A study by researchers at Britain’s University of Nottingham published this week suggests there could be more than 30 intelligent civilizations in our galaxy.The study, published Monday in the Astrophysical Journal, uses a calculation based on how long it took advanced life to develop on Earth – about five billion years ago – and applied it to the known galaxy. Lead researcher on the study, University of Nottingham Astrophysics Professor Christopher Conselice, says they came by their number assuming it would take just as long for life to develop on other planets. “The idea is looking at evolution, but on a cosmic scale. We call this calculation the Astrobiological Copernican Limit.”First author on the study and Assistant Engineering Professor Tom Westby says previous methods for estimating the number of intelligent civilizations relied on the guessing of values relating to life, opinions about which “vary quite substantially. Our new study simplifies these assumptions using new data, giving us a solid estimate of the number of civilizations in our galaxy.” Westby says based on the assumption that advanced life – a technologically capable civilization that sends out communications – takes up to five billion years to form, and to make of the planets and stars in the galaxy, they calculated there are about 36 advanced civilizations in the Milky Way.They caution, however that communication with these civilizations could be difficult, as the average distance to them would be about 17,000 light-years. They also say whether or not we are currently alone in the galaxy depends on how long the civilizations survive.
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Month: June 2020
Cheap Steroid Can Help Seriously Ill COVID-19 Patients, Study Shows
A cheap and widely available steroid drug has shown it can save the lives of the most seriously ill COVID-19 patients, British researchers said Tuesday. Scientists called the use of dexamethasone, normally used to reduce inflammation in patients with arthritis and other diseases, a “major breakthrough” in the treatment of patients infected by the coronavirus who have been hospitalized and needed the use of a ventilator or supplemental oxygen. Researchers at the University of Oxford said that a study of more than 6,400 patients — a third of whom were administered the drug and two-thirds of whom were not — showed that use of the drug was particularly beneficial for the most seriously ill patients but did not appear to help less ill patients. A pharmacist holds a box of dexamethasone tablets at a chemists shop in London, June 16, 2020.They said the drug, either administered orally or through an IV, reduced deaths by 35% in patients who needed treatment with a ventilator and by 20% in those who only needed supplemental oxygen. “This is an extremely welcome result,” researcher Peter Horby said in a statement. “The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients. Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.” Britain’s health minister said the state-run health service would immediately start using the drug for the most severe COVID-19 patients and had stockpiled 200,000 courses of the treatment. “This is a (trial) result that shows that if patients who have COVID-19 and are on ventilators or are on oxygen are given dexamethasone, it will save lives, and it will do so at a remarkably low cost,” said Martin Landray, an Oxford University professor who co-led the research. “It’s going to be very hard for any drug really to replace this, given that for less than 50 pounds ($63.26), you can treat eight patients and save a life,” he said in an online briefing. The researchers said that had the drug been used from the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in March, up to 5,000 lives in Britain could have been saved. The research on dexamethasone was part of the same study that earlier this month showed the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was not working against the coronavirus, the same outcome other tests have shown. U.S. President Donald Trump for weeks touted the use of hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus preventive treatment and said he took the drug earlier during the pandemic. Researchers in the U.S. and elsewhere are in a frantic rush to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, but experts say it could be next year or beyond before such a cure is found.
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NFL Commissioner Goodell Encourages Team to Sign Kaepernick
Roger Goodell would like to see Colin Kaepernick back in the NFL this season. The NFL commissioner said during ESPN’s “The Return of Sports” special on Monday that he is encouraging teams to sign the 32-year old quarterback, who hasn’t played the past three seasons. Kaepernick was with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 when he kneeled during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.
“If he wants to resume his career in the NFL, then obviously it’s gonna take a team to make that decision. I welcome that, support a club making that decision and encourage them to do that,” Goodell said during his interview with ESPN’s Mike Greenberg.
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said last week that he received a call from another team about Kaepernick. Carroll and the Seahawks brought in Kaepernick for a workout in 2017 and had another planned in 2018 before it was canceled.
Goodell set up a tryout for Kaepernick in Atlanta last year for scouts of all 32 teams to attend, but it unraveled at the last moment due to lack of media access and what Kaepernick’s representatives saw as an unusual liability waiver. Instead of the workout taking place at the Falcons’ training complex, Kaepernick conducted an impromptu session at a high school in front of media and scouts from eight teams. The NFL released a video on June 5 in which Goodell apologized for the league for not doing a good job of listening to concerns by players on racial inequality. Goodell though was roundly criticized for the apology not mentioning Kaepernick.The video came out a day after many players released a video criticizing the league for not condemning racism following the May 25 death of George Floyd. “We had spent time prior to that understanding all the frustration, fear and sadness. When the video came out on Thursday it was very powerful. It was appropriate for me to respond,” Goodell said. “We should have listened to our players earlier including Colin Kaepernick, Eric Reid, Kenny Stills, Malcolm Jenkins and so many people really brought these issues to light.”Atanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said Goodell’s video was a great step in the right direction.
“We all need to be on the same page and address some of the uncomfortable things that need addressed,” he said.Goodell did not answer how the league would respond if President Donald Trump continued to criticize them if players kneeled for the National Anthem. Goodell also said that he wants to include Kaepernick’s voice on how the league should approach social issues.”I hope we’re at a point now where everybody’s committed to making long-term, sustainable change,” Goodell said. “If his efforts are not on the field but continuing to work in this space, we welcome him to that table and to help us, guide us, help us make better decisions about the kinds of things that need to be done in the communities.”NBA commissioner Adam Silver said when the league gathers at the Disney campus it would provide an opportunity for the league to do more to promote social and societal change — especially since players, who will be confined to the campus, will have plenty of free time on their hands and with what’s expected to be a sizable media contingent present.”How can we use our larger platform, the NBA together with our players, really to affect change?” Silver asked. “There’s an appropriate role, of course, for protests. There’s an appropriate role for those who choose not to engage in the game of basketball down in Florida. But … for those who decide to come, together with the league, what are those things we can be doing?”Another interesting point in what Silver said was the acknowledgement that some players may choose not to go to the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex for the restart of the season. A group of players, led by Kyrie Irving, has made it clear in recent days that they want their colleagues to think about the ramifications of playing at a time of racial and social unrest.Portland guard Damian Lillard has been part of a protest and said he hopes that people realize “that the black community has had enough” when it comes to injustice. But he also said he plans to play, even though he expressed some reservations about how safe it will be from a health perspective.
