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Ebola staff in Congo on lockdown after angry residents storm UN camp

Evacuation of responders in face of violent protests demanding protection from militia killings raises fears disease will spread

Ebola responders are on lockdown in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after angry residents stormed a UN peacekeepers camp in protest at fatal militia attacks on civilians, the World Health Organization has said.

On Tuesday, the WHO evacuated 49 non-essential staff out of the 120 people working on the epidemic in the city of Beni in North Kivu, one of the recurring Ebola hotspots.

The UN childrens fund, Unicef, also temporarily evacuated 27 staff, leaving 12 in Beni, Reuters reported. Some NGOs suspended their operations temporarily.

Each day that insecurity prevents responders accessing people in affected areas is a tragedy that prolongs the second worst outbreak of the disease ever recorded, said the WHOs director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a tweet.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros)

Each day that we dont have full access to all #Ebola-affected areas in #DRC we cede ground to the virus, prolonging the outbreak. This is a tragedy because it will only add to the suffering of already overburdened communities.

November 26, 2019

The Ebola outbreak, which has killed 2,198 people, is centred in the volatile north-east of the country. The number of confirmed cases has decreased over recent months and last week the WHO recorded an all-time low of just seven cases. But staff said that whenever there is conflict, the numbers go up again.

The bodies of four young protesters were found near the UN base after an attack on Monday in response to the killing of eight civilians. Six Congolese soldiers were wounded by gunfire, the Associated Press said.

Dozens of protesters, many of them young, invaded one of two UN peacekeeper camps in Beni on Monday, tearing down a wall despite shots fired by the Congolese security forces in an effort to disperse the crowd. Some demonstrators demanded that the UN mission act or leave, and UN staff were evacuated to another base, near the airport.

After an emergency meeting with the UN, the Congolese president Flix Tshisekedi decided to allow joint operations between national and UN forces against the Allied Democratic Forces, a militia group operating near the Ugandan border that has plagued eastern DRC for decades.

A man reacts after the burned corpse of a friend was found beneath a house in Beni following an alleged attack by ADF rebels. Photograph: John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images

Since 5 November, 77 civilians have been killed in the region, according to Agence France-Presse. The Congolese army began an offensive against the ADF on 30 October, vowing to wipe out armed groups in the east of the country.

Following Mondays attacks on the base, a UN spokesman said peacekeepers could not intervene, because the Congolese army had launched its offensive unilaterally.

Seif Magango, Amnesty Internationals deputy director for east Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said the security and UN forces were utterly failing in their duty to protect the citizens of Beni and other hotspots in DRC.

Magango said: It is scandalous that civilians are dying day in, day out while the local police and nearby UN peacekeepers stay put in their camps. It is high time all entities charged with civilian protection in the DRC, including the UN mission, take steps to fulfil their mandate and bring an end to these killings.

Matthias Gillman, a spokesman for Monusco, the UN stabilisation mission in the Congo, said staff had been redeployed to another camp on the outskirts of Beni. Gillman said the mission had not been involved in operations against the ADF so far but that this would change.

Asked to respond to accusations that the UN was failing civilians, Gillman said the modus operandi of the militia, to carry out random attacks at night in remote jungle villages, made its mandate to protect civilians difficult. The UN also had a duty to fight armed groups, he said, but had been prevented from doing so because the Congolese army had begun operations against the group unilaterally.

We understand the attacks going on by ADF are unacceptable and we are not indifferent, Gillman said. Our mandate is to protect civilians but to fully implement that is very complicated.

Our head of mission at Monusco met with the president to see how we can better coordinate our activity and do a better job of getting rid of ADF.

People in the North Kivu city of Oicha wield sticks and machetes as they search for ADF rebels. Photograph: John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images

Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the WHO, was evacuated from Beni on Tuesday after her vehicle came under attack, with rocks and bricks shattering the window.

Speaking from Goma airport, she said: Amazingly, a lot of work is still going on in the hotspots. But the problem is a lot of people around 300 who are at high risk related to one particular infected individual, have not been contacted. Especially yesterday when there was gunfire and riots. It could build up again.

World Vision, which has 35 staff, 30 of whom are local, running community programmes against Ebola, said its staff were also on lockdown.

Helen Barclay-Hollands, World Vision DRC eastern zone director, said operations in Beni had been completely halted and that efforts to control Ebola and measles, which has killed 5,000 people, were at serious risk of being undermined. Children would die from disease if work did not resume extremely quickly, she warned.

Chamim, whose mother recently died of Ebola, cries at a Unicef centre in Beni for children whose families have fallen prey to the disease. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters

This outbreak of violence could not have come at a worse time, Barclay-Hollands said. Now this is all at risk.

Other NGOs said the Ebola outbreak should not be allowed to overshadow the long-lasting humanitarian crisis in DRC, driven by conflict, which is severely underfunded. A total of 12.8 million people in DRC need urgent support.

