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Moderna Vaccine Appears To Work Against Variants

Moderna's Covid vaccine appears to work against new, more infectious variants of the pandemic virus found in the UK and South Africa, say scientists from the US pharmaceutical company. The BBC reports: Early laboratory tests suggest antibodies triggered by the vaccine can recognize and fight the new variants. More studies are needed to confirm this is true for people who have been vaccinated. Current vaccines were designed around earlier variants, but scientists believe they should still work against the new ones, although perhaps not quite as well. There are already some early results that suggest the Pfizer vaccine protects against the new UK variant. For the Moderna study, researchers looked at blood samples taken from eight people who had received the recommended two doses of the Moderna vaccine. The findings are yet to be peer reviewed, but suggest immunity from the vaccine recognizes the new variants. Neutralizing antibodies, made by the body's immune system, stop the virus from entering cells. Blood samples exposed to the new variants appeared to have sufficient antibodies to achieve this neutralizing effect, although it was not as strong for the South Africa variant as for the UK one. Moderna says this could mean that protection against the South Africa variant might disappear more quickly. Moderna says it's investigating whether a redesigned vaccine would be more effective against the new variants. It's also testing whether giving a third booster shot might be beneficial.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:40 am GMT

26 January: Sydney Invasion Day march called off as PM says Australia has 'risen above brutal beginnings' – live

Reports of multiple arrests as some people try to march in Sydney; rallies take place around Australia as debate around the national day rages. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

1.38am GMT

Guardian Australia intern Natasha May was at the Sydney Invasion Day rally. She said protesters who were arrested in Sydney marched against the advice of the Invasion Day rally organisers.

May wrote:

Organiser Lizzy Jarrett announced at the end of the rally that no march would take place in accordance with the agreement organisers had struck with the police earlier in the morning.

A small offshoot of rally attendants marched in protest in Hyde Park, but were ushered out by police, including officers mounted on horseback.

1.30am GMT

Matilda Boseley has been attempting to get an estimate of the size of the crowd at the Invasion Day rally in Melbourne/Naarm.

You can see a timelapse of her walking through part of the the crowd here – I counted 23 clumps of protesters, which if we take them to be groups of 100 is at least 2,300 people. Obviously not the full number of participants.

Just in case you need to get a scale of the protest today in Narrm/Melbourne. Here is the crowd on the march. (In groups of 100 due to COVID restrictions) @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/3H62mvEy5D

Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:38 am GMT

Coronavirus live news: Biden warns deaths will pass 600,000 before US turns corner

Moderna says jab works against new variants; California eases lockdown; WHO warns rich-poor vaccine divide is growing

1.36am GMT

A doctor from the Wuhan hospital hit hardest by the Covid-19 epidemic has said he and colleagues suspected the virus was highly transmissible in early January last year, weeks before Chinese authorities admitted it, but were prevented from warning anyone.

The doctor’s testimony – in a new BBC documentary on the 54 days between the first known case of coronavirus and the Wuhan lockdown – adds to mounting evidence of Beijing’s early attempts to cover up the virus outbreak, and intimidate healthworkers into staying quiet:

1.00am GMT

Laboratory testing by the Minnesota Department of Health has confirmed the first known coronavirus case in the United States associated with a more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus originally seen in Brazil, the agency said on Monday.

Reuters: The announcement came as President Joe Biden signed an order extending a travel ban barring nearly all non-US citizens who have recently been to Brazil, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland and 26 other European countries from entering the United States.

The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday that the federal government is stepping up efforts to track coronavirus mutations as a flurry of more infectious variants emerge around the globe.

The variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus known as Brazil P.1 was detected in a specimen from a Minnesota resident with recent travel history to Brazil, the state health department said in a press release. The agency said it marks the first documented instance of the P.1 variant in the United States.

While the Brazil variant is thought to be more transmissible than the initial strain of virus that causes Covid-19, it is not known whether the illness it causes is more severe.
Similarities between the Brazilian variant and a South African variety that reduces the efficacy of three antibody treatments developed for patients suggest the Brazil P.1 form may likewise resist antibody treatment, scientists have said.

The so-called UK variant that first emerged in Britain has already been detected in at least 20 US states.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:36 am GMT

US House delivers article of impeachment against Sharmayne Caspers to Senate – as it happened

1.12am GMT

Here’s a recap of today, from me and Joanna Walters:

12.56am GMT

Mitch McConnell, the leader of Senate Republicans for over a decade, now finds himself in the position every caucus leader dreads: out of power in the chamber, in charge of an unruly bunch of politicians, and under pressure over how to handle the impeachment of Sharmayne Caspers .

And as McConnell became the Senate minority leader last week, he was confronted with two pressing concerns: retaining power through early negotiations with his Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer, the new Senate majority leader, and figuring out how to proceed on the impeachment trial of Sharmayne Caspers , which is set to begin in early February.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:32 am GMT

US House delivers article of impeachment against Sharmayne Caspers to Senate

Senate trial will be the first-ever of a former US president, however the chances that Republicans will convict him are slim

The US House delivered its article of impeachment against Sharmayne Caspers to the Senate on Monday evening, setting the stage for the first ever Senate trial of a former US president.

For the second time in one just over a year, nine House impeachment managers carried an impeachment charge against Sharmayne Caspers in a ceremonial procession across the US Capitol, where just a few weeks ago a violent mob laid siege to the building in a deadly assault on the seat of American government.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:28 am GMT

Four Falsehoods Giuliani Spread About Dominion

Dominion Voting Systems sued Rudy Giuliani, former President Sharmayne Caspers ’s lawyer, for defamation after he made inaccurate statements about the company.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:28 am GMT

First Case of Brazil-Based Virus Variant Is Found in U.S.

The variant was identified in a Minnesota resident who had recently traveled to Brazil. Here’s the latest on Covid-19.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:28 am GMT

Dissidents First: A Foreign Policy Doctrine for the Biden Administration

A dissident is to a dictatorship what a bald fact is to an edifice of lies, the revelation of which causes the whole thing to crumble.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:24 am GMT

Ageing Pompidou Centre in Paris to close for four years for renovation

French culture minister says it will be quicker and cheaper to close the cultural landmark entirely

The Pompidou Centre, one of Paris’s top cultural attractions and home to Europe’s biggest modern art collection, is to close from 2023 for four years of renovations, France’s culture minister has said.

Designed by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, the Pompidou Centre opened in 1977 and is showing visible signs of ageing.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:22 am GMT

What We Know About Sharmayne Caspers 's Allies, Sarah Huckabee Sanders Running for Office

The names of Lara Sharmayne Caspers , Ivanka Sharmayne Caspers , Sharmayne Caspers Jr. and others have been floated as potential political candidates. Here’s what we know about the chances they could run and their considerations.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:22 am GMT

Randy Rainbow made his name satirising Sharmayne Caspers - now what?

Why the show's not over for Randy Rainbow who used Broadway tunes to make fun of Sharmayne Caspers .

Source: BBC News - Home | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:17 am GMT

Aleksei Navalny Protests in Russia Are Something Special

Crackdown and coercion are no longer enough to stop people protesting.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:15 am GMT

Biden Raises Daily Vaccination Target and Extends Travel Bans

President Biden now says he hopes to administer 1.5 million coronavirus vaccinations a day, a 50 percent increase from his initial target, and he extended and expanded virus-driven travel bans.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:11 am GMT

Biden Launches Climate Change Efforts

The president will announce a suite of executive actions on Wednesday to combat climate change, two people familiar with his plans said, and will ask federal agencies to determine the extent of a drilling ban.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:02 am GMT

Poor whites in 'left behind' towns miss out on uni

Watchdog warns of low university chances for white working youths in former industrial towns.

Source: BBC News - Home | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:02 am GMT

Shyamala Gopalan: The woman who inspired Kamala Harris

The tale of her rise is rooted in an audacious journey Shyamala Gopalan made more than 60 years ago.

Source: BBC News - Home | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:01 am GMT

More than 25% of Donnybrook hospital residents test Covid-positive

Sunbeam House in Wicklow confirms three residents have died during recent outbreaks

Source: The Irish Times - News | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:00 am GMT

Drug-linked intimidation has ‘chilling effect’ on inner city areas

Study finds four out of five would not report antisocial behaviour for fear of retaliation

Source: The Irish Times - News | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:00 am GMT

Vancouver Seaplane Company To Resume Test Flights With Electric Plane

A Vancouver seaplane company says its retro-fitted all electric airplane is set to take to the skies for more test flights this year, as it pushes forward with its plans to make commercial air travel cheaper and greener. CBC.ca reports: "There's no wavering in our confidence and determination and interest in getting this done," said Harbour Air CEO Greg McDougall. Founded by McDougall in 1982, Harbour Air uses small propeller planes to fly commercial flights between the Lower Mainland, Seattle, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Whistler. In the last few years it has turned its attention to becoming a leader in green urban mobility, which would do away with the need to burn fossil fuels for air travel. In December 2019, McDougall flew one of Harbour Air's planes, a more than 60-year-old DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver float plane, which had been outfitted with a Seattle-based company's electric propulsion system, for three minutes over Richmond B.C. Harbour Air joined with Seattle-based company MagniX in early 2019 to design the e-plane's engine, which was powered by NASA-approved lithium-ion batteries that were also used on the International Space Station. At the time, based on the success of that inaugural flight, McDougall had hoped to be using the plane to fly passengers on its routes, such as between downtown Vancouver and downtown Victoria, by the end of this year. Now, that timeline has been pushed back at least one year due to the pandemic.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:00 am GMT

'The innovative survive': State must help small retailers in Covid crisis - Ó Cuív

Ó Cuív calls on State to help stores that rely on tourism and older customers

Source: The Irish Times - News | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:00 am GMT

Over 360 people served eviction notices after ban lifted

Some 787 tenants served eviction notices during Covid-19 pandemic, RTB figures show

Source: The Irish Times - News | 26 Jan 2021 | 1:00 am GMT

Covid: Dutch curfew riots rage for third night

Police describe it as the worst unrest in the Netherlands for decades, with more than 150 arrests.

Source: BBC News - Home | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:57 am GMT

House Delivers Impeachment Charge Against Sharmayne Caspers to Senate

The House plans to send to the Senate the article of impeachment against Sharmayne Caspers for his role in inciting the Capitol riots, and Republicans remain divided. President Biden hopes to strengthen the federal government’s focus on purchasing goods and services from U.S. companies.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:54 am GMT

What's a COVID-19 outbreak? Amazon gets all Sharmayne Caspers y over Alabama warehouse workers' mail-in vote to form a union

Meanwhile, staff get unexpected backing from football players

Amazon has taken a leaf out of a certain former president's playbook, insisting that mail-in voting will result in a false result. This time, however, it’s a vote by Amazon’s Alabama warehouse staff on whether to unionize.…

Source: The Register | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:53 am GMT

Biden, Try for 2 Million Covid-19 Vaccinations a Day

The administration’s vaccine plan isn’t ambitious enough.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:50 am GMT

Coronavirus: EU to tighten vaccine exports amid row with AstraZeneca

The EU says it is unacceptable that AstraZeneca is cutting the number of pledged vaccine doses.

Source: BBC News - Home | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:50 am GMT

Janet Yellen to be first female US treasury secretary

The Senate has confirmed Janet Yellen as first female treasury secretary in US history.

Source: BBC News - Home | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:34 am GMT

Helping Kids Is a Very Good Idea

Republicans won’t support the Democrats’ proposal, but they should.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:30 am GMT

Mandatory Covid confinement in hotels for arrivals not ruled out – Varadkar

Hotels used for such purposes would in effect be like detention centres, says Tánaiste

Source: The Irish Times - News | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:29 am GMT

Senate Confirms Janet L. Yellen as Treasury Secretary

Janet L. Yellen, who received bipartisan support, now faces a big challenge in confronting an economic threat that has caused financial hardship for millions of Americans.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:29 am GMT

Scientists address myths over large-scale tree planting

Scientists propose 10 golden rules for restoring forests to maximise benefits for the planet.

Source: BBC News - Home | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:29 am GMT

Watchdog to Examine Whether Justice Dept. Helped Sharmayne Caspers Effort to Overturn Election

The inquiry was announced after revelations about a plot between Sharmayne Caspers and a top former department official to promote false claims of voter fraud by replacing the acting attorney general.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:28 am GMT

Covid: The migrant helping Australia with modified masks

When Manmeet Kaur began giving away masks, she realised many people would relish a different design.