“This is what we do. This is our job,” Lillard said. “And this is how we take care of our families. And this is my way of providing for communities and impacting my community. So to play the game I love, to resume the season, I guess it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”Goodell, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and MLS commissioner Don Garber acknowledged there will be positive tests once their sports return, but that they are hoping to isolate those as quickly as possible along with aggressive use of contact tracing.Monday’s show began with baseball commissioner Rob Manfred casting some doubt on whether there will be games this season after a breakdown in talks with the players’ union on salaries. Manfred said last week he was 100% certain games would be played. “I’m not confident. I think there’s real risk; and as long as there’s no dialogue, that real risk is going to continue,” Manfred said. “The owners are 100% committed to getting baseball back on the field. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that I’m 100% certain that’s going to happen.”
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First Drug Proves Able to Improve Survival from COVID-19
Researchers in England say they have the first evidence that a drug can improve COVID-19 survival: A cheap, widely available steroid called dexamethasone reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalized patients.
Results were announced Tuesday and researchers said they would publish them soon. The study is a large, strict test that randomly assigned 2,104 patients to get the drug and compared them with 4,321 patients getting only usual care.
The drug was given either orally or through an IV. After 28 days, it had reduced deaths by 35% in patients who needed treatment with breathing machines and by 20% in those only needing supplemental oxygen. It did not appear to help less ill patients.
“This is an extremely welcome result,” one study leader, Peter Horby of the University of Oxford, said in a statement. “The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients. Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.”
Even though the drug only helps in severe cases, “countless lives will be saved globally,” said Nick Cammack of Wellcome, a British charity that supports science research.
“Dexamethasone must now be rolled out and accessed by thousands of critically ill patients around the world,” said Cammack, who had no role in the study. “It is highly affordable, easy to make, can be scaled up quickly and only needs a small dosage.”
Steroid drugs reduce inflammation, which sometimes develops in COVID-19 patients as the immune system overreacts to fight the infection. This overreaction can prove fatal, so doctors have been testing steroids and other anti-inflammatory drugs in such patients. The World Health Organization advises against using steroids earlier in the course of illness because they can slow the time until patients clear the virus.
Researchers estimated that the drug would prevent one death for every eight patients treated while on breathing machines and one for every 25 patients on extra oxygen alone.
This is the same study that earlier this month showed the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was not working against the coronavirus. The study enrolled more than 11,000 patients in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who were given either standard of care or that plus one of several treatments: dexamethasone; the HIV combo drug lopinavir-ritonavir, the antibiotic azithromycin; the anti-inflammatory drug tocilizumab; or plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 that contains antibodies to fight the virus.
Research is continuing on the other treatments. The research is funded by government health agencies in the United Kingdom and private donors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Poll: Americans Are the Unhappiest They’ve Been in 50 Years
Spoiler alert: 2020 has been rough on the American psyche. Folks in the U.S. are more unhappy today than they’ve been in nearly 50 years.This bold — yet unsurprising — conclusion comes from the COVID Response Tracking Study, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. It finds that just 14% of American adults say they’re very happy, down from 31% who said the same in 2018. That year, 23% said they’d often or sometimes felt isolated in recent weeks. Now, 50% say that.The survey, conducted in late May, draws on nearly a half-century of research from the General Social Survey, which has collected data on American attitudes and behaviors at least every other year since 1972. No less than 29% of Americans have ever called themselves very happy in that survey.Most of the new survey’s interviews were completed before the death of George Floyd touched off nationwide protests and a global conversation about race and police brutality, adding to the feelings of stress and loneliness Americans were already facing from the coronavirus outbreak — especially for black Americans.Lexi Walker, a 47-year-old professional fiduciary who lives near Greenville, South Carolina, has felt anxious and depressed for long stretches of this year. She moved back to South Carolina late in 2019, then her cat died. Her father passed away in February. Just when she thought she’d get out and socialize in an attempt to heal from her grief, the pandemic hit.”It’s been one thing after another,” Walker said. “This is very hard. The worst thing about this for me, after so much, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”Among other finding from the new poll about life in the pandemic:— The public is less optimistic today about the standard of living improving for the next generation than it has been in the past 25 years. Only 42% of Americans believe that when their children reach their age, their standard of living will be better. A solid 57% said that in 2018. Since the question was asked in 1994, the previous low was 45% in 1994. — Compared with surveys conducted after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Americans are less likely to report some types of emotional and psychological stress reactions following the COVID-19 outbreak. Fewer report smoking more than usual, crying or feeling dazed now than after those two previous tragedies, though more report having lost their temper or wanting to get drunk.— About twice as many Americans report being lonely today as in 2018, and not surprisingly given the lockdowns that tried to contain the spread of the coronavirus, there’s also been a drop in satisfaction with social activities and relationships. Compared with 2018, Americans also are about twice as likely to say they sometimes or often have felt a lack of companionship (45% vs. 27%) and felt left out (37% vs. 18%) in the past four weeks.What is surprising, said Louise Hawkley, a senior research scientist with NORC at the University of Chicago, was that loneliness was not even more prevalent. “It isn’t as high as it could be,” she said. “People have figured out a way to connect with others. It’s not satisfactory, but people are managing to some extent.”The new poll found that there haven’t been significant changes in Americans’ assessment of their families’ finances since 2018 and that Americans’ satisfaction with their families’ ability to get along financially was as high as it’s been over nearly five decades.Jonathan Berney, of Austin, Texas, said that the pandemic — and his resulting layoff as a digital marketing manager for a law firm — caused him to reevaluate everything in his life. While he admits that he’s not exactly happy now, that’s led to another uncomfortable question: Was he truly happy before the pandemic?”2020 just fast forwarded a spiritual decay. When things are good, you don’t tend to look inwards,” he said, adding that he was living and working in the Miami area before the pandemic hit. As Florida dealt with the virus, his girlfriend left him and he decided to leave for Austin. “I probably just wasn’t a nice guy to be around from all the stress and anxiety. But this forced an existential crisis.”Berney, who is looking for work, said things have improved from those early, dark days of the pandemic. He’s still job hunting but has a little savings to live on. He said he’s trying to kayak more and center himself so he’s better prepared to deal with any future downturn in events.Reimagining happiness is almost hard-wired into Americans’ DNA, said Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside.”Human beings are remarkably resilient. There’s lots and lots of evidence that we adapt to everything. We move forward,” she said, adding that she’s done happiness studies since the pandemic started and found that some people are slightly happier than last year.Melinda Hartline, of Tampa, who was laid off from her job in public relations in March, said she was in a depressed daze those first few weeks of unemployment. Then she started to bike and play tennis and enrolled in a college course on post-crisis leadership. Today, she’s worried about the state of the world and the economy, and she wonders when she can see her kids and grandkids who live on the West Coast — but she also realizes that things could be a lot worse.”Anything can happen. And you have to be prepared,” she said. “Whether it’s your health, your finances, whether it’s the world. You have to be prepared. And always maintain that positive mental attitude. It’s going to get you through it.”
