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While Much has been written about our nation's "immigration drawback," most of our consideration has been centered on the United State's southern border and the immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Customs and Border Patrol brokers detained Vargas, additionally an award-profitable journalist, final month in McAllen, Texas, after studying of his immigration standing. So final week, out of curiosity, best immigration lawyers I Googled his identify "Melchor V. Diokno." He died earlier than this laptop age so I used to be stunned to see his identify pop up. JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS, who we final noticed on the Texas border with Mexico (See earlier weblog under) has stored himself busy. Wednesday to halt deportation proceedings in opposition to undocumented immigrants like themselves who've robust and productive ties to the United States. Probably the most seen undocumented immigrants is Filipno American Jose Antonio Vargas. Latinos, however for the Asian American group as nicely. Asian immigration --surpassing the immigration of Latinos. Under completely different immigration guidelines, the common U.S. Three of FEMA Rules, 2000 recommends that a person residing inside India might purchase or maintain the coverage acquired from an insurer residing out of India. 5:00 p.m. & Sunday, May 4, 2014 from 9:00 a.m. His story about how he got here to this nation, went to school and ultimately grew to become a Pulitzer Prize profitable reporter was turned right into a documentary which can get an Oscar nomination based on the Hollywood Reporter.

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Who is WHO’s Tedros Adhanom? On the surface it appeared that the Director-General of the UN World Health Organization has acted swiftly and seriously about the spreading coronavirus health emergency spreading across China. He has gone to meet with Chinese leaders to discuss the situation and on January 30, after his talks in Beijing and meetings with the WHO advisory body, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the coronavirus a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).” What the WHO has really done and especially the remarks of the Director-General, give cause for concern that he is motivated by something other than world health. There are still many open questions surrounding the outbreak of what is being called 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019 nCov) that was first noted sometime in December in Wuhan city in central China. By about January 20 severe cases of respiratory disease were spreading at such a rate that Beijing took drastic measures including canceling major social events of the Chinese New Year celebrations and imposing a cordon sanitaire around Wuhan, a city of 11 million on January 23 in a desperate bid to contain whatever was spreading. The quarantine however was imposed after some 5 million residents had reportedly already left to visit relatives outside in the largest holiday in China. On January 28 Tedros was in Beijing meeting with President Xi Jinping to discuss the situation. By the time of Tedros’ January 30 declaration that the coronavirus situation in China warranted proclaiming a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC),” a full week had passed since the Wuhan lockdown was declared. Such a public health lockdown had never in modern times been attempted. Indeed, on the day Wuhan was sealed off by the authorities, Gauden Galea, WHO China representative, told Reuters, “The lockdown of 11 million people is unprecedented in public health history, so it is certainly not a recommendation the WHO has made.” By the time WHO head Tedros arrived however, the Director-General had nothing but praise for the extraordinary measures being taken by Beijing to contain and deal with the situation. Back in WHO Geneva headquarters Tedros announced that China is “setting a new standard” for outbreak response, he said. “It’s actually doing more than China is required to do,” he added. But then he made the inexplicable statement that other countries were not warranted to ban air travel to China as precaution. He declared,” It’s not a time for judgment… This is a time for solidarity, not stigma,” refusing to recommend any international restrictions on travel or trade with China. What that should mean is not at all clear, only that he clearly was trying to dampen world response at a critical time. As the leading international health authority, the UN WHO carries considerable influence over national responses to any such health danger. This makes Tedros’ condemnation of airline travel bans more noteworthy. It raises the question whether the WHO head has an undisclosed agenda. Who is WHO’s Tedros? Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was voted WHO Director-General in 2017 replacing the controversial Dr Margaret Chan of Hong Kong. He is the first African to head the health agency and the first one not a medical doctor. According to Wikipedia, he got a BA degree in biology at the University of Asmara in Eritrea. He then served in a junior position, at the Ministry of Health under the Marxist dictatorship of Mengistu. After the fall of Mengistu in 1991 Tedros went to the UK and took a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Community Health from the University of Nottingham in 2000, with a doctoral dissertation on “The effects of dams on malaria transmission in Tigray Region, northern Ethiopia.” He then went on to become Minister of Health from 2005 to 2012 under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. There he met former President Bill Clinton and began a close collaboration with Clinton and the Clinton Foundation and its Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI). He also developed a close relation with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As health minister, Tedros would also chair the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that was co-founded by the Gates Foundation. The Global Fund has been riddled with fraud and corruption scandals. Today the largest donors to the WHO are the Gates Foundation and its associated GAVI Alliance for vaccination. With backers like Gates and Clinton it was no surprise that Tedros went on, after a stint as Ethiopian Foreign Minister, to win the post of WHO Director-General, this despite being the first non-physician to hold the position. During Tedros’ three year campaign to win the WHO post he was charged with having covered up three major epidemics of cholera while health minister in Ethiopia, mislabeling the cases as “acute watery diarrhea” (AWD)—a symptom of cholera—in an attempt to play down the significance of the epidemics, charges he denied. “Don’t stigmatize…” As reports of the spread of confirmed and suspected cases of the novel coronavirus in other countries grew in the past several weeks, numerous airlines took the precaution to temporarily cancel their flights to and from China. Tedros, while officially declaring the Wuhan novel coronavirus as a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC),” (in 2009 the WHO called it a Level 6 Global Pandemic), sharply and repeatedly criticized other countries for allowing air travel to China to be cut. On February 7 the China Peoples’ Daily reported Tedros stating, his disapproval of imposing travel bans on China, stressing that “such restrictions can have the effect of increasing fear and stigma, with little public health benefit.” Important in containing any epidemic is taking action very early in the detection of the disease. Ethiopian Airlines There is one country where the national air carrier has not cut flights to China to this date—Tedros’ own Ethiopia. Ethiopian Airlines continues to fly daily into Ethiopia from major Chinese cities. At the Addis Ababa airport the passengers are only given a minimal temperature test, something for a disease with a 14 day incubation period is hardly sufficient to limit the spread of the pathogen to Africa. While 59 other air carriers from 44 different countries have all grounded their flights to China, Ethiopian Airlines insists that it will follow directives from the World Health Organization and continue its daily China flights. The entry point for air travel between China and Africa is Ethiopia. The Chinese have built a new airport in Addis Ababa and it is the “gateway” for travel between many African countries like Zambia and China. Ethiopia’s Bole International airport sees on average 1500 passengers per day arriving from China. There are an estimated one million Chinese working in Africa from Zambia to Nigeria, and Tedros’ Ethiopia is their place to enter. The problem is that Ethiopia is an extremely poor country and it, like most of Africa is ill-prepared to handle any outbreak of coronavirus. Despite the fact that Ethiopian citizens have protested at the continuing China air travel risk, the government continues to use WHO and Tedros’ statements to keep business flowing. In an alarm signal, the first reported case of coronavirus in Botswana was of an African student who came from China on an Ethiopian Airlines plane. With the daily traffic through Ethiopia’s Bole International Airport of some 1,500 China passengers the health system of the country is ill-prepared to take adequate precautions. It is one of the poorest countries in Africa after decades of civil war. The largest investor by far is China which sees Ethiopia as a centerpiece of its African investment strategy for the Belt and Road. Is it because he does not want to jeopardize that economic relation that WHO head Tedros does not pressure his own state airline to take short-term precautions by declaring a moratorium on its China flights? At the time he was elected to WHO Tedros was a member of the politburo of the minority Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which had ruled Ethiopia since 1991 with an iron fist. Is he today more concerned with the financial health of Ethiopian Airways and the future of China investments in his country for his party allies than with the precautionary principles of public health in a growing international crisis that shows little sign of being under control? Indeed, now in the past days Tedros has shown signs of growing alarm, noting that the WHO has seen “concerning incidents” of onward spreading among people with no history of travel to China, noting it “could be the spark that becomes a bigger fire.” We must watch closely to see if that translates into a changed WHO policy towards not only the China flights of Ethiopian Airlines.

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insurance quotes liberty

[doforkerala]

As many of you may know, the state of Kerala in India has experienced incessant rainfall this monsoon season, causing chaotic flooding and landslides across all 14 districts of the state within the last week. As a result all 35 dams in Kerala have been opened (something that hasn’t been done since 1984), and more than 25 bridges have collapsed. The loss of agricultural land, roads, and infrastructure alone account to more than 1.5 billion USD. 

Unfortunately, as of August 20th, over 300 people have died and 633,010 people are staying in 2,971 relief camps due to flooding. Fisherman and other locals alongside the Army, Air Force, Navy,Coast Guard, and NDRF teams have rescued 38,000 flood-affected people in the last 3 days alone. 

It goes without saying that the road to recovery ahead is long and tiresome. Many of those rescued have lost their livelihood, and most do not have a home to go back to when they leave the relief camps. Indigenous communities living in districts like Wayanad will be some of the hardest hit. Food shortage will be a worrying reality. Kerala’s thriving and pivotal tourist business will be set back detrimentally. Stagnant flood water will ultimately lead to numerous diseases that need to be controlled. The state will need to rebuild lost infrastructure promptly. Citing the reported losses and future costs, the Chief Minister of Kerala has requested the Central Government for 19,500 cr/195,000,000,000 INR (roughly 3 billion USD) to assist in the rehabilitation. However, they have only been granted 500 cr/5,000,000,000 INR (roughly 72 million USD). This is nowhere near enough.

I implore everyone with the means to, to PLEASE DONATE! It’s incredibly heartwarming to see that already people all across the world have united to help Kerala during one of it’s darkest hours. A little goes a long way and no donation is too small.

