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xtruss · 5 months

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The Hunger Stat That Shames America

— April 22, 2024

Despite its dominant voice on the global stage, the U.S. is the G7 country with the highest number of people struggling to afford food. A recent Gallup survey showed that 26 percent of Americans struggled to afford enough food for themselves and their families at times in 2023. Photo Illustration By Newsweek/Getty Images

The U.S. had the highest rate of people struggling to afford enough food to feed themselves and their families of all G7 countries in 2023, according to a recent Gallup survey.

One in four (26 percent) Americans surveyed in a new Gallup analysis, titled "U.S.: Leader or Loser in the G7?", said there have been times in the past 12 months when they did not have enough money to buy the food they needed.

In Canada, the rate of residents struggling to afford food within the same timeframe was 17 percent, while in France it went down to 15 percent and in Italy 14 percent. Some 13 percent of Germans were unable to afford enough food at times last year, against 9 percent in the United Kingdom and 8 percent in Japan.

While the U.S. has consistently been at the top or tied at the top of the G7 for inability to afford food at times every year since 2009, the 2023 data shows that the number of struggling Americans is growing.

"Inability to afford food has never been higher in the U.S. than it was in 2023, since Gallup started tracking this measure in 2006," Benedict Vigers, a global analytics consultant at Gallup, told Newsweek. "This figure comes amid a backdrop of recent food price inflation in the U.S., which increased sharply in 2022 and remained high last year," he added.

The results of the Gallup survey are based on telephone and web interviews made throughout 2023 with random samples of 1,000 adults aged 15 and older living in each of the seven countries in the G7.

"Our nation is facing a hunger crisis," Kelly Horton, interim president of the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), told Newsweek. "Even as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, about 44.2 million people live in households that struggle with hunger."

According to the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) latest report on household food security, 12.8 percent of households—about 17 million—were food insecure in 2022, which means they had difficulties at some time during the year providing enough food for all their family members due to a lack of resources.

Hunger rates are disproportionately worse for households with children and of color, single-parent households, and those located in southern and rural areas.

According to the USDA 2022 report, food insecurity was worse among all households with children (17.3 percent of which were food insecure); households with children under the age of 6 (16.7 percent); households with children with a single mom (33.1 percent) and a single dad (21.2 percent); women living alone (15.1 percent); households headed by a Black, non-Hispanic (22.4 percent) or Hispanic (20.8 percent) adult; households with incomes below 100 percent of the poverty threshold (36.7 percent), 130 percent of the poverty threshold (35.2 percent), and 185 percent of the poverty threshold (32.0 percent); and households in principal cities (15.3 percent) and nonmetropolitan areas (rural; 14.7 percent).

The number of Americans struggling to afford enough food has been growing in recent years, a spokesperson for the USDA told Newsweek. In 2022, it was significantly higher than in 2021, when it had a prevalence of 10.2 percent, and the food insecurity rate reported from 2017 (11.8 percent) through 2020 (10.5 percent).

Why Americans Are Struggling To Put Food On The Table

The rise of inflation which followed the end of the pandemic and the end of the government's support for struggling families that characterized the period of the health emergency played a dramatic role in increasing food insecurity in the U.S.

"The unwinding of critical COVID-19 pandemic interventions coupled with the rising costs of food, housing, and other basic needs, have taken a toll on families," Horton told Newsweek.

"During the pandemic, lawmakers made significant investments in anti-hunger and anti-poverty programs to help stave off hunger for millions of families, but many of these interventions have expired, leaving families wondering where their next meal will come from or if they'll be able to pay their household bills," she continued.

"The 'rent eats first' and 'heat or eat' are phrases we hear all too often. The balancing act of meeting both shelter and nutrition needs is nearly impossible when so much of someone's income goes to their bills," Horton said.

"Food insecurity is a symptom of economic policies and practices that keep millions of individuals in the U.S. from accessing the food they need," Emily Engelhard, vice president of Food Security & Wellbeing Research & Insights for Feeding America, told Newsweek.

"The way that food security level changes coincided with a buildup and then dismantling of more robust nutrition and financial support programs suggests such policies and programs are effective in helping people during times of crisis."

Hunger levels would be much worse in the U.S. without federal nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), according to Horton.

"SNAP helps tens of millions of households put food on the table," she said. "The Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children provides more than 6.6 million pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and children up to age five with nutritious foods and nutrition education and improves access to health care."

But as effective as they are, these programs don't impact the root causes of hunger in America. "They alone cannot end hunger when employment and wages fall short, growth is not shared equitably, and people lack access to affordable housing, health care, and sufficient disability benefits," Horton said.

Ending hunger in America is "not a national priority," Horton said. While she said that the Biden administration has done "an excellent job" supporting programs like SNAP, WIC and school meals, "it's going to take a presidential administration, Congress, and a wide array of diverse stakeholders, to catch up with other wealthier countries that have made progress in eradicating hunger and food insecurity," she said.

