Tag: fighting

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World News

Algerian Troopers Die Combating Wildfires, President Says

Algerian Soldiers Die Fighting Wildfires, President Says

ALGIERS, Algeria – At least 25 Algerian soldiers were killed to save residents from forest fires that devastate mountain forests and villages east of the capital, the president said Tuesday evening as the civilian death toll rose to at least 17 from the fires.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune tweeted that the soldiers had saved 100 people from the fires in two areas of Kabyle, the region where the Berbers of the North African nation live. Eleven other soldiers were burned while fighting the fires, four of them seriously, the Ministry of Defense said.

Prime Minister Aïmene Benabderrahmane later said on state television that 17 civilians lost their lives, bringing the total death toll to 42. He didn’t make any details.

The Kabyle region, about 60 miles east of Algeria’s capital, Algiers, is littered with inaccessible villages. Some villagers fled, others tried to hold back the flames themselves with buckets, branches and rudimentary tools. There are no water dumping planes in the region.

The prime minister told state television that initial reports from security services showed that the fires in Kabyle were “highly synchronized”, adding that this “leads one to believe that it is criminal activity”. Interior Minister Kamel Beldjoud, who had traveled to Kabyle, also blamed arson for the fires.

No details were immediately released to explain the high death toll in the military.

Dozens of fires broke out in Kabyle and elsewhere on Monday, and the Algerian authorities sent the army to help citizens fight the fires and evacuate. A 92-year-old woman who lives in the Kabyle mountain village of Ait Saada said the scene on Monday night looked like “the end of the world”.

“We were scared,” Fatima Aoudia told The Associated Press. “The entire hill has been turned into a huge flame.”

Climate scientists say there is little doubt that the burning of coal, oil and natural gas causes climate change to cause extreme events such as heat waves, droughts, forest fires, floods and storms. Worsening drought and heat, both related to climate change, are leading to forest fires in the American west and Russia’s northern region of Siberia. Extreme heat is also fueling the massive fires in Greece and Turkey.

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Health

Is Nostril Hair Important to Combating Off Colds and Different Viral Diseases?

Is Nose Hair Essential to Fighting Off Colds and Other Viral Illnesses?

Is nose hair important to ward off colds and other viral diseases? I ask that as a woman who raised her eyebrows before the pandemic. The person doing the wax would always recommend waxing my nose hairs.

A medical truism says that nasal hairs filter the air we breathe and thus protect us from infection by airborne viruses, bacteria and other pathogens. But as is so often the case with truisms, his story is more venerable than confirmed.

The idea that our nasal hairs, medically called vibrissae, could offer protection against infectious germs goes back more than a century. In 1896, two English doctors stated in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet:

The interior of most normal nasal cavities is completely aseptic [sterile]. On the other side are the vestibules of the nostrils [nostrils], the vibrissae that line them and any crusts that form there are generally populated by bacteria. These two facts seem to demonstrate that the vibrissae act as a filter and that large numbers of microbes find their fate in the damp webs of hair that surround the vestibule.

The conclusion of the English doctors may sound logical, but at the time no one had investigated whether trimming nasal hair could make it easier for germs to enter the airways.

It was not until 2011 that the density of nasal hairs was intensively investigated as a possible disease correlate. In a study of 233 patients published in the International Archives of Allergy and Immunology, a team of researchers from Turkey found that people with thicker nasal hair are less likely to have asthma. The researchers attributed this finding to the filter function of the nasal hair.

Your observation was interesting, but it was an observational study that cannot prove cause and effect, and asthma is not an infection. The researchers also didn’t conduct any follow-up studies to assess how trimming the hairs of the nose might affect the risk of asthma or infection.

It was not until 2015 that doctors at the Mayo Clinic conducted the first and, to date, only study examining the effects of trimming nasal hair. The researchers measured nasal airflow in 30 patients before and after trimming their nasal hairs and found that trimming resulted in improvements in both subjective and objective measurements of nasal airflow. The improvements were greatest in those who initially had the most nasal hairs. The results were published in the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy.

An interesting conclusion here, too, but does better nasal breathing correlate with a higher risk of infection?

None of the studies addressed this question directly. But dr. David Stoddard, lead author of the Mayo study, noted that when someone is working with drywall, for example, “I can tell by the white dust in the hair on their nose that they have just come home. But it’s the larger particles that get stuck in the hairs of the nose. Viruses are much smaller. They’re so small that they’ll likely go through your nose one way or another. I don’t think trimming the hair on the nose would increase the risk of a respiratory infection. “

Based on the limited study of nose hair, there is no evidence that trimming or waxing increases the risk of respiratory infections. And as at least one expert who has worked in the field has speculated, this is likely not the case.

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Health

Juul Is Preventing to Hold Its E-Cigarettes on the U.S. Market

Juul Is Fighting to Keep Its E-Cigarettes on the U.S. Market

Sales have slumped by $ 500 million. The workforce was reduced by three quarters. Operations in 14 countries were discontinued. Many state and local lobbying campaigns have ceased.

Juul Labs, the once high profile e-cigarette company that became a public health villain for many people because of its role in the steam wave of teenagers, is acting as the shadow of its former selves, spending the pandemic largely out of the public eye in the so-called “Reset” mode. Now its survival is at stake as it launches a large-scale campaign to convince the Food and Drug Administration to keep selling its products in the United States.