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Panel Says NOAA Administrators Violated Scientific Integrity Policy
An investigation conducted on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has found that agency leaders violated NOAA’s own scientific integrity policy in releasing a statement last year contradicting their own forecasters and supporting U.S. President Trump’s false assertion about the path of Hurricane Dorian last year.NOAA is the agency that includes the U.S. National Weather Service.From his Twitter feed Sept. 1, Trump wrote that Hurricane Dorian, a storm that at that time was approaching the U.S. southeast coast, would hit Alabama “harder than anticipated.” A few minutes later, the National Weather Service office in Birmingham, Ala., posted from its Twitter account “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama.”Alabama was not struck by the hurricane.The next week, on September 4 during a White House news briefing from the Oval Office, the president displayed a forecast map which appeared to have been altered with a marker to show Alabama in the path of the hurricane. On September 6, NOAA issued a statement contradicting its forecasters in Birmingham.In a report released Monday, the independent investigating panel found that acting NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs, and former NOAA deputy chief of staff/ communications director Julie Kay Roberts twice violated codes of the agency’s scientific integrity policy amid their involvement in the September 6 statement.NOAA’s scientific integrity policy prohibits political interference with the conduct and communication of the agency’s scientific findings. No punishments were recommended, but the report did call on the agency to better ensure “the right of NOAA scientists to review, comment, and amend any official communication that relies on their scientific analysis.”The investigation had been requested by two NOAA employees, a former NOAA administrator and New York U.S Congressman Paul Tonko, among others. It was conducted on NOAA’s behalf by a panel assembled by the National Academy of Public Administration. NAPA, a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution dedicated to facilitating good governance, conducts assessments for government agencies.
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British Academy Film Awards Postpones Ceremony by 2 Months
Next year’s British Academy Film Awards have been postponed by two months, organizers said Tuesday. The move follows a decision by Hollywood’s film academy to shift the 2021 Oscars from February to April because of the coronavirus pandemic.The British Academy said the awards will be held on April 11, rather than the previously announced Feb. 14. The academy has also changed eligibility rules so that films whose theatrical releases were curtailed or switched to online-only releases will be eligible for consideration.Film committee chair Marc Samuelson said the new date would “give all films the best possible chance to be released and considered properly.”Movie theaters in Britain have been closed since March 20 as part of a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19.The date of the 2022 awards, known as BAFTAs, is being reviewed.On Monday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the ABC Television Network announced that the 93rd Academy Awards will now be held April 25, 2021, eight weeks later than originally planned because of the pandemic’s effects on the movie industry. It’s the fourth postponement in Oscars history.The British awards are usual held a week or two before the Oscars and have become an important awards-season staging post.
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Jazz Deepens Bond Between New Orleans Father & Daughter
World renowned guitarist Steve Masakowski didn’t want to push his children into music, but both kids, including daughter Sasha, embraced jazz anyway. The children are now adults and the New Orleans family continues to bond over its shared passion — something they’ll celebrate this Father’s Day.
Camera: Claire Bangser Producer: Dora Mekouar, Matt Haines
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Academy Delays 2021 Oscars Ceremony Because of Coronavirus
For the fourth time in its history, the Oscars are being postponed. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the ABC Television Network said Monday that the 93rd Academy Awards will now be held April 25, 2021, eight weeks later than originally planned because of the pandemic’s effects on the movie industry. The Academy’s Board of Governors also decided to extend the eligibility window beyond the calendar year to Feb. 28, 2021, for feature films, and delay the opening of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures from December until April 30, 2021. “Our hope, in extending the eligibility period and our Awards date, is to provide the flexibility filmmakers need to finish and release their films without being penalized for something beyond anyone’s control,” said Academy President David Rubin and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson in a joint statement. Karey Burke, the president of ABC Entertainment, added: “We find ourselves in uncharted territory this year and will continue to work with our partners at the Academy to ensure next year’s show is a safe and celebratory event.” The 12th annual Governors Awards has also been canceled. The event, in which honorary Oscars are bestowed to previously announced recipients, is generally held in Los Angeles during the second week of November. The untelevised event is a major gathering for many of the year’s awards hopefuls. The film academy has been grappling with how to handle the pandemic’s near shutdown of the theatrical exhibition and film production and festival business since mid-March. With theaters shuttered, release dates pushed and major festivals like Cannes canceled, the academy in April made the unprecedented decision to allow films that did not have a theatrical run to be eligible for the awards — but only for one year. The Oscars ceremony date was the big lingering unknown, however. The organization’s leadership has acknowledged all along that the situation was fluid and that everything was on the table. Now, Oscars nominations will be announced on March 15 and the nominees luncheon will be on April 15. Still, many decisions need to be made. Academy leadership has not yet addressed the format of the show and whether it will be virtual or in-person. Further, the future eligibility of films for the 94th Oscars and that show date will be announced later. The Oscars have been postponed before, but never this far in advance. The ceremony was pushed back a week because of disastrous flooding in Los Angeles in 1938. In 1968, it was delayed two days following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And in 1981, it was put off for 24 hours after President Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington D.C. The 1981 decision was made four hours before the broadcast was scheduled to begin. The eligibility window was extended beyond 12 months once before — in advance of the 6th Academy Awards in 1934. Other entertainment industry awards shows are also in flux. The 74th Tony Awards, originally set for June 7, has been postponed indefinitely. But the 72nd Emmy Awards is still holding onto Sept. 20. The 78th Golden Globes does not yet have a date. Even as the country begins to “open up,” studios are still making decisions to delay releases. Just Friday, Warner Bros. announced that it was pushing back what was supposed to be the first major movie in theaters, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” by two weeks.