#Hunger #Food 🥘🍱🍲#Food 🥘🍱🍲 Security #USDA #US 🇺🇸 Economy #G7 #Gallup #Newsweek #News 🗞️

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Monday, November 16, 2020

After thousands of Trump supporters rally in D.C., violence erupts when night falls (AP) Several thousand supporters of President Donald Trump in Washington protested election results and then hailed Trump’s passing motorcade before nighttime clashes with counterdemonstrators sparked fistfights, at least one stabbing and at least 20 arrests. Several other cities on Saturday also saw gatherings of Trump supporters unwilling to accept Democrat Joe Biden’s Electoral College and popular vote victory as legitimate. Cries of “Stop the Steal” and “Count Every Vote” continued in spite of a lack of evidence of voter fraud or other problems that could reverse the result. After night fell, the relatively peaceful demonstrations in Washington turned from tense to violent. Videos posted on social media showed fistfights, projectiles and clubs as Trump supporters clashed with those demanding they take their MAGA hats and banners and leave. The tensions extended to Sunday morning. A variety of charges, including assault and weapons possession, were filed against those arrested, officials said. Two police officers were injured and several firearms were recovered by police.

Coronavirus Deaths Are Climbing Once Again (NYT) For weeks, as coronavirus cases spiked across the United States, deaths rose far more slowly, staying significantly lower than in the early, deadliest weeks of the nation’s outbreak in the spring. New treatments, many hoped, might slow a new wave of funerals. But now, signs are shifting: More than 1,000 Americans are dying of the coronavirus every day on average, a 50 percent increase in the last month. Twice this past week, there have been more than 1,400 deaths reported in a single day. “It’s getting bad and it’s potentially going to get a lot worse,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

US, Israel worked together to track and kill al-Qaida No. 2 (AP) The United States and Israel worked together to track and kill a senior al-Qaida operative in Iran earlier this year, a bold intelligence operation by the two allied nations that came as the Trump administration was ramping up pressure on Tehran. Four current and former U.S. officials said Abu Mohammed al-Masri, al-Qaida’s No. 2, was killed by assassins in the Iranian capital in August. The U.S. provided intelligence to the Israelis on where they could find al-Masri and the alias he was using at the time, while Israeli agents carried out the killing, according to two of the officials. The two other officials confirmed al-Masri’s killing but could not provide specific details. Al-Masri was gunned down in a Tehran alley on Aug. 7, the anniversary of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Al-Masri was widely believed to have participated in the planning of those attacks and was wanted on terrorism charges by the FBI.

Hurricane Iota heads for battered Honduras, Nicaragua (AP) Iota became the thirteenth hurricane of the Atlantic season early Sunday, threatening to bring another dangerous system to Nicaragua and Honduras—countries recently clobbered by a Category 4 Hurricane Eta. Iota was already a record-breaking system, being the 30th named storm of this year’s extraordinarily busy Atlantic hurricane season. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Sunday morning that Iota had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph), making it a Category 1 hurricane. But, forecasters said Iota would rapidly strengthen and was expected to be a major hurricane by the time it reaches Central America. The system was forecast to bring up to 30 inches (750 millimeters) of rain from northeast Nicaragua into northern Honduras. Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador could also experience heavy rain and possible flooding, the hurricane center said.

Peru’s interim president resigns as chaos embroils nation (AP) Peru’s interim president resigned Sunday as the nation plunged into its worst constitutional crisis in two decades following massive protests unleashed when Congress ousted the nation’s popular leader. In a short televised address, Manuel Merino said Congress acted within the law when he was sworn into office as chief of state Tuesday, despite protesters’ allegations that legislators had staged a parliamentary coup. The politician agreed to step down after night of unrest in which two young protesters were killed and half his Cabinet resigned. Peruvians cheered the decision, waving their nation’s red and white flag on the streets of Lima and chanting “We did it!” But there is still no clear playbook for what comes next. Peru has much at stake: The country is in the throes of one of the world’s most lethal coronavirus outbreaks and political analysts say the constitutional crisis has cast the country’s democracy into jeopardy. “I think this is the most serious democratic and human rights crisis we have seen since Fujimori,” said analyst Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg, referring to the turbulent rule of strongman Alberto Fujimori from 1990 to 2000.

Lessons From Europe, Where Cases Are Rising But Schools Are Open (NPR) Mahua Barve lives in Frankfurt, Germany, with her husband, a son in first grade and twin daughters in kindergarten. All three children are currently attending school full time and in person. That’s despite a coronavirus surge that has led Germany to shut down restaurants, bars, theaters, gyms, tattoo parlors and brothels (which are legal in the country) for November. Schools were allowed to remain open. Despite the resurgence of the virus, Barve says, her children’s school’s careful safety strategies give her confidence. “When I see all the parents who are coming to pick up and drop off, they’re wearing masks. The teachers are always wearing masks. They’re doing their best to minimize risk. And as soon as something is detected, they are quarantining.” Across Europe, schools and child care centers are staying open even as much of the continent reports rising coronavirus cases, and even as many businesses and gathering places are shut or restricted. Countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy appear to be following the emerging evidence that schools have not been major centers of transmission of the virus, especially for young children. The U.S. has taken a different approach. As new cases climb above 100,000 per day, there are very few places in the U.S. where classrooms have remained full.

German government ad hails couch potatoes as virus heroes (AP) The German government has released a tongue-in-cheek ad hailing an unlikely hero in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic: the humble couch potato. The 90-second video posted online Saturday begins with an elderly man recalling his ‘service’ to the nation back when he was just a young student “in the winter of 2020, when the whole country’s eyes were on us.” “I had just turned 22 and was studying engineering,” he continues, “when the second wave hit.” With violins stirring at viewers’ heart strings, the setting switches to a scene of the narrator as a young man. “Suddenly the fate of this country lay in our hands,” he says. “So we mustered all our courage and did what was expected of us, the only right thing. We did nothing.” “Days and nights we stayed on our backsides at home and fought against the spread of the coronavirus,” the narrator continues. “Our couch was the front line and our patience was our weapon.” The ad ends with a government message that “you too can become a hero by staying at home.”