Below is a consolidated list (with links) of online donation options (for both people in India and outside of it); including Government, NGO/Business, and smaller country-specific fundraisers. I have also included information on who will be handling the donation funds, where it will be going to,  and the easiest ways to donate from where you are in the world: 

Government sponsored fundraising: 

The Government of Kerala Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF): The CMDRF is the official fund aiming to provide an emergency assistance release mechanism that will grant ‘immediate relief to families and individuals distressed by calamity, loss of life due to accidents and chronic diseases’ caused by flooding. Donating inside India: All major Indian cards/banks/net banking is accepted. All donations within India are 100% tax exempt (under s80G(2)(iii) of the Income Tax Act 1961). Receipt provided. Donating outside of India: Advised to use South Indian Bank (International Cards) or Federal Bank gateways when prompted. Foreign contributions to the fund will be exempt from the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010) Please note that the server is fairly slow and has difficulty processing at times due to high traffic.   Run by: The Government of Kerala (Finance Secretary- transparency accountable under the Right to Information Act 2005) Sent to: Financial aid direct to beneficiary 

Kerala Rescue: Run by the Government of Kerala, keralarescue.in provides a portal to request help, locate, volunteer, or contribute. Donating Inside India:  Please choose ‘To Contribute’ and fill out details from collection. Please also refer to the ‘ District Needs & Collection Center’ as reference for what is required. Run by: The Government of Kerala (Disaster Management Cell/District Administration) Sent to: Resource aid direct to beneficiary

NGOs and Business sponsored fundraising:  

PayTM: an easy portal to donate money into the CMDRF. All donations up to 1cr (Rs.10,000,000) will be matched by PayTM. Inside India: Payments can be made through the PayTM app or via desktop. Run by: PayTM Sent to: CMDRF

Amazon.in: Immediate relief provided to flood hit residents by donating vital resources to respect NGOs working on the ground. Donate both inside and outside India: Amazon lets you choose between a list of NGOs and then select items on their wishlist to deliver to the NGO of your choice. Run by: Amazon India (in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity, World Vision, Goonj, and Oxfam India) Sent to: (NGO of choice) Resource aid direct to beneficiary

Akshaya Patra (NGO): ‘Akshaya Patra has set up a temporary kitchen to prepare and distribute food. As of now, the Foundation is providing an average of 7,000 meals per day costing Rs. 30 per meal.’ Inside India: Residents inside India can use the Zomato app to donate meals, as well as the Akshaya Patra website Outside India: Donations can be made on the Akshaya Patra website. Receipt provided. Run by: Akshaya Patra (NGO) Sent to: Food aid direct to beneficiary

Rapid Response (NGO): Funds raised ‘will be used to distribute 300 relief kits, 300 bed kits and 300 kitchen sets with a total aim of supporting 900 families.’ Kits range from Rs 1000-2000 each. In addition Rapid Response will be providing 120,000 food packets, 30,000 Milk & Biscuits kits and conduct 60 medical camps in the worst affected areas of Kerala (details on website). Inside India: Use Ketto*, Milaap* [*Crowdfunding portals: 3-6% of donations deducted in addition to card processing/exchange/tax fee] or Rapid Response portal Outside India: US residents may use Milaap* or Ketto* portals. For all other countries please use the Rapid Response portal.  Run by: Rapid Response (NGO) (Milaap: Asha on behalf of Rapid Response) Sent to: Resource aid direct to beneficiary

Goonj (NGO): Goonj is collecting urban household materials and food packets to transport to flood stricken areas. Monetary contributions are used for logistics and essential purchases. Inside India: Resources can be dropped off at Goonj offices or donated online via Amazon.in, the Flipkart app, or DonateKart. Food donations can be made through BigBasket. Monetary donations can be made through Ketto [*Crowdfunding portal: 6% of donations deducted in addition to card processing/exchange/tax fee] or Goonj website. All monetary contributions are tax exempted under s80G of I-T Act 1961. Outside India: Donate resources via Amazon.in or DonateKart. Monetary donations can be made through Ketto* or Goonj website. Run by: Goonj (NGO) Sent to: Resource and food aid direct to beneficiary

Oxfam India (NGO): Funding goes to long-term support, rehabilitation and rebuilding of homes, water supplies, and other facilities. Inside India: Monthly donation options. 50% of donation is exempt from I-T Act 1961 under s80G. Outside India: Monthly donation options. Credit card preferred for lower processing fees.  Run by: Oxfam India (NGO) Sent to: Resource aid direct to beneficiary

ATMA Foundation (NGO): The funds raised through this project will be utilized to support relief work in Thrissur District, in coordination with local agencies in the worst-hit areas. Once the emergency situation is overcome, the funds will be utilized for long term reconstruction and rebuilding. Inside India: Donations can be made online through SBI Connect. 50% of donation is exempt from I-T Act 1961 under s80G. Outside India: UK and US residents can contribute through the GlobalGiving* page.[*Crowdfunding portal: 7% of donations deducted in addition to card processing/exchange/tax fee] Run by: Suresh C K on behalf of ATMA (NGO) Sent to: Resource aid direct to beneficiary (Thrissur district priority)

Individual and Malayali Association (NRI/Outside of India) run fundraising:

*Please note: Crowdfunding portals charge small fees per donation; GoFundMe- 2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction Facebook fundraising- dependent on country Chuffed- 2.0% + $0.30 USD per transaction. Please also note that donating to a bank account within one’s own country/currency may assist in minimising fund loss through processing/exchange. 

**Please message if you would like your fundraiser added to the list.

Australia [AUD]

Donate to Help Kerala Flood Victims- via Chuffed* Run by: Australia India Foundation Incorporated Sent to: CMDRF

Kerala Flood Relief from Australia- via GoFundMe* Run by: Ashly Sabu Sent to: CMDRF

Kerala Flood Relief Fund from SMYM Australia- via Chuffed* Run by: Syro-Malabar Youth Movement Australia Sent to: SPANDAN- Mount St Thomas (NGO)

Kerala Flood Relief Fund from Australia #Ausforkerala- via Facebook*   Run by: Majosh Joseph Sent to: CMDRF 

Canada [CAD]

Kerala Flood Relief 2018- via GoFundMe* Run by: Kerala Cultural Association of British Columbia Canada Sent to: CMDRF

TMS- Kerala Floods Appeal for Help - via GoFundMe* Run by: Toronto Malayalee Samajam Sent to: CMDRF

Denmark [DKK]

Kerala Under Flood- via Facebook* Run by: Joy Issac Menamparampil Sent to: CMDRF

Germany [EUR]

Kerala Flood Relief Fund from Europe- via Facebook* Run by: Thomas Thandath on behalf of Malayalee-Deutsches Treffen Baden-Württemberg Sent to: CMDRF

Japan [JPY]

Nihonkairali Kerala Flood Relief Fund Collection Drive- via bank transfer Run by: Nihon Kairali Sent to: CMDRF

New Zealand [NZD] 

Fundraising from NZ for Flood Relief- via Facebook* Run by: Prince Johny Sent to: CMDRF

UAE [AED]

Emirates Red Crescent Kerala Relief Fund- via UAE Red Crescent Authority Run by: Emirates Red Cresent Sent to: CMDRF- Local NGOs

Kerala Flood Relief- via Qatar Charity Run by: Qatar Charity (NGO) Sent to: Local NGOs

UK [GBP]

British Malayali Relief Appeal- via Virgin Money Giving Run by: British Malayali Charity Foundation Sent to: CMDRF

Khalsa Aid Kerala Floods Appeal- via MyDonate.bt Run by: Khalsa Aid (NGO) Sent to: Khalsa Aid workers in Kerala

Kerala Flood Disaster Relief - COMA- via GoFundMe* Run by: Central Ohio Malayalee Association Dublin Sent to: CMDRF

Kerala Flood Relief fund- via GoFundMe* Run by: Archana Mathew Sent to: CMDRF

USA [USD]

Kerala Flood Relief Fund from the USA- via Facebook* Run by: Arun Nella on behalf of Knanaya Catholic Yuvajanavedhi of Chicago Sent to: CMDRF [to route money through IRS certified charity (TBA) in Chicago to minimise fund loss through taxes]

Kerala Flood Relief Fund from the USA- via Facebook* Run by: Sewa International USA Sent to: Deseeya Seva Bharati Keralam (NGO)

GAMA Kerala Flood Relief Fund - via GoFundMe* Run by: Greater Austin Malayalee Association Sent to: CMDRF

Kerala Floods Relief Fundraiser- via GoFundMe* Run by: The Kerala Club of Detroit, Michigan [The Kerala Club of Detroit will match donations by 20% (up to $10,000)] Sent to: “most flood-affected district's authorities and/or local non-governmental organizations who are providing relief aid to the flood victims”

Singapore [SGD]

South India Floods Response - Public Appeal- via Red Cross Run by: Singapore Red Cross Sent to: CMDRF

Sweden [SEK]

Göteborg Kerala Flood Relief Fund- via Facebook* Run by: Mukesh Muralidharan Sent to: CMDRF

Switzerland [CHF]

Light of Life: Kerala Flood Relief- via Light of Life (donations are tax deductible in Switzerland) Run by: Light of Life (NGO) Sent to: CMDRF

#kerala #kerala floods #keralafloods #standwithkerala #donation #donation resources #kerala floods 2018 #india

[vvvveta]

WHO LOST AFGHANISTAN?

IN THE IMMEDIATE aftermath of 9/11, Americans were braying for war. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found that 90 percent of Americans approved of the United States attacking Afghanistan, while 65 percent of the public was comfortable with the prospect of Afghan civilians being killed. Only 22 percent thought that the war would last more than two years.

Americans wanted blood, and they got it. The United States invaded Afghanistan and spent the next 20 years making war there and beyond: in Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Iraq; Libya; Niger; the Philippines; Somalia; Syria; Tunisia; and Yemen, among other places. More than 770,000 people have since died violent deaths in America’s wars and interventions, including more than 312,000 civilians, according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project.

Of the 10 percent of Americans who thought that war was not the answer, a small number demonstrated against the impending conflict. They marched in Austin, Texas; New York City; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and elsewhere. It took courage to speak out against “indiscriminate retribution,” to assert that it was ludicrous to attack a country for a crime carried out by a small group of terrorists, and to suggest that the repercussions might echo for decades. They were mocked, screamed at, called scum and traitors, and worse.

Those who got it right in September 2001 have long since been forgotten. The White House, the Pentagon, and the media never sought the dissenters out for advice, comment, or counsel as the war in Afghanistan went off the rails, ending with the chaotic collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government on Sunday. Instead, those who got it wrong have consistently held sway in the halls of power. “This did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated,” President Joe Biden, who voted for military action in 2001, admitted yesterday. “[Former Afghan President Ashraf] Ghani insisted the Afghan forces would fight, but obviously he was wrong.” Ghani was hardly alone. Biden and countless other Americans played key roles in a 20-year road to defeat that began with the United States toppling the Taliban from power in 2001 and ended with the Taliban installing themselves in the presidential palace in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, this week.

Journalist Craig Whitlock’s new book, “The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War,” will help ensure that no one forgets the harm America’s civilian and military leaders did, the lies they told, and the war they lost.

Synthesizing more than 1,000 interviews and 10,000 pages of documents, Whitlock provides a stunning study of failure and mendacity, an irrefutable account of the U.S.’s ignoble defeat in the words of those who — from the battlefield to NATO headquarters in Kabul and from the Pentagon to the White House — got it so wrong for so long, papered their failures over with falsehoods, and sought to avoid even an ounce of accountability.

“People often ask me, ‘How long will this last?’” President George W. Bush said on October 11, 2001, a few days after the United States started bombing Afghanistan. “This particular battlefront will last as long as it takes to bring Al Qaeda to justice. It may happen tomorrow, it may happen a month from now, it may take a year or two. But we will prevail.”

More than a decade later, the U.S. still hadn’t won the war, and an obscure government agency, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, sought to figure out why. The result was more than 400 “Lessons Learned” interviews conducted with mostly American (but also Afghan and NATO) officials as well as other experts, aid workers, and consultants. Their assessments were candid, often damning, and the government sought to keep them under wraps.