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Drake Tops BET Awards Nods; Show to Air on CBS for 1st Time
Drake is the leading nominee at the 2020 BET Awards, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary later this month.BET announced Monday that Drake is nominated for six honors, including video of the year and best male hip-hop artist. For both best collaboration and the viewer’s choice award, Drake is nominated twice thanks to the hits “No Guidance” with Chris Brown and “Life Is Good” with Future.
The 2020 BET Awards will air live on June 28 across ViacomCBS networks, including CBS for the first time. The show, which will be a virtual celebration because of the coronavirus pandemic, will also air on BET and BET HER.FILE – This Nov. 20, 2019, file photo shows Megan Thee Stallion during a portrait session in New York. The singer says she works extremely hard in the studio when it comes to writing music.Breakthrough rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Roddy Ricch follow Drake with five nominations each. Megan Thee Stallion, who recently topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart with her Beyoncé-assisted “Savage” remix, is nominated for video of the year, best female hip-hop artist, best collaboration, the viewer’s choice award and album of the year for “Fever.”
Ricch, who won his first Grammy Award earlier this year, also topped the pop charts with his upbeat hit “The Box.” The video for that song is nominated for video of the year alongside DaBaby’s “Bop,” DJ Khaled, Nipsey Hussle and John Legend’s “Higher,” Doja Cat’s “Say So,” Megan The Stallion’s “Hot Girl Summer” and Chris Brown and Drake’s “No Guidance.”
Beyoncé, Minaj, Brown, Lizzo and DaBaby earned four nominations each.
Kanye West, who released a gospel album last year, is nominated for the Dr. Bobby Jones best gospel/inspirational award. He will compete with Kirk Franklin, the Clark Sisters, Fred Hammond, John P. Kee and PJ Morton.
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US Revokes Emergency Use of Malaria Drugs Vs. Coronavirus
U.S. regulators on Monday revoked emergency authorization for malaria drugs promoted by President Donald Trump for treating COVID-19 amid growing evidence they don’t work and could cause deadly side effects.
The Food and Drug Administration said the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are unlikely to be effective in treating the coronavirus. Citing reports of heart complications, the FDA said the drugs’ unproven benefits “do not outweigh the known and potential risks.”
The decades-old drugs, also prescribed for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, can cause heart rhythm problems, severely low blood pressure and muscle or nerve damage.
The move means that shipments of the drugs obtained by the federal government will no longer be distributed to state and local health authorities for use against the coronavirus. The drugs are still available for alternate uses, so U.S. doctors could still prescribe them for COVID-19 — a practice known as off-label prescribing.
Dr. Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic researcher who has been a frequent FDA adviser, agreed with the decision and said he would not have granted emergency access in the first place.
“There has never been any high-quality evidence suggesting that hyrdoxychloroquine is effective” for treating or preventing coronavirus infection, he said, but there is evidence of serious side effects.
On Thursday, a National Institutes of Health panel of experts revised its recommendations to specifically recommend against the drug’s use except in formal studies, and “that, I’m sure, had influence on the FDA,” Nissen said.
The actions by FDA and NIH send a clear signal to health professionals against prescribing the drugs for coronavirus.
Trump aggressively pushed the drug beginning in the first weeks of the outbreak and stunned medical professionals when he revealed he took the drug preemptively against infection.
Tens of thousands of people tried the drug after Trump touted it in briefings and interviews, saying, “What have you got to lose?” The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned, “I like to prove things first.” Weak studies further polarized views of hydroxychloroquine.
No large, rigorous studies have found the drugs safe or effective for preventing or treating COVID-19. And a string of recent studies made clear they could do more harm than good.
The FDA granted emergency use of the drugs for coronavirus patients in late March at the same time the U.S. government accepted 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine that had been donated by two foreign drug manufacturers. Millions of those doses were shipped to U.S. hospitals to treat patient who weren’t enrolled in clinical trials.
But the FDA previously warned doctors that it had seen reports of dangerous side effects and heart problems reported to poison control centers and other health systems.
The agency said Monday it revoked the authorization in consultation with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, which had requested the emergency use.
