All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Maersk suspends all container shipping to Russia | The Straits Times

Shipping group Maersk will temporarily halt all container shipping to and from Russia in response to Western sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, the company said on Tuesday (March 1).

The move follows similar decisions by Singapore-headquartered Ocean Network Express, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd and Swiss-based shipping group MSC.

The suspension, covering all Russian ports, will not include foodstuffs, and medical and humanitarian supplies, Maersk said.

Source: Maersk suspends all container shipping to Russia | The Straits Times

Face masks play a crucial role, new Covid research confirms – Chalmers

An international research team from universities including Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, the University of Padua and the University of Udine in Italy, and the University of Vienna, Austria, has developed a new theoretical model to better assess the risks of spreading viruses such as Covid-19 – with and without a face mask. The results show how the standard ‘safe’ distance of two meters does not always apply but varies greatly depending on a range of environmental factors, and that face masks can indeed play a crucial role. 

Source: Face masks play a crucial role, new Covid research confirms – Chalmers

Sen. Wendy Rogers censured by Arizona Senate in bipartisan vote

Senate President Karen Fann said this was not a freedom of speech issue and that she would not tolerate members threatening each other and calling fellow Republicans “communists,” which Rogers did early in the day on social media.

“This certainly is not something I wanted to do. It hurts us; it pains us to have to do this,” said Fann, R-Prescott, who voted “yes” on the censure. “But what we do not condone is members threatening each other, to ruin each other, to incite violence, to call us ‘communist.’ We don’t do that to each other.”

While “everybody” has the right to free speech, “that does not give you leeway to threaten people or to say whatever you want then claim it’s under freedom of speech,” she said.

Source: Sen. Wendy Rogers censured by Arizona Senate in bipartisan vote

Around 70 Japanese have volunteered to fight for Ukraine, report says | The Japan Times

As of Tuesday, 70 Japanese men — including 50 former members of the Self-Defense Forces and two veterans of the French Foreign Legion — had applied to be volunteers, the Mainichi Shimbun daily said, quoting a Tokyo company handling the volunteers. A Ukrainian Embassy spokesperson acknowledged receiving calls from people “wanting to fight for Ukraine,” but said they knew nothing further about volunteers. A social media post Monday from the embassy said it thanked Japanese for their many inquiries about volunteering but added a proviso. “Any candidates for this must have experience in the Self-Defense Forces or have undergone specialized training,” it said.

Source: Around 70 Japanese have volunteered to fight for Ukraine, report says | The Japan Times

PM Jacinda Ardern on violence outside Parliament: ‘We will restore these grounds’ | RNZ News

“The sacrifices we were all willing to make to look after one another, that is what will define us, no protest, no fire, no placards will ever change that. Today the police will restore order and tomorrow your government will work hard to get us safely back to the normality everyone deserves.”

Ardern said there was nothing to suggest that security settings as a country needed to change in response to the protest. She said it was estimated there were about 270 protesters who were causing the acts of violence and destruction seen today.

“That demonstrates it only takes a relatively small group of people who are committed to destruction to cause it, should they so choose. But it also demonstrates it was not a large group who were engaging in those acts either.

“We are not going to dismiss some of the underlying causes of what we have seen, but nor will we excuse it.”

Source: PM Jacinda Ardern on violence outside Parliament: ‘We will restore these grounds’ | RNZ News

A book 15 years overdue, and my arrival in Izmir, with a small side of neo-colonialism

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

(Updating this because it is pertinent: Posted in 2020…)

Just over five years ago, I finally published a book that should have been written ten years before that. So, I figure that my book on Black-Jewish cooperation (ok, in DC, not in Izmir, but they are both international cities, after all…) pretty well pre-figures the cooperation between myself, being Black, and Channon, being Jewish, as I hosted him as a guest in my newly rented apartment in my newly moved to city of Izmir, formerly known as Smyrna. What follows is a story of some of the travelling he actually forced me to do when he got there to visit, since I’d done nothing but work my whole time there! So, once again, thanks to cooperation, having a guest is a Mitzvah that both win from. I’d forgotten about that group of Brits buying up land in Turkey: keep reading…

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