Austria orders three-week lockdown to rein in surging coronavirus cases (Reuters) Austria on Saturday ordered a three-week lockdown in a last-ditch effort to bring surging coronavirus cases under control and relieve the stress on the health service in time for retailers to reopen in the run-up to Christmas. The country had so far used a lighter touch in dealing with the second wave of cases than it did with the first outbreak. A nighttime curfew is in place from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. this month but shops are open; cafes, bars and restaurants are limited to take-away service; theatres and museums are closed. The current nighttime curfew will become an all-day requirement to stay at home, with only some exceptions such as for shopping or exercise. Working from home should happen wherever possible. Non-essential shops will close, as will service providers such as hairdressers. Secondary schools have already switched to distance learning; primary schools and kindergartens will now follow suit but still provide childcare for those who need it.

900 reported arrested in Belarus protests (AP) A human rights group in Belarus said more than 900 people were arrested Sunday in protests around the country calling for authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to step down. The demonstrations continued the wave of near-daily protests that have gripped Belarus since early August. In the capital Minsk, police wielded clubs and used tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of demonstrators. The Viasna human rights organization reported detentions at demonstrations in other cities, including Vitebsk and Gomel. It said the nationwide arrest total was at least 928 and that some of those detained were beaten by police.

‘You Cannot Say No’: The Reign of Terror That Sustains Belarus’s Leader (NYT) Appalled by savage police violence at the start of Belarus’s would-be revolution, the host of a popular morning show on state television quit his job in protest and declared that his country’s veteran leader, no matter how brutal, would never “force Belarusians back into the box they existed in for these 26 years.” Arrested soon afterward and held in a grimy prison, the broadcaster, Denis Dudinsky, reappeared a few days later—this time with a video message calling on opponents of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko to stop protesting. Asked what made him change his mind, Mr. Dudinsky declined to go into details, just remarking obliquely that “these people know how to formulate their requests in such a way that you cannot say no.” After nearly three months of protests that began with widespread anger over a rigged election, Mr. Lukashenko seems to be surviving the challenge to his power. He has managed this not just through harsh police tactics, hollow promises of reform or the passage of time. Rather, he has relied on a more insidious and often invisible machinery of persuasion, coercion and repression: a domestic security agency little changed from the Soviet era that, indeed, still uses its old Soviet name, the KGB. It controls a network of spies and monitors—known as “curators”—who oversee every establishment in the country, from schools and businesses to the presidential administration. Its agents collect compromising materials on just about anyone suspected of disloyalty and eavesdrop on the conversations of senior government officials to make sure they toe the party line.

ASEAN, China, other partners set world’s biggest trade pact (AP) China and 14 other countries agreed Sunday to set up the world’s largest trading bloc, encompassing nearly a third of all economic activity, in a deal many in Asia are hoping will help hasten a recovery from the shocks of the pandemic. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, was signed virtually on Sunday on the sidelines of the annual summit of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The accord will take already low tariffs on trade between member countries still lower, over time. Apart from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, it includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, but not the United States. It is not expected to go as far as the European Union in integrating member economies but does build on existing free trade arrangements.

Palestinians torn as Israel seeks Gulf tourists in Jerusalem (AP) When the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize relations with Israel, the Palestinians decried the move as a “betrayal” of both Jerusalem, where they hope to establish the capital of their future state, and the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the city’s holiest Muslim site. But with Israel now courting wealthy Gulf tourists and establishing new air links to the major travel hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Palestinians in east Jerusalem could soon see a tourism boon after months in which the coronavirus transformed the Holy City into a ghost town. “There will be some benefits for the Palestinian sector of tourism, and this is what I’m hoping for,” said Sami Abu-Dayyeh, a Palestinian businessman in east Jerusalem who owns four hotels and a tourism agency. “Forget about politics, we have to survive.” The prospect of expanded religious tourism could end up benefiting Israelis and Palestinians alike, as wealthy Gulf tourists and Muslim pilgrims from further afield take advantage of new air links and improved relations to visit Al-Aqsa and other holy sites.

Ethiopia’s Tigray leader confirms firing missiles at Eritrea (AP) The leader of Ethiopia’s rebellious Tigray region has confirmed firing missiles at neighboring Eritrea’s capital and is threatening more, marking a huge escalation as the deadly fighting in northern Ethiopia between Tigray forces and the federal government spills across an international border. The brewing civil war in Ethiopia between a regional government that once dominated the country’s ruling coalition, and a Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister whose sweeping reforms marginalized the Tigray region’s power, could fracture a key U.S. security ally and destabilize the strategic Horn of Africa, with the potential to send scores of thousands of refugees into Sudan. At least three rockets appeared to be aimed at the airport in Asmara, hours after the Tigray regional government warned it might attack. It accuses Eritrea of attacking at the invitation of Ethiopia’s government after the conflict in the Tigray region erupted on Nov. 4 with an attack by regional forces on a federal military base there.

UN food agency warns 2021 will be worse than 2020 (AP) The head of the World Food Program says the Nobel Peace Prize has given the U.N. agency a spotlight and megaphone to warn world leaders that next year is going to be worse than this year, and without billions of dollars “we are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021.” David Beasley said in an interview with The Associated Press that the Norwegian Nobel Committee was looking at the work the agency does every day in conflicts, disasters and refugee camps, often putting staffers’ lives at risk to feed millions of hungry people—but also to send “a message to the world that it’s getting worse out there ... (and) that our hardest work is yet to come.” Beasley likened the upcoming crisis to the Titanic saying “right now, we really need to focus on icebergs, and icebergs are famine, starvation, destabilization and migration.” Beasley said WFP needs $15 billion next year—$5 billion just to avert famine and $10 billion to carry out the agency’s global programs including for malnourished children and school lunches which are often the only meal youngsters get.