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Senegalese Artists Take a Stand for Black Lives Matter Movement
Senegalese artists are taking a stand against racism and police brutality after George Floyd died in police custody in the United States. One street art crew is creating a fresco in the capital, Dakar, where Senegalese have held demonstrations this month in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.Camera: Estelle Ndjandjo Produced by: Rod James
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Solar Rules Weaken Vietnam’s Love-Hate Relationship to Coal
Near the southern Vietnam beaches filled with kite surfers and mud baths, there sits a hydropower plant called Da Mi. It is no longer just generating power from dams and falling water, however. Crews added solar panels to the reservoir last year, creating what the Asian Development Bank called the first large floating solar project in Southeast Asia. With the project and others like it, sunny Vietnam has the region’s largest installed capacity of solar power. Its ambitions to move to solar and away from coal was stymied by one issue for years, though. After companies installed panels to suck up power from the sun, they sold the energy to the state utility, without a way to push it directly to customers like other companies. That is about to change. Hanoi has enacted legislation to allow these direct sales by removing the state monopoly, Vietnam Electricity, as the middleman. Supporters hope the rules will expand the market for renewable energy, particularly as Vietnam considers itself among the five nations most at threat from climate change. However it still has a love-hate relationship to coal, which is cheap but is also a major source of greenhouse gases that make the air unhealthy. “Vietnam Electricity (‘EVN’), and its authorized member companies, no longer the sole purchaser of electricity from solar power projects in Vietnam, as the definition of ‘electricity purchasers’ includes private organizations and individuals,” DFDL, a law firm, said in a note to clients explaining the significance of the new legislation, Prime Ministerial Decision No. 13. Biggest solar farm Vietnam says it has the biggest solar farm in Southeast Asia, though neighbors are catching up. Nearby Indonesia included solar incentives in its COVID-19 recovery plan, while Myanmar called for bids to build solar power projects. Malaysia and Thailand had the largest solar capacity in the region until being overtaken by Vietnam by 2019, according to Wood Mackenzie, a consulting firm.Vietnamese live on the island of Phu Quoc. Vietnam aims to build more floating solar power farms offshore. (VOA News)Next door China spent years ramping up solar panel production, making them more affordable to the world. However President Donald Trump’s trade war with China included tariffs on panels, pushing companies to buy from Vietnam instead. Now, the World Bank said in a press release, “Vietnam has also become a world leader in solar module manufacturing.” Many of the panels weren’t being used in Vietnam itself, though, as the nation debated whether and how much to wean itself off cheap coal. The communist government is trying to strike a balance. On one hand, it aims to keep electricity stable and affordable for citizens. During the COVID-19 lockdown, for instance, authorities cut power prices to ease the burden on consumers who were working less. On the other hand, Vietnam worries climate change threatens its coasts, farms, lives and livelihood. “Climate change is imposing great challenges on us,” said Phung Quoc Hien, vice chair of the National Assembly, last month. “We’ve gone through the worst crisis with saline intrusion and drought.” US interest While Trump dismisses the threat of climate change, his State Department promotes a climate-friendly agenda. For instance the U.S. embassy in Hanoi lobbied for policies to support renewable energy, including Vietnam’s legislation to allow companies to sell solar power directly to consumers. Beyond the direct purchases, Vietnam is weighing other ways to meet electricity demand, which has increased 12% a year, according to the Asian Development Bank. For instance it is considering moving away from setting feed-in tariff (FIT) prices for power and letting investors place bids instead. “In particular, the World Bank’s support to the government’s effort in shifting from FIT to a competitive bidding mechanism for solar PV [photovoltaics] could be applied for other types of renewable energy in the future,” said Hoang Tien Dung, general director of the Electricity and Renewable Energy Authority of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in a press release earlier this year. “It contributes to the sustainable and transparent development of renewable energy in Vietnam by harmonizing the interests of private investors, the government and customers.”
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South Korean Box Office Sales Slump During the Coronavirus Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on South Korea’s film industry – one of the world’s most vibrant. And with growing concern over continuing outbreaks, it’s uncertain when audiences will feel safe enough to return to movie theaters. Most South Korean cinemas never shut their doors during the pandemic even though box office sales have plummeted. In May, over 1.5 million movie tickets were sold nationwide, down from nearly 17 million in January, according to the Korea Film Council. It was an improvement over April’s numbers, which dropped to a record low of 970,000 tickets. Jason Bechervaise, who lectures on Korean cinema at Soongsil Cyber University in Seoul says the country’s film industry is “facing its biggest crisis” because of the coronavirus. It’s a setback for an industry that gained global recognition when the dark comedy “Parasite” prevailed at the Academy Awards ceremony in February, becoming the first non-English language movie to take home the Oscar for Best Picture. But, compared to film industries in Hollywood, China or Europe, South Korea’s is in a better position to bounce back, Bechervaise says. “The industry has slowed down but hasn’t ground to a halt like it has in other countries,” Bechervaise says. “It’s resilient and cinemas are still open and as (COVID-19) cases decline, hopefully people will feel more confident about going to see films again.” South Korea was one of the first nations to flatten the curve of the disease, which health officials attribute to rapid testing and technology-based contact tracing. But, in recent weeks the country has experienced an uptick in new infections, bringing the total number of cases to at least 12,121, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. Faced with these rising numbers and what health experts warn could be a second wave of infections later this year, there’s scant expectation that box office revenue will return to pre-pandemic levels soon. ‘Un-tact cinema’Now, one of South Korea’s largest cinema chains is trying to make movie-fans feel more comfortable about coming back to the theater by limiting contact between guests and staff as much as possible. CJ-CGV has launched what it calls an “un-tact cinema” at one of its branches in Seoul where the popcorn, hot dogs and soft drinks have been relocated into vending machines and other snack bar orders are placed on kiosks and are delivered through a hands-free box. Ticket takers have been replaced by two roving robots that provide showtime and other theatre information on their touch-screen torsos. “It’s more hygienic than being face to face, so guests can feel safer and it’s just a more cool and interesting place,” says Lee Seung-soo, a CJ CGV official. Lee says his company had been considering rolling-out some of these automated features even before the coronavirus compelled businesses to adopt social or physical distancing policies. But the urgency of preventing disease transmission between customers pushed-up the unveiling of the “un-tact cinema.” He explains that in addition, CJ-CGV regularly disinfects all its facilities, and rows of theatre seats are left empty to provide more space between audience members. He adds that employees will not lose their jobs due to automation and will instead be transferred to other positions. “This un-tact cinema at this branch is just a test for now,” says Lee. “Based on how this program goes, we will decide whether to introduce these services to other locations.” Lotte Cinemas, another multiplex operator, has also introduced contact-free features at some of its venues according to media reports. For some South Korean film buffs though, automated cinemas still might not provide the desired protection from COVID-19 carrying strangers. Drive-in theaters Some are instead seeing the big screen from inside the safety of their own cars. Park Jae-ho, whose family runs Seoul’s only drive in movie theatre says when the pandemic began, ticket sales soared. “Normally, business isn’t so good, but once the coronavirus hit, sales went up by 30-percent,” he says. But like all cinemas in South Korea, Park’s drive in has mainly screened re-releases, because film production companies have pushed back opening dates for many new movies. “Ticket sales are getting back to normal,” Park says. “Customers won’t come if they can’t watch new films.” Lim Yoo-na and her boyfriend Kim Jeong-hak recently attended a screening of 2016’s La La Land at the Seoul drive in. The couple says they used to catch a movie up to three times a week before the pandemic. “It feels safer inside a car than at a theatre right now,” Lim, a 28-year old baker, says. Kim says he’s not sure when they will be able to resume their normal dating routine. “We are going to wait until the pandemic is over before we start returning to movie theaters,” the 35-year old web designer says. “And there would also have to be some new films to watch before we’d go back.”