Whitney Elmer, Mercy Corps country director in DRC, said: For the past year, the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC has overshadowed the complex and long-lasting humanitarian crisis in the country. We have seen donors pivot resources and lose focus of the wider humanitarian needs, but with 15 million people projected to be in need of emergency relief in DRC in 2020, this cannot continue.

Original Article : HERE ;

Ebola staff in Congo on lockdown after angry residents storm UN camp was originally posted by MetNews

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morganbelarus · 4 years

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Nelson Mandela Fast Facts

(CNN)Here is a look at the life of Nelson Mandela, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former president of South Africa.

Birth date: July 18, 1918

Death date: December 5, 2013

Birth place: Mvezo, Transkei, South Africa

Birth name: Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela

Father: Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, a counselor to the royal house of the Thembu tribe

Mother: Nosekeni Fanny Mandela

Marriages: Graca Machel (July 18, 1998-December 5, 2013, his death); “Winnie” (Madikizela) Mandela (1958-1996, divorce); Evelyn (Ntoko) Mandela (1944-1958, divorce)

Children: with Winnie Mandela: Zindzi, 1960 and Zenani, 1959; with Evelyn Mandela: Makaziwe, 1953; Makgatho, 1950-2005; Makaziwe, 1947-1948; Thembekile, 1946-1969

Education: University of South Africa, BA, 1942

Other Facts

He was given the name Nelson by a school teacher. He was sometimes called Madiba, his traditional clan name.

Mandela was called both “the world’s most famous political prisoner” and “South Africa’s Great Black Hope.”

Timeline

1941-1943 – Mandela meets Walter Sisulu, who helps him get a job at the law firm of Witkin, Sidelsky, and Eidelman.

1944 – Joins the African National Congress and helps found the ANC Youth League.

1951 – Becomes president of the ANC Youth League.

1952 – Opens the first black law partnership in South Africa with friend Oliver Tambo.

1952 – Leads the newly launched ANC Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws, a program of nonviolent mass resistance.

July 1952 – Mandela is charged with violating the Suppression of Communism Act.

December 5, 1956 – Mandela is among 156 resistance leaders arrested and charged with treason.

April 8, 1960 – The ANC is banned by the South African government.

March 29, 1961 – Mandela is acquitted of treason.

1961 – Mandela begins organizing the armed struggle against apartheid, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nations).

1962 – Travels in Africa and Europe studying military training.

August 5, 1962 – Is arrested on charges of inciting workers to strike and leaving the country without valid travel documents.

November 7, 1962 – Is sentenced to five years in prison for incitement and leaving the country illegally.

June 12, 1964 – Is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage.

1982 – Is transferred from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison.

1988 – Is transferred to Victor Verster Prison.

July 5, 1989 – Meets with President P.W. Botha.

August 15, 1989 – Botha resigns as president and head of the National Party. Frederik Willem de Klerk replaces him and begins dismantling apartheid.

February 11, 1990 – Mandela is released from prison.

July 1991 – Mandela is elected president of the ANC.

1993 – Mandela and de Klerk are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

May 10, 1994 – Mandela is inaugurated as the first black president of a democratic South Africa.

1999 – Mandela leaves office and establishes the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

January 19, 2000 – Addresses the UN Security Council, appealing for help in ending the brutal civil war between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi.

July 25, 2001 – Announces that he has prostate cancer and is undergoing treatment.

November 29, 2003 – Hosts a concert as part of his 46664 campaign — named after his prison number — to mobilize governments to declare HIV/AIDS a global emergency. The event features performances by Beyonce, Bono, Bob Geldof and many others.

December 1, 2003 – Mandela participates in the signing of the Geneva Accords for peace in the Middle East.

January 2005 – Announces that his son, Makgatho, has died of AIDS.

August 29, 2007 – A bronze statue of Mandela is unveiled in Parliament Square in London.

June 27, 2008 – A London concert is held at Hyde Park in honor of Mandela’s 90th birthday (on July 18) with all proceeds going to charity. It is estimated that about 40,000 tickets were sold.

July 18, 2009 – The Nelson Mandela Foundation creates Mandela Day to be held every year on his birthday. The purpose of the day is to bring awareness to community service.

November 11, 2009 – The United Nations declares July 18th Nelson Mandela International Day.

December 11, 2009 – The movie Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela opens in South Africa, Canada and the United States.

February 11, 2010 – On the 20th anniversary of Mandela’s release from prison, tributes, commemorations and marches take place.

January 26-28, 2011 – Is hospitalized in Johannesburg and treated for an acute respiratory infection.

June 21, 2011 – Meets with US First Lady Michelle Obama at his home in South Africa.

February 25-26, 2012 – Treated for an abdominal hernia.

March 2012 – The Nelson Mandela Digital Archive Project is launched. Google gives a $1.25 million grant to help preserve and digitize thousands of archival documents including items donated by Mandela himself.

December 8, 2012 – Is admitted to the hospital with a lung infection.

December 15, 2012 – Undergoes successful endoscopic surgery to have gall stones removed.

March 27, 2013 – Is admitted to the hospital due to a lung infection. He is discharged on April 6.

June 8, 2013 –Mandela is admitted to hospital with a recurring lung infection.