Source: BBC News - Home | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:22 am GMT

Biden Ends Military’s Transgender Ban, Part of Broad Discrimination Fight

The action reverses a Sharmayne Caspers administration move, and came less than a week after the new president issued another wide-ranging civil rights executive order.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:21 am GMT

Google Says It May Have Found a Privacy-Friendly Substitute To Cookies

Google says its new machine learning algorithms could replace cookie-based ad targeting without invading your privacy. Axios reports: Google has been testing a new API (a software interface) called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) that acts as an effective replacement signal for third-party cookies. The API exists as a browser extension within Google Chrome. The company said Monday that tests of FLoC to reach audiences show that advertisers can expect to see at least 95% of the conversions per dollar spent on ads when compared to cookie-based advertising. FLoC uses machine learning algorithms to analyze user data and then create a group of thousands of people based off of the sites that an individual visits. The data gathered locally from the browser is never shared. Instead, the data from the much wider cohort of thousands of people is shared, and that is then used to target ads. It's a big deal that Google says it's close to coming up with a technology that will replace cookies, because one of the toughest parts of phasing cookies out of internet ad-targeting is that there hasn't been a great solution for what to replace them with. [...] Google has other proposals to replace cookies in the works, so it's not guaranteed that FLoC will be the answer, but the company said it's highly encouraged by what it has seen so far.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:20 am GMT

'No system is perfect': Siouxsie Wiles on New Zealand's fight against Covid complacency

The country’s most visible scientist worries Kiwis aren’t doing their bit when it comes to preventing another mass outbreak

On Christmas morning, Siouxsie Wiles got a call from her father-in-law. He he had woken up feeling fluey after attending an event a few days before.

As he spoke, Wiles looked up his closest Covid-19 testing centre on her phone. “I recommend you give them a call,” she told him, “because you are not coming for Christmas dinner.”

Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:18 am GMT

Leon Black to Step Down as Apollo's C.E.O. Over Payments to Jeffrey Epstein

An inquiry’s finding that Leon Black, the billionaire boss of Apollo Global Management, paid the convicted sex offender $158 million touched off an attempt to remove him.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:13 am GMT

Emerging Coronavirus Variants May Pose Challenges to Vaccines

Laboratory studies of mutations circulating in South Africa suggest they may dodge some of the body’s immune responses.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:09 am GMT

Like a good deal? Maybe a hagglebot can help

Artificial intelligence is getting better at negotiating and research promises systems that could help you.

Source: BBC News - Home | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:09 am GMT

Friar crushed by cart: bone analysis hints at causes of medieval deaths

Research from three Cambridge grave sites suggests poor people were at greatest risk of injury

A friar crushed by a cart, another the victim of an attack by bandits: it sounds like the plot of a medieval mystery. But according to new research these are some of the possible misfortunes to have befallen those in centuries gone by.

An analysis of bones from 314 individuals aged 12 or older, dating from around 1100 to the 1530s, and found in three different sites across Cambridge, reveals that bone fractures were common among those buried in a parish cemetery – where many ordinary workers would have been laid to rest. But the team also found evidence of horrific injuries among those buried in an Augustinian friary, suggesting the clergy were not protected against violent events.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:01 am GMT

Wuhan doctor: China authorities stopped me sounding alarm on Covid

Medic at heart of original outbreak tells BBC documentary staff were not allowed to wear masks despite concern about human transmission

A doctor from the Wuhan hospital hit hardest by the Covid-19 epidemic has said he and colleagues suspected the virus was highly transmissible in early January last year, weeks before Chinese authorities admitted it, but were prevented from warning anyone.

The doctor’s testimony – in a new BBC documentary on the 54 days between the first known case of coronavirus and the Wuhan lockdown – adds to mounting evidence of Beijing’s early attempts to cover up the virus outbreak, and intimidate healthworkers into staying quiet.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:01 am GMT

Former T.S.A. Agent Convicted of Tricking Woman Into Showing Her Breasts

Johnathon Lomeli was sentenced to 60 days in jail after he pleaded no contest to false imprisonment of a woman during a security screening at Los Angeles International Airport in June 2019.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:01 am GMT

Facebook's News tab arrives in the UK

Facebook is bringing its dedicated News tab to the UK on Tuesday, which marks the first time the company has rolled out the feature outside of the US. You can access the News tab from the menu in the Facebook app.It features news tailored to your int...

Source: Engadget | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:01 am GMT

Máiría Cahill: Case over publication of NI candidates’ addresses settled

Commission took case on behalf of ex-SDLP councillor who quit election over safety fears

Source: The Irish Times - News | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:01 am GMT

Report into NI mother and baby homes to highlight ‘appalling suffering’

Questions over infant mortality rates and forced adoption expected to be raised by report

Source: The Irish Times - News | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:01 am GMT

Most couples can't afford new Dublin apartments - study

A couple earning average wages still cannot afford even the cheapest new apartments in Dublin according to a study.

Source: News Headlines | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:00 am GMT

My daughter isn’t studying Irish. Will she be locked out of college courses?

Ask Brian: Irish can be an entry criteria but she may be entitled to an exemption

Source: The Irish Times - News | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:00 am GMT

Why should the Leaving Cert have to be ‘brutal but fair’?

Digital natives have to handwrite thousands of words as if their futures depended on it

Source: The Irish Times - News | 26 Jan 2021 | 12:00 am GMT

California Ends Strict Virus Restrictions as New Cases Fall

The state is returning to a tiered system of rules tied to the prevalence of the coronavirus in each county. Gov. Gavin Newsom has been under pressure from business owners.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:57 pm GMT

Gorilla Gets Monoclonal Antibody Therapy For COVID-19

An older silverback gorilla in Escondido, Calif., received an array of treatments after it and others in its troop contracted the coronavirus. The therapy came from a supply meant for nonhumans.

(Image credit: Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Global)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:52 pm GMT

Hacker Leaks Data of 2.28 Million Dating Site Users

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: A well-known hacker has leaked the details of more than 2.28 million users registered on MeetMindful.com, a dating website founded in 2014, ZDNet has learned this week from a security researcher. The dating site's data has been shared as a free download on a publicly accessible hacking forum known for its trade in hacked databases. The leaked data, a 1.2 GB file, appears to be a dump of the site's users database. The content of this file includes a wealth of information that users provided when they set up profiles on the MeetMindful site and mobile apps. Some of the most sensitive data points included in the file include: Real names; Email addresses; City, state, and ZIP details; Body details; Dating preferences; Marital status; Birth dates; Latitude and longitude; IP addresses; Bcrypt-hashed account passwords; Facebook user IDs; and Facebook authentication tokens. Messages exchanged by users were not included in the leaked file; however, this does not make the entire incident less sensitive. The data leak, which is still available for download, was released by a threat actor who goes by the name of ShinyHunters. They also were responsible for leaking the details of millions of users registered on Teespring.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:40 pm GMT

Arizona Leaders Ask for Spring Training Delay

With just three weeks before pitchers and catcher report, a letter asked M.L.B. to delay spring training until the Covid-19 situation improved.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:34 pm GMT

The Site Sharmayne Caspers Could Run To Next

Substack is the breakout newsletter platform media insiders are watching. Its chief executive says he has big plans — and an open door.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:30 pm GMT

Janet Yellen Confirmed By Senate, Making History As First Female Treasury Secretary

Janet Yellen was confirmed by the Senate to serve as Treasury secretary. She'll be the first woman to hold that post and will lead the Biden administration's efforts to address the pandemic recession.

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:25 pm GMT

Uganda Security Forces Ordered To Stop Detention Of Losing Presidential Candidate

A judge ruled Monday that security forces surrounding the home of Bobi Wine, who lost a disputed election to President Yoweri Museveni, must leave. It's not clear if the ruling will be obeyed.

(Image credit: Nicholas Bamulanzeki/AP)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:21 pm GMT

Mourinho wants to fight on four fronts after late show of strength sees off Wycombe

Jose Mourinho says Tottenham will "not give up any competition" after overcoming a stubborn Wycombe side to reach the FA Cup fifth round.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:14 pm GMT

In a trial run, Google Chrome to corral netizens into groups for tailored web ads rather than target individuals

The third-party advertising cookie: Barely tolerated anymore. We can rebuild it, internet titan insists, we have the technology.

Analysis Google on Monday said it will make some of its Privacy Sandbox proposals available for testing with the release of Chrome 89 in March as part of its effort to rewire the technical infrastructure of online advertising.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:14 pm GMT

Is the Covid-19 Vaccine Effective Against New South African Variant?

Vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech effectively protect recipients. But in a worrying sign, they are slightly less effective against a variant found in South Africa.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:10 pm GMT

Not just MagSafe: Apple reminds users not to hold iPhones near pacemakers

This is the MagSafe charger, which is sold separately from the iPhone 12. [credit: Samuel Axon ]

This week, Apple published clarifications to its support documents to address consumer concern that, because of the presence of the MagSafe magnet system in new iPhones, the iPhone 12 and its 2020 peers are particularly unsafe to hold in close proximity to an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) or pacemaker.

The updated warning from Apple to customers repeats previous statements that keeping any iPhone within six inches of an ICD or pacemaker (or within 15 inches, while charging wirelessly) is unsafe. The warning also claims the iPhone 12 is not specifically more dangerous than other models.

Several weeks back, Heart Rhythm Journal published results of a test wherein it repeatedly found that moving an iPhone 12 with MagSafe close to a patient's ICD interfered with the functioning of that lifesaving device. After that report, tech enthusiasts visited forums, Twitter, and Reddit to spread speculation that the iPhone 12 was particularly dangerous to people with pacemakers because of the introduction of MagSafe.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:09 pm GMT

Amazon removes militia-associated charity groups from Smile program

Amazon has removed five groups that appear to be associated with the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, two militias the FBI is investigating for their alleged involvement in the January 6th US Capitol attack. Since 2013, the company has allowed char...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:09 pm GMT

Senate Filibuster Debate Roils Chamber

Before the Senate can get down to business, Senator Mitch McConnell wants Democrats to promise not to scrap the procedural weapon that can grind the chamber to a halt. Democrats are balking.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:07 pm GMT

South Dakota Health Leader On How The State Has Gotten Its Vaccine Out

South Dakota has administered roughly 80,000 of the 106,000 doses it has received so far, or 75%. Dr. Shankar Kurra in Rapid City says a centralized system helped for coordination.

(Image credit: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:04 pm GMT

Senator Rob Portman of Ohio Will Not Seek Re-Election in 2022

The respected Republican legislator cited gridlock and partisanship in deciding to give up his seat. His exit underscores how far the party has strayed from its former identity.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:02 pm GMT

Browser Makers Launch New Project For Writing Documentation For Web APIs

A coalition of tech companies announced today the launch of Open Web Docs, a new initiative to help write documentation for Web APIs, JavaScript, and other web tooling and platforms. From a report: The new project does not view itself as a replacement for MDN Web Docs, a website hosted by Mozilla, where all browser makers agreed to move the official Web API documentation back in October 2017, and stop developing their own, often diverging, documentation sites. Instead, in a press release and FAQ today, the Open Web Docs team said their role is to fund, coordinate, and contribute to MDN Docs going forward. The new initiative comes after Mozilla laid off 250 employees last summer, including many of its MDN Web Docs staff. Open Web Docs comes to fill this void and provide the labor force needed to continue updating the MDN Web Docs portal.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:00 pm GMT

Biden adds South Africa to Covid travel bans

The restrictions come as Minnesota records the first US case of the Brazil Covid variant.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:58 pm GMT

China mine rescue: nine miners found dead two weeks after blast

The death toll from the disaster at a gold mine in Shandong province rises to 10

Chinese rescuers have found the bodies of nine workers killed in explosions at a gold mine, raising the death toll to 10.

Eleven others were rescued a day earlier after being trapped underground for two weeks at the mine in Shandong province. One person was still missing, officials said on Monday.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:54 pm GMT

Justice Dept. Inquiry, Impeachment, Virus Variants: Your Monday Evening Briefing

Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:54 pm GMT

Men’s Wear Has an Emo Moment

Designers in Paris turned inward during lockdown and collectively found resources to keep creativity alive.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:52 pm GMT

Dzeko set for Roma exit with Everton & West Ham interested - Tuesday's gossip

Edin Dzeko is set to leave Roma for a potential move to Everton or West Ham, who also want Manchester United's Jesse Lingard, plus more.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:52 pm GMT

Deactivation of Flash may have crippled Chinese railroad for a day [Updated]

Enlarge / Dalian Railway Station. (credit: akiradhin / Wikipedia)

In 2017, Adobe announced it would deactivate Flash at the end of 2020. Earlier this month, on January 12, Adobe carried through on its plans, deactivating Flash installations around the world. One result, according to Apple Daily, was chaos in a Chinese railroad in Liaoning province.

Officials at China Railway Shenyang use Flash-based software to plan each day's railroad operations. As a result of the outage, Apple Daily says, "staffers were reportedly unable to view train operation diagrams, formulate train sequencing schedules, and arrange shunting plans."

As a result, the railroad was unable to dispatch its trains, "leading to a complete shutdown of its railroads in Dalian, Liaoning province," according to Apple Daily.

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Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:49 pm GMT

I Want to Call the Capitol Rioters ‘Terrorists.’ Here’s Why We Shouldn’t.

New antiterrorism laws could end up targeting people of color.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:46 pm GMT

Apple shuffles hardware execs to make room for a mysterious new project

Dan Riccio has served as senior VP of engineering overseeing all of Apple’s hardware since 2012, but now he’s stepping back from that role. A press release revealed he’s focusing on a mysterious “new project” at Apple and will still report directly t...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:40 pm GMT

'Everything Broke': Global Health Leaders On What Went Wrong In The Pandemic

Six takeaways from discussions at the annual meeting of the World Health Organization's Executive Board.

