All posts by nedhamson

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

Northwestern University freshmen, sophomores will not return to campus | TheHill

“If all goes as planned,” Northwestern officials said, the students will be able to come to campus for the Winter Quarter in January. The university also announced they will reduce undergraduate tuition by 10% for Fall Quarter.  Since the start of the pandemic, Illinois has reported 231,363 cases of the coronavirus and 8,008 deaths.

Source: Northwestern University freshmen, sophomores will not return to campus | TheHill

United Kingdom care homes still denied Covid tests despite Hancock pledge, officials warn | Society | The Guardian

Care bosses have accused the government of failing to deliver its promise of regular Covid-19 testing for staff and residents of all care homes, nearly six months after the UK began lockdown.

Prof Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, said he had repeatedly asked ministers and senior officials to enact a pledge by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, on 8 June that “every care home” in England would receive regular testing for the virus.

Green said there were many parts of the UK where testing was not happening, preventing homes from allowing visits by relatives. He explained: “The government announced a visitor policy, and that was very dependent on testing. So if you haven’t got proper testing, you then find it much more difficult to reintroduce visiting.”

 

Source: UK care homes still denied Covid tests despite Hancock pledge, officials warn | Society | The Guardian

Modern spy satellites in an age of space wars | Science| In-depth reporting on science and technology | DW | 25.08.2020 (sucking up hundreds of thousands of cell calls)

The US has launched seven Orion satellites so far. NROL-44 is one of the biggest.

“It weighs more than five tons. It has a huge parabolic antenna which unfolds to a diameter of more than 100 meters in space, and it will go into an equatorial plane of Earth at a distance of about 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles),” says Baker.

Spy satellites “hoover up” of hundreds of thousands of cell phone calls or scour the dark web for terrorist activity.

In the US, the Union of Concerned Scientists monitors satellite activity and publishes a public database, which lists at least 49 NRO satellites. That’s just a fraction of America’s 154 military satellites, and it could be more.

Source: Modern spy satellites in an age of space wars | Science| In-depth reporting on science and technology | DW | 25.08.2020

Ole Miss Football Players Walk out of Practice, Protest Police Brutality in Front of Confederate Statue

On Friday, football players from Ole Miss at the University of Mississippi chose to walk out of their practice in protest of the racist brutality that still kills Black men in America, their action ironically falling on the 65th anniversary of Emmet Till’s heinous killing in Mississippi.

“Police Brutality and other injustices occurring across our nation have to end,” said the players in a statement about their protest. “Our team stands united to embrace our diversity and promote a culture of peace, equality, and understanding.”

 

Source: Ole Miss Football Players Walk out of Practice, Protest Police Brutality in Front of Confederate Statue

Trump Program to Cover Uninsured Covid-19 Patients Falls Short of Promise – The New York Times

Marilyn Cortez, a retired cafeteria worker in Houston with no health insurance, spent much of July in the hospital with Covid-19. When she finally returned home, she received a $36,000 bill that compounded the stress of her illness.

Then someone from the hospital, Houston Methodist, called and told her not to worry — President Trump had paid it.

But then another bill arrived, for twice as much.

For now, the confusion continues. Luis Fernandez, an oil industry worker in Houston who was laid off in January, had been uninsured for years when he got sick with Covid last month. He spent 16 days at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital and received bills totaling $85,000.

Trump Suspends Collection of Social Security Tax : US News : Latin Post – (Step one to bankrupting Social Security and then no income for me and millions who depend on income from system that we paid for.)

The Trump administration announced Friday that the collection of some Social Security taxes is suspended until the end of the year.

Source: Trump Suspends Collection of Social Security Tax : US News : Latin Post – Latin news, immigration, politics, culture

Suspected accomplice in Berlin Tiergarten Murder Identified as FSB/Vympel Officer – bellingcat

These latest findings corroborate our previous conclusion that the assassination of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin was organized by the Vympel group of companies (and the affiliated Regional Association of Former FSB Spetsnaz veterans), in coordination and at the instructions of the FSB. It is logical to conclude that the Vympel group of companies is a de facto arm of the FSB earmarked, at least partly, for deniable overseas assassinations or other unlawful interventions. The role of the Vympel group for such targeted assassinations is not dissimilar to the use of Wagner PMC for deniable military operations abroad. At the same time, FSB’s use of a proxy for overseas illegal operations is different than the modus operandi of the GRU who only use staff officers for clandestine operations abroad.

Source: Suspected accomplice in Berlin Tiergarten Murder Identified as FSB/Vympel Officer – bellingcat