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Accuracy Still Unknown for Many Coronavirus Tests Rushed Out
How accurate are the coronavirus tests used in the U.S.? Months into the outbreak, no one really knows how well many of the screening tests work, and experts at top medical centers say it is time to do the studies to find out. When the new virus began spreading, the Food and Drug Administration used its emergency powers to OK scores of quickly devised tests, based mainly on a small number of lab studies showing they could successfully detect the virus. That’s very different from the large patient studies that can take weeks or months, which experts say are needed to provide a true sense of testing accuracy. The FDA’s speedy response came after it was initially criticized for delaying the launch of new tests during a crisis and after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stumbled in getting its own test out to states. But with the U.S. outbreak nearly certain to stretch on for months or even years, some experts want the FDA to demand better evidence of the tests’ accuracy so doctors know how many infections might be missed. In recent weeks, preliminary findings have flagged potential problems with some COVID-19 tests, including one used daily at the White House. Faulty tests could leave many thousands of Americans with the incorrect assumption that they are virus-free, contributing to new flare-ups of the disease as communities reopen. “In the beginning, the FDA was under a lot of pressure to get these tests onto the marketplace,” said Dr. Steven Woloshin of Dartmouth College. “But now that there are plenty of tests out there, it’s time for them to raise the bar.” The FDA said in a statement that it has already asked multiple test makers to do follow-up accuracy studies, although it didn’t say for how many of the more than 110 authorized screening tests. The agency also said it is tracking reports of problems. Accuracy has also been an issue with blood tests that look for signs of past infections. No screening test is 100% accurate. So details on accuracy are routinely provided for tests of all types, including seasonal flu, hepatitis, HIV and cancers. For example, rapid flu tests are known to miss 20% or more of all cases, a factor doctors weigh when treating patients who have symptoms but test negative. For now, most COVID-19 tests in the U.S. don’t give data on real-world performance, including how often the tests falsely clear patients of infection or falsely detect the virus. That information is lacking for all but a few of the roughly 80 commercial screening tests available, according to an Associated Press review. The government’s emergency authorization process “requires a lower level of evidence,” the agency said. Makers need only show that a test “may be effective” instead of the usual requirement to demonstrate “safety and effectiveness.” They would have to meet that higher threshold once the U.S. government declares the emergency over. Many of the commercial test makers submitted results from 60 samples, the minimum number required and mostly used lab-produced specimens of the virus. The FDA now recommends the use of nasal swabs or other real samples from people screened for coronavirus. Experts say larger patient studies patients are needed to assess a test’s true performance. Lab testing bears little resemblance to actual — sometimes imperfect — conditions at hospitals, clinics and testing sites noted Dr. Robert Kaplan of Stanford University. “You’re testing people in parking lots, the patients themselves are extremely anxious and often unable to follow instructions,” said Kaplan, a former associate director of the National Institutes of Health. Kaplan and others say those differences could explain why some tests are not performing as expected. FILE – Materials for COVD-19 testing from Abbott Laboratories, U.S. Cotton, and Puritan are displayed as President Trump speaks about the coronavirus during a press briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 11, 2020, in Washington.Last month, the FDA warned doctors of a potential accuracy problem with Abbott Laboratories’ rapid ID Now test, which delivers results in roughly 15 minutes. The test has been lauded by President Donald Trump and used to screen the president, his staff and visitors to the White House. The FDA alert followed a preliminary report by New York University that found Abbott’s test missed between a third to one-half of infections caught by a rival test in patients screened for the virus. Abbott rejected the findings, saying the researchers did not follow the instructions for using its test. The company pointed to alternate patient studies, including its own, that have found the test successfully detects between 91% and 95% or more of virus cases when compared to other tests. But similar problems with ID NOW’s accuracy have been flagged in preliminary reports by researchers at Stanford University, Loyola University and the Cleveland Clinic. For now, the FDA is requiring Abbott to conduct follow-up studies in several different patient groups. The FDA’s emergency standards “are still high but there is a significant difference in the body of work that what would go into a submission under the normal process,” said Abbott vice president John Hackett. “Our normal process takes years to bring these out.” Requiring bigger studies of all coronavirus tests could provide valuable information, but it could also strain the FDA’s already stretched staff and resources, said Dr. Daniel Schultz, former director of the FDA’s medical device center. Dr. Colin West of the Mayo Clinic worries doctors and patients have put too much confidence in the current crop of tests, when an unknown number of patients with COVID-19 are likely receiving false negative results. Even a modest error rate can have grave consequences during an outbreak like COVID-19. West gives the example of a test that is 95% accurate at detecting the virus and is used on 1 million people. That would still result in 50,000 people being incorrectly told that they don’t have the virus. “The negative test does not mean that I’m off the hook,” West said. “We just need to maintain that level of vigilance until we have a better sense of how good these tests really can be.”
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Bollywood Actor Found Dead in Mumbai Home
Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, 34, was found dead in his Mumbai home Sunday.Citing police sources, local media reported that the actor was found hanging in his apartment in an apparent suicide, but that no note was found.“It pains us to share that Sushant Singh Rajput is no longer with us,” Rajput’s publicist wrote in a statement, asking for privacy.Rajput, originally from Patna, Bihar, made his Bollywood debut in the film “Kai Po Che” (I have cut) in 2013. He notably portrayed former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the film “M.S. Dhoni” in 2016.Rajput attended New Delhi University to study engineering before dropping out to pursue acting.Indian social media was flooded with messages from politicians, athletes, and fellow Bollywood stars in remembrance of Rajput.“I can’t believe this at all… it’s shocking… a beautiful actor and a good friend,” Nawazuddin Saddiqui wrote on Twitter.
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WHO Expects to Quickly Tackle DR Congo’s New Ebola Outbreak
The World Health Organization says lessons learned from previous outbreaks of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and effective therapeutics will allow it to more quickly contain a new outbreak of the deadly disease in Equateur Province.U.N. health officials report there is no link between the Ebola outbreak declared June 1 in Mbandaka, Equateur Province, and the epidemic, which broke out nearly two years ago in DR Congo’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
They say the experience gained, however, and lessons learned from tackling this deadly disease in eastern DRC will help them to more quickly stop the spread of the virus in Equateur Province in the western part of the country.