#headlines #news

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pope-francis-quotes · 5 years

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5th April >> (@Vaticannews) #PopeFrancis #Pope Francis entrusts Sister Eugenia Bonetti, President of the Association "Slaves no more", with preparing the reflections for #GoodFriday at the Colosseum.

Pope Francis invites Sr Eugenia Bonetti to prepare texts for Via Crucis

Italian religious, Sr Eugenia Bonetti, President of the Association "Slaves no more", is entrusted with preparing the reflections for Good Friday at the Colosseum.

Meditations for the “Way of the Cross” this year will be dedicated to the suffering of victims of human trafficking. Pope Francis has entrusted the preparation of the texts for the “Via Crucis” on Good Friday, to Sr Eugenia Bonetti, a Consolata missionary and President of the Association "Slaves no more". The announcement was made by the "ad interim" Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Alessandro Gisotti, on Friday.

Slaves no more

The Association “Slaves no more” was founded in December 2012, by a group of religious and lay people involved in the fight against human trafficking and in protecting victims of the same. The Association’s President, Sr Eugenia Bonetti, has been dealing with this phenomenon, that involves thousands of girls, many of them migrants, for over twenty years.

Networking

In a recent interview with Vatican Radio, Sr Bonetti explained the importance of “preventing and combatting violence against women”, along with the phenomenon of trafficking, “by networking with other groups, organizations and associations, both in Italy and abroad”. Trafficking in human beings is a phenomenon that “affects several countries of origin, transit and destination, with which we would like to intensify contacts and collaboration”, she said.

Topics

POPE FRANCIS

SLAVERY

WAY OF THE CROSS

05th April 2019, 17:55

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architectnews · 3 years

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The Senate of Canada Building, Ottawa

The Senate of Canada Building Ottawa Project, Canadian Beaux-Arts Architecture Photos

The Senate of Canada Building

Beaux-Arts Central Train Station Redevelopment in Canada design by Diamond Schmitt Architects

post updated 24 August 2021

Design: Diamond Schmitt Architects with KWC Architects

Location: 2 Rideau Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 8X5, Canada

Diamond Schmitt Wins A 2021 International Architecture Award

photo : doublespace photography, courtesy Diamond Schmitt Architects

The Senate of Canada Building in Ottawa Award News

Diamond Schmitt in joint venture with KWC Architects has won a 2021 International Architecture Award® for its design of the Senate of Canada Building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The award will be presented on Friday, September 10 by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, at an awards ceremony near the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. On the same day, the presenting partners will open a special exhibition, “The City and the World,” at The Contemporary Space Athens. Diamond Schmitt’s winning project will be featured in this exhibition.

The Senate of Canada Building received top honours in the Government Buildings category. It was among 130 projects chosen for the 2021 International Architecture Awards from the final shortlist of 450 projects presented to an international jury composed of distinguished architects, designers, critics and educators. Diamond Schmitt transformed one of Ottawa’s most important cultural and historic landmarks, the former Union train station, into a home for the Senate of Canada.

photo : doublespace photography, courtesy Diamond Schmitt Architects

The project, completed in 2019, presented a challenging set of opportunities: restore the historic Beaux Arts train station; upgrade the facility into a modern, secure 21st-century building and give voice to a narrative of Canadian culture and identity through craft. In realizing these opportunities, the project embraces innovative and inclusive/collaborative approaches to craftsmanship and fabrication, invokes a contemporary approach to new interventions, and both complements and juxtaposes the character-defining elements of the original building.

photo : doublespace photography, courtesy Diamond Schmitt Architects

The architectural precedents included the Gothic language of the existing Parliament Buildings and the Beaux-Arts Classicism of the existing train station. In reconciling all these factors new approaches to techniques, technologies, fabrication, craft, procurement and implementation were employed in realizing the final result. These innovations stretched from the deployment for the first time in North America of new technologies to save and consolidate the extraordinary plaster ceilings of the General Waiting Room and Concourse to the introduction of thin Kevlar bands to provide structural reinforcement to existing steel beams.

“We are thrilled that our design of the Senate of Canada Building has received an International Architecture Award from the European Centre and The Chicago Atheneum. It’s especially wonderful when Canadian excellence is recognized globally by our peers,” says Don Schmitt, Principal at Diamond Schmitt.

photo : Tom Arban Photography, courtesy Diamond Schmitt Architects

International Architecture Awards

The International Architecture Awards are the largest and most extensive global architecture awards program in the world, honouring new skyscrapers, commercial buildings, urban plans, private residences, and real estate projects that achieve a high standard of excellence in design, construction, planning and sustainability. The winning projects promote best practices in all types of real estate development for the private and public sectors, including new skyscrapers, high-rises, corporate and institutional buildings, commercial projects, bridges, airports, city planning, restorations and adaptive reuse, community projects, religious and civic buildings, and interiors.

The annual awards program received hundreds of submissions from architecture firms across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and the Americas—each hoping to pick up a coveted International Architecture Award. Nations recognized by the awards this year include: Algeria, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, Qatar, Portugal, Republic of Singapore, Russia, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Uruguay, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. The full list of winning projects is available on the presenters’ websites: www.chi-athenaeum.org, https://ift.tt/3DdLz31 and www.europeanarch.eu.

