ive also only satisfied five of the possible (known) forty-three Steam achievements.

As far as pay-to-win (P2W) accusations there is indeed an Attack Speed buff you can buy on the games real money transaction shop. Additionally, there is a peace declaration buff available at level 25+ that indicates that open world PvP might be forced at the higher levels.

As I look forward to the next few weeks, I hope to get better at fishing, see what the Estates (housing?) component looks like as well as open Unions (factions) up. Hopefully I can also experience the open world forced PvP claim as well as get hands-on time with animal capturing (mounts).

Continued here:

Bless Unleashed PC Review In Progress - MMORPG.com