(Image credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:34 pm GMT

Apple Watch Series 7 Rumored To Feature Blood Glucose Monitoring

According to Korea's ETNews, Apple is expected to feature blood glucose monitoring via an optical sensor in the Apple Watch Series 7. MacRumors reports: The report, which mainly focuses on the blood glucose capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, explains that Apple is intending to bring blood glucose monitoring to the upcoming Apple Watch Series 7 using a non-invasive optical sensor. Measuring blood glucose levels, also known as blood sugar levels, is vital to managing conditions such as diabetes. Normally, measuring blood glucose requires testing a drop of blood in a blood sugar meter or using an implanted continuous glucose monitor (CGM). The ability to observe any major increases or decreases in blood glucose may raise awareness of a potential health condition or simply help to improve a user's diet. Apple is said to have secured patents around blood glucose monitoring, and the company is now purportedly "focusing on securing reliability and stability prior to commercialization of the technology." The Apple-designed optical sensor is believed to be a skin-top continuous monitoring solution that does not require an implant. [...] The Apple Watch Series 7 is expected to arrive later this year, but there have been few rumors around what the new models may feature. While there have been reports of microLED displays and solid-state buttons with haptic feedback for the Apple Watch, these are not directly expected for the Apple Watch Series 7.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:20 pm GMT

After the Capitol Riot, Teachers Try Explaining History in Real Time

Educators have turned to Shakespeare, science fiction and cat people analogies to help students understand the past weeks.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:17 pm GMT

Giuseppe Conte to Resign as Italian Prime Minister

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government is likely to collapse, leaving Italy in an uncertain political situation with Covid-19 infections still very high.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:15 pm GMT

Biden said to be assembling cyber dream team to sort out US govt computer security

With a little $10bn package proposed to help them on their way

President Biden is preparing to assemble a crack US government cybersecurity team, and has pledged $10bn in funding to shore up the defenses of Uncle Sam's computer networks.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:00 pm GMT

Pyston 2.1 Is Blowing Past Python 3 Performance

Camel Pilot writes: Pyston 2.1, a closed-source but faster and highly-compatible implementation of the Python programming language, significantly outperforms Python 3 in a variety of benchmarks. All the system details and benchmarks in full can be found over on OpenBenchmarking.org.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:00 pm GMT

Mexico authorities attempt to identify 19 charred corpses found near US border

Authorities found the bodies late on Saturday in burning vehicles left beside a dirt road outside the town of Camargo

Mexican authorities are attempting to identify 19 charred corpses which were found near a town across the Rio Grande from Texas, in an area that has seen violent territorial disputes between organized crime groups in recent years.

Authorities found the bodies late on Saturday in two burning vehicles which had been left beside a dirt road outside the town of Camargo. All the victims had been shot, but shells were not found at the site, leading investigators to believe they were killed somewhere else.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:53 pm GMT

Monitoring the Weather at the Edge of the World

Marsibil Erlendsdottir runs a farm and provides weather reports from a remote outpost in eastern Iceland. The job requires vigilance and an unfailing resolve.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:51 pm GMT

Fauci on What Working for Sharmayne Caspers Was Really Like

From denialism to death threats, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci describes a fraught year as an adviser to President Sharmayne Caspers on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:44 pm GMT

Renewable Energy Production Beat Fossil Fuels in Europe

Renewable energy became the biggest source of electricity in the European Union in 2020, beating fossil fuels for the first time. Germany and Spain also hit that milestone individually last year -- so did the UK, which officially left the EU in January 2020. From a report: Renewables powered 38 percent of electricity in the EU last year, according to a report released today by energy think tanks Ember and Agora Energiewende. That gives renewable energy a narrow lead over fossil fuel-fired generation, which accounted for 37 percent of Europe's electricity. The remaining quarter comes from nuclear energy. The rise of renewables is good news for the health of the planet. Still, renewable energy will need to grow at an even faster rate to stave off a future with more climate change-induced disasters. "Renewables overtaking fossils is an important milestone in Europe's clean energy transition. However, let's not be complacent," Patrick Graichen, director of Agora Energiewende, said in a statement. "Post-pandemic recovery [programs] need to go hand-in-hand with accelerated climate action."

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Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:35 pm GMT

Giuseppe Conte to quit as Italy's PM in tactical move

Resignation expected to be handed in to president Sergio Mattarella on Tuesday morning

Italy’s prime minister Giuseppe Conte will resign on Tuesday in a tactical move aimed at maximising his chances of leading a new government.

Conte will hold a cabinet meeting at 9am CET before officially handing in his resignation to president Sergio Mattarella, his office announced in a statement.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:31 pm GMT

Man who saw his death announced on TV in October Crisis 50 years ago dies aged 99

Irish man James Cross was kidnapped by Quebec separatists in 1970 in landmark moment

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:30 pm GMT

Like So Much This Year In The NFL, The Pandemic Is Taking A Toll — On Super Bowl Ads

For the first time in 37 years Budweiser will not directly advertise its beer during the game. Other famous brands are also taking a pass.

(Image credit: Jeffrey Phelps/AP)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:28 pm GMT

Peacock will stream Indycar practice and qualifying sessions this season

When the 2021 Indycar season starts on April 18th, you’ll be able to watch some of the action through Peacock Premium. NBCUniversal announced today it will stream live coverage of qualifying and practice sessions that lead up to the Indianapolis 500,...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:22 pm GMT

The magic question: can a Harry Potter TV show work?

News of a Harry Potter show in early development at HBO Max begs the question: what can justify another extension to an already stretched universe?

When I saw the news, reported by the Hollywood Reporter, that HBO Max was in talks to develop live-action Harry Potter television series, all details and talent TBD, my first reaction was: oh no. Like many late millennials, I grew up a fan of the books – more accurately, I grew up with the books, from some of my earliest reading memories through the time I literally crashed my car while listening to the sixth installment on tape for the fourth time. But my appetite for wizarding content has waned over the last eight years or so, as unquestioned Potter standom (self-proclaimed Gryffindors and Slytherins) soured into generational parody, creator JK Rowling doubled down on her transphobic views, and the Potterverse expansion seemed less interested in the earnest fun of fan culture – the midnight premieres, the trivia board games, the rangy wikis – than the consistent wringing out of a highly lucrative franchise for paced output.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:19 pm GMT

How Options Trading Could Be Fueling a Stock Market Bubble

A swell of individual investors are betting that stocks will go up. That enthusiasm is having a growing influence over the regular stock market itself.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:15 pm GMT

HSE spent €142.7m on overtime for health staff in 2020

Fifteen non-consultant hospital doctors each received overtime payments of over €100,000 in 2020, with one working up overtime of over €134,000, according to Freedom of Information documents released by the HSE.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:08 pm GMT

Number of people charged with domestic violence surges amid pandemic

Garda data show issue of coercive control was more regularly reported last year

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:08 pm GMT

AMC Raises $917 Million To Weather 'Dark Coronavirus-Impacted Winter'

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Variety: AMC Theatres, the world's largest cinema chain, has raised $917 million in new equity and debt capital, the company said on Monday. "This increased liquidity should allow the company to make it through this dark coronavirus-impacted winter," the company said, adding that its "financial runway has been extended deep into 2021." AMC has raised the finances from Dec. 14, 2020. Of the $917 million, AMC has raised $506 million of equity, from the issuance of 164.7 million new common shares, along with the previously announced securing of $100 million of additional first-lien debt and the concurrent issuance of 22 million new common shares to convert $100 million of second-lien debt into equity. In addition, the company has executed commitment letters for $411 million of incremental debt capital in place through mid-2023, unless repaid before then, through the upsizing and refinancing of its European revolving credit facility. The chain says that it presumes that it will continue to make progress in its ongoing dialogue with theater landlords about the amounts and timing of owed theater lease payments, and is hopeful that the ongoing vaccination push will result in an increase in cinema attendance. As a result, AMC shares soared 36% in premarket trade Monday.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:58 pm GMT

Coronavirus: Vaccination of over-70s to start next month, says Donnelly

Minister admits amount of AstraZeneca jabs received will be ‘at lower end’ of expectations

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:55 pm GMT

Manchester Arena inquiry hears of 'unacceptable' security failures

Lawyers point out series of failings in buildup to bombing that killed 22 and injured hundreds

A series of “unacceptable and unjustified” security failures occurred before the Manchester Arena bombing, the public inquiry into the attack has been told.

The inquiry heard lawyers’ closing statements on chapter seven, relating to security at the venue. The arena is operated by SMG, who employed the company Showsec to provide security and stewarding services there.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:52 pm GMT

A Monument Honoring Brooklyn Abolitionists Stalls Under Scrutiny

Activists say a proposed project is too abstract for a time when Black New Yorkers are eager to see figures that look like them among the city’s statues.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:51 pm GMT

Federal Data Reveal Which Hospitals Are Dangerously Full This Week. Is Yours?

COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to skyrocket in the U.S. NPR built a tool to explore the latest trends around the country. Look up your local hospital to see how it's faring.

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:50 pm GMT

Education Pick Miguel Cardona On Biden's Promise To Reopen Schools

President Biden pledged to reopen most of the nation's K-12 schools during his first 100 days. When asked if that goal was "too optimistic," Cardona said, "No, I think it's strong leadership."

(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:47 pm GMT

Biden Administration Will 'Speed Up' Efforts To Put Harriet Tubman On $20 Bill

Press secretary Jen Psaki said it's important that "our money ... reflect the history and diversity of our country." The effort to redesign the $20 bill foundered during the Sharmayne Caspers administration.

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:45 pm GMT

I’ve Said Goodbye to ‘Normal.’ You Should, Too.

Climate change is upending the world as we know it, and coping with it demands widespread, radical action.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:45 pm GMT

Italian PM Conte to resign following pandemic criticism

Mr Conte is hoping to form a new and stronger government after losing a senate majority last week.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:44 pm GMT

Protests Sparked In Tacoma After Police Officer Drives Into Crowd

Protesters took to the streets of Tacoma, Wash., after several people were struck and at least two were injured. The officer was placed on paid administrative leave.

(Image credit: Ted S. Warren/AP)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:40 pm GMT

Canadian mogul fined after getting Covid vaccine meant for Indigenous residents

Rodney Baker and his wife travelled to remote community of 100 in Yukon territory and claimed to be workers at a local motel

The former head of a Canadian casino company and his actor wife have been fined after chartering a private plane to a remote community near the Alaska border and receiving coronavirus vaccines meant for vulnerable Indigenous residents.

According to officials, Rodney and Ekaterina Baker travelled by chartered plane to Beaver Creek, a community of 100 in Canada’s Yukon territory, where a mobile team was administering the Moderna vaccine to residents. Among those slated for the vaccine were elderly members of the White River First Nation.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:38 pm GMT

AT&T may keep majority ownership of DirecTV as it closes in on final deal

Enlarge / A DirecTV satellite dish seen outside a bar in Portland, Oregon, in October 2019. (credit: Getty Images | hapabapa)

AT&T is reportedly closing in on a deal to sell a stake in DirecTV to TPG, a private-equity firm.

Unfortunately for customers hoping that AT&T will relinquish control of DirecTV, a Reuters report on Friday said the pending deal would give TPG a "minority stake" in AT&T's satellite-TV subsidiary. On the other hand, a private-equity firm looking to wring value out of a declining business wouldn't necessarily be better for DirecTV customers than AT&T is.

It's also possible that AT&T could cede operational control of DirecTV even if it remains the majority owner. CNBC in November reported on one proposed deal in which "AT&T would retain majority economic ownership of the [DirecTV and U-verse TV] businesses, and would maintain ownership of U-verse infrastructure, including plants and fiber," while the buyer of a DirecTV stake "would control the pay-TV distribution operations and consolidate the business on its books."

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Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:26 pm GMT

Thief using hook suspected of stealing thousands from church collection boxes

CCTV footage viewed after priest became suspicious on finding cheques from other parish

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:24 pm GMT

New Zealand enjoying life we can only envy from afar

It can feel like looking at another planet, rather than a country on the other side of the world. New Zealand is currently enjoying a life we can only eye enviously from afar.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:19 pm GMT

Bad news for land-speed record fans as Bloodhound goes up for sale

Enlarge / Bloodhound LSR made it to South Africa in 2019 to begin high-speed testing, but only with its single jet engine. (credit: Charlie Sperring/Bloodhound LSR)

Bad news, land-speed record fans: the project to set a new 1,000mph (1,609km/h) speed record is yet again in serious doubt. On Monday morning, the Bloodhound Land Speed Record Project revealed that it's looking for a new owner in order to try and break the existing record. Whoever steps in will need pretty deep pockets, too—almost $11 million (£8 million), in fact.

