The Helper
Apr
11
Protesters targeted a number of cellular broadcasting towers throughout the Netherlands to oppose the new 5G telecommunications network, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Saturday.
Towers in Rotterdam, Liessel, Beesd and Nuenen were severely damaged by fire, Rob Bongelaar told the newspaper. Bongelaar is director of The Monet Foundation, an association that oversees the placement of cell towers and coordinates with state governments on behalf of network operators including KPN, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
"The operators are doing their utmost to keep the mobile networks up and running in this difficult time," Bongelaar added. He said that the words, "F*** 5G" were written on the transmission box at one of the attack sites.
"The availability of a reliable digital infrastructure is essential. The connections are desperately needed for hospitals and care homes … and then there are those who deliberately set radio masts on fire. Incomprehensible and unacceptable," Bongelaar said.
De Telegraaf also reported a possible arson incident on Friday evening in the northern city of Groningen.
Read more here. (DW, Deutsche Welle)
Towers in Rotterdam, Liessel, Beesd and Nuenen were severely damaged by fire, Rob Bongelaar told the newspaper. Bongelaar is director of The Monet Foundation, an association that oversees the placement of cell towers and coordinates with state governments on behalf of network operators including KPN, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
"The operators are doing their utmost to keep the mobile networks up and running in this difficult time," Bongelaar added. He said that the words, "F*** 5G" were written on the transmission box at one of the attack sites.
"The availability of a reliable digital infrastructure is essential. The connections are desperately needed for hospitals and care homes … and then there are those who deliberately set radio masts on fire. Incomprehensible and unacceptable," Bongelaar said.
De Telegraaf also reported a possible arson incident on Friday evening in the northern city of Groningen.
Read more here. (DW, Deutsche Welle)
Apr
11
A hunger crisis is rapidly developing among British people in lockdown, as millions report having to go without meals, food charities and local government have warned.
Just three weeks into the lockdown, the Food Foundation said that 1.5 million Britons reported not eating for a whole day because they had no money or access to food. Some 3 million people in total were in households where someone had been forced to skip some meals. More than 1 million people reported losing all their income because of the pandemic, with over a third of them believing they would not be entitled to any government help.
The foundation’s findings are based on a YouGov poll carried out across England, Scotland and Wales this week. Its director, Anna Taylor, said the crisis was too big to be left to food banks and local authorities without funding. “This needs urgent and substantial investment from central government which needs to put money directly into the pockets of families who can’t afford food.”
Charities running food banks are also struggling to cope with a huge rise in people coming to them for emergency parcels. Sabine Goodwin, coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network, said she feared the government was being too slow to respond and the situation was “spiralling out of control”. She said: “Food banks in our network are seeing as much as a 300% increase in footfall compared to this time last year but are still...
Just three weeks into the lockdown, the Food Foundation said that 1.5 million Britons reported not eating for a whole day because they had no money or access to food. Some 3 million people in total were in households where someone had been forced to skip some meals. More than 1 million people reported losing all their income because of the pandemic, with over a third of them believing they would not be entitled to any government help.
The foundation’s findings are based on a YouGov poll carried out across England, Scotland and Wales this week. Its director, Anna Taylor, said the crisis was too big to be left to food banks and local authorities without funding. “This needs urgent and substantial investment from central government which needs to put money directly into the pockets of families who can’t afford food.”
Charities running food banks are also struggling to cope with a huge rise in people coming to them for emergency parcels. Sabine Goodwin, coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network, said she feared the government was being too slow to respond and the situation was “spiralling out of control”. She said: “Food banks in our network are seeing as much as a 300% increase in footfall compared to this time last year but are still...
Apr
11
(CNN) - Rain or snow, the mail must go through, but will the U.S. Postal Service survive the coronavirus pandemic?
The postal service says it will run out of money by September if Congress doesn't step in to help.
Postmaster General Megan Brennan spoke with lawmakers Thursday, asking for $75 billion to keep the service afloat.
She says the service will likely see a $13 billion revenue hit this year.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are relaying Brennan's call for help.
The postal service isn't getting money from Congress' $2.2 trillion relief package and Republicans, including President Trump, have signaled a reluctance to bail it out.
Congress’s oversight of the U.S. Postal Service is founded in the Constitution.