The agency is trying to meet a September 9 deadline to determine whether Juul’s devices and nicotine capsules have sufficient public health benefits as a safer alternative for smokers to stay in the market despite their popularity with young people who have never smoked but became addicted to nicotine after using Juul products.

Major health organizations, including the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, asked the agency to reject Juul’s application.

“There’s a lot at stake,” said Eric Lindblom, senior scientist at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University and former FDA advisor on tobacco. “If the FDA messes up on this case, they’ll face public health lawsuits.”

Juul spares no expense to push back. Last week the company agreed to pay $ 40 million to settle just one Lawsuit (with North Carolina) filed against thousands to avoid an upcoming jury trial. The company had made an urgent deal to avoid parental and teenage testimony in the courtroom while the FDA is reviewing its vaping products.

Juul has not made his 125,000-page application public with the agency. But it paid $ 51,000 to devote the entire May / June issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior to publishing 11 studies, funded by the company, showing evidence that Juul products help smokers quit stop. (A spokesman for Juul said editors turned down any of the company’s filings.) That fee included an additional $ 6,500 to make the subscription newspaper available to everyone.

Three members of the magazine’s editorial board resigned because of the deal.

And Juul’s federal lobbying has remained robust. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks policy spending, $ 3.9 million was spent on federal lobbying in 2020. Altria, the large tobacco company that owns part of Juul, spent nearly $ 11 million.

According to analysts, Juul’s share of the vaping market has shrunk significantly last year from a high of 75 percent in 2018 to 42 percent. However, some public health experts are concerned that FDA approval will lay the foundation for the company’s growth and expand its reach again.

Juul has long denied having knowingly sold its products to teenagers, and for several years has made a public commitment to do everything possible to keep them away from minors. In its deal with North Carolina, the company did not admit that it was deliberately targeting teenagers.

In an interview, Joe Murillo, Juul’s chief regulatory officer, said, “We have a better chance of converting smokers than ever before, but we will only get that opportunity if we continue to combat underage use and continue to act like high-ranking people regulated company that we are. “

The company is filing for approval for its iconic vaping device, once called the iPhone of the e-cigarette, with tobacco and menthol-flavored pods in two nicotine strengths: 5 percent, which is the same as the nicotine in an average pack of cigarettes, and 3 percent.

The decision is one of several critical issues the FDA has wrestled with – including the agency’s recent approval of a controversial Alzheimer’s drug and decisions on thousands of vaping products made by companies other than Juul – without a standing one Commissioner. President Biden has not yet announced a candidate.

A House panel recently interviewed Acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock on the agency’s plans for Juul. She said the agency will base its decision on sound scientific evidence and that it cannot anticipate the application, which is still under consideration.

The decision will be based to a large extent on answering two questions: Will more smokers use Juul products as an exit from conventional cigarettes than non-smokers as entry into nicotine? And can Juul really keep the products out of the reach of children?

Most of Juul’s published research in the magazine issue it purchased tracks the 12 month experience of 55,000 adults who purchased a Juul starter kit. The researchers, all paid by Juul, concluded that 58 percent of the 17,000 smokers who stayed in the study had quit after 12 months. Twenty-two percent remained double users of both conventional and e-cigarettes, but reduced their smoking by at least half.

Elbert D. Glover, who was editor and editor of the journal but retired shortly after the issue appeared, said the journal followed its standard protocol for scientists reviewing studies before publication.

The steady decline in Americans smoking is a public health success story. The rate has dropped from 42 percent in 1965 to 14 percent in 2019. Still, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths, with approximately 480,000 people dying from smoking-related diseases each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

E-cigarettes, which hit the market in the early 2000s, were designed to give smokers the nicotine solution they craved without the carcinogens produced by burning cigarettes. But until the launch of Juul in 2015, no e-cigarette had gained wide acceptance among the public.

Juul’s sleek design and novel use of nicotine salts in the pods made for a nicotine-rich, low-irritation experience in mango, mint, and other flavors that quickly became a fad, especially with high and middle school students. Public health officials feared that instead of helping adults quit smoking, Juul was making a new generation of nicotine addicts, with potentially harmful effects on the health of their developing brains and other health risks.

Juul’s rapid growth stayed under the FDA’s radar until 2018 when the agency declared a youth vaping epidemic.

“The FDA has created a wide open Wild West marketplace around these vaping products and unfortunately Juul and others have taken advantage of it,” said Clifford E. Douglas, director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network. “What happened next screwed up a truly extraordinary public health opportunity to reduce harm. It is our duty to come back to it to serve public health. “

Mr Douglas believes Juul is now marketing its vaping products more responsibly and that they could play a role in reducing the harm to cigarette smokers.

Mr. Lindblom, the former tobacco advisor to the FDA, has been very critical of Juul, but believes that the FDA cannot take into account the bad behavior of the past.

“The FDA has to look ahead to this and can’t really punish Juul, but it can certainly take into account how popular Juul is with teenagers,” he said.