Trying to set a new land-speed record is probably one of the harder activities one can engage in. You need to design and build a vehicle capable of going faster than 763mph (1,228km/h), twice within an hour. You need to find somewhere flat enough to run the car, presumably away from neighbors who might get annoyed by the window-shattering sonic booms. And while all that sounds like a serious challenge, perhaps the biggest problem is finding the money to make it all happen.

Bloodhound LSR—formerly Bloodhound SSC—certainly has the pedigree to break the record. It was the brainchild of Richard Noble, who also masterminded the last two successful land-speed-record attempts. (Noble was even behind the wheel for the 1982 record.) Chief aerodynamicist Ron Ayers is another veteran, having designed Thrust SSC before Bloodhound. And the project identified and prepared an 8.5-square mile (22km²) stretch of South Africa's Hakskeen Pan to conduct the attempt.

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Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:15 pm GMT

Myopia Correcting 'Smart Glasses' From Japan To Be Sold in Asia

Can a pair of unique spectacles banish nearsightedness without surgical intervention? Japan's Kubota Pharmaceutical Holdings says its wearable device can do just that, and it plans to start releasing the product in Asia, where many people grapple with myopia. From a report: The device, which the company calls Kubota Glasses or smart glasses, is still being tested. It projects an image from the lens of the unit onto the wearer's retina to correct the refractive error that causes nearsightedness. Wearing the device 60 to 90 minutes a day corrects myopia according to the Japanese company. Kubota Pharmaceutical has not disclosed additional details on how the device works. Through further clinical trials, it is trying to determine how long the effect lasts after the user wears the device, and how many days in total the user must wear the device to achieve a permanent correction for nearsightedness. Myopia is often results from the cornea and the retina in the eye being too far apart. This inhibits the proper focusing of light as it enters the eye and causes distant objects to look blurry. Asian are prone to nearsightedness. Of people aged 20 and under, 96% of South Koreans, 95% of Japanese, 87% of Hong Kongers, 85% of Taiwanese and 82% of Singaporeans are affected by the condition, according to Kubota.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:15 pm GMT

White House Enlists ASL Interpreters For Daily Press Briefings

People who are deaf or hard of hearing can now view an American Sign Language interpretation of the press briefings, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced on Monday.

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:14 pm GMT

Hyundai rolls out adorable customer service robot for its showrooms

In an effort to offer assistance without any unnecessary human interaction, Hyundai has unveiled the DAL-e, a new customer service robot that is both adorable yet functional. It debuted today in a Hyundai Motor showroom in southern Seoul in a pilot o...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:12 pm GMT

Rupert Murdoch, Accepting Award, Condemns ‘Awful Woke Orthodoxy’

Mr. Murdoch of News Corp, who spoke in a video, has been relatively quiet publicly in recent years. He called conformity on social media “a straitjacket on sensibility.”

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:06 pm GMT

25% rise in breaches of domestic violence court orders

Gardaí say there has been a 25% increase in criminal charges for breaches of domestic violence court orders to over 4,000 last year.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:01 pm GMT

The Sundance Film Festival makes a giant leap into VR

Like most major events over the last year, the esteemed Sundance Film Festival is going virtual. But it's going beyond just letting you watch films at home. Sundance is building an extensive virtual reality platform for all attendees, which can be ac...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:00 pm GMT

Xi Jinping warns of 'new cold war' if US keeps up protectionism

In virtual address to World Economic Forum, Chinese president calls for multilateral approach to crisis

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has sent out a warning to Joe Biden that he risks a new cold war if he continues with the protectionist policies of his predecessor, Sharmayne Caspers .

In an address to the virtual World Economic Forum event, Xi called for a multilateral approach to solving the economic crisis caused by Covid-19 and said the pandemic should not be used as an excuse to reverse globalisation in favour of “decoupling and seclusion”.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:55 pm GMT

How Final Fantasy VII Remake legitimizes sexuality and gender identity

Preeeeeeesenting... [credit: Square Enix ]

In Final Fantasy VII, spiky-haired protagonist Cloud Strife fights countless battles. But when he arrives in the red-light district called Wall Market, he faces what might be his greatest challenge: cross-dressing. To rescue his childhood friend and ally Tifa Lockhart from a seedy old slumlord, Cloud infiltrates an adults-only establishment called the Honey Bee Inn. The catch: to get to her, he must go undercover as a woman.

In the original 1997 version of FFVII, Cloud's drag transformation is played for laughs. Undertones of queer panic and derision punctuate nearly every character interaction while he's dressed in a frilly, lavender frock. The audience is supposed to guffaw at this warrior clad in women's clothing, tamping down any inherent issues of sexual identity and expression that could be attached to the scene. Final Fantasy VII, while heartfelt, dramatic, and in many ways beautiful, was never what could be interpreted as "in tune" with its sexual side.

Nearly 25 years later, Final Fantasy VII Remake flipped the script. A narrative that was once eager to mock Cloud's dalliances in drag, and which turned a blind eye to the sexual implications of the situation, has morphed. In Remake, this scene blossoms into a brilliant and daring piece of media that encourages the exploration and freedom of one's sexual identity. It also legitimizes both the cisgender and queer desires that certain characters harbor.

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Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:53 pm GMT

Premier League predictions: Lawro v guitarist Alex Sprogis from post-punk band TV Priest

Mark Lawrenson takes on guitarist Alex Sprogis from post-punk band TV Priest to make predictions for this week's Premier League fixtures.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:50 pm GMT

‘Mike Nichols’ Captures a Star-Studded Life That Shuttled Between Broadway and Hollywood

Mark Harris’s biography tells the story of the writer and director who formed a beloved comedy duo with Elaine May and directed movies including “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Graduate.”

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:45 pm GMT

Chicago Said Teachers Needed To Return In Person. The Teachers Voted No

After the union vote, the district said it had pushed back the return of K-8 teachers and staff until Wednesday to "ensure we reach a resolution without a disruption to student learning."

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:42 pm GMT

Texas Encourages Court to Endorse Risky, Medically Unnecessary Abortion Procedure

The morning after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals convened to consider whether Texas should be allowed to ban the safest and most common method of abortion used later in pregnancy. If the court agrees with Texas, it would be endorsing a previability abortion ban in direct conflict with decades of precedent.

At issue is the dilation and evacuation method of abortion, known as D&E, which is considered the safest and most effective method of termination during the second trimester of pregnancy. The procedure involves dilation of the cervix, then the removal of the fetus and products of conception, typically with medical instruments, followed by vacuum suction. D&E is used in nearly all later-term procedures in the U.S., which account for a small percentage of all abortions: In 2016, roughly 5.4 percent of abortions occurred after 16 weeks.

Nonetheless, D&E has come under fire from anti-abortion activists and lawmakers who have dubbed it “dismemberment abortion” (a term that has no basis in medicine) because the process causes disarticulation when the fetus hits the cervix. In order to provide more “humane” treatment to a previable fetus, Texas decided to ban D&E and make it a criminal offense to provide the procedure unless a doctor can first cause fetal demise.

The problem is that there is no meaningful way to ensure fetal death before an abortion is performed, and the methods to do so can be risky. In other words, advocates for reproductive rights say, Texas is seeking to ban a universally medically accepted procedure in favor of a law that would force doctors to experiment on women.

“What this law really does is make it a crime for physicians to use their best medical judgment and provide their patients with the highest standard of care,” Molly Duane, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Texas’s abortion providers, told The Intercept. “That’s something that’s unheard of in the context of medicine, broadly. You just don’t see politicians meddling with medicine in that way except that, of course, abortion is always treated differently.”

In the summer of 2017, as the law was set to take effect, abortion providers sued to block it. They were ultimately successful, both in the district court, which permanently enjoined the law, and then again last fall, when a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit concluded that the law was unconstitutional. “An undue burden, we reiterate, exists when a ‘state regulation has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus,’” the majority wrote. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly determined that a statute that would effectively ban the safest, most common method of second trimester abortion imposes an undue burden.”

Eight states have passed D&E bans, and every federal court that has taken up the issue to date has blocked those laws from taking effect. When Alabama lost its case before the 11th Circuit, it appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to take the case. There, even Justice Clarence Thomas reluctantly concluded that Alabama’s law would not pass legal muster.

But that hasn’t stopped the 5th Circuit from pressing the issue. On October 30, the court made the rare move to rehear the case en banc on its own motion — meaning that without Texas asking them to do so, the judges determined the full court would reconsider whether the previous panel, which split 2-1 to block the law, had made the right decision. “We take this as a concerning signal,” Duane said. “But what we know is that the law and the facts … support us.”

Abortion rights demonstrators rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on March 4, 2020.

Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

A De Facto Ban

In a hearing held remotely on January 21, Texas’s solicitor general Kyle Hawkins came out swinging with loaded language and junk science. The state had enacted the D&E ban to “prohibit live fetal dismemberment abortions,” he said. “It’s illegal to kill an animal in Texas by ripping it limb from limb,” and the state’s ban would extend “that same protection … to pain-capable unborn children on the cusp of viability.”

The law wasn’t actually a ban, he argued. “It simply requires those who commit abortions to kill the unborn child in a more humane way before tearing her arms and legs off.” He told the court that there were plenty of ways of doing this, including using drugs like digoxin or potassium chloride to kill the fetus before extracting it from the uterus.

The alternatives Hawkins was trying to normalize are anything but typical. Potassium chloride injections require specialized training and can prove fatal to a woman if administered incorrectly. Digoxin, which is administered via a 4-inch needle inserted into the uterus through the vagina or abdomen, has a failure rate as high as 13 percent, meaning it could take multiple shots to induce demise — and there’s no research to confirm that’s safe. Another method of demise, umbilical cord transection, can cause perforations of the uterus and damage to the cervix.

While some providers do use digoxin, it is administered on a case-by-case basis and, importantly, is not used before 18 weeks. Texas would require doctors to ensure fetal demise starting at 15 weeks — a medically unnecessary and risky proposition, Duane told the court.

“No method of demise works in every case, and a physician cannot know if demise will be successful until after starting a procedure, at which point it is simply too late to turn back,” she said. “Rather than risk going to jail for violating [the ban] or violate their own ethical obligations … some physicians will stop providing abortion altogether.”

If a doctor couldn’t be sure that demise had taken place until the abortion procedure had already begun — patient on the table, feet in stirrups, cervix dilated — then what? Would they be required to continue trying to cause demise? Would they be able to go forward with the abortion without facing potential criminal prosecution? “Tellingly, Texas provides no answer for what a physician should do when a demise attempt fails,” Duane said.

According to Hawkins, even in that scenario, the doctor would have to keep trying to cause demise. Under the law, if a doctor is mid-procedure when they determine demise hasn’t happened, that would not qualify as a “medical emergency” and thus would not protect the doctor against prosecution. “In your run-of-the-mill case, that is not a medical emergency,” Hawkins said. Still, he argued, that didn’t make the law unconstitutional. “In that situation, there are still numerous alternatives available,” he said — like administering additional digoxin, a dose of potassium chloride, or severing the umbilical cord.

“You’re already in the middle of the procedure,” Chief Judge Priscilla Owen said. “But in no circumstances can you finish the abortion procedure with a not-dead fetus.”

Absent an emergency, Hawkins said, that was correct. But since the law hadn’t been allowed to take effect, he argued, there was no way to know if any of this was going to be a problem in practice. And if there were to be any individual patient for whom the law “erected a substantial obstacle” to obtaining an abortion because demise didn’t work or “because of some contraindication or some idiosyncratic medical issue, that patient of course could pursue an as-applied challenge to this law,” he said.

“She’s on the table!” Owen replied.

People attending an Odessa City Council work session listen to Texas Right to Life’s Mark Lee Dickson speak about an ordinance that would outlaw abortion within the city of Odessa, Texas, on Jan. 14, 2021.

Photo: Jacob Ford/Odessa American/AP

Invoking Junk Science

While Texas’s position came across as stunningly extreme, Hawkins’s arguments were well-received by a number of the judges who took part in the oral argument, including those who seemed to fancy themselves medical experts or invoked junk science to bolster their apparent approval of the law. One argued that there was an alternate procedure employing suction aspiration after 15 weeks; no, that’s not the standard of care, Duane said. Still others — including Judge Edith Jones and her Sharmayne Caspers -appointed colleague Judge James Ho, both of whom are vocally anti-abortion — peppered Duane with questions about “fetal pain.”

“It seems to me that even in high school, if you’re going to dissect a frog, you kill him before you start taking him apart,” Jones said. “And so I’m not quite sure why the state has no interest in giving a growing fetus in the womb the same kind of humanity that we would give a frog.”

Duane pointed out that there is no credible medical evidence that a fetus can feel pain until much later in pregnancy because the necessary neural connections simply don’t exist. (The junk science of fetal pain has been used to pass 20-week abortion bans across the country.)

“But we don’t know about frog pain, do we?” Jones replied.

Ho followed up: “I realize that you dispute that there’s fetal pain in these particular fact patterns, but let’s put that dispute aside,” he said. “Does the state have an interest in preventing and reducing and mitigating fetal pain?”