Source (KLTV, East Texas)
The postal service says it will run out of money by September if Congress doesn't step in to help.
Postmaster General Megan Brennan spoke with lawmakers Thursday, asking for $75 billion to keep the service afloat.
She says the service will likely see a $13 billion revenue hit this year.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are relaying Brennan's call for help.
The postal service isn't getting money from Congress' $2.2 trillion relief package and Republicans, including President Trump, have signaled a reluctance to bail it out.
Congress’s oversight of the U.S. Postal Service is founded in the Constitution.
Source (KLTV, East Texas)
Apr
10
Nintendo’s popular Animal Crossing: New Horizons game has disappeared from China’s biggest e-commerce site—and many on Chinese social media are blaming players in Hong Kong, who used the game to spread pro-democracy messages.
Sellers on Taobao, China’s equivalent of eBay, found that Animal Crossing had disappeared from their online stores Friday morning, according to independent Chinese media outlet Caijing.
Searches for Animal Crossing on Taobao did not return results for the game on Friday, only Animal Crossing-themed merchandise.
The New Horizons installment was released on March 20 and has found an avid audience among protestors in Hong Kong who have taken advantage of the game’s customization features to create anti-government messages. On their virtual islands, characters chant protest slogans and hang up posters criticizing their city’s leaders. In one video shared widely on Twitter, players use bug-catching nets to smack pictures of the city’s unpopular leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam....
Sellers on Taobao, China’s equivalent of eBay, found that Animal Crossing had disappeared from their online stores Friday morning, according to independent Chinese media outlet Caijing.
Searches for Animal Crossing on Taobao did not return results for the game on Friday, only Animal Crossing-themed merchandise.
The New Horizons installment was released on March 20 and has found an avid audience among protestors in Hong Kong who have taken advantage of the game’s customization features to create anti-government messages. On their virtual islands, characters chant protest slogans and hang up posters criticizing their city’s leaders. In one video shared widely on Twitter, players use bug-catching nets to smack pictures of the city’s unpopular leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam....
Apr
10
A conspiracy theory linking 5G technology to the outbreak of the coronavirus is quickly gaining momentum, with celebrities including actor Woody Harrelson promoting the idea. But the theory is also getting a boost from what some researchers say is a coordinated disinformation campaign.
Marc Owen Jones, a researcher at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, who specialises in online disinformation networks, analysed 22,000 recent interactions on Twitter mentioning “5G” and “corona,” and said he found a large number of accounts displaying what he termed “inauthentic activity.” He said the effort bears some hallmarks of a state-backed campaign.
“There are very strong indications that some of these accounts are a disinformation operation,” Jones said.
Jones said the campaign uses a strategy similar to Russia’s internet Research Agency, which was behind a disinformation campaign during the 2016 US presidential campaign. But he said he has not yet concluded that Russia, or any other government or organisation, is behind the effort.
Read more here. (South China Morning Post)
Marc Owen Jones, a researcher at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, who specialises in online disinformation networks, analysed 22,000 recent interactions on Twitter mentioning “5G” and “corona,” and said he found a large number of accounts displaying what he termed “inauthentic activity.” He said the effort bears some hallmarks of a state-backed campaign.
“There are very strong indications that some of these accounts are a disinformation operation,” Jones said.
Jones said the campaign uses a strategy similar to Russia’s internet Research Agency, which was behind a disinformation campaign during the 2016 US presidential campaign. But he said he has not yet concluded that Russia, or any other government or organisation, is behind the effort.
Read more here. (South China Morning Post)
Apr
10
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Weeks before the coronavirus spread through much of the world, parts of Africa were already threatened by another kind of plague, the biggest locust outbreak some countries had seen in 70 years.
Now the second wave of the voracious insects, some 20 times the size of the first, is arriving. Billions of the young desert locusts are winging in from breeding grounds in Somalia in search of fresh vegetation springing up with seasonal rains.
Millions of already vulnerable people are at risk. And as they gather to try to combat the locusts, often in vain, they risk spreading the virus — a topic that comes a distant second for many in rural areas.
It is the locusts that “everyone is talking about,” said Yoweri Aboket, a farmer in Uganda. “Once they land in your garden they do total destruction. Some people will even tell you that the locusts are more destructive than the coronavirus. There are even some who don’t believe that the virus will reach here.”