Many of Juul’s critics don’t believe the company deserves another chance. They are wary of the “company reset” announced in September 2019 when KC Crosthwaite, a top executive at Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, became CEO of Juul.

Mr. Crothwaite pulled the plug on some of Juul’s controversial state and urban lobbying campaigns. It closed its stores in Juul’s overseas markets around the world, with the exception of the UK and Canada, although Juul is still sold through distributors in Ukraine, Russia, Italy and the Philippines. In response to public pressure, he took mint-flavored pods, which accounted for 70 percent of sales, off the market. And he stopped all US advertising.

“We have to put trust at the center of our actions,” he wrote in an email to the company’s employees last summer.

Critics claim that most of these changes were made at gunpoint – after the FDA threatened to close the deal if teenagers continued to have access to Juul.

For these public health advocates, Altria’s purchase of a $ 12.8 billion stake in Juul in December 2018 makes them even more suspicious.

“The Marlboro man broke into Juul and now wants us to trust them,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The Federal Trade Commission is now trying to clear up the Altria-Juul deal, claiming that the two companies entered into a series of agreements that excluded competition in violation of antitrust laws.

The commission claims that Altria and Juul started out as competitors in the e-cigarette markets, but as Juul became more popular, Altria countered its competitive threat by discontinuing its Mark Ten e-cigarette in exchange for a share of Juul’s profits. Both companies reject the allegations.

Even if the FDA allowed Juul products, perhaps with restrictions, the company would face significant business hurdles.

When Juul was forced to discontinue its fruity flavor pods, new competitors, sometimes nicknamed Juulalikes, flooded the vacuum with cheap disposable e-cigarettes in flavors like Cherry Frost and Dinner Lady Lemon Tart. Altria now estimates Juul’s worth below $ 5 billion, a fraction of its $ 38 billion valuation when Altria acquired 35 percent of the company as part of the 2018 deal.

If Juul survives, the company will most likely spend the next few years settling thousands of lawsuits.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia sued Juul for money to help fight the youth vaping crisis. A criminal investigation into the company by the Justice Department is ongoing.

There is also cross-district litigation in a federal court in California that has grouped nearly 2,000 cases under the supervision of a judge, much like handling opioid cases.

Whether there would still be a company that the plaintiffs could enforce depends on the FDA

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Health

The White Home is taking proper method in preventing the Covid-19 delta variant, Gottlieb says

The White House is taking right approach in fighting the Covid-19 delta variant, Gottlieb says

The Biden government is taking the right approach in tackling the highly contagious Covid-19 Delta variant by deploying response teams to vulnerable communities, said Dr. Scott Gottlieb on Thursday.

“I think the government is doing the right thing when it comes to changing its strategy,” Gottlieb, the former FDA chief under former President Donald Trump, told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” about the grassroots approach new government.

Gottlieb explained that the targeted response can help teams focus on vaccinating the communities prone to Covid and the Delta variant.

“Right now we need to move to a grassroots strategy and try to put resources into local communities so that local groups can encourage people to get vaccinated, put the vaccines in the hands of doctors, and find ways to get more vaccines to get into the hands of small providers who can encourage their patients to vaccinate, “said Gottlieb.

The Delta variant is driving a sharp spike in new Covid cases across the country and currently accounts for about 25% of the new cases sequenced in the US. Officials believe it will become the dominant strain in the country, dwarfing the currently dominant alpha variant.

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, attributed the increase in part to delayed vaccination rates. The CDC director added that about a third of all counties across the country have so far vaccinated less than 30% of their population. She said most of them are in the South and Midwest.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the board of directors of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus, health technology company Aetion Inc., and biotechnology company Illumina.

Categories
Entertainment

Evaluation: Preventing for the Proper to Dance Giselle

Review: Fighting for the Right to Dance Giselle

As a young dancer, Katy Pyle related to Giselle, the ballet heroine who is betrayed by a nobleman. That — and a weak heart — causes the character to go mad and die. For Pyle, the draw was Giselle’s unwavering dedication to dance, specifically to ballet.

But getting the chance to dance such an ethereal role was not likely to happen. Pyle, who uses the pronouns they and them, was strong and was told by teachers, “You would have had a great career if you had been born a boy.”

With their inclusive company, Ballez, Pyle wants to widen access to the art form: to give ballet back to dancers who may have also lost their connection to it but not their desire to dance it on their own terms. In recent years, Pyle has transformed traditional ballets like “Firebird” and “Sleeping Beauty”; now they debut a virtual reimagining inspired by “Giselle.”

There’s a twist. In “Giselle of Loneliness,” seven dancers audition for the lead part, performing their own mad scene for viewers instructed to rank them from one to five in categories ranging from jumps and turns to more interpretive prompts: “virginal,” “hysterical” and “suffering.” For the opening-night stream, which was performed live for an audience, there was a score sheet to fill out along the way.

In Pyle’s production, presented by the Joyce Theater through June 23, there is no actual Albrecht, the nobleman who masquerades as a peasant to win Giselle’s love. Here, Albrecht represents ballet: that thing you love until it crushes your spirit.