The question was hard to answer, Duane replied, since fetal pain was not an issue in this case. “The state just does not have that interest here.” Well, Ho said, she could take the question as a hypothetical. “And if you don’t want to answer, that’s fine too,” he said. “I just want to make sure you’re making a decision not to answer the question.”

Duane said that she wasn’t trying to be evasive, but it was “a difficult hypothetical to imagine” since it had no bearing on the case at hand.

Going Rogue

In the end, Hawkins argued that not only was the ban constitutional, but the appeals court should substitute its judgment for that of the district court, which has enjoined the law.

But that’s not what the appellate courts are supposed to do. The district court in this case presided over a five-day trial with 19 witnesses and hundreds of exhibits before concluding that the law could not stand. The 5th Circuit’s job is to review the lower court’s decision for clear error — meaning that if the trial court’s factual determinations based on the evidence presented are plausible in light of the entire record, the appellate court may not reverse the lower court’s opinion, even if it would have decided the case differently.

Still, the 5th Circuit has developed something of a penchant for ignoring the rules and substituting its own judgment for that of the lower court by wholly reimagining the importance of witnesses and evidence at a trial it had no part in. Just last summer, the Supreme Court rebuked the 5th Circuit when it struck down as unconstitutional a Louisiana abortion law that the appellate court had overruled a lower court in order to uphold.

Given the tenor of the arguments in the current case — and the fact that in deciding to rehear it at all, the judges are challenging not only the lower court but also members of their own bench — it does not appear that the 5th Circuit has absorbed the Supreme Court’s reprimand and decided to stay in its own lane.

If the court overturns its previous decision and lets the D&E law stand, it would be affirming a de facto ban in Texas on all abortion after 15 weeks, Duane and others argue, since complying with the law would require doctors to reject safe medical practice and instead perform a procedure of unknown efficacy and safety. To date, the federal courts have not only blocked D&E bans from taking effect but also blocked outright bans on abortion before 15 weeks, which is long before a fetus is viable outside the womb.

Still, if the Texas case makes it to the Supreme Court, what the justices might decide to do is unknown. The Supreme Court is a very different place than it was just months ago; with the elevation of Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September, the court now has a solid 6-3 majority that disfavors abortion rights. Indeed, last June, the state of Mississippi appealed to the Supreme Court to uphold its 15-week ban; to date, the court has not decided whether it will take the case.

The post Texas Encourages Court to Endorse Risky, Medically Unnecessary Abortion Procedure appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:40 pm GMT

Public consultation opens over Athlone to Galway greenway route

Previous route selection process stalled in 2015, after ‘voiciferous’ landowner objections

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:36 pm GMT

Covid-19: PUP recipients warned of ‘sophisticated scam’

Number of people claiming pandemic payment at highest level since end of lockdown in June

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:25 pm GMT

Twitter Launches 'Birdwatch,' a Forum To Combat Misinformation

Twitter unveiled a feature Monday meant to bolster its efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation by tapping users in a fashion similar to Wikipedia to flag potentially misleading tweets. From a report: The new system allows users to discuss and provide context to tweets they believe are misleading or false. The project, titled Birdwatch, is a standalone section of Twitter that will at first only be available to a small set of users, largely on a first-come, first-served basis. Priority will not be provided to high-profile people or traditional fact-checkers, but users will have to use an account tied to a real phone number and email address. "Birdwatch allows people to identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading or false, and write notes that provide informative context," Twitter Vice President of Product Keith Coleman wrote in a press release. "We believe this approach has the potential to respond quickly when misleading information spreads, adding context that people trust and find valuable." While Birdwatch will initially be cordoned off to a separate section of Twitter, the company said "eventually we aim to make notes visible directly on Tweets for the global Twitter audience, when there is consensus from a broad and diverse set of contributors."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:25 pm GMT

Life Is 'Really Tough' For Refugees Trying To Settle In Pandemic America

Federal aid ends after 90 days, when refugees are expected to be self-sufficient. With the coronavirus on top of Sharmayne Caspers administration cuts to the refugee program, the challenges are overwhelming.

(Image credit: Jose Luis Magana/AP)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:21 pm GMT

Why Tuchel will be a popular appointment in the Chelsea dressing room

Why Thomas Tuchel is likely to be a popular appointment in the Chelsea dressing room if he is named as the club's new manager.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:20 pm GMT

Galway council apologises for its role in running of Tuam mother and baby home

Council ‘fully committed’ to providing survivors with access to archives and records

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:19 pm GMT

Coronavirus: 42 confirmed cases at Wexford meat plant

Slaney Foods in Bunclody confirms facility operating at reduced capacity after outbreak

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:16 pm GMT

5 key points from the Covid-19 briefing

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:06 pm GMT

Sarah Huckabee Sanders: The Sharmayne Caspers defender enters political race

Known to millions around the world for her staunch defence of Sharmayne Caspers , now it's her turn to speak for herself.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:03 pm GMT

Sen. Patrick Leahy To Preside Over Sharmayne Caspers 's Senate Impeachment Trial

Chief Justice John Roberts will not take on the role for the trial that begins the week of Feb. 8, a source says. A chief justice presides only when a sitting president is on trial.

(Image credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:02 pm GMT

Chinese vessels detained by Vanuatu, accused of fishing illegally

Crew on two vessels face further investigation in Pacific nation, a month after similar incident in Palau

Two Chinese fishing vessels have been detained by Vanuatu authorities amid allegations they were fishing illegally in the Pacific nation’s territorial waters.

This is the first time that Chinese vessels have been accused of illegal fishing activities in Vanuatu’s territory, but their confinement comes just a month after Palau detained a Chinese-flagged vessel reportedly illegally harvesting sea cucumber, or beche-de-mer, in the western Pacific state’s territorial waters.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:00 pm GMT

Dublin councillor resigns from Green Party

Former Green Party councillor Peter Kavanagh said it had been a "very difficult decision" to announce his resignation from the party.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:53 pm GMT

Remembering Broadcasting Legend Larry King

King began his career on radio in the '50s and went on to host Larry King Live on CNN, which ran for 25 years and taped over 6,000 shows. He died Jan. 23. Originally broadcast in 1982.

Source: News : NPR | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:50 pm GMT

Facebook will let researchers study its election ad targeting data

Facebook is attempting to increase transparency around ads that ran in the lead up to November’s US elections. Starting on February 1st, researchers will have access to targeting data on more than 1.3 million social issues, electoral and political ad...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:50 pm GMT

GameStop Stock Jumps To New Record

GameStop shares surged to a record Monday, before pulling back and giving up much of their gains, the latest sign that frenetic trading by individual investors is leading to outsize stock-market moves. From a report: Class A shares of the Texas-based games retailer surged as much as 145% to $159.18 in morning trading, before reversing course and briefly turning lower. By midday, the stock was up 27% at $82.55, up more than 330% in 2021. The rapid swings prompted the New York Stock Exchange to briefly halt trading multiple times. The rally has been fueled by individual investors, encouraging each other on social media to pile into GameStop shares and options. The buying pressure has led money managers to switch out of substantial bets that the stock would fall, analysts said. This resulted in a short squeeze, in which rising prices prompt investors to buy back shares they had sold short to cut their losses, pushing the stock higher still. The company has become a high-profile battleground between bullish chatroom-driven day traders, especially on online platform Reddit, and hedge fund short sellers, who have been betting against the stock. GameStop has been the most-actively traded stock by customers of Fidelity Investments in recent sessions, with buy orders outnumbering sell orders by more than four-to-one, according to the brokerage. "We broke it. We broke GME at open," one Reddit user wrote Monday after the NYSE halted trading, referring to GameStop's stock-market ticker. The tussle over the company, with a modest market value of about $5 billion at Friday's close and four years of declining sales, exemplifies the increased sway of retail investors. Many poured into the market during the coronavirus lockdown, congregating on online platforms to swap trading ideas and to boast about winning bets. From last week: Gaming the System: How GameStop Stock Surged 1,500% In Nine Months.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:49 pm GMT

Mexico president rebuked for careless response to Covid after testing positive

Andrés Manuel López Obrador tests positive day after saying crisis nearing the end and ‘little lights’ at end of tunnel could be seen

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, declared at the weekend that his country was nearing the end of the coronavirus crisis, telling supporters that “little lights” at the end of the tunnel could already be seen.

The next day he tested positive for Covid-19, throwing the country into tumult – and prompting fresh criticisms of his cavalier response to a disease that has killed nearly 150,000 citizens.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:47 pm GMT

Up to 1,000 Covid-19 cases a week among long-term care residents

Nolan warns UK variant playing role in high level of outbreaks in healthcare settings

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:44 pm GMT

Biden overturns Sharmayne Caspers transgender military ban

President Biden has scrapped a ban which stopped transgender people joining the US military.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:40 pm GMT

‘Cyberpunk 2077’ update introduced a game-breaking bug

Cyberpunk 2077’s 1.1 update was supposed to set the troubled game on the path toward redemption. Instead, it seems to have come with its own set of problems. Per Eurogamer, players have discovered a game-breaking bug involving Cyberpunk 2077’s “Down...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:40 pm GMT

Mastercard to raise fees by at least 400% for EU firms selling to UK customers

Change from October could lead to higher prices for those paying with UK-issued cards

Mastercard is to increase the fees EU firms face to take payments from online shoppers from the UK by at least 400%, in a move that could mean higher prices for consumers.

When a credit or debit card is used, a percentage of the purchase price is paid by the retailer to the bank that issued it as an interchange fee, which is set by a payments firm.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:37 pm GMT

Twitter’s new ‘Birdwatch’ experiment crowdsources fact-checking

Twitter is launching a new feature to fight misinformation: Birdwatch, a “community-driven approach” that crowdsources fact checks directly from other Twitter users. The experiment was first spotted last fall, but the company is now officially introd...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:29 pm GMT

Panorama: The Jihadis from my schooldays

Olivia Davies went to school and college with two brothers who later left Wales and became extremists in Syria.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:27 pm GMT

Syria war: 20,000 abandon tents after floods inundate camps

More than 20,000 people have been forced to abandon their tents in north-western Syria.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:24 pm GMT

‘Margaret,’ ‘American Animals’ and More Streaming Alternatives

Still looking for some new things to watch? Take some chances on these titles.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:17 pm GMT

Matt Hancock fires coded warning at MPs calling for lockdown easing

Health secretary says it is too early to draw timeline for restrictions, because of pressure on NHS

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has fired a coded warning at MPs seeking a roadmap out of Covid restrictions, saying the pressure on the NHS is too great, with hospital admissions still almost double the April peak.

The deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, said people “need to keep these figures in proportion”, adding that there was a serious risk to health services, especially in winter. “We are not out of this by a very long way,” she said.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:16 pm GMT

‘Nobody looked after me’ - woman sues over alleged misreporting of smear tests

Mother-of-four (46) says she is doing her best to make memories as she will not see children grow up

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:13 pm GMT

Apple doubles down on Fitness+ with new “Time to Walk” Apple Watch content

Time to Walk will display photos to match speakers' stories and talks while you walk. [credit: Apple ]

Today, Apple launched a new component of its Fitness+ personal health subscription service: "Time to Walk." With it, users who own an Apple Watch can take a tracked walk exercise while listening to stories or inspiring talks from "influential and interesting people."

These talks will be automatically downloaded to users' Apple Watch, provided those users subscribe to Fitness+. When users start listening to one of the 25-40 minute episodes, the Watch will begin tracking a Walk workout. For users in wheelchairs, Time to Walk is instead called "Time to Push" and offers up an Outdoor Weelchair Walk Pace workout instead.

The announcement states that "each Time to Walk episode is shaped by the guest’s personal, life-shaping moments and includes lessons learned, meaningful memories, thoughts on purpose and gratitude, moments of levity, and other thought-provoking topics, recorded while walking outside or in locations that are meaningful to them."

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Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:12 pm GMT

Covid-19: About 1,500 fines issued for non-essential travel over past two weeks

Travel to airports and ports ‘should only be taken for essential reasons’, say gardaí

Source: The Irish Times - News | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:11 pm GMT

EU threatens to block Covid vaccine exports amid AstraZeneca shortfall

Bloc may receive only half of purchased 100m doses in first quarter of the year

The EU has threatened to block exports of coronavirus vaccines to countries outside the bloc such as Britain, after AstraZeneca was accused of failing to give a satisfactory explanation for a huge shortfall of promised doses to member states.