But the indefatigable Whitlock and his employer, the Washington Post, via two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, forced the government to turn over the files. These records became the foundation of an award-winning series for the Post; now, combined with several troves of documents from various public collections, these files make “The Afghanistan Papers” the most comprehensive American accounting of the conflict and help explain, better than any book yet, why so many of those who planned, guided, and fought the war failed so spectacularly.

Deftly assembling accounts thematically and chronologically, Whitlock allows America’s war managers to hang themselves with their own quotes, offering an encyclopedic catalogue of lies and ineptitude, delusion and denial, incompetence and corruption, and, most of all, rank cowardice. Again and again, Whitlock presents the pessimistic assessments and harsh judgments of officials who believed that their remarks would never become public — war makers who could have spoken out publicly but too often kept their appraisals under wraps or voiced them when it was too late to matter.

“We didn’t have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking,” recalled Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the White House war czar under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“We did not know what we were doing,” said Richard Boucher, the Bush administration’s top diplomat for South and Central Asia.

“There was a tremendous … dysfunctionality in unity of command inside of Afghanistan, inside the military,” recalled Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, an early Afghanistan War commander.

“There was no campaign plan,” confessed Army Gen. Dan McNeill, who twice served as the top commander in Afghanistan under Bush. “I tried to get someone to define for me what winning meant, even before I went over, and nobody could.”

These and hundreds of other officials, military officers, diplomats, and analysts could have leveled with the American people immediately or at any time in the last 20 years. Had they done so, perhaps the war in Afghanistan could have been shortened by a decade or more; perhaps following conflicts wouldn’t have been so easy to start or proved so difficult to end; perhaps more than 770,000 people wouldn’t be dead and up to 59 million forced from their homes by America’s post-9/11 wars.

Instead, Americans muddled through the conflict in Afghanistan, unsure what they were there to accomplish, why they were doing it, who they were fighting, and what they were fighting for. “What were we actually doing in that country?” asked a U.S. official who served with the NATO senior civilian representative to Afghanistan. “We went in after 9/11 to defeat Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, but the mission became blurred.”

To call it confusion is the kindest possible assessment. Another is that, as Whitlock writes, the government was peddling pablum “so unwarranted and baseless that their statements amounted to a disinformation campaign.”

WHITLOCK DOES A masterful job of mining the hard-won SIGAR synopses and archived interviews to juxtapose private judgments with public comments. Bush’s first secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, recently died of multiple myeloma, but Whitlock ably demonstrates that shame ought to have taken him years earlier. Of all the craven war managers who take their star turn in “The Afghanistan Papers,” Rumsfeld may come off worst. “I have no visibility into who the bad guys are,” the late defense secretary wrote in an internal memo almost two years into the war. “We are woefully deficient in human intelligence.”

Rumsfeld never shared his pessimism with the American public. Instead, for years, he took the press to task for pushback while publicly crowing about signs of progress and corners turned. In 2003, Rumsfeld announced that the Taliban was finished. “To the extent that they assemble in anything more than ones and twos … they’ll be killed or captured,” he boasted. If there’s any justice, Rumsfeld is currently being grilled in the afterlife about whether it’s one or two Taliban fighters who are now overrunning cities and districts across Afghanistan.

So much in “The Afghanistan Papers” reads like an unsettling echo of the American war in Vietnam. During that conflict, the South Vietnamese military that was built, trained, armed, and funded by Americans was regularly (and not always unfairly) disparaged for its cowardice and incompetence. In the end, U.S. officials couldn’t understand how a 1 million-person army with billions of dollars’ worth of American weapons and equipment collapsed in 1975. In “The Afghanistan Papers,” Americans similarly disparage the Afghan military they built or make excuses for its weakness and ineptitude. How could the U.S. be at fault when its Afghan charges couldn’t read, write, or identify colors; mistook urinals for drinking fountains; couldn’t learn basic tactics or manage to shoot straight; and were both lazy and corrupt? Left unexamined is just why a rag-tag, under-armed, underfunded insurgency drawn from the same population, without an air force or superpower backing, was able to exist, much less make consistent progress, over 20 years, ending with a blitzkrieg that took one major city after another, including Kabul, in a matter of days.

Opium is another key overlap. During the Vietnam War, as heroin use among U.S. troops soared, Air America, a company run by the CIA, transported opium harvested by farmers in Laos who were also serving as soldiers in the agency’s secret army. Following its defeat in Southeast Asia, the United States sought to entangle the Soviet Union in its own “Vietnam” in Afghanistan, where, as the New York Times reported, “opium production flourished … with the involvement of some of the mujahedeen, rebels who were supported by the Central Intelligence Agency.” By the time Americans were fighting against some of those same mujahideen and their sons in the 2000s, the United States had turned against drug production and devoted billions to eradicating poppies, but Afghanistan nonetheless became the world’s top narco-state.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.21

533 – A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily (approximate date). 1307 – Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yuan. 1529 – French forces are driven out of northern Italy by Spain at the Battle of Landriano during the War of the League of Cognac. 1582 – Sengoku period: Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful of the Japanese daimyōs, is forced to commit suicide by his own general Akechi Mitsuhide. 1621 – Execution of 27 Czech noblemen on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain. 1734 – In Montreal in New France, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique is put to death, having been convicted of setting the fire that destroyed much of the city. 1749 – Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded. 1768 – James Otis Jr. offends the King and Parliament in a speech to the Massachusetts General Court. 1788 – New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States. 1791 – King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during the French Revolution. 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill. 1813 – Peninsular War: Wellington defeats Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria. 1824 – Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea. 1826 – Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas. 1848 – In the Wallachian Revolution, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Christian Tell issue the Proclamation of Islaz and create a new republican government. 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road begins. 1898 – The United States captures Guam from Spain. The few warning shots fired by the U.S. naval vessels are misinterpreted as salutes by the Spanish garrison, which was unaware that the two nations were at war. 1900 – Boxer Rebellion: China formally declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Empress Dowager Cixi. 1915 – The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down Oklahoma grandfather clause legislation which had the effect of denying the right to vote to blacks. 1919 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg general strike. 1919 – Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet at Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed are the last casualties of World War I. 1929 – An agreement brokered by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow ends the Cristero War in Mexico. 1930 – One-year conscription comes into force in France. 1940 – World War II: Italy begins an unsuccessful invasion of France. 1942 – World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces; 33,000 Allied troops are taken prisoner. 1942 – World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by Japan against the United States mainland. 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island. 1952 – The Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, is converted to Philippine College of Commerce, later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. 1957 – Ellen Fairclough is sworn in as Canada's first female Cabinet Minister. 1963 – Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is elected as Pope Paul VI. 1964 – Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan. 1970 – Penn Central declares Section 77 bankruptcy in what was the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy to date. 1973 – In its decision in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller test for determining whether something is obscene and not protected speech under the U.S. constitution. 1978 – The original production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Evita, based on the life of Eva Perón, opens at the Prince Edward Theatre, London. 1982 – John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. 1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, that American flag-burning is a form of political protest protected by the First Amendment. 2000 – Section 28 (of the Local Government Act 1988), outlawing the 'promotion' of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, is repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote. 2001 – A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen. 2004 – SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight. 2005 – Edgar Ray Killen, who had previously been unsuccessfully tried for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, is convicted of manslaughter 41 years afterwards (the case had been reopened in 2004). 2006 – Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra. 2009 – Greenland assumes self-rule. 2012 – A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsizes in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing.

#Events

[girgisfinal]

In a class on car history (AmCult 212), I was introduced to an interactive website that shows how countless cities across the U.S. changed post-Interstate Highway System. The website can be found here: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/12/60yrsmidwest/.

A brief excerpt from my paper on the issue is offered below. 

On June 29, 1956, President Eisenhower heeded their calls and signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (“The Interstate Highway System”). The act created a “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways” that spanned 41,000 miles and sought to ensure  “speedy, safe transcontinental travel”. The project was one of the longest-running and most elaborate engineering feats of the U.S. government. Construction ran from 1956 to 1992, costing $114 billion (equivalent to $530 billion in 2019) and spanning the entirety of the continental United States (“Traveling Interstates”). Alaska, Hawa’ii, and Puerto Rico also received funding from the program, but their highways are not officially designated as Interstate Highways (“FHWA”). 

The nature of the IHS’s goals meant that highways would be built through the core of urban areas in order to facilitate inter-metropolitan transportation. This reality very quickly uncovered another: the IHS would devastate Black neighborhoods in city centers. Thomas MacDonald, the head of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) during the IHS’s nascent years, expressed to President Eisenhower the need for housing policy made in conjunction with highway planning so that communities displaced from the construction would not be an afterthought (Mohl 230). This was rejected, however, and the subsequent disarray led to a pattern known as “urban renewal”: 

The federal government rejected an urban policy that integrated highways and housing. However, other powerful interest groups were quick to recognize the implications of Interstate Highway construction at the cities’ cores...The absence of any official interest in rebuilding inner-city housing for those displaced meant that huge sections of central-city land could be cleared for other uses...Because such housing accommodated mostly poor and minority residents, highway building often meant black removal from the central-city area (Mohl 232). 

The IHS, then, prompted a vicious cycle. White flight caused Black urban neighborhoods to flounder for lack of public funding. These neighborhoods, seen as expendable, were then cleared by highway construction, which then provided interest groups the opportunity to clear them for other uses as well. This compounded destruction left Black communities struggling even more than before while highway transit facilitated increased white migration to the suburbs.Mary Bishop, a resident of Roanoke, VA, recalls the gradual collapse of her community: 

The first urban renewal project in 1955, which was called the Commonwealth project, involv[ed] eighty-three acres located in a section of the city known as Northeast. Northeast was situated just north of the central business district, and housed a poor but striving portion of the black community. The Commonwealth project was followed in 1964 by the Kimball project, which destroyed the remaining portion of Northeast. By 1968, a third urban renewal project was designated for Gainsboro, the neighboring African American community…[It] slowly [ate] away at the neighborhood until only a tattered shadow remained to remind people of the once-vibrant area. In 1995...the African American community of Roanoke had been disposed from its original place of settlement (Fullilove 74). 

Many residents quickly realized the outcomes of the IHS, and people began to protest certain construction projects. In 1959, San Francisco residents successfully stopped the construction of the Embarcadero Freeway. Similar victories were won in New York City, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and other cities throughout the 1960s (“The Interstate Highway System”). Advocates for these neigborhoods often used the phrase “Urban renewal means negro removal” (Fullilove 70). Despite the inevitable truth of these words, the IHS was built to near-completion with little consideration for the communities being harmed.

References

“FHWA Route Log and Finder List.” U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Highway Administration, www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/national_highway_system/interstate_highway_system/routefinder/index.cfm.

“Interstate Highway System.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 27 May 2010, www.history.com/topics/us-states/interstate-highway-system.