December 5, 2013 – Mandela dies at his home in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton. Zuma orders all flags in the nation to be flown at half-staff through the state funeral.

December 15, 2013 – Mandela is buried in his childhood village of Qunu.

Original Article : HERE ;

Nelson Mandela Fast Facts was originally posted by MetNews

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morganbelarus · 4 years

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Mouthful by mouthful: the 2019 Bad sex award in quotes

Extravagant metaphors are indecently exposed in the shortlist for the Literary Reviews annual booby prize for sexual scenes in fiction

The River Capture by Mary Costello

He clung to her, crying, and then made love to her and went far inside her and she begged him to go deeper and, no longer afraid of injuring her, he went deep in mind and body, among crowded organ cavities, past the contours of her lungs and liver, and, shimmying past her heart, he felt her perfection.

The Office of Gardens and Ponds by Didier Decoin

The earthy taste surprised her. When he was alive, when it swelled inside Miyukis mouth, Katsuros penis had tasted of raw fish, of warm young bamboo shoots, and of fresh almonds when she finally released its juices. Now it was insipid and muddy to her tongue, like the pools of the temples of Heian Ky when the Office of Gardens and Ponds had them drained for cleaning.

Miyuki had loved this man. Not that he was a very good lover but what did she know, after all, since she had experienced no one but him? He used to upset her by the way he silently loomed up behind her and took her by the shoulders, his nails scratching her flesh, his strong breath enveloping her neck, a smell of ripe fruit and poorly tanned leather, his knee pushing against her lower back to open her tunic and expose a portion of naked flesh against which he would then rub his organ as if he were furtively making omelette rolls. He did not derive his pleasure without her, but in front of her, and differently.

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

There was a sensation occurring here that I didnt even know could occur. I took the sharpest inhale of my life, and Im not sure I let my breath out for another 10 minutes. I do feel that I lost the ability to see and hear for a while, and that something might have short-circuited in my brain something that has probably never been fully fixed since. My whole being was astonished. I could hear myself making noises like an animal, and my legs were shaking uncontrollably (not that I was trying to control them), and my hands were gripping down so hard over my face that I left fingernail divots in my own skull.

Then it became more.

And after that, it became even more still.

Then I screamed as though I were being run over by a train, and that long arm of his was reaching up again to palm my mouth, and I bit into his hand the way a wounded soldier bites on a bullet.

And then it was the most, and I more or less died.

Pax by John Harvey

She gave a yet deeper, moaning sigh. Like breathing in he saw the word he had said shiver and expand inside her. Her arms moved now, and flexed: out of here, Venus de Milo. He watched the death-life fill her growingly. She grabbed and caressed him with more muscle, more zest, than ever before. Her long lean arms were spider arms, while her kisses roved and dug.

I see it, he said. You are the female praying mantis, devouring her mate.

I am. You are. I shall eat every shred of you.

Mouthful by mouthful.

Exactly. Ah. But boy, you taste good. She licked her lips, and pulled him close, but now he was clasping too. It was a kind of slow wrestling, they were knitting each other into a loose slipping knot. He was upside down over her, loving her bush and lick-kissing like eating her inner thighs. Till at last they loved fully and later lay back. She did not chatter. Their arms stirred in a luxurious desultory twining.

The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith

The actual lovemaking was a series of cryptic clues and concealed pleasures. A sensual treasure hunt. She asked for something, then changed her mind. He made adjustments and calibrations, awaited further instruction.

For most of the proceedings he felt his own desire as if it were tethered to a wire, a bright red balloon floating in his peripheral vision, but eventually he burst through. It was toward the end, as their breathing quickened. Her stage directions had stalled out into silence. He looked to his right and noticed the scene in the smoky lens of the mirror above the bureau, saw his own body move with the steady rhythm of a bellows blowing air at the base of a fire. It brought back the early experiments at the photographic society in Paris, the wiring of a birds feet to a cameragun, the mounting tension and uplift before a surge of exasperated flight. His own face looking back in the mirror open-mouthed, flushed, euphoric was a wild, strange thing to him. A beguiled stranger hed never met, held in place by an infinite loop. Then his eyes locked on Sabines in the mirror and he could see that she was pleased with her staging, with her hair fanning across the pillow, with the way her ankles locked about his calves so that her long white feet formed a perfect V. And it was the act of looking back at the filmstrip juddering above the bureau that sent her into a final boisterous delirium. She bit his shoulder, then whispered into the mirror, Nous voil, catching her breath, There we are.

Original Article : HERE ;

Mouthful by mouthful: the 2019 Bad sex award in quotes was originally posted by MetNews

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morganbelarus · 4 years

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‘I thought I lost my right to vote’

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionVoting inside a mental health unit

When Louise Evans was admitted to a psychiatric unit, she thought she had lost her right to vote.

Her parents used to be councillors so she had always been politically aware.

But being voluntarily treated for paranoid schizophrenia she thought she was too unwell to cast her ballot. So she was was surprised to find out most mental health service users can vote.