As the dancers sail and stumble and wobble through their solos — on more than one occasion, gasping for air — their scrappy renderings become less of an audition than excavations of pain and buried emotions. Performances reveal moments of humor mixed with fury. Wigs help on both accounts, but there are individual touches, too: The glare Alexandra Waterbury interjects between steps or Charles Gowin’s irritation as he yanks off his ballet slippers and whips them into the wings.

Maxfield Haynes (they/them), a stunning dancer in a beehive wig that eventually comes off — along with their costume — places the skirt of their dress over their head like a bride’s veil, a foreshadowing of the ballet’s second act. Each solo ends in death. Between auditions, the host, Christine Darrell (Deborah Lohse), commands us to vote. Within her is a dash of Myrtha, the imperious ruler of the Wilis, the spirits of young women betrayed by their lovers.

She sits with the judges, played by Meg Harper and Janet Panetta — New York dance royalty — gesticulating as if a real discussion is taking place. At first, Pyle’s concept is intriguing, but the competition gimmick grows tedious. By the time the seventh dancer rolls around, you’re kind of like, enough.

More moving than these audition performances is the writing that accompanies the dancers’ bios. “In a way, Giselle is this unattainable thing,” MJ Markovitz says in the program. “But at the same time I think my performing my version is the rejection of all of these things, and all of these preconceptions.” Haynes writes about feeling betrayed by a world that wouldn’t let them dance on pointe, that only saw them as a man: “Ballet to me is like a prison with flowers.”

By the end, “Giselle of Loneliness” is a lush garden of bodies: more of an awakening than a dance of death, as in the original. The dancers stand nervously in front of the curtain in bathrobes waiting for Lohse to announce the winner of the competition; then they turn on her. Stretching an arm with a rigid, flexed hand, they become Pyle’s version of Wilis as they slowly spin amid increasing darkness. A curtain parts to a stage full of swirling dry ice.

At first it’s an ominous sight, these rotating dervishes in bathrobes, but soon their chests pitch forward and their robes open. Joined by Lohse and, eventually, the judges, the aspiring Giselles re-emerge dressed in Pyle’s shiny, transparent costumes in shades of pink and canary as they glide in and out of formal patterns with gratefulness and glee.

It’s sweet. What has always stood out about Pyle’s dances isn’t the battle between strength and delicacy, or fighting against ballerina stereotypes, but the way the dancers temper their rawness with sincerity. There is joy and abandon. Vulnerability? Always.

In the end, no votes were tallied. It was never about winners and losers: What matters is how these dancers, guided by Giselle, find their way back to ballet. It’s personal. And there’s room for all.

Giselle of Loneliness

Through June 23, joyce.org

Categories
World News

Israel Floor Forces Shell Gaza as Preventing Intensifies

Israel Ground Forces Shell Gaza as Fighting Intensifies

Die israelischen Bodentruppen führten am frühen Freitag Angriffe auf den Gazastreifen durch, um einen Konflikt mit palästinensischen Militanten zu eskalieren, der durch Luftangriffe aus Israel und Raketen aus dem Gazastreifen geführt worden war.

Es war nicht sofort klar, ob der Angriff der Auftakt zu einer Bodeninvasion gegen die Hamas war, die militante islamistische Gruppe, die Gaza kontrolliert.

Ein israelischer Militärsprecher, Oberstleutnant Jonathan Conricus, sagte zunächst, dass “Bodentruppen in Gaza angreifen”, stellte jedoch später klar, dass israelische Truppen nicht in Gaza eingedrungen waren, was auf die Möglichkeit eines Artilleriefeuers von außen hindeutete. Er gab keine weiteren Details an.

Der Anstieg der Kämpfe hat die beispiellose Position Israels unterstrichen – im Kampf gegen palästinensische Militante an seiner Südflanke, um die schlimmsten Unruhen seit Jahrzehnten zu bekämpfen.

Es folgte ein weiterer Tag der Zusammenstöße zwischen arabischen und jüdischen Mobs auf den Straßen israelischer Städte. Die Behörden riefen die Reserven der Armee auf und schickten Verstärkungen der bewaffneten Grenzpolizei in die Innenstadt von Lod, um zu versuchen, das abzuwenden, was die israelischen Führer gewarnt hatten ein Bürgerkrieg werden.

Zusammengenommen deuteten die beiden Schauplätze des Aufruhrs auf eine schrittweise Veränderung des jahrzehntelangen Konflikts zwischen Israel und den Palästinensern hin. Während gewalttätige Eskalationen oft einem vorhersehbaren Verlauf folgen, entwickelt sich dieser letzte Kampf, der schlimmste seit sieben Jahren, schnell zu einer neuen Art von Krieg – schneller, destruktiver und in der Lage, sich in unvorhersehbare neue Richtungen zu drehen.

In Gaza, einem verarmten Küstenstreifen, der 2014 der Schmelztiegel eines verheerenden siebenwöchigen Krieges war, feuerten palästinensische Militante überraschend große Sperrfeuer mit Raketen mit erhöhter Reichweite ab – etwa 1.800 in drei Tagen -, die weit nach Israel reichten.

Nach Angaben der Gesundheitsbehörden des Gazastreifens hat Israel am Donnerstag seine Kampagne für unerbittliche Luftangriffe gegen Hamas-Ziele intensiviert und Gebäude, Büros und Häuser in Streiks pulverisiert, bei denen 103 Menschen, darunter 27 Kinder, getötet wurden.