Mohl, Raymond. “From Tenements to the Taylor Homes: in Search of an Urban Housing Policy in Twentieth-Century America.” From Tenements to the Taylor Homes: In Search of an Urban Housing Policy in Twentieth-Century America, by John F. Bauman et al., Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000, pp. 226–245.

“ROOT SHOCK: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It .” ROOT SHOCK: How Tearing up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It, by Mindy Thompson Fullilove, NEW VILLAGE Press, 2016, pp. 71–100.

“Traveling Interstates Is Our Sixth Freedom.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 22 June 2006, usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/neuharth/2006-06-22-interstates_x.htm.

[orbemnews]

Short-Sellers Fear for the Future Wall Street’s skeptics are suffering Short-sellers have long been some of Wall Street’s most reviled villains. But the recent “meme stock” frenzy — in part, a concerted effort to squeeze such investors — has left many fearing for their livelihoods, The Times’s Kate Kelly and Matt Goldstein report. Short-sellers have been battered by the bull market. Hedge funds that primarily bet against stocks were down 47 percent over the past year. “Short-sellers have been beaten up and left for dead on the side of the road,” said Jim Chanos, the investor who famously bet against Enron ahead of its collapse. Now they are worried about new challenges: The GameStop frenzy shows that internet-enabled herds can bet en masse on companies, driving up their stock price and saddling shorts with huge losses. “I see dead hedge funds,” one user posted in a Reddit forum. Washington lawmakers are holding shorts up as potential market manipulators. “We must deal with the hedge funds whose unethical conduct directly led to the recent market volatility,” said Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat, the head of the House Financial Services Committee who will oversee a Feb. 18 hearing on the meme stock mania. Crowded trades and a bull market have “destroyed what’s left of short-sellers,” said Marc Cohodes, a veteran investor. Some worry about their personal safety, too. Fahmi Quadir, who runs a $50 million hedge fund, shares her GPS coordinates with a colleague. And Gabe Plotkin, whose Melvin Capital was specifically targeted by Reddit traders, had to hire security after his family was threatened. HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING A setback in the fight against Covid-19. South Africa halted distribution of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine after a preliminary study showed that it had limited effect against the coronavirus variant first identified in the country. President Biden presses for a huge stimulus measure. The president defended efforts to pass a $1.9 trillion package with only Democratic votes, rejecting calls for smaller proposals. In related news, Democrats plan to unveil a $3,000-per-child cash payment. Democratic senators propose rewriting a tech legal shield. The “SAFE TECH Act,” proposed by Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, would establish limits to websites’ immunity from legal liability on user-posted content. It has encountered resistance from groups that say smaller tech platforms could be hurt more than giants like Google and Facebook. SoftBank’s Vision Fund posts a huge quarterly gain. The Japanese company’s tech investment fund reported an $8 billion profit in its latest quarter, thanks to portfolio companies like OpenDoor and DoorDash going public. SoftBank as a whole reported an $11 billion profit, surpassing estimates. The best of the Super Bowl. Sure, Tom Brady solidified his status as the greatest quarterback of all time as he led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a blowout victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. But let’s talk about the ads, which included pleas for unity (Bruce Springsteen for Jeep), nostalgic weirdness (Timothée Chalamet as the son of Edward Scissorhands for Cadillac) and just plain old weirdness (Toni Petersson, the C.E.O. of Oatly). Andrew’s favorite: Jason Alexander, in a manner of speaking, for Tide. Where do you get your financial advice? As lawmakers and regulators investigate the meme stock frenzy, they are taking a closer look at online forums and social media accounts. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said yesterday that she wanted to “make sure that investors are adequately protected.” Disclosures and disclaimers are in focus. The trader known as “Roaring Kitty” put a disclaimer on his popular YouTube videos about GameStop, recommending that potential investors consult an adviser before acting. But an analysis of more than 1,200 TikTok videos by 50 “StockTok” influencers found that 14 percent encouraged users to make trades without a disclaimer, according to the cryptocurrency trading platform Paxful. Those videos, some of which were flagged by TikTok as “misleading,” have garnered 28.4 million views. Regulators have been here before. During the dot-com boom, the S.E.C. kept tabs on chat rooms for signs of manipulation, as in the case of Jonathan Lebed, a teenager who posted messages touting stocks he owned. In September 2000, he settled with the agency by agreeing to pay back $285,000. There’s an ETF for that: The asset manager VanEck is starting a fund that scours Twitter, forums and blogs for stocks with a lot of online buzz. “The elements in the new system consist of central computers, an automatic communications network and desktop terminals.” — On this day 50 years ago, the Nasdaq booted up the first electronic stock exchange, which The Times called “the most revolutionary innovation in the history of the over-the-counter market.” Microsoft’s president talks politics After the Jan. 6 riot in Washington, companies have been rethinking their political donations, as we detailed this weekend. Microsoft, which has given hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent election cycles to Republicans who went on to challenge the certification of votes after the storming of the Capitol, said late last week that it would cut them off. In the first in-depth interview about the decision, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, spoke with Kara Swisher on the “Sway” podcast. One donation came as a particularly unpleasant surprise, Mr. Smith said, referring to a gift to Senator Josh Hawley, who led Republican efforts to question the election result. “When I learned in January that that donation had been made in the early part of December, it did not bring an enthusiastic beginning to my morning,” said Mr. Smith, who leaves day-to-day decisions in this area to the company’s PAC department. Microsoft has redefined its PAC policies. Mr. Smith said the company would now more explicitly consider issues like whether politicians “are good for democracy.” There is still a place for the corporate PAC, Mr. Smith argued. Although the point of a corporate PAC is up for debate, “I think we have one for good reasons,” he said. Those reasons, namely, are because crucial matters of privacy, security and competition are “going to be decided in the world of politics.” The serial SPAC sponsor Alec Gores strikes another deal The blank-check company Gores Holding VI is acquiring Matterport in a deal that values the real-estate technology company at $2.3 billion. The merger also includes a cash infusion of $640 million. Alec Gores was early to the SPAC game, notably with his firm’s 2016 deal for Hostess. The firm also boasts the biggest SPAC deal to date, taking United Wholesale Mortgage public last year in a deal worth more than $16 billion. Gores Holding raised its seventh SPAC last month, helping January set a record for SPAC fund-raising, with blank-check I.P.O.s worth nearly $26 billion. Today’s deal was the first by Gores since Justin Wilson and Ted Fike joined from Softbank’s Vision Fund, suggesting a tech shift for the firm’s SPAC business. Matterport makes spatial data technology that helps create 3-D visualizations of properties like homes and event spaces. The week ahead Corporate earnings continue to come in better than expected, defying initial forecasts of another pandemic-fueled decline and forcing analysts to upgrade their expectations. Blue-chip companies hoping to keep the streak alive this week include: Fox, KKR and Twitter on Tuesday; Coca-Cola, G.M. and Uber on Wednesday; and AstraZeneca, Disney and PepsiCo on Thursday. Bumble is scheduled to make its market debut midweek, and is predicted to raise about $1 billion in an I.P.O. that values the online dating company at around $6 billion. And finally, the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump starts on Tuesday. Will Biden curb the ‘curse of bigness’? The Biden administration must choose between taking a progressive view of antitrust regulations, using the law to rein in or break up big companies; sticking with the laissez-faire approach that critics say has led to extreme concentration; or trying to find some middle path. The pressure on the president from the left comes from those who argue that a tougher approach simply hearkens to the past, when the authorities recognized what Louis Brandeis, who went on to become a Supreme Court justice, called the “curse of bigness” in the early 20th century. “Monopoly power is a causal factor in our most serious economic challenges,” states a new report from the American Economic Liberties Project, an antimonopoly nonprofit, shared first with DealBook. The group argues for a new-old ideological regime that reins in consolidation, proposing dozens of actions for the Justice Department, F.T.C., F.C.C., Congress and many other official bodies. “This is a major project,” the group’s executive director, Sarah Miller, said. The need to “reject old ideological underpinnings” is a unifying theme throughout the report, she added. “There is not just one silver bullet.” A new lens is needed, Ms. Miller said. For decades, antitrust reviews have employed a “consumer welfare standard” that examines mergers for economic efficiency, mostly focused on the effect a deal has on prices. But people aren’t just consumers — they are also workers, voters, entrepreneurs and community members. In practice, Ms. Miller argues, as industries consolidate, consumers sometimes pay less for products, but wages also stagnate and entrepreneurship falters. “America’s concentration crisis did not emerge in the Trump years,” but it deepened during this time, according to the report. The group compiled a downloadable database of more than 1,300 significant mergers during the Trump era, noting that “basic, usable information” about M.&A. is mostly unavailable to the public. THE SPEED READ Deals In SPAC news: Elliott Management is reportedly considering raising $1 billion for a blank-check fund; SoftBank is seeking $630 million for two SPACs; and Danny Meyer, the founder of Shake Shack, is planning to raise $250 million for a fund. (WSJ, Bloomberg) Oatly, the maker of plant-based dairy products, is reportedly seeking a $10 billion valuation in its I.P.O. (Bloomberg) Politics and policy Donald Trump’s efforts to contest the 2020 presidential election have cost federal, state and local governments an estimated $519 million. (WaPo) Tech Best of the rest Bill McGlashan, the former TPG executive embroiled in the college admissions scandal, will plead guilty to two charges. (Bloomberg) Jeff Immelt accepts some blame for G.E.’s stumbles — but offers a lot of excuses, too. (NYT) Clawing back pay for misconduct is hard, so some companies are forcing top executives to set aside share grants for at least a year, even after they vest. (WSJ) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected]. Source link Orbem News #Fear #Future #ShortSellers