Patients under civil sections, those on a community treatment order, voluntary patients and prisoners who have been remanded to hospital can all vote.

Image caption Detained patients have to apply for Section 17 leave in order to exit the hospital to vote, or they can vote by proxy or post

Detained patients have to apply for Section 17 leave in order to exit the hospital to vote, or they can vote by proxy or by post.

Only patients convicted of committing a criminal offence cannot cast a ballot.

Yet the turnout for those with mental health problems is often very low.

The most accurate survey, from the 2010 General Election, showed inpatients in the central London area of Westminster were 50% less likely to register than the general public, and those who did were a further 50% less likely to vote.

According to the journal The Psychiatrist, a “significant number” of mental health service users are either unaware of their eligibility, do not know how to register or lack the confidence to vote.

Louise understands why. She was nervous walking up to the polling station as she thought she might be turned away.

“There’s that conception you don’t understand what you’re doing, that you shouldn’t actually be there,” she said.

Image caption Posters have been put up in Hillingdon hospital about the election

In Hillingdon Hospital, where Louise is being treated, staff are now using posters, quizzes and community chats about democracy to encourage its patients to vote.

Dr Masum Khwaja said: “Part of recovery from mental illness is about social inclusion and empowerment.

“The beliefs and the opinions of someone living with mental illness is equivalent to that of anybody else.”

In 2000, the law was amended so patients could register to vote using a hospital address.

So when when Louise’s father presented her polling card to Hillingdon Hospital, she was allowed to visit the polling station.

Louise is now recovering at a rehabilitation clinic at the hospital and she plans to vote in this election.

Related Topics

Mental health

Hillingdon

Original Article : HERE ;

‘I thought I lost my right to vote’ was originally posted by MetNews

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morganbelarus · 4 years

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Most dolphins are ‘right-handed’, say researchers

Bottlenose dolphins found to have an even stronger right-side bias than humans

Dolphins, like humans, have a dominant right-hand side, according to research.

About 90% of humans are right-handed but we are not the only animals that show such preferences: gorillas tend to be right-handed, kangaroos are generally southpaws, and even cats have preferences for a particular side although which is favoured appears to depend on their sex.

Now researchers have found common bottlenose dolphins appear to have an even stronger right-side bias than humans.

I didnt expect to find it in that particular behaviour, and I didnt expect to find such a strong example, said Dr Daisy Kaplan, co-author of the study from the Dolphin Communication Project, a non-profit organisation in the US.

Researchers studying common bottlenose dolphins in the Bahamas say the preference shows up in crater feeding, whereby dolphins swim close to the ocean floor, echolocating for prey, before shoving their beaks into the sand to snaffle a meal.

Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Kaplan and colleagues say the animals make a sharp and sudden turn before digging in with their beaks.

Crucially, however, they found this turn is almost always to the left, with the same direction taken in more than 99% of the 709 turns recorded between 2012 and 2018.

The researchers say the findings indicate a right-side bias, since a left turn keeps a dolphins right eye and right side close to the ocean floor.

The team found only four turns were made to the right and all of these were made by the same dolphin, which had an oddly shaped right pectoral fin. However the Kaplan said it was unlikely this fin was behind the right turns: two other dolphins had an abnormal or missing right fin yet still turned left.

It is not the first time researchers have found evidence of a right-side bias in cetaceans. Grey and humpback whales tend to roll to the right when foraging on the seafloor, while common bottlenose dolphins tend to lie on their right when beaching themselves to chase fish on to muddy river banks. Dusky dolphins, meanwhile, circle their prey with their right side facing their quarry.

The team suggests a number of possible reasons behind the latest findings, including that it might make it easier for the dolphins to swallow prey as their food channel, which splits to pass around their larynx, is wider on the right than the left side.

Research has also suggested dolphins produce echolocating clicks with the phonic lips on the right side of their head, meaning it could be advantageous if this side is kept nearer to the ocean floor.

While Kaplan said further evidence was needed, she pointed to the Ganges river dolphin, which is practically blind and relies heavily on echolocation. It turns out they almost always swim right-side down when they are echolocating, she said.

Another possibility is linked to brain processing: as in humans, sensory information picked up by one side of the dolphin body is processed by the opposite side of the brain. The team says if visual and echolocation information is largely processed by the left hemisphere of the dolphin brain, animals might perform better at foraging if information is picked up by the right eye and ear.

Dr James Herbert-Read, a biologist at Cambridge University, said the study added to a growing body of evidence that many species show handedness in particular tasks.

While he added that further work was needed to unpick whether such biases had benefits, for example boosting foraging success, he said the strength of the dolphins preference was notable.

This strength approximately 99% of turns by individuals were to the left appears to be stronger than the left-/right-hand preferences in humans, he said. Its rare to see such strong and consistent lateralisation between individuals within a population.