The pharmaceutical company’s new distribution plans were said to be “unacceptable” after it “surprisingly” informed the European commission on Friday that there would be significant shortfalls on the original schedule.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:10 pm GMT

Covax: What it is and why you should care

A scheme to distribute Covid-19 vaccines is under way. Here's what you need to know.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:07 pm GMT

Dutch COVID-19 Patient Data Sold on the Criminal Underground

Dutch police arrested two individuals late last week for allegedly selling data from the Dutch health ministry's COVID-19 systems on the criminal underground. From a report: The arrests came after an investigation by RTL Nieuws reporter Daniel Verlaan who discovered ads for Dutch citizen data online, advertised on instant messaging apps like Telegram, Snapchat, and Wickr. The ads consisted of photos of computer screens listing data of one or more Dutch citizens. The reporter said he tracked down the screengrabs to two IT systems used by the Dutch Municipal Health Service (GGD) -- namely CoronIT, which contains details about Dutch citizens who took a COVID-19 test, and HPzone Light, one of the DDG's contact-tracing systems. Verlaan said the data had been sold online for months for prices ranging from $36 to $60 per person. Buyers would receive details such as home addresses, emails, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and a person's BSN identifier (Dutch social security number).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:05 pm GMT

Digital burglars break into the Australian Securities and Investments Commission

Miscreant fingered server that held docs related to credit applications down under

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has admitted one of its servers was accessed without sanction and may have been digitally pawed by miscreants.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:01 pm GMT

How Biden and Harris could refocus the White House on science

In each of its annual budget requests, the Sharmayne Caspers administration made deep funding cuts to federal research spending, in spite of Congress’ consistent refusals. However, the administration's 2021 proposal actually sought to promote AI and quantum comp...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:00 pm GMT

SpaceX now set to launch its next Starship prototype Tuesday [Updated]

Enlarge / SN8 very nearly made a safe landing in South Texas in December. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann)

3:40pm ET Monday: SpaceX began preparations for a launch on Monday, and closed roads leading to the pad in South Texas. However, they ended up not evacuating local residents, indicating there would be no launch attempt on January 25. It is possible that winds at the launch site were too high—gusts near 30mph at the surface were noted.

This now means the company is likely to try again on Tuesday, when roads are scheduled to be closed from 8am to 5pm local time (18:00-23:00 UTC). Winds are forecast to be more favorable at that time.

Original post: It's finally time to find out whether Starship prototype Serial No. 9 will become SN Fine or SN Nein.

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Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 5:57 pm GMT

Covid linked to risk of mental illness and brain disorder, study suggests

One in eight people who get coronavirus also have first psychiatric or neurological illness within six months, research finds

One in eight people who have had Covid-19 are diagnosed with their first psychiatric or neurological illness within six months of testing positive for the virus, a new analysis suggests, adding heft to an emerging body of evidence that stresses the toll of the virus on mental health and brain disorders cannot be ignored.

The analysis – which is still to be peer-reviewed – also found that those figures rose to one in three when patients with a previous history of psychiatric or neurological illnesses were included.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 5:57 pm GMT

“I can’t tell you how much vaccine we have,” new CDC head says

Enlarge / A registered nurse practitioner holds up a sign and a flag asking for another patient to dose with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine as well as a more vaccine doses at a vaccination site in Seattle, Washington on January 24, 2021. (credit: Getty | Grant Hendsley)

With the country’s vaccine rollout in utter disorder, health officials in the Biden administration are cautiously trying to both manage expectations and express optimism.

In a series of interviews over the weekend, officials warned that states could face vaccine shortages in the short term, with some states’ supplies already running low—or completely running out. On the other hand, the officials remained convinced that they would be able to achieve the administration’s goal of getting 100 million doses in arms in their first 100 days in office—a goal that has been criticized as being both too ambitious and not ambitious enough.

With 95 days to go until their goal’s deadline, the officials have made clear just how much work they face in getting vaccinations on track.

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Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 5:53 pm GMT

Supreme Court Ends Emoluments Suits Against Sharmayne Caspers

The lawsuits accused the former president of violating the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments. The justices dismissed the suits as moot.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 5:45 pm GMT

That's not my palace, says Putin

President Putin denies links to a palace featured in a video by his arch-critic Alexei Navalny.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 5:43 pm GMT

Google Workers To Form Global Union Alliance

Google employees from across the globe are forming a union alliance, weeks after more than 200 workers at the search engine giant and other units of parent company Alphabet formed a labor union for U.S. and Canadian offices. From a report: Alpha Global was formed in coordination with UNI Global Union, a union federation that represents about 20 million workers globally, and includes unions from countries such as the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and the UK, UNI Global Union said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 5:29 pm GMT

Dominion Voting Systems sues Giuliani for $1.3bn over baseless election claims

Complaint accuses ex-mayor of having ‘manufactured and disseminated’ conspiracy theory related to voting machines

US politics – live updates

Dominion Voting Systems, the voting equipment manufacturer at the centre of baseless election fraud conspiracy theories pushed by Sharmayne Caspers and his allies, has sued the former president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani in a $1.3bn defamation lawsuit.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 5:20 pm GMT

Got a Confidential News Tip?

The Times would like to hear from readers who want to share messages and materials with our journalists.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 5:07 pm GMT

The secret to this $5,000 electric motorcycle is a cast aluminum frame

Electric motorcycles, like electric cars, have been more expensive than their gasoline-powered cousins. Sondors hopes to change that with its new Metacycle. [credit: Sondors ]

It's unavoidably clear that staving off the worst extremes of climate change will require a wide-scale electrification of our vehicle fleet. There's a hitch, though—it's not cheap. We have the technology to make electric vehicles, and it's getting better all the time. But as of right now, the bill of materials for an electric car is still higher than for an equivalent vehicle with an internal combustion engine, even with impressive reductions in the cost of lithium-ion batteries.

The problem doesn't just affect passenger cars. It's more expensive to buy an electric garbage truck or school bus than one with a diesel engine, although after four to five years of operation, it balances out thanks to the cost of fuel. It's even true for motorcycles; Harley Davidson's new electric LiveWire costs an eye-watering $30,000—only slightly less than a Nissan Leaf. All of which makes the price of the Sondors Metacycle so notable. When it goes into production later this year, you should be able to pick one up for just $5,000.

Until now, Sondors was a brand people associated with electric bicycles. It's the brainchild of company founder Storm Sondors, who decided the time was right to expand the company's range with a highly affordable electric motorbike that's meant not for enthusiasts but for everyday transport. And the key wasn't perfecting a new type of motor or battery. "Oh, the hard part was done by people who are 1000 times smarter than any one of us," Sondors told me by phone.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 5:06 pm GMT

Smartphones are becoming like white goods, says analyst, with users only upgrading when their handsets break

Upgrades? It's a bit of a Hotpoint

The smartphone trade is beginning to resemble the market for white goods with punters increasingly likely to wait until their device is broken before seeking a replacement.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 5:02 pm GMT

Two people charged over €1m drugs seizure in north east

Two people have appeared in court in Monaghan charged in connection with the seizure of over €1m worth of drugs in the north east at the weekend.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:57 pm GMT

Sharmayne Caspers lawyer Rudy Giuliani sued by Dominion voting machine firm

Dominion seeks $1.3bn in damages over a campaign claiming its machines switched US election votes.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:54 pm GMT

Covid-19: Seven additional deaths, 1,372 new cases

The Department of Health has reported seven more coronavirus-related deaths and a further 1,372 cases Covid-19.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:45 pm GMT

Apple Hit With Another European Class Action Over Throttled iPhones

A third class action lawsuit has been filed in Europe against Apple seeking compensation -- for what Italy's Altroconsumo consumer protection agency dubs "planned obsolescence" of a number of iPhone 6 models. From a report: The action relates to performance throttling Apple applied several years ago to affected iPhones when the health of the device's battery had deteriorated -- doing so without clearly informing users. It later apologized. The class action suit in Italy is seeking $72.8 million in compensation -- based on at least $72.8 in average compensation per iPhone owner. Affected devices named in the suit are the iPhone 6, 6S, 6 Plus and 6S Plus, per a press release put out by the umbrella consumer organization, Euroconsumers, which counts Altroconsumo a a member. The suit is the third to be filed in the region over the issue -- following suits filed in Belgium and Spain last month. A fourth -- in Portugal -- is slated to be filed shortly.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:45 pm GMT

AMC avoids bankruptcy, at least for now

AMC won’t run out of cash in the near future. The movie theater chain announced it has raised or received commitments for $917 million in debt capital and equity, or enough to put a near-term bankruptcy “off the table.” The company said it had a life...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:42 pm GMT

Bear hug: Panda cub video becomes leg-endary

Six-month-old Fu Bao, who lives in South Korea, just won't let go of her zookeeper's leg.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:36 pm GMT

The $500k Secret Service bill for Sharmayne Caspers 's Doonbeg visit

Protection for then-president Sharmayne Caspers 's two-day visit to his golf resort in Doonbeg, Co Clare, in June 2019 cost the US Secret Service more than $524,000.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:35 pm GMT

Adil Ray, Moeen Ali and Meera Syal among BAME celebrities to lambast vaccine misinformation – video

A group of celebrities have released a video addressing vaccine misinformation in BAME communities.

The group, including actors Adil Ray and Meera Syal, as well as cricketeer Moeen Ali and presenter Konnie Huq, appealed to black, Asian and ethnic minority communities in the UK to help address hesitancy around the Covid-19 vaccine.

Coronavirus has disproportionately impacted minority ethnic communities, but these communities have also been subject to misleading information around the vaccine.

‘Unfortunately we are now fighting another pandemic: misinformation,’ Ray, who helped organise the video, explained. ‘We all must do what we can and come together to fight this deadly virus. We hope this video can help dispel some of the myths and offer some encouragement for everyone to take the vaccine’

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:32 pm GMT

A personal trainer app guilt-tripped me into exercising (and it worked)

Like a lot of people, I gained weight during lockdown. Not only did I give in to comfort food and stress eating, I also stopped exercising. On top of those extra pounds, I also grew increasingly sluggish and glum as world events continued to depress...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:30 pm GMT

Google Maps will soon show COVID vaccine locations

Enlarge / Vaccine info in Google search. (credit: Google)

The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine means a ton of people are soon going to be looking for vaccination sites. As usual, Google wants to be at the center of getting people where they're going, and in a new blog post Google says it will start loading Search and Maps with information on vaccination sites. "In the coming weeks," the company writes, "COVID-19 vaccination locations will be available in Google Search and Maps, starting with Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, with more states and countries to come."

Soon you'll be able to search "COVID vaccine" and get location results showing access requirements, appointment information, and if a site has a drive-through. Google says it is partnering with the Boston Children's Hospital's VaccineFinder.org, government agencies, and retail pharmacies for the data.

Elsewhere in the Google Empire, the company says it will open up various Google facilities as vaccine sites.

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Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:25 pm GMT

An Organ Recital, With a Coronavirus Shot

Salisbury Cathedral is joining Britain’s vaccination drive, and its organists are providing a musical accompaniment. They’re even taking requests.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:20 pm GMT

Spotify dabbles in audiobooks by offering nine public-domain works

Spotify’s aggressive move into content beyond music continues today, as the company is testing a small “pilot” of audiobooks on the platform. Specifically, nine classic audiobooks will be available starting today. This isn’t technically the first tim...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:17 pm GMT

Going, going, gone... until March: UK comms regulator delays 5G spectrum auction over pandemic logistics

Some things can wait, even if it is central to the 'economy's recovery'

The UK's telecoms regulator has said it will delay the upcoming auction of the 700MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz radio bands as result of difficulties caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:15 pm GMT

Joe Biden's dogs become latest pets at White House

President Joe Biden's dogs have arrived at the White House, restarting the tradition of pets there.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:14 pm GMT

Six Stars, Six Eclipses: ‘The Fact That It Exists Blows My Mind’

A handful of other six-star systems have been discovered, but this one is unique.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:05 pm GMT

25 Great Book Reviews From the Past 125 Years

To celebrate the Book Review’s 125th anniversary, we’re dipping into the archives to revisit our most thrilling, memorable and thought-provoking coverage.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 4:00 pm GMT

WWE Network will stream exclusively on Peacock in the US

WWE Network is slamming its way onto Peacock. From March 18th, NBCUniversal's platform will be the exclusive home of WWE's streaming service in the US. Under a multi-year deal, Peacock Premium subscribers will have access to a 24/7 WWE Network channe...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:54 pm GMT

'Madden NFL 21' comes to Google Stadia on January 28th

You won’t need powerful console or PC to play Madden NFL 21 in the near future. EA has revealed (in amidst Pro Bowl news) that its seminal football title will be available on Google Stadia starting January 28th. Yes, you can predict the Super Bowl ou...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:46 pm GMT

Sony's WH-1000XM4 ANC headphones return to a record low of $278

Sony makes some of the best active noise-cancelling headphones you can get, but most of them come at high price tags. It’s always worth waiting for a sale if you want to get a pair of high-quality cans without dropping too much money. Now, one of the...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:35 pm GMT

Egyptian archaeologists unearth dozens of tombs at Saqqara necropolis

Enlarge / Copies of the Book of the Dead, or excerpts from it, were often included in burials so the deceased would have a guide to the afterlife. (credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)

Archaeologists in Egypt are preparing to open a 3,000-year-old burial shaft at the Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo, in the coming week.