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Us Essay Writers Total property in the banking sector stood at 62.5 % of gross domestic product at finish of September 2018. The gross non-performing mortgage ratio was 11.forty five p.c at end of September 2018. Currently, 34 non-financial institution monetary establishments are working in Bangladesh. They are regulated beneath the Financial Institution Act, 1993 and controlled by the BB. Out of the total, two are fully government owned, one is a subsidiary of an SOCB, 15 are private home initiatives, and 15 are three way partnership initiatives. Major sources of funds of those financial institutions are time period deposits , credit facilities from banks and other financial institutions, name cash, in addition to bonds and securitization. Since 2015, authorities have relaxed restrictions by allowing some debits of balances in such accounts for outward remittances, however there is presently no established timetable for the entire removing of the restrictions. Bangladesh foreign change rules, which restrict outward funds, largely prevent the use of cryptocurrencies in Bangladesh. The BB issued comparable warnings towards cryptocurrencies in 2014. The banking sector has had a mixed report of performance over the previous several years, however the sector has maintained total healthy growth. BIAC is an independent arbitration center established by prominent native business leaders in April 2011 to enhance industrial dispute decision in Bangladesh to stimulate economic growth. The middle operates beneath the Bangladesh Arbitration Act of 2001. According to BIAC, quick monitor cases are resolved in approximately six months whereas typical circumstances are resolved in a single yr. Major Bangladeshi trade and business associations such as the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh can sometimes assist to resolve transaction disputes. If accredited, the Digital Security Act would create a Digital Security Agency empowered to monitor and supervise digital content material. Independent non-coal fired power crops commencing manufacturing after January 1, 2015 are granted a 100% tax exemption for 5 years, a 50 p.c exemption for years 6-eight, and a 25 percent exemption for years 9-10. For coal-fired IPPs contracting with the GOB before June 30, 2020 and COD earlier than June 30, 2023, the tax exemption price is 100 percent for the first 15 years of operations. For energy projects, import duties are waived for imports of capital machinery and spare components. Investors are additionally increasingly turning to the Bangladesh International Arbitration Center for dispute decision. The ICT Controller enforces the ICT Act and the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission enforces the BTRA. The Ministry of Home Affairs grants approval to be used of powers given under the BTRA. The ICT Act also established a Cyber Tribunal to adjudicate instances. The Demutualization Act 2013 also directed DSE to pursue a strategic investor who would acquire a 25 % stake within the bourse. BSEC has fashioned separate committees to ascertain a central clearing and settlement firm, enable enterprise capital and private fairness companies, launch derivatives products, and activate the bond market. In December 2013, BSEC became a full signatory of International Organization of Securities Commissions Memorandum of Understanding. Capital markets in Bangladesh are still creating and the monetary sector remains highly depending on bank lending. Current government coverage inhibits the creation of reliable benchmarks for lengthy-term bonds and prevents the development of a tradable bond market. A number of authorities businesses are empowered to take action towards counterfeiting, including the NBR/Customs, Mobile Courts, the Rapid Action Battalion , and local Police. The Department of National Consumer Rights Protection is charged with monitoring and reporting on counterfeit goods and the NBR/Customs tracks counterfeit goods seizures at ports of entry. Bangladesh has slowly made progress towards bringing its legislative framework into compliance with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights . The round noted that using cryptocurrencies might violate current money laundering and terrorist financing laws and that users might incur financial losses. According to the BB, the circular didn't represent a ban. The authorities enacted a Copyright Law in July 2000 , a Trademarks Act in 2009, and Geographical Indication of Goods Act in 2013. The Department of Patents, Designs and Trademarks drafted a new Patent Act in 2014 ready in compliance with the necessities of the TRIPS Agreement. However the draft act still stays beneath Ministry of Industries evaluation and this effort has not made measurable progress during the previous 12 months. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority’s Ride-sharing Service Guideline 2017 got here into drive on March 8, 2018. The new laws included necessities that experience sharing firms maintain knowledge servers inside Bangladesh.

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20-05-2020 Current affairs & Daily News Analysis

Govt to further revise criteria for classifying 'medium' enterprises under MSME definition: Gadkari Days after changing the definition of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the government has decided to further revise the criteria for medium units by enhancing the investment and turnover limits to up to ₹50 crore and ₹200 crore respectively.

About: As per the revised definition, any firm with investment up to ₹1 crore and turnover under ₹5 crore will be classified as “micro”. A company with investment up to ₹10 crore and turnover up to ₹50 crore will be classified as “small” and a firm with investment up to ₹20 crore and turnover under ₹100 crore will be classified as “medium”. The previous criteria for classifying enterprises in the “medium” category was investment up to ₹10 crore and turnover of up to ₹5 crore.  Source : The Hindu ( Economy ) Read UPSC Current affairs and Daily News Analysis from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Govt launches National Test Abhyas mobile app for candidates to take mock tests for JEE Main and NEET Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister launched a new mobile app called the ‘National Test Abhyas'.

About: The AI-powered mobile App has been developed by National Testing Agency (NTA) to enable candidates to take mock tests for upcoming exams such as JEE Main, NEET under the NTA’s purview. The app has been launched to facilitate candidates’ access to high quality mock tests in their homes since there was a demand for making up the loss to students due to closure of educational institutions and NTA’s Test-Practice Centers (TPCs) due to the continuing lockdown.  Source : PIB ( Education ) Read UPSC Current affairs and Daily News Analysis from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy mRNA-1273 US stock markets went soaring on the back of promising results from mRNA-1273 vaccine against novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) developed by US pharmaceutical company Moderna.

About: mRNA-1273 is the working name of Moderna’s vaccine, which is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials under the aegis of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The mRNA in the name means messenger RNA, which carries the genetic formula for the coding of a specific protein. In this vaccine, the particular mRNA used codes for the most distinguishing feature of the SARS-CoV2 — the spike protein — which is also the appendage that the virus uses to enter the cell and replicate. The vaccine, when injected into a person, codes for the spike protein. Thus even without the introduction of an attenuated (recognisable but not harmful) virus into the body, the body learns what the virus looks like and arms itself with the antibodies that are required to act against it. Source : Indian Express ( Health ) Read UPSC Current affairs and Daily News Analysis from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy India resumes purchase of Malaysian palm oil: Report Indian buyers have resumed purchases of Malaysian palm oil after a four-month gap following a diplomatic row, with buying spurred by a fall in domestic inventories and discounted prices.

About: The renewed purchases come amid improving trade relations between the two countries after the formation of a new government in Kuala Lumpur, with Malaysia signing a deal last week to buy a record 100,000 tonnes of Indian rice. Leading Indian importers last week contracted up to 200,000 tonnes of crude palm oil from Malaysia, the world’s No.2 producer after Indonesia, to be shipped in June and July. A restart to buying by India, the world’s biggest edible oil importer, could further support Malaysian palm oil prices. India buys more than 9 million tonnes of palm oil a year, accounting for nearly two-thirds of its total edible oil imports, and took a record 4.4 million tonnes of Malaysian palm oil in 2019.  Source : Times of India ( Economy ) Read UPSC Current affairs and Daily News Analysis from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy EMPLOYEES PROVIDENT FUND (EPF) Government has notified cut in Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contribution to 10% for May, June, July.

About: The Centre has notified the reduction in statutory rate of contributions from 12 per cent to 10 per cent for wage months period from May to July, 2020 for all class of establishments covered under the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 . Reduction in rate of EPF contributions from 12 per cent to 10 percent of basic wages and Dearness allowances is intended to benefit both 4.3 Crore employees. As a result of reduction in statutory rate of contributions, the employee will have a higher take home pay. Important Info : Exemptions? This reduction of rate of contribution is not applicable to establishments like Central and State Public Sector enterprises or any other establishment owned or controlled by or under control of the Central or State Government.The reduced rate is also not applicable for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana-PMGKY beneficiaries.  Source : All India Radio ( Economy ) Read UPSC Current affairs and Daily News Analysis from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy WAG12 The Indian Railways has operationalised its first 12,000 hp electric locomotive manufactured locally by French rolling stock manufacturer Alstom. The loco is named WAG12 with Number 60027.

About: The locomotive made its maiden commercial run between Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Station to Shivpur. India became the sixth country in the world to join the club of countries producing high horsepower locomotive indigenously. It has been manufactured at the Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL), in Bihar, which is a joint venture between the French major and the Indian railways holding an equity share of 74% and 26% respectively. The joint venture remains the largest Foreign Direct Investment in the railways sector. Entry of WAG 12B (e-loco) into the Indian Railways fleet will allow faster and safer movement of heavier freight trains capable to haul around 6000 tonnes at a top speed of 120 kmph. It is the first time, high horse power locomotive has been operationalised on broad gauge track in the world.  Source : Economic Times ( Economy ) Read UPSC Current affairs and Daily News Analysis from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy 73rd WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health participated in the 73rd World Health Assembly (WHA) through Video Conference.

About: The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of World Health Organization (WHO). It is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board. The main functions of the World Health Assembly are to determine the policies of the Organization, appoint the Director-General, supervise financial policies, and review and approve the proposed programme budget. The Health Assembly is held annually in Geneva, Switzerland.  Important Info : At the assembly, more than 100 countries including India backed a resolution drafted by the European Union calling for an independent inquiry into the pandemic, which has claimed more than 3 lakh lives globally so far.  Source : PIB ( International ) Read UPSC Current affairs and Daily News Analysis from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy WORLD BEE DAY 2020 World Bee Day 2020 is being celebated on May 20 under the theme “Save the Bees.”

About: To raise awareness of the importance of Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the UN designated 20 May as World Bee Day. Why 20 May? 20 May coincides with the birthday of Anton Janša, who in the 18th century pioneered modern beekeeping techniques in his native Slovenia and praised the bees for their ability to work so hard, while needing so little attention. Important Info : Recognizing the dimensions of the pollination crisis and its links to biodiversity and human livelihoods, the Convention on Biological Diversity has made the conservation and sustainable use of pollinators a priority.In 2000, the International Pollinator Initiative (IPI) was established at the Fifth Conference of Parties (COP V) as a cross-cutting initiative to promote the sustainable use of pollinators in agriculture and related ecosystems. Source : United Nations ( Environment ) Read UPSC Current affairs and Daily News Analysis from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy NEPAL-INDIA BORDER DISPUTE The Nepal government has decided it will release a new, updated political map which will include the disputed areas of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as part of Nepali territory.

About: This comes after the Indian defence ministry recently inaugurated a link road to the China border that passes through Lipulekh. The Kalapani territory is an area under Indian administration as part of Pithoragarh district in the Uttarakhand state. Following the road inauguration, the Nepal government released a press note stating that the eastern area from Mahakali River belongs to Nepal as per the Sugauli Treaty, 1816. But the Indian government said that it had constructed the road in its own territory. A few days later, the Indian Army chief General M.M. Naravane accused Nepal of acting ‘at the behest of someone else,’ a thinly veiled reference to China. Source : The Wire ( International ) Read UPSC Current affairs and Daily News Analysis from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy SOLAR MINIMUM The sun is said to have gone into a state called the 'solar minimum' and is about to enter the deepest period of 'sunshine recession' as sunspots are virtually not visibly at all. Some reports suggest that it has been almost 100 days this year when the sun has shown zero sunspots.

About: Sun has a cycle that lasts on average 11 years, and right now we are at the peak of that cycle. Every 11 years or so, sunspots fade away, bringing a period of relative calm. This is called the solar minimum. And it’s a regular part of the sunspot cycle. While intense activity such as sunspots and solar flares subside during solar minimum, that doesn’t mean the sun becomes dull. Solar activity simply changes form. For instance, during solar minimum we can see the development of long-lived coronal holes. This may cause health risks to astronauts travelling through space as "the sun’s magnetic field weakens and provides less shielding from these cosmic rays. Source : Times Now ( Science & Technology ) Read UPSC Current affairs and Daily News Analysis from Best IAS Academy in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Daily Current affairs and News Analysis Best IAS Coaching institutes in Bangalore Vignan IAS Academy Contact Vignan IAS Academy Enroll For IAS Foundation Course from Best IFS Academy in Bangalore Read the full article

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[un-enfant-immature]

Funderbeam CEO to talk about disrupting startup funding at Disrupt Berlin

Startup funding hasn’t changed much in the past decade. Funderbeam is an interesting company trying to turn everything upside down using a marketplace approach, a modern syndication system and a blockchain-based platform. I’m excited to announce that Funderbeam founder and CEO Kaidi Ruusalepp will come to TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin.