The 2021 awards jury included the following architects and architecture journalists and critics: Claudia Donà, Architecture and Design journalist, Milan, Italy; Michael Grove, Chair of Landscape Architecture, Sasaki, Watertown, Massachusetts, USA; Flavio Manzoni, Senior Vice President/Ferrari Design, Ferrari SpA, Maranello, Italy; Dominic Dunn, Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, PC, New York, New York, USA; USA; Micael Calatrava, Executive Chairman, Calatrava International, Dubai, UAE; and Vivian Lee, New York Studio Executive Director, Woods Bagot, New York, New York, USA.

Diamond Schmitt is a global architecture firm delivering design that empowers people, communities and organizations to harness change for the greater public good. The firm employs a collaborative working process to create architecture known for its high performance and careful craftsmanship. The firm’s designs include innovative, highly sustainable public assembly, performing arts and civic buildings, including the new Senate of Canada Building and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa; Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences in Lubbock, Texas; and Mariinsky II in St. Petersburg, Russia. Each has received widespread recognition while advancing community interests within the public realm. With offices in Toronto, New York and Vancouver, Diamond Schmitt is currently leading the net-zero design for the Ottawa Public Library – Library and Archives Canada Joint Facility, and David Geffen Hall in New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, please visit: www.dsai.ca.

photo : Tom Arban Photography

The Chicago Athenaeum (www.chi-athenaeum.org) is a global nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide public education about the significance of architecture and design and how those disciplines can have a positive effect on the human environment.

The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies (www.europeanarch.eu) is dedicated to public education concerning all aspects of the built environment – from entire cities to individual buildings – including the philosophical issues of arts and culture that ultimately give the final shape to design. A high emphasis exists on contemporary values and aesthetics, conservation and sustainability, and the theoretical exploration and advancement of art and design as the highest expression of culture and urbanism.

photo : Tom Arban Photography, courtesy Diamond Schmitt Architects

Recent Awards For The Senate Of Canada Building

2021 International Architecture Award® 2020 Civic Trust Awards – Award of Excellence 2020 AIA Canada Design Excellence Award 2020 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Design Excellence in Architecture 2020 OAA Design Excellence Award 2020 CODA Award of Merit 2020 Ontario Heritage Trust – Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation 2019 The Architect’s Newspaper Awards, Adaptive Reuse, Honorable Mention 2019 Ottawa Urban Design Award – Urban Infill, Low Rise 2019 Canadian Interiors Best of Canada Awards – Institutional 2019 Building Design + Construction Magazine Reconstruction Awards – Silver 2019 Ottawa Heritage Awards: Adaptive re-use (government), Award of Excellence 2019 North American Copper in Architecture Awards – Ornamental Applications

photo : Tom Arban Photography

Previously on e-architect:

Updated 9 Mar 2020 + 28 Feb 2019

The Senate of Canada Building in Ottawa News

Diamond Schmitt/KWC honoured with Civic Trust Award

The award recognizes projects that make an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the built environment. “Award level schemes demonstrate excellence in architecture or design, whilst being sustainable, accessible and provide a positive civic contribution,” the program said in a statement. The Senate is one of only two projects from North America to win the award.

The Senate of Canada Building opened in 2019 as the interim home to the upper house of Parliament while Centre Block is refurbished. Ottawa’s landmark Beaux-Arts central train station (1912) has been restored, renewed and reimagined to accommodate the Senate with a modern architectural language that both complements and contrasts the celebrated features of the original building.

“A bold re-use of an old building which recognises the gravitas of the original can be repurposed for social and environmental benefit, with a strong identity and a real architectural clarity,” remarked the judges in their comments.

photo : Tom Arban Photography

“The historic fabric is refurbished and revealed and stands in comfortable juxtaposition with modern interventions. A breath-taking restoration project with highly refined new build intervention which knits into the existing architecture with serious skill,” they added.

Formerly the Government Conference Centre, the building required a complete overhaul of major building systems as well as compliance with seismic codes, accessibility, and life safety upgrades. Two committee rooms have been inserted into the monumental and finely detailed General Waiting Room while the Concourse now houses the Senate chamber. Offices and public space are added to a building that had largely been off limits to the public for 50 years.

photo : Tom Arban Photography

“This project provided a remarkable opportunity to investigate and engage in a range of design innovations to introduce a new program in a historic building and to and convey Canadian identity through contemporary interpretations of landscape and iconography,” said Martin Davidson, principal, Diamond Schmitt Architects.

Diamond Schmitt Architects (www.dsai.ca) has an extensive portfolio of academic facilities, commercial and residential projects as well as recreation and performing arts centres. Current projects include the re-imagination of David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in New York and Ottawa’s new central library and Library and Archives Canada joint facility.

photo : doublespace photography

The Senate of Canada Building Opens

February 28, 2019, Toronto – A historic landmark in Ottawa has opened in a new role as interim home to Canada’s upper house of Parliament.

The Senate of Canada Building beautifully restores and transforms the Beaux-Arts central train station (1912) with an architecture and craftsmanship that both complements and contrasts the celebrated features of the original building.

photo : doublespace photography

The design by Diamond Schmitt Architects and KWC Architects introduces a contemporary language of interventions and insertions within the monumental and finely detailed General Waiting Room and Concourse. The program also adds committee and meeting rooms, offices and public space to a building that has largely been off limits to the public for 50 years.