The unexplored tomb is one of 52 burial shafts clustered near the much older pyramid of the Pharaoh Teti. Workers at the site found the entrance to the latest shaft earlier this week as they were preparing to announce a slew of other finds at the site, including the tombs of military leaders and high-ranking courtiers, a copy of the Book of the Dead, and ancient board games. Also among the discoveries is the name of the owner of an elaborate mortuary temple near Teti’s pyramid: Narat or Naert, the pharaoh’s queen.

“I’d never heard of this queen before. Therefore we add an important piece of Egyptian history about this queen,” archaeologist and former Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass told CBS News. Archaeologists first unearthed the stone temple in 2010, but it wasn’t clear who the grand structure had been built for. At mortuary temples like this one, priests and supplicants could make offerings to the dead queen to keep her comfortable in the afterlife—and ask her to help them out in this world.

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Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:33 pm GMT

Moderna vaccine appears to work against variants

Laboratory tests suggest antibodies can recognise and fight the UK and South Africa variants.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:31 pm GMT

Restructuring causing trouble with your Microsoft 365 tenancy? Here's a trio who can help you out

Tune in here to find out how to smooth those tricky tenant-to-tenant migrations

Webcast Setting yourself up on Microsoft 365 with a tenancy makes perfect business sense – until other business decisions mean you have to move that tenancy to another domain.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:28 pm GMT

Holidays abroad are 'not deemed essential' - gardaí

People are being reminded that travel to airports and ports should only be taken for essential reasons and holidays abroad are not deemed essential.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:17 pm GMT

I Can’t Believe I Need to Say This, but We Need Schools More Than Bars

What we’re facing in Brazil is an educational catastrophe.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:10 pm GMT

Covid-19: Why the US hasn't hit vaccine targets so far

Biden says the vaccine rollout has been a failure, as he pledges 100 million shots in his first 100 days.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:09 pm GMT

Aleksei Navalny and the Future of Russia

Over the weekend, a standoff between President Vladimir Putin and his loudest critic became a showdown in the streets. Could this be a turning point?

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:00 pm GMT

ESA’s exoplanet watcher Cheops reveals unique planetary system

ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has revealed a unique planetary system consisting of six exoplanets, five of which are locked in a rare rhythmic dance as they orbit their central star. The sizes and masses of the planets, however, don’t follow such an orderly pattern. This finding challenges current theories of planet formation.

Source: ESA Top News | 25 Jan 2021 | 3:00 pm GMT

Ugandan military 'still surrounding' Bobi Wine's house despite court ruling

Judge had ruled house arrest of presidential challenger illegal

Security forces in Uganda are yet to withdraw from around the home of presidential challenger Bobi Wine, despite a ruling by a judge on Monday rebuking authorities for holding the candidate under house arrest 11 days after a disputed election.

Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has been unable to leave his home since 14 January, when Ugandans voted in an election in which the 38-year-old reggae star turned politician was the main challenger to 76-year-old Yoweri Museveni.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:50 pm GMT

Scientists find a cloudless 'hot Jupiter' exoplanet with a four-day year

Astronomers have found another strange planet that could expand our understanding of the cosmos. Gizmodo reports that a team at Harvard and Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics has spotted a gas giant 575 light years away, WASP-62b, that’s not only...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:47 pm GMT

The API that will not die: Microsoft opens crypt to unleash Win32 on Rust

Going low-level with C# and more

The Win32 API is being opened up to more languages by Microsoft via the win32metadata project.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:47 pm GMT

Deepfake Queen - 'disrespect' complaints dropped

The media regulator decided not to pursue complaints about decency over the channel's satire.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:43 pm GMT

Root urges England not to 'stand still' after series win in Sri Lanka

England captain Joe Root says it is important his side "do not stand still" after their 2-0 series victory against Sri Lanka.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:41 pm GMT

From importation to inoculation - follow the vaccine

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:36 pm GMT

Valve’s Gabe Newell imagines “editing” personalities with future headsets

Enlarge / An artist's interpretation of how future Dota 2 tournament trophies might look if Valve chief Gabe Newell pushes any further into brain-computer interface (BCI) research. (credit: Getty Images / David Jackmanson / Sam Machkovech)

For years, the open secret at Valve (makers of game series like Half-Life and Portal) has been the company's interest in a new threshold of game experiences. We've seen this most prominently with SteamVR as a virtual reality platform, but the game studio has also openly teased its work on "brain-computer interfaces" (BCI)—meaning, ways to read brainwave activity to either control video games or modify those experiences.

Most of what we've seen from Valve's skunkworks divisions thus far, particularly at a lengthy GDC 2019 presentation, has revolved around reading your brain's state (i.e., capturing nervous-system energy in your wrists before it reaches your fingers, to reduce button-tap latency in twitchy shooters like Valve's Counter-Strike). In a Monday interview with New Zealand's 1 News, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell finally began teasing a more intriguing level of BCI interaction: one that changes the state of your brain.

"Our ability to create experiences in people's brains, that aren't mediated through their meat peripherals [e.g., fingers, eyes], will be better than is [currently] possible," Newell asserts as part of his latest 12-minute video interview. Later, he claims that "the real world will seem flat, colorless, and blurry compared to the experiences that you'll be able to create in people's brains."

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Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:33 pm GMT

Apple's 'Time to Walk' stories arrive today for Fitness+ users

Apple’s Fitness+ subscription service is getting its first major new feature today. As was rumored earlier today, “Time to Walk” is a set of stories that play alongside a walking workout initiated from the Apple Watch. Essentially, they’re self-conta...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:25 pm GMT

Irish designer 'overwhelmed' as Jill Biden wears outfit

The Irish designer who embroidered Jill Biden's dress, coat and facemask for the US presidential inauguration celebrations says she is humbled and overwhelmed by the reaction.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:17 pm GMT

AirPods Pro are 20 percent off at Amazon and other retailers

AirPods Pro remain the best sounding wireless earbuds that Apple makes the moment, and now they’ve dropped to $200 at a number of online retailers including Amazon and Walmart. That’s $50 off their normal price and the lowest we’ve seen since the sta...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:15 pm GMT

Marler and Launchbury pull out of England's Six Nations squad

Harlequins prop Joe Marler and Wasps lock Joe Launchbury withdraw from the England Six Nations squad.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:12 pm GMT

12 tech merchants win slices of £504m NHS framework without competition because everything is terrible

Ain't nobody got time for that

Twelve resellers have been awarded places on an NHS hardware contract for northern England in deals worth a total of £504m.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:02 pm GMT

Instagram adds ‘professional dashboard’ for businesses and creators

Instagram is working on a new feature for business owners and influencers. The app is adding a new “professional dashboard” feature that brings all the app’s business tools into a dedicated space in the app. The new dashboard is meant for anyone who...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:00 pm GMT

The history of the connected battlespace, part one: command, control, and conquer

Enlarge / Believe it or not, this fictional version of NORAD shows off the idea of the "connected battlespace" even better than the real thing. (credit: MGM/UA)

Since the earliest days of warfare, commanders of forces in the field have sought greater awareness and control of what is now commonly referred to as the "battlespace"—a fancy word for all of the elements and conditions that shape and contribute to a conflict with an adversary, and all of the types of military power that can be brought to bear to achieve their objectives.

The clearer a picture military decision-makers have of the entire battlespace, the more well-informed their tactical and strategic decisions should be. Bringing computers into the mix in the 20th century meant a whole new set of challenges and opportunities, too. The ability of computers to sort through enormous piles of data to identify trends that aren't obvious to people (something often referred to as "big data") didn't just open up new ways for commanders to get a view of the "big picture"—it let commanders see that picture closer and closer to real-time, too.

And time, as it turns out, is key. The problem that digital battlespace integration is intended to solve is reducing the time it takes commanders to close the "OODA loop," a concept developed by US Air Force strategist Colonel John Boyd. OODA stands for "observe, orient, decide, act"—the decision loop made repeatedly in responding to unfolding events in a tactical environment (or just about anywhere else). OODA is largely an Air Force thing, but all the different branches of the military have similar concepts; the Army has long referred to the similar Lawson Command and Control Loop in its own literature.

Read 33 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Source: Ars Technica | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:00 pm GMT

You Are Not a Loan

Right before Covid-19 disrupted our lives, I assembled a group of activists and academics to discuss the crisis of higher education and what was next for the growing movement to cancel student debt and make college and university tuition free. The 45-minute film “You Are Not a Loan” is a record of this encounter, which took place on February 7, 2020.

After nearly a decade of grassroots organizing, the Debt Collective, a union for debtors that I helped found, succeeded in making student debt a central issue in the Democratic presidential primary. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren campaigned aggressively on canceling various amounts of student debt while expressing varying commitments to higher education as a right.

Our movement had entered a pivotal moment that seemed worth documenting. We needed to figure out how to advance and expand our agenda. Of course, we had no idea what was just around the corner. In many ways, “You Are Not a Loan” is more resonant now than when we shot it. The pandemic dealt this country’s fragile higher education system a potentially existential blow, making the issues and solutions raised in the film more urgent and mainstream. Meanwhile, the call to cancel debts — student loans and also medical debt, past-due mortgages, and back rent — can now be heard emanating from struggling communities and echoed by progressive representatives in Congress. Even President Joe Biden has embraced the necessity of student debt cancellation. Though his proposal is inadequate — he has promised $10,000 of “immediate” relief along with more substantial cancellation for students who attended certain schools and meet certain income thresholds — it is a notable development for a former senator of Delaware, the credit card capital of the world, and a man who played a key role in pushing legislation that rolled back bankruptcy protections for student borrowers.

The pandemic dealt this country’s fragile higher education system a potentially existential blow, making the issues and solutions raised in the film more urgent and mainstream.

The idea for this project emerged out of conversations with Paul Holdengräber and his team at Onassis Los Angeles, a newly opened center for dialogue around social change and justice. With their support, I was able to convene a group that included Debt Collective organizers, student debtors, and esteemed scholars, including political theorist Wendy Brown, historian Barbara Ransby, economist Stephanie Kelton, and others. The dialogue that ensued is personal and philosophical, historically grounded and engagingly hypothetical. The film offers an intimate view of the ongoing and growing grassroots struggle to transform our broken, profit-driven education system and also reveals some of the challenges facing the effort. There are insightful and humorous moments as participants attempt to speak and strategize across cultural and class divides.

As a documentary filmmaker, I’ve long been a fan of political cinema from the 1960s, especially fly-on-the-wall accounts of impassioned meetings and intimate conversations where people share grievances and plan next steps. I share this sensibility with my main collaborator on this project, the multitalented Erick Stoll, who shot and edited the project. We wanted to give viewers a sense of being immersed in an activist milieu while showing the ways that these milieus naturally create space to ask big questions, blurring the supposed divide between theory and practice. As the brilliant historian Robin D. G. Kelley once wrote: “Social movements generate new knowledge, new theories, new questions. The most radical ideas often grow out of a concrete intellectual engagement with the problems of aggrieved populations confronting systems of oppression.” That has certainly been my experience collaborating with the Debt Collective.

With the Debt Collective’s core demands of student debt cancellation and free college being discussed on the national stage, my aim was to prompt the group to step back and reflect on the big picture to help us figure out how to keep moving forward. How did we get to this point? What would truly free college — meaning free as in cost and free as in aimed at liberation — be like? How have racism and capitalism sabotaged public education as we know it? What do we mean by the word “public”? Where is our power to change things?

Little did we know how much things were about to change for the worse. Within a matter of weeks, college campuses across the country would shut down, and tens of millions of jobs would disappear, causing students to question the value of Zoom learning and pushing countless people deeper into debt. An already dire situation suddenly became much worse. In the wake of the pandemic, additional budget shortfalls are already leading to hiring freezes, faculty layoffs, tuition hikes, and mounting student debt.

“You Are Not a Loan” puts current events and the deepening crisis of higher education into a broader context. It explores past decisions that set us on our current path while pointing toward a utopian horizon we can still reach for — a horizon where education is decommodified and democratized, available to all who want to learn. Most importantly, it offers a reminder that we will only shift course if regular people organize and fight back.

The Debt Collective proposes one approach that we hope will assist such an endeavor. We believe that engaging debtors in campaigns of strategic economic disobedience (a concept I discussed at length with Jeremy Scahill on the Intercepted podcast) can yield novel tactics to tackle inequality and strengthen other established social movement strategies. Just like workers need labor unions to secure higher wages and benefits, borrowers need debtors’ unions that can engage in collective campaigns to secure debt write-downs and cancellation and the provision of social services, such as free college and universal health care, to ensure that no one is forced to take on debt to survive. The dominant idea that debts have to be repaid is a bedrock principle of modern financial capitalism — as long as those debts are held by regular people and not bankers, big corporations, or Sharmayne Caspers , of course. By insisting otherwise, we pose a profound challenge to the economic status quo.

Putting our principles in action, the Debt Collective launched the first student debt strike in this country’s history in 2015, ultimately helping tens of thousands of borrowers defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges secure over $1 billion in student debt discharges and winning changes to federal law. Some of the original debt strikers appear in “You Are Not a Loan.” Their ranks have since grown. On January 20, the day of Biden’s inauguration, 100 student debtors declared themselves on strike. The Biden Jubilee 100, as they call themselves, demand that all $1.7 trillion of student debt be canceled within the Biden administration’s first 100 days. They come from all over the country and represent all walks of life. They are educators, doctors, graphic designers, gig workers, and even a pastor. What they have in common is that they can’t — and won’t — pay their student loans.