The first boom of venture capital of the 1980s changed everything in the tech industry. Countless of tech startups managed to get funding, grow and make money down the road. Without venture capital firms, some of the biggest tech firms out there just wouldn’t be around.

Arguably, convertible notes and accelerators turned startups into a mainstream phenomenon. It became much easier to get seed funding and some sort of mentorship.

But it hasn’t changed much since then. Funderbeam has some ambitious goals as the company wants to change everything by adding more transparency and liquidity into private funding.

Funderbeam combines multiple products into one. As a startup, you can use Funderbeam to raise your next funding round. Funderbeam acts as a marketplace so that angel investors can invest in your startup. As a business angel, you can invest in a syndicate.

The startup is also building a secondary market so that early investors in a company can sell shares to newer investors. And Funderbeam also compiles all its data on startups to create a database of financial information on startups.

Buy your ticket to Disrupt Berlin to listen to this discussion and many others. The conference will take place on November 29-30.

In addition to fireside chats and panels, like this one, new startups will participate in the Startup Battlefield Europe to win the highly coveted Battlefield cup.

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Kaidi Ruusalepp

Founder & CEO, Funderbeam

Founder and CEO of Funderbeam, the global funding and trading platform of private companies built on blockchain. Funderbeam combines three stages of investor journey into one: startup analytics, investing, and trading on the secondary market. Powered by blockchain technology, the marketplace delivers capital to growth companies and on-demand liquidity to investors worldwide.

Member of Startup Europe Advisory Board at European Commission. Kaidi is a former CEO of Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange and of the Central Securities Depository. Co-Founder of Estonian Service Industry Association. The first IT lawyer in Estonia, she co-author of the Estonian Digital Signatures Act of 2000 — landmark legislation that enables secure digital identities and, in turn, the country’s booming electronic economy.

Kaidi was named as an Entrepreneur of a Year in 2018 by the Playmakers Technology Award and as a Person of a Year in 2016 by the Estonian IT and Telecommunication Association. Co-author of #Foundership Playbook and mentor of various girls and women in tech initiatives.

#TechCrunch

[tarilyn27-blog]

Standing on the sidewalk doesn’t work

I got into an argument today, after hearing that the official white house website, less than 24 hours after the inauguration of Donald Trump, shut down the following pages: LGBT, Equal Pay, Women in STEM, Health Care, and Civil Rights. They also disabled petitions from WeThePeople, one of the largest petition sites we have. I pointed out that five states have already passed laws attempting to criminalize and/or discourage disruptive protests. My opponent informed me that such people should be thrown in jail for disrupting her daily life with their grievances. I could not believe my ears. First of all, the issues that are being protested are worthy goals - preserving our civil rights and our environment. Second of all, non-disruptive protest can be effective sometimes, but with as far gone as we are right now, standing on the sidewalk with our signs isn’t going to work. We need to block roadways, to strike, to disrupt everyone’s precious routine. If you let them take away that right, then next they’re going to take away our right to stand on the sidewalk. And they will slowly but surely begin to chip away at our liberties until we have none left and we wonder what has happened to them. We have a right to demand redress from those in power, and to raise our voices when they are not being heard. We have a responsibility to all of humanity to make sure that we stand up for what is right, no matter what. We will fight, and yes, we will disrupt your silly little routines to preserve our planet and our rights. You think our fight is petty, you think it’s whiners and crybabies who don’t know what the real world is, pick up a goddamned history book and educate yourself.

Some examples:

As one of the four mounted heralds of the Suffrage Parade on March 3, 1913, lawyer Inez Milholland Boissevain led a procession of more than 5,000 marchers down Washington D.C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue. The National American Woman Suffrage Association raised more than $14,000 to fund the event that became one of the most important moments in the struggle to grant women the right to vote — a right that was finally achieved seven years later.

As a nascent union, the United Auto Workers, formed in 1935, had a lot to fight for. During the Depression, General Motors executives started shifting work loads to plants with non-union members, crippling the UAW. So in December 1936, workers held a sit-in at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, Michigan. Within two weeks, about 135,000 men were striking in 35 cities across the nation. Although the sit-ins were followed by riots, the images of bands playing on assembly lines and men sleeping near shuttered machines recall the serene strength behind the movement that solidified one of North America's largest unions.

Even though African Americans constituted some 70% of total bus ridership in Montgomery, Ala., Rosa Parks still had trouble keeping her seat on Dec. 1, 1955. It was against the law for her to refuse to give up her seat to a white man, and her subsequent arrest incited the Montgomery Bus Boycott. One year later, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision that made segregated seating unconstitutional. Parks was known thereafter as the "mother of the civil-rights movement."

After the death of pro-democracy leader Hu Yaobang in mid-1989, students began gathering in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn his passing. Over the course of seven weeks, people from all walks of life joined the group to protest for greater freedom. The Chinese government deployed military tanks on June 4 to squelch the growing demonstration and randomly shot into the crowds, killing more than 200 people. One lone, defiant man walked onto the road and stood directly in front of the line of tanks, weaving from side to side to block the tanks and even climbing on top of the first tank at one point in an attempt to get inside. The man's identity remains a mystery. Some say he was killed; others believe him to be in hiding in Taiwan.

494 B.C. -- The plebeians of Rome withdrew from the city and refused to work for days in order to correct grievances they had against the Roman consuls.  

1765-1775 A.D. -- The American colonists mounted three major nonviolent resistance campaigns against British rule (against the Stamp Acts of 1765, the Townsend Acts of 1767, and the Coercive Acts of 1774) resulting in de facto independence for nine colonies by 1775.

1850-1867 -- Hungarian nationalists, led by Francis Deak, engaged in nonviolent resistance to Austrian rule, eventually regaining self-governance for Hungary as part of an Austro-Hungarian federation.  

1905-1906 -- In Russia, peasants, workers, students, and the intelligentsia engaged in major strikes and other forms of nonviolent action, forcing the Czar to accept the creation of an elected legislature.  

1917 -- The February 1917 Russian Revolution, despite some limited violence, was also predominantly nonviolent and led to the collapse of the czarist system.  

1913-1919 -- Nonviolent demonstrations for woman's suffrage in the United States led to the passage and ratification of the Constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.  

1920 -- An attempted coup d'etat, led by Wolfgang Kapp against the Weimar Republic of Germany failed when the population went on a general strike, refusing to give its consent and cooperation to the new government.  

1923 -- Despite severe repression, Germans resisted the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr, making the occupation so costly politically and economically that the French and Belgian forces finally withdrew.  

1920s-1947 -- The Indian independence movement led by Mohandas Gandhi is one of the best known examples of nonviolent struggle.  

1933-45 -- Throughout World War II, there were a series of small and usually isolated groups that used nonviolent techniques against the Nazis successfully. These groups include the White Rose and the Rosenstrasse Resistance.

1940-43 -- During World War II, after the invasion of the Wehrmacht, the Danish government adopted a policy of official cooperation (and unofficial obstruction) which they called "negotiation under protest." Embraced by many Danes, the unofficial resistance included slow production, emphatic celebration of Danish culture and history, and bureaucratic quagmires.

1940-45 -- During World War II, Norwegian civil disobedience included preventing the Nazification of Norway's educational system, distributing of illegal newspapers, and maintaining social distance(an "ice front") from the German soldiers.  

1940-45 -- Nonviolent action to save Jews from the Holocaust in Berlin, Bulgaria, Denmark, Le Chambon, France and elsewhere.  

1944 -- Two Central American dictators, Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez (El Salvador) and Jorge Ubico (Guatemala), were ousted as a result of nonviolent civilian insurrections.

1953 -- A wave of strikes in Soviet prison labor camps led to improvements in living conditions of political prisoners.  

1955-1968 -- Using a variety of nonviolent methods, including bus boycotts, economic boycotts, massive demonstrations, marches, sit-ins, and freedom rides, the U.S. civil rights movement won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

1968-69 -- Nonviolent resistance to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia enabled the Dubcek regime to stay in power for eight months, far longer than would have been possible with military resistance.  

1970s and 80s -- The anti-nuclear power movements in the US had campaigns against the start-up of various nuclear power plants across the US, including Diablo Canyon in Central California.  

1986-94 -- US activists resist the forced relocation of over 10,000 traditional Navajo people living in Northeastern Arizona, using the Genocide Demands, where they called for the prosecution of all those responsible for the relocation for the crime of genocide.  

1986 -- The Philippines "people power" movement brought down the oppressive Marcos dictatorship.  

1989 -- The nonviolent struggles to end the Communist dictatorships in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and in East Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1991.  

1989 -- The Solidarity struggle in Poland, which began in 1980 with strikes to support the demand of a legal free trade union, and concluded in 1989 with the end of the Polish Communist regime.

1989 -- Nonviolent struggles led to the end of the Communist dictatorships in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and in East Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1991.  

1990 -- The nonviolent protests and mass resistance against the Apartheid policies in South Africa, including a massive international divestment movement, especially between 1950 and 1990, brings Apartheid down in 1990. Nelson Mandela, African National Congress leader, is elected President of South Africa in 1994 after spending 27 years in prison for sedition.  

1991 -- The noncooperation and defiance defeated the Soviet “hard-line” coup d'état in Moscow.  

1996 -- The movement to oust Serbia dictator Slobodan Milosevic, which began in November 1996 with Serbs conducting daily parades and protests in Belgrade and other cities. At that time, however, Serb democrats lacked a strategy to press on the struggle and failed to launch a campaign to bring down the Milosovic dictatorship. In early October 2000, the Otpor (Resistance) movement and other democrats rose up again against Milosevic in a carefully planned nonviolent struggle.

1999 to Present -- Popular protests of corporate power & globalization begin with Seattle WTO protest in Seattle, 1999. This is what set the trend for the Occupy movement which is still alive.

2001 -- The “People Power Two” campaign, ousts Filipino President Estrada in early 2001.  

2004-05 -- The Ukranian people take back their democracy with the Orange revolution.  

2010 to Present -- Arab Spring nonviolent uprisings result in the ouster of dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt and ongoing struggles in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries.

And if you’re curious how Trumps rise to power parallels that of Adolf Hitler and the rise of fascism in Germany, please see the following links:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/01/comparing-fascism-donald-trump-historians-trumpism

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/paul-krugman-uncovers-chilling-parallels-among-trump-fascism-and-fall-roman-republic

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-scholar-of-fascism-sees-a-lot-thats-familiar-with-trump

any more questions?

[scienceblogtumbler]

About ready to roll: American high-speed rail

When the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act was authorized in 1976 (also known as the 4R Act) it had been 10 years since the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965, introduced by Congress, passed. Interest seemed strong through the 1980s and ’90s but funding for and forward momentum in this direction failed to materialize.