“This project provided a remarkable opportunity to investigate and engage in a range of design innovations to introduce a new program in a heritage building, to represent and raise the profile of the Senate’s role in Parliament, and to convey Canadian identity through contemporary interpretations of national symbols and iconography,” said Martin Davidson, principal, Diamond Schmitt Architects.

Working with the Dominion Sculptor of Canada and further employing digital technologies, a dialogue between traditional craft and contemporary fabrication techniques emerges to inform material selection and the design of myriad details.

photograph : Martin Davidson, Diamond Schmitt Architects

The leaf pattern of ten native maple trees are hand-carved, scanned, then CNC-carved and appear in the wooden doors to committee rooms and the Senate Chamber. Perforated bronze panels frame committee rooms with large-scale photographic images of landscapes rendered as half-tone images. The most detailed design elements find expression in the Senate Chamber, the former station Concourse.

The building, which became the Government Conference Centre in 1973, required a complete overhaul of major building systems as well as compliance with seismic codes, accessibility, and life safety upgrades.

On the exterior, the long neglected blank east facade is now reimagined as a modern interpretation of the building’s stone-columned, Beaux-Arts facade.

Ottawa train station concourse 1939: photo : Library and Archives Canada

The Senate will occupy the building for ten years during restoration of Centre Block on Parliament Hill, after which the building is designed to accommodate conference and office use. This transformation secures the future of a legendary building in the heart of the nation’s capital.

Diamond Schmitt Architects (www.dsai.ca) has offices in Toronto, Vancouver and New York City. The firm’s extensive portfolio includes performing arts centres, post-secondary facilities, and residential, institutional and commercial buildings.

Current projects include Ottawa’s new central library and Library and Archives Canada joint facility; Robarts Common at the University of Toronto, and Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts & Sciences in Texas.

photo : doublespace photography

The Senate of Canada Building images / information received 280219

Diamond Schmitt Architects

Previously on e-architect:

The Senate of Canada Renewal, Ottawa Design: Diamond Schmitt Architects with KWC Architects image from architect The Senate of Canada Building Ottawa

Address: 2 Rideau St, Ottawa, ON K1N 8X5, Canada

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The Kipnes Lantern at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada photo by Doublespace Photography The Kipnes Lantern at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa

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orbemnews · 4 years

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Oil Prices Return to Pre-Pandemic Highs: Live Updates Here’s what you need to know: An oil tanker truck in the Permian Basin part of Texas. Futures for West Texas Intermediate crude have recovered from the price collapse last spring.Credit…Angus Mordant/Reuters U.S. markets Global stocks climbed on Monday and futures indicated U.S. markets would extend their record highs when Wall Street opens later. Optimism that the vaccine rollout and fiscal stimulus will pave the way for the economic recovery could also be seen in the commodities market. Oil prices have recovered from their pandemic-related declines. Over the weekend, Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, pushed for the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion spending plan. She said passing the stimulus package could allow the economy to reach full employment by next year, but doing too little could scar workers and the economy for years. Last week, the S&P 500 index gained more than 5 percent, its best week since early November during the presidential election. Traders haven’t been unnerved by news that South Africa has halted use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine. The country found that the vaccine did not protect clinical-trial participants from mild or moderate illness caused by the more contagious virus variant that was first seen in South Africa. Oil West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude benchmark, rose 1.2 percent to $57.54 a barrel on Monday, above the high from early 2020. During the first few months of the pandemic, oil prices collapsed, with some futures briefly dipping into negative prices. Production cuts by OPEC countries and its allies have helped buoy oil prices. The recovery should benefit oil and gas companies, which recently reported steep declines in profit for 2020 because the pandemic sapped demand for oil. GameStop, Dogecoin and ‘meme’ trading GameStop shares rose 16 percent in premarket trading, extending a 19 percent rebound on Friday. In the past two weeks, shares in the video game retailer have been on a wild ride spurred on by retail traders hyping up the stock in a Reddit forum that has made fast winners and losers of amateur investors. The close on Friday was $63.77 a share. Dogecoin, a joke cryptocurrency, is rallying again as celebrities and billionaires including Elon Musk and Snoop Dogg post memes and plug the digital coin. In the past 24 hours, its price has risen 25 percent. Europe and Asia Stock indexes in Europe rose with Italy’s among the best performers as Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank president, works to set up a new government and end the recent political impasse. The Stoxx Europe 600 gained 0.7 percent, led higher by bank stocks. Stocks in Asia ended the day higher. The Nikkei 225 in Japan jumped 2.1 percent, and the index was above 29,000 for the first time since 1990. The biggest contributor was SoftBank, which reported a quarterly profit of $11 billion because of a surge in value of some of its investments, including Uber and DoorDash. A DoorDash delivery person in Los Angeles last week. Softbank’s investments in DoorDash soared after the delivery company held an initial public offering in December.Credit…Mario Anzuoni/Reuters For many technology companies, the past 12 months have been a roller coaster, starting with a pandemic-driven market-wide sell-off in March and ending with one of the largest stock market run-ups in history. But for Japan’s SoftBank, which manages the world’s largest tech investment fund, it has been an especially wild ride. In an earnings report released on Monday, SoftBank notched more than $11 billion in profit for the three months that ended in December, driven by surging values for the company’s portfolio of holdings in companies like Uber and the food delivery app DoorDash, which have experienced whiplash changes in their share prices over the last year. The result was a far cry from SoftBank’s position at the same time last year. Then, the company found itself in the midst of an epic slide that ended with its declaring an annual operating loss of more than $12 billion following investment losses on companies hit hard by the pandemic. But what the market takes away, it can also give back. By the summer, SoftBank had already undergone a seemingly miraculous recovery thanks to the sale of tens of billions of dollars of assets and a hot stock market. Since then, the market has grown hotter still. In December, the value of SoftBank’s investments in DoorDash and the biotech company Seer, among others, skyrocketed as investors piled into the companies’ initial public offerings as part of a broader frenzy for new share sales. A market rally in shares of Uber was also a major profit driver for SoftBank this quarter, it said. In a triumphant earnings conference, SoftBank’s founder, Masayoshi Son, compared his company to the goose that laid the golden egg. In February of last year, the media was saying that the company was laying only “rotten eggs,” Mr. Son said. But this earnings report has proved the skeptics wrong, he argued. “We have a turbocharger strategy to turn white eggs into golden eggs,” he said, adding, “Those golden eggs are laid not by chance but by plan.” Investors so far seemed to agree. After a precipitous drop this summer, SoftBank’s share price has surged. The stock was trading at 9,485 yen, or about $90, per share in Tokyo by market close Monday, almost matching its highs in early 2000, just before the collapse of the first internet stock bubble. A nurse administering a coronavirus vaccine last Wednesday in Newark. States have each developed their own formulas to determine eligibility for the vaccine.Credit…Justin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock Federal, state and local health authorities across the United States are using dozens of algorithms — some automated systems and others simple prioritization lists — to help determine where vaccines are sent and who can get them. The formulas generally follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prioritize frontline health care workers, nursing home residents, senior citizens and those with major health risks — and yet public health agencies and medical centers at every level have developed different allocation formulas, based on a variety of ethical and political considerations. The result: Americans are experiencing wide disparities in vaccine access. Oregon, for instance, has prioritized teachers over the elderly for Covid shots, an approach that could help schools and businesses reopen. New Jersey has put smokers ahead of educators, which could save lives. Some prioritization formulas also conflict with one another or impose such prescriptive rules that they hinder immunizations, public health experts say. Ellen P. Goodman, a professor at Rutgers Law School who studies how governments use automated decision-making systems, said algorithms were needed to efficiently allocate the vaccines. But public agencies and health centers should be transparent about the prioritization formulas, she added. “We want to know who is using them, what they are trying to do, who owns the proprietary algorithms, whether they are audited,” she said. A multiagency federal effort — originally called Operation Warp Speed and created by the Trump administration — has managed nationwide vaccine distribution through Tiberius, an online portal developed by Palantir, the data-mining giant. Now the Biden administration, which has retired the program’s name, has taken over and is continuing the effort. To divvy up doses, federal administrators use a simple algorithm that divides the total amount of vaccine available each week among the 50 states — as well as U.S. territories and a few big cities like New York — based on the number of people over 18 in each place. Even so, states began warning last fall about Tiberius’s potential drawbacks. In interim vaccine plans filed with the C.D.C., some state health administrators complained that the platform seemed overly cumbersome and that the algorithm’s week-by-week allotments would make it difficult to plan monthslong vaccination campaigns. Indeed, some health officials and researchers have described the Tiberius algorithm as a black box. “Why can’t they make public the methods that they use to make these estimations?” said Dr. Rebecca Weintraub, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who was a co-author of a recent study on state vaccination plans. “Why are the states receiving a different number of doses than they expected per week?” Chen Feng built HNA from a small regional airline into a conglomerate.Credit…China Stringer Network/Reuters Pressure is mounting on companies whose behavior could pose a risk to China’s financial system. HNA Group, the vast Chinese conglomerate that threw tens of billions of dollars at trophy businesses around the world, is nearing the biggest corporate collapse in recent Chinese history, offering a glimpse of how Beijing treats its most powerful entrepreneurs. HNA’s insolvency is the largest China has seen since the country first began using its bankruptcy law in 2007, according to Michelle Luo, a bankruptcy lawyer at Hui Ye law firm. It will also test the law’s strength — just 76 companies have gone through bankruptcy proceedings in China, Alexandra Stevenson reports for The New York Times. Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, told a meeting of the country’s senior Communist Party officials late last month that the government must anticipate risks even as it pursues growth. He urged officials to make plans to deal with “gray rhinoceros” events, referring to large and evident problems in the economy that are ignored until they become urgent threats. Chinese media had often referred to HNA as a gray rhino before its decline. The party has strengthened its hand in private business in recent months and urged entrepreneurs to “identify politically, intellectually and emotionally” with its goals. It has also pledged to prevent what it called the “disorderly expansion of capital,” a reference to the type of lavish spending of borrowed money for which HNA had become known. Among the party’s recent prominent targets is the Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba Group. In December, the authorities opened an antitrust investigation into the company, which the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma helped found. One month earlier, days before a planned initial public offering of Mr. Ma’s finance giant, Ant Group, regulators stepped in to stop it. Hilario Saldívar, a cook and dishwasher, had his hours cut and struggles to pay the $2,600 monthly rent on a two-bedroom apartment that he shares with four others.Credit…Sarahbeth Maney for The New York Times Even before last year, one in four U.S. renters — about 11 million households — was living in a household that spent more than half its pretax income on housing, and overcrowding was on the rise. By one estimate, for every 100 very low-income households, only 36 affordable rentals are available. Now the pandemic is adding to the pressure, Conor Dougherty reports for The New York Times. Rents have fallen in many big cities, but vacancy rates for the cheapest buildings are essentially flat from last year, according to CoStar Group, a commercial property group. That is: Nothing about the pandemic has changed the fact that there is a longstanding shortage of affordable housing, so anyone who loses an affordable home will still have a hard time finding a new one. The pain in the U.S. housing market is most severe at the bottom. Surveys of large landlords whose units tend to be higher quality and more expensive have been remarkably resilient through the pandemic. Surveys of small landlords and low-income tenants show that late fees and debt are piling up. And in the same way that subprime mortgages were an early indicator of the mid-2000s housing crisis, today informal renters — roommates and sublessors who don’t have a proper lease — offer a look below the surface. One measure of relief came when President Biden extended by two months a federal eviction moratorium that was scheduled to expire at the end of January, as states and cities also moved to extend their own eviction moratoriums. In addition, $25 billion in federal rental aid approved in December is set to be distributed. But for every million or so households who are evicted in the United States each year, there are many more millions who move out before they miss a payment, who cut back on food and medicine to make rent, who take up informal housing arrangements that exist outside the traditional landlord-tenant relationship. Source link Orbem News #highs #Live #oil #prepandemic #Prices #return #Updates