Sechs Zivilisten und ein Soldat wurden von Hamas-Raketen in Israel getötet.

Ägyptische Vermittler kamen am Donnerstag in Israel an, um den sich verschärfenden Konflikt zu stoppen.

Am alarmierendsten für Israel war jedoch die gewaltsame Gärung auf seinen eigenen Gehwegen und Straßen, wo Tage der Unruhen jüdischer Bürgerwehren und arabischer Mobs keine Anzeichen eines Nachlassens zeigten.

Die Unruhen in mehreren Städten gemischter ethnischer Zugehörigkeit, in denen wütende junge Männer Autos steinigten, Moscheen und Synagogen in Brand steckten und sich gegenseitig angriffen, signalisierten einen Zusammenbruch von Recht und Ordnung in Israel in einem Ausmaß, das seit Beginn des zweiten palästinensischen Aufstands nicht mehr zu beobachten war oder Intifada vor 21 Jahren.

Die Gewalt folgt auf einen Monat kochender Spannungen in Jerusalem, in dem die drohende Vertreibung palästinensischer Familien aus ihren Häusern mit einer Flut arabischer Angriffe gegen israelische Juden und einem Marsch von Rechtsextremisten durch die Stadt zusammenfiel, die „Tod den Arabern“ sangen.

Die erschütternde Gewalt in dieser Woche veranlasste die israelischen Führer, angeführt von Präsident Reuven Rivlin, das Gespenst eines Bürgerkriegs hervorzurufen – eine einst undenkbare Idee. “Wir müssen unsere Probleme lösen, ohne einen Bürgerkrieg auszulösen, der eine Gefahr für unsere Existenz darstellen kann”, sagte Rivlin. “Die stille Mehrheit sagt nichts, weil es absolut fassungslos ist.”

Ministerpräsident Benjamin Netanjahu besuchte Lod, eine Arbeiterstadt mit einer gemischten arabisch-israelischen Bevölkerung, die sich zum Zentrum des Umbruchs entwickelt hat. Haufen ausgebrannter Autos lagen auf den Straßen, wo einige Nächte zuvor arabische Jugendliche Synagogen und Autos verbrannten, Steine ​​warfen und sporadische Schüsse abfeuerten, bevor Banden jüdischer Bürgerwehrleute konterten und ihre eigenen Feuer entfachten.

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Am Donnerstag wurde ein jüdischer Mann erstochen, als er dort zu einer Synagoge ging, aber überlebte.

“Es gibt jetzt keine größere Bedrohung als diese Unruhen”, sagte Netanjahu, der sich geschworen hatte, die israelischen Verteidigungskräfte einzusetzen, um den Frieden in Lod aufrechtzuerhalten. Einen Tag zuvor beschrieb er die Gewalt als “Anarchie” und sagte: “Nichts rechtfertigt das Lynchen von Juden durch Araber, und nichts rechtfertigt das Lynchen von Arabern durch Juden.”

Um Lod zu sichern, holte die Regierung Tausende bewaffneter Grenzpolizisten aus dem besetzten Westjordanland und verhängte eine Ausgangssperre um 20 Uhr, jedoch mit geringem Erfolg.

Arabische Einwohner, auf die etwa 30 Prozent der 80.000 Einwohner der Stadt entfallen, setzten eine Kampagne des Steinwurfs, des Vandalismus und der Brandstiftung fort, während jüdische Extremisten von außerhalb von Lod ankamen und arabische Autos und Eigentum verbrannten. Arabische Demonstranten errichteten brennende Straßensperren.

Als die Nacht hereinbrach, gab es Anzeichen dafür, dass die Gewalt eskalieren könnte, wenn ein großer Konvoi bewaffneter Juden in weißen Lieferwagen in die Stadt zog.

Palästinensische Führer sagten jedoch, die Rede von jüdischen Führern über einen Bürgerkrieg sei eine Ablenkung von dem, was sie als die wahre Ursache der Unruhen in Lod bezeichneten – Polizeibrutalität gegen palästinensische Demonstranten und provokative Aktionen von rechtsgerichteten israelischen Siedlergruppen.

Der israelisch-palästinensische Konflikt

Aktualisiert

13. Mai 2021, 17:47 Uhr ET

“Die Polizei hat einen arabischen Demonstranten in Lod erschossen”, sagte Ahmad Tibi, Vorsitzender der Ta’al-Partei und Mitglied des israelischen Parlaments. „Wir wollen kein Blutvergießen. Wir wollen protestieren. “

Herr Tibi sagte, dass Herr Netanjahu, der sich häufig mit rechtsextremen und nationalistischen Parteien zusammengetan hat, um an der Macht zu bleiben, nur sich selbst für die politische Zunderbüchse verantwortlich gemacht hat, die in ganz Israel mit solcher Wildheit explodiert ist.

Am Donnerstagabend forderte das Außenministerium die amerikanischen Bürger auf, die Reise nach Israel zu überdenken, und warnte davor, in das besetzte Westjordanland oder in den Gazastreifen zu gehen. In einem Gutachten stellte das Ministerium Raketenangriffe fest, die Jerusalem erreichen könnten, Proteste und Gewalt in ganz Israel sowie ein „gefährliches und volatiles“ Sicherheitsumfeld im Gazastreifen und an seinen Grenzen.