Original Article : HERE ;

Most dolphins are ‘right-handed’, say researchers was originally posted by MetNews

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morganbelarus · 4 years

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Joe Lieberman predicts Bloomberg ‘will be a factor’ in 2020 Democratic race

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Joe Lieberman predicts Bloomberg ‘will be a factor’ in 2020 Democratic race was originally posted by MetNews

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morganbelarus · 4 years

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‘Slow-moving blob’ that may have been a flock of birds caused White House lockdown

Washington (CNN)A “slow-moving blob” that may have been a flock of birds triggered a lockdown of the White House and caused the US Capitol to be placed on “restrictive access” Tuesday morning.

Military aircraft were scrambled in response.

Initial assessments indicated that the “blob” was an unauthorized aircraft entering restrictive airspace, leading to the brief lockdown.

The airspace around Washington is more restricted than anywhere else in the country, according to the FAA, as “rules put in place after the 9/11 attacks establish ‘national defense airspace’ over the area and limit aircraft operations to those with an FAA and Transportation Security Administration authorization.”

“Senior officials across the interagency are monitoring the situation on a national event conference call. NORAD aircraft are on site and responding. Plane is not considered hostile at this time,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Mitchell said during the early stages of the event.

But hours after the all clear was given, a defense official told CNN that a final determination had not yet been made as to what exactly caused the event.

There are currently three possible causes being analyzed, a US defense official confirmed to CNN: Birds, an atmospheric anomaly or a drone.

A US Capitol Police source also said it is “still not known” what happened other than there was “a big slow-moving blob of something” on radar that caused concern the object could be a drone.

US Coast Guard helicopters that arrived to intercept found no threat requiring further action, prompting law enforcement to search on the ground for a possible drone, the defense official said.

A White House official also told CNN that the lockdown was in response to a possible drone.

But two Capitol Police sources told CNN that the flying object may have just been a flock of birds, given how slowly it was moving and how it appeared on radar, then dissipated.

That theory has only been bolstered by the fact that military jets and helicopters scrambled in response reported that they saw nothing in the sky, according to a defense official.

A US official told CNN that the Federal Aviation Administration also did not see any aircraft on its radar.

However, air traffic control audio reviewed by CNN showed that the responding military aircraft, operated by a pilot going by the call sign “Blackjack,” did report seeing a flock of birds while in the air.

Pilot: “And we, uh, almost just hit a flock of birds here at about one thousand three hundred.”

Control: “Blackjack, you see the direction they’re going?”

Pilot: “Yeah, they’re going north, northwest.”

“A trained radar operator should be able to differentiate between a flock of birds and an aircraft, but this mistake is actually a fairly common one,” according to retired Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton.

“How the flock of birds appears on a radar screen can be very similar to the radar ‘look’ of a small aircraft. This happens sometimes with older radar systems,” he added.

Tuesday’s event highlights the need for radar images to be “enhanced by other sources of information that can either confirm or call into question the radar operator’s — or air traffic controller’s — interpretation of those blips on his or her screen,” Leighton added.

The Capitol Police source said the US Capitol went to “Aircon yellow” at 8:27 a.m. when the object was first identified. AIRCON is the alert status triggered when an aircraft enters the restricted airspace in Washington without authorization.

It took 11 minutes before the object was in the range that caused the alert at the Capitol to go to aircon orange, indicating it was slow moving.

US Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki said on Tuesday that “access to Capitol Complex buildings was restricted for a short time” out of an “abundance of caution” and that the situation was cleared about 45 minutes after the report of a possible aircraft in restricted space.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

Original Article : HERE ;

‘Slow-moving blob’ that may have been a flock of birds caused White House lockdown was originally posted by MetNews

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morganbelarus · 4 years

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The Pussycat Dolls are reuniting for ‘X Factor’

(CNN)The Pussycat Dolls are getting back together this weekend in the United Kingdom.

Walsh broke the news that the girl group is reuniting Saturday for the season finale of “X Factor: Celebrity.”

“The Pussycat Dolls are the guest,” he said Monday on the ITV talk show, “Lorraine.” “There’s an exclusive for you!”

His fellow judge on the show, Nicole Scherzinger, was the lead singer for the Pussycat Dolls, who have not performed together in a decade.

The group is known for such hits as “Buttons,” “Don’t Cha” and “Stickwitu.”

Original Article : HERE ;

The Pussycat Dolls are reuniting for ‘X Factor’ was originally posted by MetNews

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morganbelarus · 4 years

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Hong Kong Polytechnic University standoff appears over as search yields only one protester

Professor Alex Wai, Vice President of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, takes in the vandalized campus as he leads a team of school officials and first aid providers to look for holed up protesters on a rooftop. (AP)

The streets around Polytechnic were the scenes of fierce clashes with police 10 days ago. Anti-government protesters used the campus as a base and shut down access to a major roadway under Hong Kong’s harbor, setting the toll booths on fire.

HONG KONG ELECTIONS SEEN AS WIN FOR PRO-DEMOCRACY CANDIDATES

The search teams Wednesday found gasoline bombs and other dangerous items, a statement from Polytechnic said. The library was flooded, and the fuel tanks of cars had been forced open.

The university plans to resume the search Thursday morning, possibly with more people. Hong Kong is 13 hours ahead of New York.