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expatimes · 4 years

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COVID-19 vaccine is 90-percent effective: Pfizer and BioNTech

Pfizer Inc says its experimental COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90-percent effective, a major victory in the fight against a pandemic that has killed more than a million people, battered the world's economy, and upended daily life.

Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE are the first drugmakers to release successful data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine. The companies said they have so far found no serious safety concerns and expect to seek US authorization this month for emergency use of the vaccine for people aged 16 to 85.

If authorized, the number of doses will initially be limited and many questions remain, including how long the vaccine will provide protection. However, the news provides hope that other COVID-19 vaccines in development may also prove effective.

“Today is a great day for science and humanity,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer's chairman and chief executive, said.

"We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen."

For Pfizer to seek US authorization for emergency use of its vaccine, it will need two months of safety data from about half the study's 44,000 participants, which is expected late this month.

The MSCI index of world stock markets hit a record high following the announcement. Pfizer shares indicated were 6 percent higher in New York, while BioNTech's US stock leapt 18 percent.

“I'm near ecstatic,” Bill Gruber, one of Pfizer's top vaccine scientists, said in an interview. "This is a great day for public health and for the potential to get us all out of the circumstances we're now in."

1.3 billion doses

Gloria Taliani, professor of Infectious Diseases at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, called the result an “incredible breakthrough” as she had been expecting the vaccine to be effective in just 75 of the subjects.

The next steps, Taliani explained to Al Jazeera, will consist in examining “who received the vaccine during the first trial in order to extend it to other populations which are much more in need to be vaccinated,” including older people and those with other coexisting diseases who were "probably not included in the first trial."

“But the unanswered question is, how much will it cost? And how less rich countries will be able to afford it ?, ”she added.

Pfizer and BioNTech have a $ 1.95bn contract with the US government to deliver 100 million vaccine doses beginning this year. They have also reached supply agreements with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan.

To save time, the companies began manufacturing the vaccine before they knew whether it would be effective. They now expect to produce up to 50 million doses, or enough to protect 25 million people this year.

Pfizer said it expects to produce up to 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021.

The US pharmaceutical giant said the interim analysis was conducted after 94 participants in the trial developed COVID-19, examining how many of them had received the vaccine versus a placebo.

The company did not break down exactly how many of those who fell ill received the vaccine. Still, more than 90 percent effectiveness implies that no more than eight of the 94 people who caught COVID-19 had been given the vaccine, which was administered in two shots about three weeks apart.

The efficacy rate is well above the 50-percent effectiveness required by the US Food and Drug Administration for a coronavirus vaccine.

To confirm the efficacy rate, Pfizer said it would continue the trial until there are 164 COVID-19 cases among participants. Given the recent spike in US infection rates, that number could be reached by early December, Gruber said.

The data have yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal. Pfizer said it would do so once it has results from the entire trial.

Global race

The global race for a vaccine has seen wealthier countries forge multibillion-dollar supply deals with drugmakers like Pfizer, AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson, raising questions over when middle income and poorer nations will get access to inoculations.

The US's quest for a vaccine has been the Trump administration's central response to the pandemic. The US has the world's highest known number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, with more than 10 million infections and more than 237,000 fatalities.

President Donald Trump repeatedly assured the public that his administration would likely identify a successful vaccine in time for the presidential election, held last Tuesday. On Saturday, Democratic rival Joe Biden was declared the winner.

Vaccines are seen as essential tools to help end the health crisis that has shuttered businesses and left millions out of work. Millions of children whose schools were closed in March and remain in remote learning programs.

Dozens of drugmakers and research groups around the globe have been racing to develop vaccines against COVID-19, which on Sunday exceeded 50 million infections since the new coronavirus was first recorded late last year in China.

. #world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=13647&feed_id=15505

#Coronaviruspandemic #Economy #News #UnitedStates #USampCanada

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thisdaynews · 4 years

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BREAKING:Biden starts change as Trump refuses to concede defeat.

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/breakingbiden-starts-change-as-trump-refuses-to-concede-defeat/

BREAKING:Biden starts change as Trump refuses to concede defeat.

US President-elect Joe Biden made the primary strides Sunday towards moving into the White House in 73 days, as Donald Trump again wouldn’t concede annihilation and attempted to plant question about the political decision results.