Die Probleme begannen am Montag, als eine schwere Polizeirazzia in der Al-Aqsa-Moschee in Jerusalem – der drittheiligsten Stätte im Islam, die sich auf einer Stätte befindet, die auch von Juden verehrt wird – eine sofortige Gegenreaktion auslöste.

Abgesehen von den Bildern von Polizisten, die Betäubungsgranaten schleuderten und Gummigeschosse in die Moschee feuerten, wurde die palästinensische Empörung auch durch viel größere, jahrzehntealte Frustrationen angeheizt.

Human Rights Watch beschuldigte Israel kürzlich, eine Form der Apartheid begangen zu haben, das rassistische Rechtssystem, das einst Südafrika regierte, und verwies auf eine Reihe von Gesetzen und Vorschriften, die angeblich die Palästinenser systematisch diskriminieren. Israel lehnte diese Anklage vehement ab. Aber seine Sicherheitskräfte sind jetzt mit einer wachsenden Welle der Wut der arabisch-israelischen Minderheit des Landes konfrontiert, die sich darüber beschwert, als Bürger zweiter Klasse behandelt zu werden.

“‘Koexistenz’ bedeutet, dass beide Seiten existieren”, sagte Tamer Nafar, ein berühmter Rapper aus Lod. “Aber bisher gibt es nur eine Seite – die jüdische Seite.”

Die Raketenangriffe aus dem Gazastreifen unterscheiden sich auch quantitativ und qualitativ vom letzten Krieg im Jahr 2014. Die mehr als 1.800 Raketen, die die Hamas und ihre Verbündeten seit Montag auf Israel abgefeuert haben, machen bereits ein Drittel der Gesamtzahl der während des siebenwöchigen Krieges 2014 abgefeuerten Raketen aus.

Der israelische Geheimdienst hat geschätzt, dass die Hamas, der Islamische Dschihad und andere militante palästinensische Gruppen etwa 30.000 Raketen und Mörsergeschosse im Gazastreifen versteckt haben, was darauf hinweist, dass es den Militanten trotz der israelisch-ägyptischen Blockade des Küstengebiets gelungen ist, ein riesiges Arsenal anzuhäufen.

Die Raketen haben auch eine größere Reichweite gezeigt als die in früheren Konflikten abgefeuerten und reichen bis nach Tel Aviv und Jerusalem.

Sie haben sich auch als wirksamer erwiesen. Im Krieg 2014 haben sie insgesamt sechs Zivilisten in Israel getötet, die gleiche Anzahl, die in den letzten drei Tagen getötet wurde.

Diese Verluste schienen das Ergebnis der neuen Taktik der Hamas zu sein, mehr als 100 Raketen gleichzeitig abzufeuern und das von den USA finanzierte Raketenabwehrsystem Iron Dome zu vereiteln, das laut israelischen Beamten zu 90 Prozent Raketen abfangen kann, bevor sie in Israel landen.

Die Bewohner des Gazastreifens haben keinen solchen Schutz vor israelischen Luftangriffen, die drei mehrstöckige Gebäude im Streifen zerstörten, nachdem die Bewohner zur Evakuierung gewarnt worden waren. Israelische Beamte sagten, dass in den Gebäuden Hamas-Operationen untergebracht waren und dass sie sich bemühten, die Opfer unter der Zivilbevölkerung zu begrenzen, aber viele Bewohner des Gazastreifens betrachteten die israelischen Angriffe als eine Form der kollektiven Bestrafung.

Der Donnerstag sollte ein Festtag für die Palästinenser sein, da sie das Ende des heiligen Monats Ramadan markierten, an dem sich Muslime normalerweise versammeln, um zu beten, neue Kleidung zu tragen und ein Familienessen zu teilen. In Jerusalem versammelten sich Zehntausende von Gläubigen im Morgengrauen vor der Aqsa-Moschee, einige schwenkten palästinensische Flaggen und ein Banner mit einem Bild von Ismail Haniyeh, dem Führer der Hamas.

In Gaza war es jedoch ein düsterer Tag voller Beerdigungen, Angst und Raketenangriffe. Einige Familien begruben ihre Toten, andere legten Gebetsmatten neben Gebäuden aus, die kürzlich bei israelischen Luftangriffen zerstört wurden, und wieder andere wurden von über ihnen schwebenden israelischen Drohnen angegriffen.

“Rette mich”, plädierte Maysoun al-Hatu, 58, nachdem sie laut einem Zeugen bei einem Raketenangriff vor dem Haus ihrer Tochter in Gaza verwundet worden war. Augenblicke später kam ein Krankenwagen, aber es war zu spät. Frau al-Hatu war tot.

Amerikanische und ägyptische Diplomaten gingen nach Israel, um Deeskalationsgespräche zu beginnen. Die ägyptischen Vermittler spielten eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Beendigung des Gaza-Krieges 2014, aber diesmal gibt es wenig Optimismus, dass sie ein schnelles Ergebnis erzielen können.