WHO Emergency Operations Manager Michel Yao says the World Health Organization has more than 20 staff on the ground and is ready to send in more, if necessary. He tells VOA that the WHO is working with partners to set up treatment centers, to monitor risks and respond promptly to identify and trace new cases. “Our objective this time is to work through local authorities that were already trained,” Yao said. “They had some experience. So, we have just to refresh and we have to remain behind coaching them. Lesson learned remain the critical one is to work through the community.” The epidemic in eastern DRC, which has infected more than 3,460 people and killed 2,280, finally appears to be winding down. The latest reports from western DRC, where the outbreak has just started, put the number of confirmed and probable cases at 12, including nine deaths.
Two years ago, the same region was stricken with Ebola. It took less than four months to contain the outbreak with the help of an experimental vaccine, which provided protection against the virus.
Yao says the vaccines, which since have proven to be safe and effective, will help to speedily contain the virus. So far, he says, more than 600 people have been vaccinated in Mbandaka and Wangata health zones. He says 3,000 doses of the vaccine are in place and more are expected to be delivered soon.
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Professional Football Resumes in Italy but Still in Empty Stadiums
Professional soccer has resumed in Italy after a three-month stoppage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Juventus played against AC Milan in Turin in the second leg of the Italian cup semi-final. To the happiness of football fans all over Italy, matches in the country’s top league will resume June 20. However, stadiums remain empty of fans for the time being.When the Italian government took the difficult decision to suspend the football season on March 9 due to COVID-19, it was a sad moment for fans across the country. The indefinite suspension of the national sport was tough for many to digest. The resumption of matches Friday night was a moment of joy, despite the fact the game was nothing to write home about. Playing at the Allianz Stadium in Turin were host Juventus and AC Milan – in a game that would qualify one of the teams for the final of the Italian Cup to be played in Rome Wednesday. The atmosphere was surreal with no one in the stands and quality on both sides after such a long break from the field clearly lacking.Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci spoke after the game.Bonucci said his emotions are strange, playing in an empty stadium after 90 days of no competition. He said it was difficult at the beginning and AC Milan played well despite only having a 10-man team, but said Juventus managed to reach their objective to play in the final.Italy’s top football division, Serie A, will get underway again on June 20. Before the season can end, there are still 110 regular-season games left to play and 4 make-up games. Italian soccer authorities are hoping and working towards re-opening stadiums in July and allowing at least some fans to watch the games live.But until then, most fans will be watching the games from home because even at sports bars social distancing rules are in place. Some soccer teams have thought up innovative ways to avoid the sadness of having to play in front of empty seats.Lazio, one of the two top-division teams in Rome, launched the idea of fans purchasing cardboard cutouts of their image to be placed in the stands when the team is playing. The proceeds will go to the Red Cross. Other teams will play recorded cheers after a team score. The aim is to maintain a semblance of the enthusiastic atmosphere at Italian football games. Inter Milan has said it will be using lights and graphic effects during their matches.
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Greece Ramps up Legal Fight Against Sotheby’s to Win Back Bronze Statuette
Greece has vowed to ratchet up legal pressure against a leading U.S. auction house in a bid to win back a 2,700-year-old bronze statuette allegedly looted by a controversial antiquities dealer and then sold to a family of collectors in New York.
The move is part of a new, high-powered drive by Athens to track auction houses around the globe and repatriate looted ancient artifacts — a campaign that could have far-reaching repercussions on the antiquities market.
Greece’s legal offensive follows a U.S court decision this week to reject a bid by Sotheby’s auction house to proceed with the sale of the eighth century bronze horse, ruling that the rights of a country to reclaim an integral part of its cultural heritage trump those deriving from commercial interest and gain.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said the court ruling was of “enormous legal importance” and a major victory in the fight against the illegal antiquities trade that robs countries of cultural and historical treasures.
“The ministry will proceed with every legal process to repatriate the statuette, stressing that when stolen and illegally exported monuments are returned… [the country of origin] regains a segment of its history,” Mendoni said.
Sotheby’s had listed the horse, which is 14 centimeters tall, for auction two years ago, asking between $150,000 and $250,000 for its sale.
Suspicious of its provenance, the Greek government intervened three days before its May 2018 auction, ordering the sale to stop because the bronze statuette had been found in the records of Robin Symes, a British art dealer considered to be among the world’s leading traffickers of looted antiquities.Symes is under investigation by Greek and Italian authorities for allegedly playing a pivotal role in trafficking stolen artifacts to private collectors and museums in the West. While convicted by a British court in 2005 and sentenced to two years in prison for lying about the extent and value of his antiquities collection, estimated to be worth more than 125 million British pounds at the time, the 81-year-old has never stood trial or been convicted of illicit antiquities trading.
In addition, officials said in a detailed protest letter to Sotheby’s, that the bronze horse lacked the kind of paper trail that typically accompanies ancient artifacts legally exported out of Greece.
Sotheby’s pulled the statue from its auction. It quickly went on the offensive, though, launching an unprecedented legal crusade against the Greek government, insisting that the bronze horse was legally obtained by the family of the late collectors Howard and Saretta Barnet in 1973 for 15,000 British pounds.
It also demanded the contested sale proceed — a request the U.S Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected this week, siding with Greece. In its ruling, the court said Greece was immune from any legal action from Sotheby’s because the case in question concerned an issue of cultural heritage than a commercial dispute between rival business interests.It was not immediately clear whether Sotheby’s would drop its legal fight. “While we are disappointed with the decision,” the auction house said in a statement, “it does not impact what is at the heart of this matter — there is, and remains, no evidence to support Greece’s claim to ownership of the bronze sculpture.
‘We, together with our client, are reviewing next steps.”
Under Greek law, all antiquities found in the country are state property. Unable for decades to effectively police its vast sprawl of ancient sites and archaeological digs, though, Greece has seen many of its treasures plundered and secretly siphoned out of the country, often landing in the hands of prized collections and renowned Western museums.
In 2006, a high-gear restitution campaign forced the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to relinquish ownership of ancient works Athens proved had been illegally taken.