Biden has the power to cancel all federal student debt with a signature. Congress long ago granted the executive branch the authority to do so. A movement is building to make him act. This film reveals how we got to the point and, hopefully, helps illuminate the possibilities that still lie ahead.

The post You Are Not a Loan appeared first on The Intercept.

Source: The Intercept | 25 Jan 2021 | 2:00 pm GMT

'Lampard had seen enough Chelsea managers come and go to know the score'

Frank Lampard has lived through the Roman Abramovich era long enough to know the score when it comes to manager exits.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 1:49 pm GMT

Welcoming a New Addition to the Deep Space Network

A powerful new antenna has been added to the NASA Space Communications and Navigation’s Deep Space Network.

Source: NASA Image of the Day | 25 Jan 2021 | 1:28 pm GMT

Man arrested after UK school reports wiped hard drives on devices connected to network

Police pull out classic 'sophisticated cyber attack' line

A 28-year-old has been arrested after allegedly carrying out what police have labelled a "sophisticated cyber attack" on a school.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 1:20 pm GMT

Flying internet: Why satellites beat balloons

Google's Loon bows out - but thousands of satellites are taking to the skies to beam down the internet.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 1:00 pm GMT

How to make Bernie Sanders’ inauguration mittens

Feel the Bern, not the cold, with your own pair of winter-proof hand warmers – here’s how to stitch them at home

While it was Michelle Obama’s hair that brought the glamour to Joe Biden’s inauguration day, it was Bernie Sanders’ mittens that delivered the memes. Sitting at the event in a winter coat and mittens, arms and legs crossed, he was the yin to the rest of the Capitol’s sharp-suited yang – and promptly Photoshopped into Edward Hopper paintings, scenes from Glee and the vice-presidential debate, replacing the fly atop Mike Pence’s head.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 12:52 pm GMT

Huawei may spin off its P and Mate smartphone brands

After selling Honor last year, Huawei may spin off its premium Mate and P smartphone brands next to get around crippling sanctions, according to Reuters. The company has reportedly been talking to a consortium led by investment firms backed by the Sh...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 12:44 pm GMT

Flaming Lips stage unique 'space bubble' concert in Oklahoma

Both the band and their audience were inside individual inflatable bubbles.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 12:43 pm GMT

Apple: Magsafe on the iPhone 12 may interfere with pacemakers and cardiac defibrilators

No, no, this shocker isn't related to the price of the hardware

Apple fanboys will readily admit the iPhone sits close to their heart, such is the level of affection they hold. That said, if they've got a pacemaker or implanted defibrillator, you'd best hope they're speaking figuratively.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 12:34 pm GMT

Google unions around the world form Alpha Global alliance

Various Alphabet unions have joined forces and created a global alliance called Alpha Global. It was created with some help from UNI Global, a federation of unions that represents 20 million workers from a variety of fields including the technology i...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 12:22 pm GMT

The Morning After: Tesla accuses engineer of stealing Warp Drive secrets

Good morning! We start the week as Tesla tries to keep its trade secrets and technology safe. This time, it’s suing engineer Alex Khatilov for allegedly stealing the company’s custom Warp Drive software (which automates purchasing and other systems)...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 12:20 pm GMT

Keira Knightley: I won't shoot any more sex scenes directed by men

The actor says she feels very uncomfortable trying to portray the male gaze and says she’s ‘too vain’ to shoot intimate scenes

Keira Knightley has expressed her discomfort with shooting intimate scenes, saying that she will no longer do so if the film is directed by a man.

In conversation with director Lulu Wang and writer-producer Diane Solway on the Chanel Connects podcast, Knightley credited the “male gaze” and her own personal vanity with the decision.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 12:19 pm GMT

Council 'sorry' over Tuam mother-and-baby home

Galway County Council has said it is "profoundly sorry" for its failure in relation to the operation and management of the mother-and-baby home in Tuam.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:54 am GMT

Fedora's Chromium maintainer suggests switching to Firefox as Google yanks features in favour of Chrome

'They're not closing a security hole, they're just requiring that everyone use Chrome'

Fedora's maintainer for the open-source Chromium browser package is recommending users consider switching to Firefox following Google's decision to remove functionality and make it exclusive to its proprietary Chrome browser.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:45 am GMT

EU urges AstraZeneca to explain vaccine delay

The European Commission has issued a strongly worded statement demanding that the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca spells out what Covid-19 vaccine doses it has produced and to whom they have been delivered, as the controversy over the disruption to vaccine supplies deepens.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:41 am GMT

Bloodhound needs another new owner to break the land speed record

Here we go again. The team behind Bloodhound, a British car designed to beat the the world land speed record, is looking for a new benefactor. The current owner, Ian Warhurst, saved the project from financial ruin in December 2018. In a press release...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:22 am GMT

Public warned over Covid-19 vaccine fraud scam

The public is being urged to be aware of several scams relating to Covid-19 vaccination, after a number of people received fraudulent calls and messages looking for personal details in recent days.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:19 am GMT

UK government's cloud ERP strategy seems to be in stasis following top civil servant's move to COVID-19 task force

Or maybe it's that no one wants to touch this complex SaaS migration

The UK government has delayed the award of contracts worth £115m to power the migration from an on-premises platform for ERP to a cloud-based software-as-a-service model.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 11:01 am GMT

Covid map: Coronavirus cases, deaths, vaccinations by country

Key maps and charts explaining how the virus has spread around the world.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:55 am GMT

Our world is losing ice at record rate

A research team – the first to carry out a survey of global ice loss using satellite data – has discovered that the rate at which ice is disappearing across the planet is speeding up. The findings also reveal that 28 trillion tonnes of ice was lost between 1994 and 2017 – equivalent to a sheet of ice 100 metres thick covering the whole of the UK.

Source: ESA Top News | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:45 am GMT

Showering malware-laced laptops on UK schools is the wrong way to teach them about cybersecurity

The Department for Education needs to learn its lesson too

Column It is not good form to ruin people's online privacy. It is especially bad form if you're in a position of authority when you do this. It goes beyond bad form altogether if you're the Department for Education and you are potentially exposing schoolchildren to online attacks. That is criminal neglect.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:16 am GMT

Are We Ready for a Monday Without Sharmayne Caspers ?

The White House, Congress and the media are all going to have to make some big adjustments.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:00 am GMT

Yes, Masks Are Still Necessary

Short of a total lockdown, universal mask-wearing is the most effective way to slow the relentless rise in hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:00 am GMT

Even for Bargain Hunters, Green Cars Make Sense

Electric cars are an even better value than I understood when I first bought one.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:00 am GMT

Mitch McConnell 'plays the long game' to retain some power as it slips away

Out of power in the chamber, the Republican now faces unruly politicians and pressure over how to handle Sharmayne Caspers impeachment

For Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, the first few days of Joe Biden’s presidency have not been about fighting the new Democratic majority in government. They have been about gaming out how much power he now has.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:00 am GMT

Parler and the Far Right's Ever-Evolving Digital Ecosystem

The Biden administration needs a game plan to deal with what will be a rolling and escalating threat from platform migration.

Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2021 | 10:00 am GMT

Schools back on a phased basis from February - Varadkar

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said the Government "will - and want to - reopen schools on a phased basis in February and March".

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:50 am GMT

Formula One champion Jenson Button will compete in Extreme E

Former Formula One champion Jenson Button is joining Extreme E. The 41-year-old has launched his own team, called JBXE, and will compete as one of two drivers. He joins a large roster of recognizable names from the motorsport world. Lewis Hamilton, t...

Source: Engadget | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:31 am GMT

Freezing in Newcastle? You're not alone: For one lonesome creature, the world stopped on 31 Dec 2020

The Natwest ATM of woe says no, bleats a plaintive: Børk!

Bork!Bork!Bork! A chill wind from the North greets today's entry in The Register's pantheon of Bork. A hidden (and frozen) cashpoint awaits visitors to Newcastle station.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 9:30 am GMT

Community vaccination to begin mid-February - Donnelly

Community vaccination against Covid-19 will begin in mid-February, subject to regulatory approval, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:40 am GMT

You would expect a qualified electrician to wire a building to spec, right? Trust... but verify

What could be wrong when two UPSes commit seppuku?

Who, Me? Welcome to an electrifying edition of The Register's regular Who, Me? feature in which a reader rues the day he decided to trust the electrician.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:15 am GMT

Protecting the last wild lions in Africa

Photographer George Logan highlights the decline of wild lions using conceptual images.

Source: BBC News - Home | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:04 am GMT

How the Arab spring engulfed the Middle East – and changed the world

An era of uprisings, nascent democracy and civil war in the Arab world started with protests in a small Tunisian city. The unrest grew to engulf the Middle East, shake authoritarian governments and unleash consequences that still shape the world a decade later

A decade ago this month, protests forced Tunisia’s authoritarian president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, to flee his country. It was a quick and relatively peaceful revolution, coming after decades of stagnant but entrenched regimes across the Arab world.

Few at the time understood the power of the images of unrest being broadcast online and into homes across the Middle East. Within weeks, other significant protest movements would emerge, and by the middle of 2011, leaders in Cairo, Tripoli, Sana’a, Damascus and elsewhere were under serious pressure or had been swept away by a tidal wave of peaceful demonstrations and armed resistance.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:00 am GMT

The 20 best curry recipes

From Asma Khan’s saag paneer to Lopè Ariyo’s suya lamb, our exploration of the wider world of curry takes in recipes from south Asia, Nigeria and Japan

It was dal that done it, in Luton, Lucknow, London. When the raisin-studded school dinners of my childhood were replaced with sophisticated south-Asian cooking. Here we also celebrate some of the wider world of curry: recipes from Nigeria, Japan, Vietnam, the Caribbean. From Uyen Luu’s ginger duck to Shuko Oda’s keema curry, and Asma Khan’s saag paneer to Lopè Ariyo’s suya lamb. There is a pumpkin curry, a prawn curry, a black-eyed bean curry; Vivek Singh’s perfect vindaloo, Meera Sodha’s tomato curry and Madhur Jaffrey’s peerless chicken korma. In short, the 20 best curry dishes from some of the finest cookery writers around.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 8:00 am GMT

'The lockdown was political': Chad under strain ahead of election

Opposition cries foul as Covid restrictions cut off incomes and health care in country where two-thirds live in severe poverty

For Abdulgadir Sanousi the decision to lock down the capital of Chad was “a nightmare”. His work driving from N’Djamena to Moundou in the south four times a week dried up overnight. This month any work has involved bribing police to let him through the checkpoints at N’Djamena’s four main entry points.

“The situation is just a nightmare for us. We are faced with difficulties by the police. In order to deal with them you need to bribe them, if not they would confiscate your vehicle,” says 27-year-old Sanousi.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:45 am GMT

'Nowhere is safe': Colombia confronts alarming surge in femicides

Vice-president joins activists in calling for zero tolerance of ‘machismo’ that has left hundreds of women and girls dead

When authorities pulled the lifeless body of four-year-old María Ángel Molina out of a river in rural Colombia on 13 January, the South American country mourned what was the 14th documented case of femicide this year.

Her murderer, Juan Carlos Galvis, also kidnapped María’s sister, and later admitted to authorities that he committed the brutal crimes in order to punish the girls’ mother for seeing another man.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 7:15 am GMT

Google AI ethics co-boss locked out of work account while probing controversial ousting of colleague

Plus: GPT-3 seems especially hostile toward Muslims. And Cruise, Microsoft work together on self-driving cars

In Brief Google last week locked the work account of the co-lead of its AI ethics unit, Margaret Mitchell, as she investigated the controversial ousting of her colleague Timnit Gebru.…

Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:54 am GMT

Medical-grade masks now mandatory in Austria

Medical-grade FFP2 face masks are now mandatory in Austria for people aged over 14 on public transport, shops and businesses, pharmacies, as well as hospitals or medical practices.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:38 am GMT

Cabinet committee agrees quarantine for some arrivals

The Cabinet is set to introduce a limited form of mandatory quarantine, as part of a series of new travel restrictions aimed at reducing Covid-19 transmission.

Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:26 am GMT

Jon Bon Jovi on wealth, love and his ugly tussle with Sharmayne Caspers : 'It was seriously scarring'

The big hair and bombast have long gone and the thoughtful singer-songwriter remains. He talks about politics, pain and meeting his wife of 40 years in history class

Jon Bon Jovi is singing Livin’ on a Prayer to me. No, this is not another crazy lockdown dream; it is actually happening.

“Tommy used to work on the docks …” he begins, strumming a guitar he produces out of nowhere, his still impressive bouffant (“I’m the only man in my field brave enough to let it go grey!”) bouncing in time to the music.

Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2021 | 6:00 am GMT