Israelische Militärbeamte haben erklärt, ihre Mission sei es, die Raketen aus Gaza zu stoppen, und das Militär hat am Donnerstag Panzer und Truppen entlang der Grenze zu Gaza an Ort und Stelle gebracht, um sich auf eine mögliche Bodeninvasion vorzubereiten.

Die Entscheidung, die Kampagne zu verlängern, ist letztendlich politisch. Analysten sagten, dass eine Bodenoperation wahrscheinlich hohe Verluste verursachen würde, und es war unklar, ob der Truppeneinsatz mehr als eine Bedrohung war.

Die politische Berechnung wurde jedoch am Donnerstag nach dem Zusammenbruch der Verhandlungen zwischen Oppositionsparteien, die eine neue Regierung bilden wollten, komplizierter.

Naftali Bennett, ein ultranationalistischer ehemaliger Siedlerführer, der sich der palästinensischen Staatlichkeit widersetzt, zog sich aus den Gesprächen zurück und verwies auf den Ausnahmezustand in mehreren israelischen Städten.

Sein Rückzug erhöht die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass Israel später in diesem Sommer Parlamentswahlen abhält – in etwas mehr als zwei Jahren zum fünften Mal. Und der Zusammenbruch der Gespräche scheint Herrn Netanjahu zu nützen, was es Oppositionsparteien unmöglich macht, ein Bündnis zu bilden, das groß genug ist, um ihn aus dem Amt zu verdrängen.

Herr Netanyahu, der wegen Korruptionsvorwürfen vor Gericht steht, fungiert als Ministerpräsident, bis eine neue Regierung gebildet werden kann.

Auf palästinensischer Seite hat die unbestimmte Verschiebung der Wahlen durch den palästinensischen Präsidenten Mahmoud Abbas im letzten Monat ein Vakuum geschaffen, das die Hamas mehr als bereit ist zu füllen.

Isabel Kershner berichtete aus Lod, Israel; Iyad Abuheweila aus Gaza-Stadt; Patrick Kingsley, Irit Pazner Garshowitz und Myra Noveck aus Jerusalem; Gabby Sobelman aus Rehovot, Israel; Mona el-Naggar und Vivian Yee aus Kairo; Megan Specia aus London; Steven Erlanger aus Brüssel; und Lara Jakes aus Washington.

Categories
Politics

Liz Cheney vows to maintain preventing Trump election lies

Liz Cheney vows to keep fighting Trump election lies

GOP MP Liz Cheney, likely stripped of leadership by her Republican counterparts, has no plans to end former President Donald Trump’s explosion for repeating the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Cheney, a staunch Conservative, has told key donors and supporters behind the scenes that she will continue to hold Trump and the Republican Party responsible for what she called the “big lie,” these people said.

Her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was also involved in these talks.

These people declined to be included in this story to discuss any private matter.

Your demeanor will likely cost Liz Cheney her place as the GOP conference leader in the house. Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Chairman, R-Calif., Has told members to expect a vote on Wednesday to remove Cheney from the position. MP Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., is in line to take this post. Trump, who fooled Cheney as a “warmonger”, recommended Stefanik for the role.

During a call with her allies and top donors late last month, Cheney said she had no intention of withdrawing from Trump, according to one of the people with direct knowledge of the matter. She has publicly linked Trump’s false claims about the election to the deadly January 6 riot on Capitol Hill.

Cheney, like every other member of the House, is up for re-election next year. Numerous Republicans have announced primary campaigns against them.

Cheney was one of ten Republicans in the House who voted to indict Trump in the weeks following the deadly riot. Many of their top donors told CNBC last week that despite the Republicans move to oust them from their leadership roles, they would like to stay with Cheney.

The April appeal included a small group of supporters, including former Vice President Cheney, one person said. While Dick Cheney was involved in his daughter’s campaigns in the past, he is now in the midst of the battle over a party he once led with former President George W. Bush.

According to people familiar with the appeal and other recent private meetings with him, Dick Cheney has indicated that he supports his daughter’s stance on Trump and the Capitol uprising.

The April discussion came before the Republicans withdrew and before McCarthy publicly targeted Cheney in an interview with Fox News and other cases.

Liz Cheney recently told allies in several private meetings that she is likely to speak about Trump’s campaign claims. She has also acknowledged that convincing at least some Republicans in her state that Trump’s claims are, in fact, lies could be a challenge.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney watches as his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Takes the oath of office on the floor of the house on Tuesday, January 3, 2017.

Bill Clark | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

Trump defeated Democrat Joe Biden in Wyoming by over 43 percentage points in 2020. Cheney was recently censored by the Wyoming Republican Party for her voice on charges against Trump.

Representatives from Liz Cheney and Trump did not respond to requests for comment. Wyoming lawmakers recently wrote a comment on the Washington Post urging the party to deviate from Trump.

“We Republicans must stand up for genuinely conservative principles and turn away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump personality cult,” Cheney wrote.

Still, the apparent unity between Cheney, her father, and her coworkers against Trump and his policies is an attempt to maintain the power of a faction that appears to have lost influence in a party largely led by the former commander-in-chief.