Together with authorities in Italy, Greece exposed how a network of prestigious museums, wealthy collectors and tony auction houses turned a blind eye to the illicit practices of dealers for years, supplying them ancient art and archaeological treasures.
The campaign remains hamstrung by a mire of legal difficulties, including producing proof of illicit antiquities smuggling.
Still, with countries across the globe increasingly pursuing the return of cultural treasures, experts believe the U.S. court ruling could mark a major game-changer for the antiquities market.
“New York courts have long sought to protect the marketplace for from being flooded with looted or stolen goods,” said Leila Amineddoleh, a lawyer for the Greek government involved in the case of the bronze statuette. “This decision enables foreign governments to continue communicating with art market participants to prevent the sale of illicit goods and protect consumers.”
It would be “troubling” she said, “for auction houses or dealers to prevent foreign governments from inquiring about suspicious items on the market due to the fear of litigation.”
Sotheby’s was the first auction house in the U.S. to lodge suit against a foreign government to challenge its trade but others have followed.
Last year, Safani Gallery in New York, among the oldest galleries of ancient art in the United States, filed a lawsuit against Italy asking a federal judge to block Rome’s bid to seize and repatriate an ancient marble statue of Alexander the Great.
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Ancient Crocodile Ancestor Walked on Two Legs, New Study Says
A new study based on fossilized footprints suggests a prehistoric relative of modern crocodiles walked on two hind legs. The study, published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, describes how ancient fossilized footprints discovered in South Korea had originally been thought to belong to a pterosaur — a flying dinosaur — that had been walking on two legs. But further analysis of the prints suggests that they actually belonged to a bipedal crocodile, a creature that walked on two legs because it was semi-adapted to land. This is the first evidence from this time period of a bipedal crocodylomorph, a branching, diverse group of animals that includes crocodilians and their extinct relatives. The researchers named the new species Batrachopus grandis. The footprints were 18 to 24 centimeters long, suggesting that the creatures’ bodies were almost 3 meters long. They seem to have been left only by the back limbs, showing a clear heel-to-toe walking pattern. The well-preserved fossils, discovered in South Korea’s Jinju Formation, date to the lower Cretaceous period, which spanned 145 million to 105 million years ago. A 2015 study describes at least one instance of a bipedal crocodylomorph believed to have lived in the southeastern U.S. state of North Carolina 230 million years ago.
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Trump Administration Revokes Transgender Health Protection
The Trump administration Friday finalized a regulation that overturns Obama-era protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in health care. The policy shift, long sought by the president’s religious and socially conservative supporters, defines gender as a person’s biological sex. The Obama regulation defined gender as a person’s internal sense of being male, female, neither or a combination. LGBTQ groups say explicit protections are needed for people seeking sex-reassignment treatment, and even for transgender people who need medical care for common conditions such as diabetes or heart problems. Behind the dispute over legal rights is a medically recognized condition called “gender dysphoria” — discomfort or distress caused by a discrepancy between the gender that a person identifies as and the gender at birth. Consequences can include severe depression. Treatment can range from sex-reassignment surgery and hormones to people changing their outward appearance by adopting a different hairstyle or clothing. Many social conservatives disagree with the concept. Women’s groups say the new regulations also undermine access to abortion, which is a legal medical procedure. FILE – President Donald Trump speaks during a round-table discussion with law enforcement officials, June 8, 2020, at the White House in Washington.”No one should fear being turned away by a medical provider because of who they are or the personal health decisions they have made,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center, raising the threat of a court challenge. The ACLU has also said it would sue to overturn the Trump rule. Under the Obama-era federal rule, a hospital could be required to perform gender-transition procedures such as hysterectomies if the facility provided that kind of treatment for other medical conditions. The rule was meant to carry out the anti-discrimination section of the Affordable Care Act, which bars sex discrimination in health care but does not use the term “gender identity.” Roger Severino, head of the Health and Human Services Department unit that enforces civil rights laws, has said transgender people continue to be protected by other statutes that bar discrimination in health care on account of race, color, national origin, age, disability and other factors. For the Trump administration it’s the latest in a series of steps to revoke newly won protections for LGBTQ people in areas ranging from the military to housing and education. The administration also has moved to restrict military service by transgender men and women, proposed allowing certain homeless shelters to take gender identity into account in offering someone a bed for the night, and concluded in a 2017 Justice Department memo that federal civil rights law does not protect transgender people from discrimination at work. The proposed new rule would also affect the notices that millions of patients get in multiple languages about their rights to translation services. Such notices often come with insurer “explanation of benefits” forms. The Trump administration says the notice requirement has become a needless burden on health care providers, requiring billions of paper notices to be mailed annually at an estimated five-year cost of $3.2 billion.
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Turkey Communications Director Blasts Twitter for Removing 7,340 Accounts
Turkey criticized Twitter on Friday for suspending more than 7,000 accounts the social media company said were promoting narratives favorable to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and the AK Parti (AKP). The suspended 7,340 accounts were detected earlier this year “employing coordinated inauthentic activity,” Twitter said in a blog post uploaded on Friday. Republic of Turkey communications director Fahrettin Altun said the social media company was attempting to smear the government and trying to redesign Turkish politics. “This arbitrary act … has demonstrated yet again that Twitter is no mere social media company, but a propaganda machine with certain political and ideological inclinations,” Altun said in a written statement on Twitter.Statement regarding Twitter’s decision to suspend accounts in Turkey and the company’s allegations: pic.twitter.com/mi9abYDWEE
— Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) June 12, 2020The communications director closed with a warning to Twitter. “We would like to remind this company of the eventual fate of a number of organizations, which attempted to take similar steps in the past,” Altun said. In its Friday blog post, Twitter revealed it had shared data from the account takedowns related to Turkey, as well as China and Russia, with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO). In what the SIO dubbed “The Turkey Operation,” it found batches of fabricated personalities, all created on the same day. The suspended accounts were used for AKP “cheerleading,” to increase domestic support for Turkish intervention in Syria and compromised other Twitter accounts linked to organizations critical of the government, the SIO found.Twitter’s handling of the “Turkey Operation” has come to light as it removed 23,750 accounts posting pro-Beijing narratives, and 1,152 accounts engaging in state-backed political propaganda within Russia.
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