Attention in Hong Kong has shifted to city leader Carrie Lam’s response to a major loss in local elections Sunday. The pro-democracy bloc won control of 17 out of 18 district councils, which were seen as a barometer of public support for more than five months of pro-democracy protests.

Police in riot gear move through a cloud of smoke as they detain a protester at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Nov. 18. (AP)

After issuing only a written statement Monday, Lam offered no concessions to the protesters, saying only that she would accelerate dialogue and identify ways to address societal grievances.

GINGRICH: HONG KONG PROTESTERS GET NEEDED SUPPORT FROM CONGRESS TO BATTLE CHINESE OPPRESSION

She said the central government in Beijing did not blame her for the election setback, and that while it may have reflected unhappiness with the government’s handling of the unrest, it also showed that many people want an end to the violence.

“Let me just stress that after these five-six months, Hong Kong people have realized very clearly that Hong Kong could no longer tolerate this chaotic situation,” Lam told reporters after a weekly meeting with advisers on Tuesday. “Please help us to maintain the relative calm and peace that we have seen in the last week or so and provide a good basis for Hong Kong to move forward.”

A police officer prepares to fire tear gas canisters during a clash with protesters near Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Nov. 18. (AP)

Her refusal to compromise could spark more unrest at a time when the semi-autonomous Chinese territory has plunged into its first recession in a decade.

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The government hopes to take advantage of the current lull in violence to accelerate public dialogue and set up an independent review committee to find solutions to deep-seated societal issues, Lam said.

“The next step to go forward is really, as you have put it, to engage the people. And we have started public dialogue with the community,” she added. “But unfortunately, with the unstable environment and a chaotic situation, I could not do more on that sort of engagement. I hope that the environment will allow me to do it now.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trending in World

Original Article : HERE ;

Hong Kong Polytechnic University standoff appears over as search yields only one protester was originally posted by MetNews

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morganbelarus · 4 years

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Man Makes Winter Shelters For Stray Cats Out Of Discarded Coolers

Stray animals face a particularly difficult time during winter. When the temperatures drop, our homeless furry friends are still roaming out in the open while we’re sitting warmly and cozily at home. Luckily, there are people out there who are doing their best to make sure that stray animals have a warm place to sleep.

Philip Rogich is one of such people. The man based in Ogden, Utah is turning other people’s trash into little homes for stray and feral cats. Philip uses discarded coolers to turn them into warm and dry places for felines to sleep during the cold season.

“Normally, the cooler keeps things cold. We’re going to use it to keep animals warm”

Image credits: BatmanOfOgden

“Normally the cooler keeps things cold. We’re going to use it to keep animals warm,” Philip told the Fox13 news outlet. “I actually have a 6-inch drill bit and then once you drill the hole, you just use some pipe insulation to pad it,” he further explained.

“Two or three cats could fit in a cooler this size!”

Image credits: BatmanOfOgden

“Everybody’s got a cooler in their garage that they’re not using,” the now-dubbed animal hero told the media. Philip says that together with a few items that you can find in any hardware store, you can turn a discarded cooler into a shelter. First, you’d have to drill an entrance hole with a 6-inch drill bit. Then, some three-quarter-inch pipe insulation should be added to line the entrance.

“[Feral cats] just disappear, get overlooked. They get cold in the wintertime, too. They’re living creatures”

Image credits: BatmanOfOgden

“And then on the inside, you just use a straw. Straw has been used for hundreds of years as bedding for animals and that’s because it has the ability to dry out,” Philip told the media. “And there you go! A cat cooler! Two or three cats could fit in a cooler this size!”

Here’s what people online had to say

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America has an infant mortality crisis. Meet the black doulas trying to change that

In the US, black babies die at twice the rate of white babies. In Cleveland, the mortality rate is nearly three times as high. Can birth advocates make a difference in one of Americas most segregated cities?

Rachel is a college-educated professional pianist who lives in a middle-class leafy Cleveland suburb with her husband and their baby boy.

The 34-year-old is fit and healthy with good medical insurance and a close-knit family network, but these socio-economic advantages were not sufficient insurance to insulate her from the racial disparities that characterise Americas infant and maternal mortality rates: African American babies are twice as likely to die before reaching their first birthday than white babies, regardless of the mothers income or education level.

A report earlier this year from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that over 22,000 babies died before their first birthday in 2017. But the racial disparities tell their own story: black womens babies died at a rate of 10.97 per 1,000 births more than twice the rate for white, Asian or Hispanic women.

And in Ohio home to Cleveland the situation is even worse: the mortality rate for black infants ( 15.1 per 1,000) was around three times as high as the rate for white infants. Black women are also three to four times more likely to die in childbirth in America than white women, again regardless of their socio-economic status.

cleveland mortality

Its this terrifying reality that persuaded Rachel, who suffered a miscarriage before becoming pregnant with her son last year, that she needed an African American doula by her side during the pregnancy, delivery and after the birth.

