Wealthy tourists return to Maldives for maskless holidays

Money can’t buy you a pass on Covid-19 getting it or passing o to others. Self-delusion and “me, me, me” are powerful narcotics!

It’s a chance to catch some winter sun in a stunning tropical location and temporarily forget the coronavirus pandemic. After months of closure, the Maldives has reopened to visitors again, or at least those with a negative Covid-19 test and quite a bit of cash to spare. Wealthy visitors are flocking to the South Asian islands for a luxury getaway and the opportunity to take off their face masks at last. Our France 2 colleagues report, with FRANCE 24’s Emerald Maxwell.

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Chicago Stay-at-Home Advisory Extended to Jan. 22 – NBC Chicago

Avoid all non-essential, out-of-state travel; if travel is essential, quarantining or testing negative prior to travel is required, depending on which state a traveler is originating from.

• Indoor gatherings within private residences cannot exceed six non-household members

• Per Illinois Gov. Pritzker’s executive order, all restaurants and bars must suspend indoor dining and service

• Non-essential businesses must be closed to the public between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Bars, restaurants and other establishments with a Tavern or Consumption on Premises-Incidental Activity license can sell alcohol onsite or to-go until 11 p.m.

Source: Chicago Stay-at-Home Advisory Extended to Jan. 22 – NBC Chicago

Vavilon

Myrela

Drevni Vavilon, izuzetno važan antički, vjerski i kulturni centar, prostire se na obje obale Eufrata, koji grad dijeli na dva dijela povezana mostom. S arheološkog stanovišta, malo se zna o kasitskom periodu, a pretpostavlja se da su bedem utvrđenja ispod unutrašnjeg novovavilonskog zida, sagradili Asirci, možda za vrijeme Sargona II, kao i jezgro zigurata od pečene opeke, izgrađenog u vrijeme obnove grada pod Asarhadonom, pošto ga je Senaherib surovo razorio 689. godine prije nove ere.

Iskopavanja koja je obavio R. Koldevej, uglavnom na površinskom sloju, pored toga što su identifikovala kasnije periode na lokalitetu (ahemenidski, seleukidski i parćanski), iznijela su na svjetlost dana i novovavilonski arheološki sloj. To je donijelo prilično jasnu sliku o gradu koji je prvi put opsežno obnovljen za vrijeme cara Nabopolasara. On je posebnu pažnju posvetio utvrđivanju, rekonstrukciji nekoliko hramova i izgradnji kompleksa palate. U mnogim slučajevima Nabopolasarovu graditeljsku djelatnost nastavili su i dovršili njegovi nasljednici…

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We Are All Dying for Luxury (Literally) ! ? Part 1 – the origins of Covid-19 in Europe

Scientific evidence, still patchy, is accumulating and confirms that, in the tragedy of the current Covid epidemic, mink is an important, even decisive, issue. Two things are already certain: first, mink farms, and particularly the largest of them, are microbiological cauldrons of extreme danger to health. Second, across all of Europe, with the exception of the Netherlands and to some extent Denmark, veterinary and health authorities have been in denial about this peril, stubbornly downplaying the risks, either out of blindness or to save the fur industry. An industry in decline which represents few jobs and no real social utility … but whose exports represent several hundred million euros per year.

But there may be more. A series of observations point to two mink farms, one located in Italy, in the town of Capralba, and the other in Spain, near Teruel, as possibly being at the origin of viral lines that played a key role in the two waves of Covid which ravaged Europe. If what is still only a suspicion at this point were to be confirmed, it would be a scientific earthquake that would force a complete rewrite of the history of the epidemic. Finally, more and more scientists, like Marion Koopmans, one of the most experienced virologists on the planet, consider it likely that mink is simply ‘the missing link in the Covid-19 pandemic’ and the animal through which the virus is passed to humans.

Barbara Crane Navarro

After decades of denouncing the frivolous gold “watch, jewelry and accessories” industry that’s responsible for the destruction of forests and the degradation of the lives of indigenous peoples, now aggravated by the propagation of Covid-19 by gold miners, I was stunned on December 21st, 2020 to read “Are mink farms the source of Covid in Europe ?” in an article by Yves Sciama and Yann Faure for the French online ecology review Reporterre. Clearly, the luxury industry isn’t only destroying people and nature «somewhere else» any longer; it is apparently now destroying people and nature everywhere!?

“EXCLUSIVE – Are mink farms the source of Covid in Europe?

Genetic analyses reveal that the two lines of Sars-CoV-2 that caused the two waves of epidemics that ravaged Europe were born near, if not in the heart of, intensive mink farms. They raise dizzying questions about the history of the pandemic and…

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