Now, almost 45 years later, the Transportation Technology Center located some 25 miles from Pueblo, Colorado is the facility where one of Amtrak’s new 160 mph-capable Acela high-speed trainsets is currently undergoing extensive testing. This is being done in preparation for actual service on the National Railroad Passenger Corporation’s 457-mile-long Northeast Corridor (NEC) set to begin in 2021.

Making tracks for faster trains

The newest Acela’s, a product of Alstom, will replace the now 20-year-old versions from Canadian builder Bombardier, in use in the NEC Boston-to-Washington, D.C. service lane since year 2000. These trains, due to railway track limitations, are restricted to 150 mph; only two relatively short stretches on the corridor permit this high a speed.

And, this is only the beginning. Another electrified high-speed train service, this time planned for the western U.S., is XpressWest’s initial 180-mile-long Las Vegas, Nevada to Victorville, California pike, the start of operations estimated to be in 2023 with eventual extension to Los Angeles, this along with a proposed tie-in in Palmdale, in the Golden State’s high-desert region, one that would enable a direct connection to California’s own high-speed rail project there when it arrives: More on the California system in a bit. Max speed is expected to be 150 mph and indications are that project groundbreaking will commence late this year.

With the Texas Central Railroad and Infrastructure, Incorporated’s program now declared an actual railroad by a Texas appellate court recently, unless an appeal is filed and advanced by interests opposed, presumably at the State Supreme Court level, could be up and running as soon as 2025 or 2026, according to information on the company website. Construction cost of the 240-mile-long Dallas-to-Houston line is estimated to be $14 billion, approximately $20 billion being the project’s total investment. Maximum speed for trains making the presumed 90-minute trip is an even faster 205 mph.

And, the fastest of all is, of course, California’s planned Phase 1, 520-mile-long network linking Los Angeles and Anaheim in the coastal south with San Francisco in the coastal north, trains to operate at a top speed of 220 mph. Non-stop L.A.-S.F. and S.F.-L.A. are held, according to language spelled out in the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century (California Proposition 1A passed by 52.6 percent of state voters in 2008) in 2 hours, 40 minutes total, meaning an average speed of 195 mph must be maintained. The complete Phase 1 infrastructure package, estimated to be in place by 2033, will be built to 250 mph standards. Total projected cost: some $80 billion.

In the meantime, as it currently stands, California’s is the only project with actual construction work begun. Train testing is slated to commence by 2026 with full service being available on 171 miles of track between Bakersfield and Merced. This stretch’s investment plus that of electrification work on 47 miles of currently active Caltrain line between San Francisco and San Jose, $20.4 billion.

Planned for the interim until California high-speed rail reaches from the San Joaquin Valley to the San Francisco peninsula is what is referred to as Valley Rail, a collaboration between the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority (operator of the Amtrak San Joaquin passenger trains) and the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission (which manages the Altamont Corridor Express – ACE – service).

Justification for trains, high-/higher-speed

As road-based travel becomes more constrained what with the growth in population coupled with driving on the rise and roadway capacity upgrades being modest at best, the need for alternative solutions becomes self-evident and ever more relevant. As to those alternative solutions rail, more often than not, has proven to be the best bet. Not only where speed is a factor, but with regard to a host of other benefits and features.

“ … dollar for dollar, railways go so much farther in terms of handling capacity than do highways, all things being equal,” the railways thus have the far better value. This was explained in detail in “Rails vs roads for value, utilization, emissions-savings: difference like night and day” here.

The Association of American Railroads furthermore notes that truckloads in the hundreds can be removed from highways via a single freight train move, that action not only providing a sort of relief valve so to speak for limited-capacity highway infrastructure, but in providing relief to the air as well. (See: “Trains: No better mode than rail for providing air (pollution) relief” here).

American high-speed rail: Coming soon!

Images: Federal Railroad Administration (upper); San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority (lower)

This post was last revised on May 25, 2020 @ 6:58 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

source https://alankandel.scienceblog.com/2020/05/25/about-ready-to-roll-american-high-speed-rail/

[tipsoctopus]

Cantona, Drogba & seven transfers that shaped the Premier League as we know it - opinion

The Premier League is the absolute best, isn’t it?

This is a league that boasts some of the greatest footballers in the world, some of the very best teams, and some of the most historic results ever seen.

Some players end up becoming icons, making the league their own and placing their stamp on their respective teams.

Here, Football FanCast takes a look at some of the most important transfers in the league’s history.

Whether they instituted a tactical shift or potentially allowed a new era to dawn, these are some of the very finest transfers in the league’s history!

Lauren to Arsenal – 2000

Today, the Premier League is awash with full-backs who act almost as wingers, bombing down the touchline to provide space and width for the midfielder in front of them to tuck inside. But back in the summer of 2003, that was a relatively uncommon idea – in fact, the right-back position was generally occupied by the worst player in the team, expected to put in the leg-work, make some meaty challenges and eventually pick up a booking.

But Arsene Wenger’s swoop for then-Mallorca midfielder Lauren soon changed all that. With one-time reserves forward Ashley Cole asked to make a similar transition on the opposite side, overlapping full-backs became a defining feature of Arsenal’s attacking play as the Invincibles carved up the Premier League in unprecedented unbeaten fashion.

That not only led to Arsenal’s 2003/04 squad becoming arguably the greatest side in Premier League history over the course of a single season, but also accelerated a trend of dynamic full-backs that’s now commonplace throughout the division today.

Didier Drogba to Chelsea – 2004

Didier Drogba’s 2004 arrival at Chelsea not only helped transform the Blues almost instantaneously into one of the Premier League’s most dominant forces, winning four titles during his two spells at the west London club, but also changed the tactical landscape of the division for the next ten years.

Indeed, the appointment of Jose Mourinho brought a new way of tactical thinking to the English top flight; chiefly, a rejection of the age-old 4-4-2 formation for an extra body in midfield, allowing for greater control of midfield and the consequential possession to pin teams back.

That, however, required a striker large, aggressive and potent enough to essentially do the work of two centre-forwards, whilst having the power and strength to bring the midfield into the game.

Drogba fitted that bill perfectly and as the rest of the Premier League soon embraced 4-3-3 and 4-5-1 as a consequence of Chelsea’s resounding success under Mourinho, pint-sized poachers quickly began to fade away – the age of little-and-large combos coming to an abrupt end.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to Manchester United – 1996

The Premier League is very much a squad game these days, but Sir Alex Ferguson was one of the first to truly cotton onto that trend. His ability to not only pick the right players for the right game but also keep happy those who’d resultantly been left out was always exceptional, as was his ability to change the game from the bench.

Curiously, the Premier League increased the substitutes capacity to five during the same year Ole Gunnar Solskjaer arrived at Old Trafford from little-known Molde in 1996. And whilst the Norway international always struggled to claim a place in the starting XI over the likes of Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and Teddy Sheringham, he offered United something truly unique as the Premier League’s first standout super-sub.

Fast forward to present day and super-subs can be seen in practically every Premier League squad but particularly those at the top end of the table. Think of Manchester City regularly bringing Gabriel Jesus on for Sergio Aguero, or Liverpool giving Divock Origi a few minutes at the end of their most vital games.

Robinho to Manchester City – 2008

Robinho’s Premier League career may have been unexpectedly short-lived, lasting just 18 months at Manchester City, but his shock move signified a dramatic shift in the balance of power in the English top flight, arriving from Real Madrid on the same day the Abu Dhabi United Investment Group purchased the Citizens.

The Brazilian provided a real eye-opener for what was to come at the Etihad Stadium; not only players of the highest calibre but particularly aesthetic and glamorous ones at that.

The £32.5million deal – at the time, one of the biggest transfer fees in Premier League history – also announced City as the latest member of the elite at the very top of the English game, funded by stupidly rich owners who were capable of unprecedented spending.

Robinho was very much the trailblazer for all the exotic, ludicrously expensive signings to follow and the key to City attracting players of that top-class calibre.

Steve McManaman to Real Madrid – 1999

Following its introduction in 1995, the Bosman ruling wasn’t being taken advantage of by Europe’s biggest talents, particularly those in the Premier League. So when Steve McManaman left Liverpool for Real Madrid by way of a free transfer in 1999, the move sent shockwaves throughout English football.

It proved to be a watershed moment for not only professional footballers, who suddenly realised they had the power to dictate terms to their employers, but also Liverpool Football Club.

The decline at Anfield from the end of the 1980s was already underway, but McManaman ditching his boyhood club for Real was a real sign of the times, kickstarting a trend Liverpool have never truly arrested since – namely, their key players quitting Merseyside for Europe’s most illustrious clubs. Michael Owen would follow not long after, with Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho both heading to Barcelona.

More detrimentally, McManaman’s decision to take advantage of the relatively recent ruling increased its notoriety throughout the footballing world, partly leading to the situation today where player wages have escalated beyond all proportion – power shifting away from the clubs and into the hands of footballers and their agents. Of course, that can’t all be put on Jean-Marc Bosman’s doorstep let alone McManaman’s. But for two huge reasons, his free transfer to the Bernabeu has shaped much of the Premier League as we see it today.

N’Golo Kante to Leicester City – 2015

Leicester City’s title triumph is without a doubt one of the greatest miracles in sporting history, let alone throughout the history of the Premier League.

Whilst a whole raft of factors collided to create a perfect storm that saw a side narrowly avoid relegation and then beat some of the richest clubs in the world to the Premier League title, there is little doubt it wouldn’t have been possible without the £5.6million acquisition of little-known N’Golo Kante from Caen.

A small fee for a particularly small player, one who had been turned down by big clubs before because of his height, but the Frenchman’s influence was nothing short of ginormous.

His relentless energy not only protected a largely average back four but also allowed for Leicester to play unfashionably with two in central midfield and two up front, which created the dynamics for Jamie Vardy to play off Leonardo Ulloa and penetrate the space behind opposition defences.

Kante now plies his trade with Chelsea and subsequently became the first player ever to win consecutive Premier League titles with two different clubs. That was no coincidence either; utilising Kante’s incredible workrate once again, Antonio Conte also opted for two in the engine room in his 3-4-3 formation – freeing room for another attacking presence in the final third.

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Eric Cantona to Manchester United – 1992

Eric Cantona arrived in English football a matter of months before the first Premier League season, rather ironically joining the bitter rivals of the club he’s now synonymous with – Leeds United. But the Frenchman couldn’t settle at Elland Road and just a few months into the inaugural Premier League campaign, he crossed the divide in a £1.2million move to Manchester United.

That would be where Cantona not only established himself as a Premier League and Manchester United legend, winning four out of the first five Premier League titles to earn the title ‘King Eric’, but also where he showed English football the enormous potential in attracting players from abroad – something the newly increasing wealth of the English top flight suddenly facilitated.