I was scared I wanted someone who understood my history as a black woman to be with me during the birth and advocate for me in the hospital system where we are dismissed and not heard, said Rachel. Even Serena [Williams] was dismissed.

(After giving birth in 2017, medical staff initially dismissed the tennis stars concerns about life threatening blood clots, a condition which almost killed her in 2011.)

Christin Farmer at the Birthing Beautiful Communities headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. Photograph: Shooting Without Bullets/The Guardian

Rachel eventually came across Birthing Beautiful Communities (BBC) a Cleveland-based African American doula collective that provides culturally sensitive education, advocacy and emotional support for women during pregnancy and up to a year after birth.

The not-for-profit group was founded in 2014 by Christin Farmer, a straight-talking community organiser with an entrepreneurial spirit.

The American infant mortality crisis is driven by black babies dying. Its about systemic racism and the lack of power sharing, said Farmer, 34. We have to take things in our own hands at the grassroots level because we cannot depend on the same people that enslaved and repressed us to save us.

Black babies account for a third of births, but three-quarters of infant deaths

Farmer set up BBC to tackle longstanding birth inequalities by training local black women to provide holistic attention to pregnant women in their own communities.

Birthing Beautiful Communities is among 25 inspirational people and organizations that the Guardian is highlighting as part of a week-long City Champions project in Cleveland. It is designed to showcase the upsides in a city like Cleveland where grassroots activists faced with endemic problems like lead poisoning, infant mortality and gun violence and few or no state solutions, are taking the initiative and helping to change lives in some of the citys most marginalised communities.

Cleveland is the capital of Cuyahoga county located on the shore of Lake Erie in north-east Ohio, a former urban powerhouse which has suffered decades of economic decline and widespread racial inequalities. It is one of the most segregated cities in the US, a fact which directly influences the allocation of public resources for housing, health, education, infrastructure, crime prevention, parks and environmental hazards.

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What is the City Champions series about?

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Many cities across the US face significant challenges places like Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh andCleveland are among them. And much has been written about how these former economic powerhouses have struggled over the last few decades.

But this week in the first installment of our City Champions series, we want to highlight the remarkable people and groups working on inspiring projects that show the resilience of those wanting to improve the lives of people in one of those cities: Cleveland, Ohio.

Cleveland has many challenges – inequality, structural racism, infant mortality, shamefully untreated lead poisoning – but it also has a network of people creating innovative projects that are addressing these challenges with significant success.

Collaborating with the local newspaper – The Plain Dealer – and the local PBS and NPR stations, run by ideastream, we canvassed residents for their suggestions for who to recognize and received hundreds of replies.

We then created an advisory panel of mostly local public figures who helped select the final 25 champions, whose stories we will be telling this week.

As part of this project we have also worked with the art collective For Freedoms to create a public art expression for this project. Working with For Freedoms and local artists, we commissioned artwork for six billboards that help tell the stories of the city and the challenges the champions are addressing.

John Mulholland, editor in chief, Guardian US

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Back in 1850, when the US first started collecting infant mortality statistics, the black infant mortality rate was 340 per 1,000 while the white infant mortality rate was 217 per 1,000. While deaths have fallen overall thanks to improvements in hygiene, nutrition and healthcare, the black-white disparity has grown.

The situation in Cuyahoga county is shocking: last year African Americans accounted for just over a third of births, but three-quarters of infant deaths. This year looks set to be the worst since 2015, with black babies dying 3.8 times more frequently than white babies, according to preliminary figures.

Everytime I hear these numbers something inside me dies, said Margaret Mitchell, president of YWCA Cleveland. We have suppressed the truth for too long; this is not about race, its about racism.

overall us race stats

Community leaders and health experts in Cleveland are pushing city officials to declare racism a public health crisis. At a recent city event, 400 years of Inequity: A Call to Action, some of the countrys leading racial justice researchers argued that racism historical and contemporary contributes to widespread health inequalities for African Americans including infant and maternal mortality.

Infant and maternal health specialist, Dr. Arthur James, of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, said: 85% of the African American experience has been defined by slavery and Jim Crow yet we never talk about the role of history in todays racial inequalities in gun crime, addictions, mass incarceration and infant mortality.

Advantage and disadvantage accumulates over time, its time to change the narrative and shift the direction of public policy towards social determinants and achieving equity. Declaring racism as a public health crisis could change this dynamic.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, declared racism a public health crisis earlier this year.

Birthing Beautiful doula Marlene Morris during a check-in at the home of Rachel in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Photograph: Shooting Without Bullets/The Guardian

Black babies and black mothers are dying

BBC is located in a cozy converted house in Hough, one of the citys most marginalized neighborhoods, where women attend classes on breastfeeding, baby bonding and healthy eating in the open-plan lounge.(In 1966 the economically depressed and predominantly African-American neighborhood of Hough was the site of four days of rioting sparked after a black man was denied a glass of water at the white-owned Seventy-Niners Cafe at Hough Ave. The National Guard ordered in and, four days later, four people had been killed.)

