All posts by nedhamson

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

Tokyo raises Covid-19 alert to highest amid spike in cases, East Asia News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

Tokyo raised its Covid-19 alert to the highest on a four-tier scale yesterday, as the recent surge in infections in Japan’s capital city began to spill over from nightlife hot spots into other areas.. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Source: Tokyo raises Covid-19 alert to highest amid spike in cases, East Asia News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

Scott Morrison says Australia cannot shut down to contain second wave of Covid-19

He’s giving up and accepting death of Australians needlessly?

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Prime minister says trying to eliminate virus not the ‘right strategy’ as he moves to reassure people income support will remain

Follow live news from around AustraliaWhat you need to know about Melbourne’s stage 3 lockdown rulesMelbourne coronavirus map: where Covid-19 cases are rising or fallingSign up for Guardian Australia’s coronavirus email

Scott Morrison says the response to a second wave of Covid-19 infections cannot be shutting the country down to try to eliminate the virus, and he’s moved to reassure people his government will not be withdrawing income support “for those in need”.

With renewed debate around whether Australia should respond to the latest outbreak and a spike in community transmission with more forceful lockdowns, Morrison said on Wednesday elimination was impractical, but Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton told reporters it was an idea “worthy of consideration”.

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Bella Hadid’s deleted Instagram post shows how Palestinians are silenced | Arwa Mahdawi | Opinion | The Guardian

The social media platform recently removed a post by the model Bella Hadid celebrating her Palestinian heritage. According to Hadid, Instagram deleted a photo she’d shared of her dad’s US passport, which listed his birthplace as Palestine; Instagram said it violated “community guidelines on harassment or bullying” and noted the platform doesn’t allow “hate speech”.

“Are we not allowed to be Palestinian on Instagram?” Hadid demanded. “This, to me, is bullying. You can’t erase history by silencing people.”

According to Facebook, which owns Instagram, the post’s removal had nothing to do with Palestine – rather, the platform doesn’t allow people to put personal information online. (That way, anyone could take your data, not just Facebook!) However, as the passport number was blurred out, Instagram acknowledged the post was mistakenly deleted.

 

Source: Bella Hadid’s deleted Instagram post shows how Palestinians are silenced | Arwa Mahdawi | Opinion | The Guardian

The deadly plague that could devastate the US rabbit population

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Scientists aren’t sure they can mitigate the spread of the virus, which causes fevers, internal bleeding and liver failure

In early March, Gary Roemer was walking in the hills of New Mexico with his dog, Duke. Usually Duke would chase rabbits, but never catch them. This time, though, he brought back a jackrabbit.

Roemer, a wildlife biologist with the University of New Mexico in Las Cruces, initially thought the rabbit was just feeble. But the next day he found a fresh carcass with grisly conditions: it was bleeding from the nose and the anus. “That’s when I thought: this is pretty unusual,” Roemer says.

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Yes, social media can be asinine – but ‘cancelled’ pundits like Bari Weiss aren’t the victims | Moira Donegan | Opinion | The Guardian

Weiss’s resignation letter reads less like an internal HR document and more like a pitch for a new venture, and it’s likely that Weiss will soon be outfitted with a book deal or a cushy new perch from which to continue her opining. Hours after Weiss announced her departure from the Times, another professional contrarian, Andrew Sullivan, who has provoked outrage for his repeated endorsements of race science, announced that he would be leaving his longtime role at New York magazine. The conservative talking head Ben Shapiro also left his role as editor-in-chief at the rightwing clickbait outlet the Daily Wire.

The simultaneous moves from three professional rightwing attention seekers prompted speculation that they are planning to launch a new venture together. If they do, it is sure to produce a lot of outrage bait, snappy headlines and unkind missives meant to move readers from shock to anger, and from anger to clicks. This time, let’s not fall for it.

 

Source: Yes, social media can be asinine – but ‘cancelled’ pundits like Bari Weiss aren’t the victims | Moira Donegan | Opinion | The Guardian

Cecil Rhodes statue in Cape Town decapitated

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Police open vandalism case after head removed from statue of 19th-century colonialist

Activists in South Africa have beheaded a statue of the 19th-century British colonialist Cecil Rhodes, a diamond magnate who became wealthy through the labour of black miners and then limited the amount of land they could own.

The statue in Cape Town is the latest to be targeted as part of a global reckoning over racial injustice sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in the US in May.

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Magaluf main strip shut down after outcry over drunk and maskless tourists

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Punta Ballena in Mallorca closed for at least two months after social distancing ignored

Spanish authorities have shut down all shops, bars and restaurants along Magaluf’s notorious Punta Ballena strip in Mallorca, days after images emerged of drunk tourists paying little heed to regulations on wearing masks and social distancing.

The closures, which also extend to two streets known for partying near S’Arenal beach, will take effect immediately and will last at least two months, the regional government said on Wednesday.

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Boris Johnson indicates at PMQs he has not read winter coronavirus report

Waiting for the anime version?

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Keir Starmer presses PM over scientists’ call for preparations for possible second wave

Boris Johnson has indicated he has not read a government-commissioned report setting out urgent measures needed to prepare for a possible second wave of coronavirus, telling the Commons only that he was “aware” of it.

Johnson was questioned at length by Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions about the study by 37 senior doctors and scientists, published this week, and the need for an effective test-and-trace system to mitigate any new outbreak.

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