Dick Cheney has not publicly condemned Trump’s stance on the election. People close to him say there is no sign that he is actively campaigning for members of Congress to help his daughter keep her leadership position.

According to Politico, Liz Cheney has not made any calls to other Republican officials that could help maintain her position as GOP chairman of the House.

Categories
Business

UK docs have recommendation for U.S. on combating mutant variant

UK doctors have advice for U.S. on fighting mutant variant

Allyson Black, a registered U.S. Air Force nurse, is serving Covid-19 patients in a makeshift intensive care unit at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California on January 21, 2021.

Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON – Health experts warn that, despite restrictions, the US is likely to struggle to contain the spread of a highly infectious variant of coronavirus, underscoring the importance of immediately taking aggressive action to protect as many people as possible.

The discovered in Great Britain and as B.1.1.7. Known variant has an unusually high number of mutations and is associated with more efficient and faster transmission.

There is no evidence that the mutant strain is associated with more severe disease outcomes. However, because it is more transmissible, more people are likely to be infected, which can lead to higher numbers of serious infections and hospitalizations, and more deaths.

Scientists first discovered this mutation in September. The worrying variant has since been detected in at least 44 countries, including the US, which has reported its presence in 12 states.

Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the US variant’s modeled trajectory “is growing rapidly in early 2021 and will become the predominant variant in March”.

The forecast comes from the fact that the UK is struggling to control the effects of its exponential growth.

How is the situation in the UK?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced lockdown measures in England on January 5th, ordering people to “stay home” as most schools, bars and restaurants had to close. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have implemented similar measures.

The restrictions, expected to remain in England through at least mid-February, were put in place to ease the burden on already stressed hospitals in the country amid the surge in Covid admissions.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a press conference on Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Downing Street on January 15, 2021 in London, England.

Dominic Lipinski | Getty Images

Government figures released on Thursday said the UK recorded 37,892 new infections with 1,290 deaths. A day earlier, the UK saw a record high in Covid deaths when data showed an additional 1,820 people had died within 28 days of a positive Covid test.

Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University in London, stressed that the UK’s response shows that unless aggressive action is taken immediately, the variant will spread rapidly geographically and more frequently in places where it occurs occurs in the community established. “

Gurdasani cited results of a closely watched study conducted by researchers at Imperial College London that showed “no signs of a decrease” in Covid rates between January 6-15, despite England being locked, “suggesting that even with limitations it is difficult to contain this effectively due to the higher transferability. “

Researchers in the study, published Thursday, warned that if the prevalence of the virus in the community were not significantly reduced, the UK healthcare system would remain under “extreme pressure” and the cumulative number of deaths would rise rapidly.

“All of this means that the window of opportunity for containment is very short. Given the lower level of active surveillance in the US, the variant may have spread more widely than expected and containment policy must reflect this,” Gurdasani said.

“This means strict containment efforts not just where the variant has been identified, but in all regions where it could have spread. And active surveillance with contact tracing to identify all possible cases, while maintaining strict restrictions to chains of transmission interrupt. “

Patients arrive in ambulances at the Royal London Hospital in London on January 5, 2021. The British Prime Minister made a national televised address on Monday evening, announcing that England would take action against the Covid-19 pandemic for the third time. This week, the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the seventh straight day.

Dan Kitwood | Getty Images News | Getty Images

To date, the UK has had the fifth highest number of confirmed Covid infections and related deaths in the world.

What measures should be considered in the US?

On his second day in office, President Joe Biden announced comprehensive measures to combat the virus, including the establishment of a Covid testing committee to improve testing, address supply shortages and provide direct funding to hard-hit minority communities.

Biden said the executive orders said, “Help is on the way.” He also warned it would take months “to reverse this”.

“The key to all of this is reducing human interactions, and the strategy must be broadly the same as it was before, what worked elsewhere, and more,” said Simon Clarke, Associate Professor of Cell Microbiology at the University of Reading.

Sister Dawn Duran delivers a dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to Jeremy Coran during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak on January 12, 2021 in Pasadena, California, United States.

Mario Anzuoni | Reuters

Clarke said the U.S. states, for example, need to consider reducing the number of people in retail or recreational settings, and it might be necessary to close bars or limit their opening hours, as studies show that the risk of transmission is higher indoors is.

“None of these things we do to protect ourselves eliminate the risk, none of them make us Covid safe – all it does is reduce the chances of getting infected,” said Clarke.

“The virus has just pushed this back with this evolutionary step, and it will now be even more difficult to achieve the same level of protection.”

Run vaccines as soon as possible.

“Everyone wants to believe that vaccines are the solution and they will make a huge difference, but it’s not the whole solution,” said Kit Yates, professor of mathematical biology at the University of Bath and author of “The Math” of Life and death. “

Yates said the new US administration should do everything possible to introduce Covid vaccines “as soon as possible” to ease pressure on healthcare facilities, but insisted that this should be part of a multi-tiered approach.

Some other measures U.S. states should consider, according to Yates, include encouraging people to work from home wherever possible, maintaining physical distance, improving ventilation at school, wearing masks for children, financial support for self-isolators, and the use of effective tests and trace protocols.

“These are the boring, awful, non-pharmaceutical measures that nobody wants, but the alternative is just too scary to think about.”