The women coming to BBC can also access legal assistance, education, art therapy and entrepreneurial opportunities. In the past five years, they have trained almost 30 super doulas who have worked with more than 600 women. Creating jobs and reducing infant deaths marries Farmers two passions: community wealth-building and health equalities.

Im unapologetic about ensuring African Americans get opportunities first. We need space to focus on our community issues because as a culture we have so much healing to do, said Farmer.

Doula Marlene Morris, 38, has supported 27 mothers through childbirth this year and witnessed countless examples of casual racism in hospitals such as assuming the womans partner is nothing more than a baby daddy.

There are some awesome midwives, nurses and doctors, but too many assume that black women are angry, on Medicaid, and dont have a birth plan, and can tolerate more pain.

Research by the University of Virginia in 2016 found that a substantial proportion of white medical students and residents falsely believe black people have less-sensitive nerve endings, and that black skin is thicker than white.

Myranda Majid, a community support specialist at Birthing Beautiful Communities. Photograph: Shooting Without Bullets/The Guardian

Black babies and black mothers are dying women come to us because they are scared, added Morris.

To qualify for BBC help, there are some non-negotiable rules: smokers must stop smoking (which may contribute to their good outcomes), and are obligated to take anxiety management classes, known as Sisters Offering Support (SOS). Why? Toxic stress.

In the first few months of BBC, Farmer noticed an odd phenomenon among pregnant women coping with tough situations such as domestic violence, poverty, homelessness and family incarceration they consistently denied feeling stressed.

To find out why, Farmer approached Angela Neal, a professor, clinical psychologist and director of the Program for Research on Anxiety Disorders among African Americans at Kent State University.

The findings show a link between the extent of racism a woman has experienced and low cortisol levels which is associated with anxiety and PTSD.

The cause of toxic stress is American racism, and that is the principal social determinant of infant mortality disparity, added Neal. Part of the solution to infant mortality is making sure emotional care is part of antenatal care.

Farmer added: Black women have been normalizing and internalizing stress and trauma for so long this is a big deal in prematurity which is killing our babies.

Toxic stress contributes to conditions like hypertension and pre-eclampsia, which increase the risk of premature birth and its complications – the largest contributors to infant death globally. In the US, one in 10 babies were born premature last year, signalling the fourth consecutive annual increase, according to new figures by March of Dimes, a not-for-profit that works to improve the health of women and babies. The premature birth rate among black women is 49% higher than for white women.

For black women in America, the grind of institutional and societal racism generates physiological stress which directly increases the risk of life-threatening conditions for them and their babies.

In a 2010 paper on the complex web of factors which contribute to racial inequalities in infant mortality published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal, academics at the University of South Florida concluded: In addition to infant, maternal, family, community and societal characteristics, we present research linking racism to negative birth outcomes and describe how it permeates and is embedded in every aspect of the lives of African American women.

Understanding the contribution of history to the various factors of life of Black women in the United States will aid in developing more effective policies and programs to reduce Black infant mortality.

But sometimes nothing is enough.

Jazmin Long , Vice President of Fund Development, nurses a baby at the Birthing Beautifuls headquarters. Photograph: Shooting Without Bullets/The Guardian

Grassroots is whats going to save our babies

Romanique Rice did everything right. She read countless pregnancy books, ate well, attended classes and antenatal appointments, and called upon doula Morris for support and advice.

I wanted someone to have my back in the hospital a doula the same race as me, who understood my experiences, the inequalities and circumstances of my life without judgment, said Rice, 26.

Everything seemed fine. Rice went into labour at full term, but by the time she got to the hospital her daughter, Riley, had died in utero. She wouldnt, couldnt believe it until Morris arrived to relay the news. A placenta abnormality was the probable cause. Rice and her partner were devastated, and so was Morris and the whole BBC family. Im just trying to help her process the grief and find the answers she needs, said Morris.

Its the first time Rice is back at the BBC house since the stillbirth, and it hurts. I was so angry, full of emotions, but Marlene has helped keep me calm and give me clarity.

Farmer is an optimistic changemaker with ambitious plans to extend the super-doula model across America. So far shes opened a second BBC centre in the neighbouring city of Akron; developed standardized training and care protocols to ensure fidelity to their model; is writing a book and working towards opening the states first midwife- and doula-run community birthing centre

To do this work, BBC receives financial support from the state government and the Cleveland Clinic, a world-class medical system with health centres and hospitals across north-east Ohio where health and wealth inequalities are stark.

Farmer has no qualms about this juxtaposition. For her, the infant mortality divide is systemic, but the solutions are local.

Grassroots is whats going to save our babies and everyone else should be supporting partners in that work including hospitals and government.

She added: I dont focus on what we cant do, only what we can do and know that we can solve infant mortality so thats my goal. I wont stop until that goal is realised, and if that means I have to figure out other strategies, well bring it on, thats what I do.

These photographs were a collaboration between Jasmine Banks, a student photographer at Shooting Without Bullets, Amanda D. King and McKinley Wiley.

Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion using #citychampions, catch up on our best stories or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

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America has an infant mortality crisis. Meet the black doulas trying to change that was originally posted by MetNews

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