Whether that’s a good or bad thing remains a never-ending debate, but there is no question Cantona’s talismanic performances for United made the rest of the Premier League realise the level of talent available abroad.

He was one of the first steps in turning the Premier League into the most international, competitive and exciting leagues in world football.

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/2VuVn3Y via IFTTT from Blogger https://ift.tt/3b5XLV9 via IFTTT

#FootballFanCast.com

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.21

533 – A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily (approximate date). 1307 – Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yuan. 1529 – French forces are driven out of northern Italy by Spain at the Battle of Landriano during the War of the League of Cognac. 1582 – Sengoku period: Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful of the Japanese daimyōs, is forced to commit suicide by his own general Akechi Mitsuhide. 1621 – Execution of 27 Czech noblemen on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain. 1734 – In Montreal in New France, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique is put to death, having been convicted of setting the fire that destroyed much of the city. 1749 – Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded. 1768 – James Otis Jr. offends the King and Parliament in a speech to the Massachusetts General Court. 1788 – New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States. 1791 – King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during the French Revolution. 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill. 1813 – Peninsular War: Wellington defeats Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria. 1824 – Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea. 1826 – Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas. 1848 – In the Wallachian Revolution, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Christian Tell issue the Proclamation of Islaz and create a new republican government. 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road begins. 1898 – The United States captures Guam from Spain. 1900 – Boxer Rebellion. China formally declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Empress Dowager Cixi. 1915 – The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down Oklahoma grandfather clause legislation which had the effect of denying the right to vote to blacks. 1919 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg general strike. 1919 – Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet at Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed are the last casualties of World War I. 1929 – An agreement brokered by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow ends the Cristero War in Mexico. 1930 – One-year conscription comes into force in France. 1940 – World War II: Italy begins an unsuccessful invasion of France. 1942 – World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces. 1942 – World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by Japan against the United States mainland. 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island. 1952 – The Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, is converted to Philippine College of Commerce, later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. 1957 – Ellen Fairclough is sworn in as Canada's first female Cabinet Minister. 1963 – Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is elected as Pope Paul VI. 1964 – Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan. 1970 – Penn Central declares Section 77 bankruptcy, largest ever US corporate bankruptcy up to this date. 1973 – In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller test for obscenity in U.S. law. 1978 – The original production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Evita, based on the life of Eva Perón, opens at the Prince Edward Theatre, London. 1982 – John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. 1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson that American flag-burning is a form of political protest protected by the First Amendment. 2000 – Section 28 (of the Local Government Act 1988), outlawing the 'promotion' of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, is repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote. 2001 – A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen. 2004 – SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight. 2005 – Edgar Ray Killen, who had previously been unsuccessfully tried for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, is convicted of manslaughter 41 years afterwards (the case had been reopened in 2004). 2006 – Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra. 2009 – Greenland assumes self-rule. 2012 – A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsizes in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing.

#Events

[aare-babatunde]

“Obasanjo: The Enemy Within”, delivered by Adeyinka Grandson on the 18th January 2018

Being transcript of the lecture, “Obasanjo: The Enemy Within”, delivered by Adeyinka Grandson on the 18th January 2018:

1. The many atrocities of Obasanjo against the Yoruba nation and her citizenry:

2. On 29 July 1975, the military regime of Yakubu Gowon was overthrown and replaced by another military regime headed by Murtala Mohammed who was killed on February 13, 1976.

3. On February 13, 1976, Obasanjo was imposed by the Hausa/Fulani as a military Head of State and ruled Nigeria for almost four years.

4. In 1976, Obasanjo wanted television and radio stations for the Hausa/Fulani and began with a takeover of the Yoruba’s Western Nigerian Government Broadcasting Corporation (WNTV), and turned it into the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN).

5. In September 1976, Obasanjo introduced the Universal Primary Education (UPE), to bring the Yoruba nation at par with the Hausa/Fulani nation educationally with the takeover of all the Yoruba teacher training colleges and established secondary schools side by side with all primary schools, including privately owned High Schools across Yorubaland and began to change the curriculum under his central government’s Universal Primary Education Programme (UPE), which affected the Yoruba education negatively till date.

6. In 1976, Obasanjo, as part of bringing the Hausa/Fulani nation at par with the Yoruba nation educationally, ensured that the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), belonging to the governments of the Yoruba people, was taken over by the Federal Government, through the NUC reconstituted Decree No. 1 of 1976.

7. In 1976, Obasanjo nationalized the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan (now Obafemi Awolowo Stadium), among others belonging to the governments of the Yoruba people, was similarly taken over by the Nigerian Military authorities, under Obasanjo.

8. In 1976, the Yoruba Western Nigeria Marketing Board, which was particularly promoting cocoa farmers, was abolished by Obasanjo.

9. In 1976, Obasanjo, sought to increase Hausa/Fulani local food production by reducing that of the Yoruba nation, and thus dabbled extensively into the Yoruba Agriculture farm settlements, took them over at random under his fraudulent Operation Feed the Nation programme. The Yoruba people never dependent on the North for food, but since Obasanjo took away the Yoruba’s farm settlements through his fraudulent Operation Feed the Nation programme, Yorubaland has relied on the North for its food.

10. In 1977, Fela’s compound Kalakuta Republic, housed his family, band members, and a recording studio. It had a free health clinic. The compound was burned to the ground on February 18, 1977 after an assault by a thousand armed Hausa/Fulani’s soldiers on the instruction of Obasanjo.

11. In 1978, Fela’s mother Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was thrown from a third-floor window of Fela’s Kalakuta Republic house, when it was stormed by armed Hausa/Fulani’s military personnel sent there by Obasanjo. Fela’s mother lapsed into a coma in February of that year, and died on 13 April 1978, as a result of her injuries.

12. On 29th of March 1978, Obasanjo, made the Land Use Act an integral part of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Land Use Act, which reads: “All the rights formerly vested in the holder in respect of the excess of the land shall in the commencement of this Act be extinguished and the excess of the land shall be taken over by the State and Federal Government and administered as provided in this Act.” The Land Use Act was promulgated into law to essentially take the Yoruba’s ports and waterways away from the control of the Yoruba people and into the hands of the Hausa/Fulani. The act altered the existing land laws in Yorubaland by removing families and chiefs from the trusteeship of the land and replaced them with the Federal and State governments, thus constituting the greatest clog in the wheel of housing development in Yorubaland.

13. In 1979, Obasanjo openly boasted of how he rigged Alhaji Shehu Shagari, a Fulani against Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a Yoruba in the 1979 presidential elections while serving as a military Head of State.

14. It should be mentioned that the Fulani decorated Obasanjo as the Head of State, but the real power behind the throne was a Fulani Lieutenant Colonel who was catapulted overnight to Brigadier General in the person of Shehu Yar’Adua.

15. Obasanjo forced Major General Olutoye, now Oba of Idoani to retire. His offense was telling Obasanjo to co-opt minority groups into the Federal Government who have been neglected. Obasanjo went and told Yar Adua, called General Olutoye to say what he told him in the presence of Yar’Adua. The man repeated it and he was retired the next day.

16. In 1967, when Brigadier Banjo invaded former Midwest, and reached Ore, he sent messages to Obasanjo, through Professor Soyinka. Banjo didn’t want to enter Yorubaland just like that. Obasanjo revealed what Soyinka told him to General Gowon. Professor Soyinka was detained to spend over two years in detention.

17. In 1991, the Lagos State population was 4.4 million. The old Kano State population, that’s (Kano and Jigawa), in 1991 was 4.2 million. Lagos State has the highest population, then in 1991. But in 2006, Lagos State population increased from 4.4 million to 9.4 million, whilst that of the old Kano State, increased from 4.2 million to 15.5m (Kano 9.8m and Jigawa 5.6m). The census of 2006 was conducted under Obasanjo.

18. In 1993, Obasanjo stated that Abiola wasn’t our Messiah.

19. In 1998, Obasanjo agreed in principle with the Hausa/Fulani to have Abiola, the winner of the 1993 presidential election murdered by the Fulani. He was thereafter appointed as President of Nigeria in 1999 by the Fulani.

20. On 26 November 1999, Obasanjo gave an instruction to the Police that anyone who calls himself OPC should be arrested and if he doesn’t agree should be shot on sight. Many Yoruba youths lost their lives as a consequence of such a barbarous order on young Yoruba people.

21. In 2000, Obasanjo frustrated the Lagos State independent power projects and caused the project to be either poorly operational or yet to be fully come alive after gulping billions of Naira.

22. As President, Obasanjo stopped the 4th Mainland Bridge by refusing to give the necessary country guarantee to secure a world bank loan.

23. During his administration as President, Obasanjo awarded Kano to Bornu Road, an 8 lanes road of 600km; Kaduna to Abuja Road, a 4 lanes road of 200km; while Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ilorin to Akure Road, combined are not upto 500km, and Kogi to Lagos road of 350km were left undone.

24. In 2004, Obasanjo as President of Nigeria, withheld the Lagos state local government funds, following the creation of 37 new local government development areas (LCDAs), in Lagos State. The Supreme Court ruled that the creation of the council was in order, but Obasanjo withheld the Lagos fund. This contributed to the slow rate of development in Lagos.

25. According to Lam Adesina, the former Governor of Oyo State, in an interview with a PUNCH correspondence, Obasanjo and Atiku murdered Chief Bola Ige.

26. Obasanjo was the man who rigged sickly Yar’Adua, a Fulani, President of Nigeria in 2007.

27. On the instructions of Obasanjo, former UK Foreign Secretary, Mr William Hague, consulted for the APC on how to implicate President Jonathan over the 200 Chibok school girls.

28. In 2015, Obasanjo nominated Buhari for President and as the APC navigator, enlisted the support of President Obama, Senator John McCain and Senator Hillary Clinton to undermine Jonathan’s administration in favour of a Fulani President of Nigeria.

29. Obasanjo worked with the United States, the United Kingdom and France to make sure Buhari, a Fulani, was rigged as President of Nigeria in 2015.

30. The horrible half Igbo and half Yoruba man is working very hard to make Sule Lamido, yet another Fulani the President of Nigeria in 2019.

31. Obasanjo is NOT a Yoruba person. He was born in Yorubaland and carries Yoruba tribal mark. However, his paternity is not Yoruba. It has been proved and confirmed that Obasanjo’s father was an Igbo man, a colonial police officer who served in Abeokuta. The origin of his mother is, however, Yoruba.

32. If Obasanjo were to be a white in America, for going against the collective interests of the white Americans, he would have since been decimated. If he were to be an English in Britain and doing everything against the collective interests of the English people in Britain, he would also have been decimated. Simply because the young Yoruba have not fully grasped the concept of self-preservation, they are still treating Obasanjo with unmerited respect.

33. Yorubaland could have been great, but Obasanjo has stunned our growth.

34. For God and the Yoruba Country, now is the time for the Yoruba youth to treat Obasanjo appropriately.

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