Some farmers in Abokat’s village near the Kenyan border bang metal pans, whistle or throw stones to try to drive the locusts away. But mostly they watch in frustration, largely barred by a coronavirus lockdown from gathering outside their homes.
A failed garden of cassava, a local staple, means hunger. Such worries in the village of some 600 people are reflected across a...
Now the second wave of the voracious insects, some 20 times the size of the first, is arriving. Billions of the young desert locusts are winging in from breeding grounds in Somalia in search of fresh vegetation springing up with seasonal rains.
Millions of already vulnerable people are at risk. And as they gather to try to combat the locusts, often in vain, they risk spreading the virus — a topic that comes a distant second for many in rural areas.
It is the locusts that “everyone is talking about,” said Yoweri Aboket, a farmer in Uganda. “Once they land in your garden they do total destruction. Some people will even tell you that the locusts are more destructive than the coronavirus. There are even some who don’t believe that the virus will reach here.”
Some farmers in Abokat’s village near the Kenyan border bang metal pans, whistle or throw stones to try to drive the locusts away. But mostly they watch in frustration, largely barred by a coronavirus lockdown from gathering outside their homes.
A failed garden of cassava, a local staple, means hunger. Such worries in the village of some 600 people are reflected across a...
Apr
08
[UPDATE 4/7/2020: Kristin Uscinski, a medieval historian at the State University of New York, Purchase, wrote in to inform us of an even earlier appearance of the F-word in the English language, "Roger F$#%-by-the-Navel who appears in some court records from 1310-11. I always make sure my students are aware of good ole Roger."]
Scotland has much to recommend it: impressive architecture, gorgeous Highlands, and a long, distinguished intellectual tradition that has spawned some of the Western world's greatest thinkers over several centuries. It's also, apparently, home to a medieval manuscript that contains the earliest known usage of the swearword "F#$%."
The profanity appears in a poem recorded by a bored student in Edinburgh while under lockdown as the plague ravaged Europe—something we can all relate to these days. The poem is getting renewed attention thanks to its inclusion in a forthcoming BBC Scotland documentary exploring the country's long, proud tradition of swearing, Scotland—Contains Strong Language.
The Bannatyne Manuscript gets its name from a young 16th-century Edinburgh merchant named George Bannatyne, who compiled the roughly 400...
Scotland has much to recommend it: impressive architecture, gorgeous Highlands, and a long, distinguished intellectual tradition that has spawned some of the Western world's greatest thinkers over several centuries. It's also, apparently, home to a medieval manuscript that contains the earliest known usage of the swearword "F#$%."
The profanity appears in a poem recorded by a bored student in Edinburgh while under lockdown as the plague ravaged Europe—something we can all relate to these days. The poem is getting renewed attention thanks to its inclusion in a forthcoming BBC Scotland documentary exploring the country's long, proud tradition of swearing, Scotland—Contains Strong Language.
The Bannatyne Manuscript gets its name from a young 16th-century Edinburgh merchant named George Bannatyne, who compiled the roughly 400...
Apr
06
(CNN)A fire that spread through a grassy area of Southwest Florida International Airport has destroyed thousands of rental cars, fire department officials said.
The blaze began Friday, spanned 15 acres and originally involved only 20 cars in the grassy rental car overflow area at the airport in Fort Myers, fire department officials said.
But by the time it was extinguished, the flames had destroyed more than 3,500 rental cars, a Lee County Port Authority spokesperson told CNN affiliate WINK.
Melinda Avni, Mitigation Specialist for Florida Forestry Service of Caloosahatchee, said authorities were called to put out the fire around 5 p.m. Friday, when there were about 20 vehicles involved.
"By the time we had units on the scene, we had 100 cars (on fire). We lost count after the hundreds," she said.
Read more here. (CNN)
The blaze began Friday, spanned 15 acres and originally involved only 20 cars in the grassy rental car overflow area at the airport in Fort Myers, fire department officials said.
But by the time it was extinguished, the flames had destroyed more than 3,500 rental cars, a Lee County Port Authority spokesperson told CNN affiliate WINK.
Melinda Avni, Mitigation Specialist for Florida Forestry Service of Caloosahatchee, said authorities were called to put out the fire around 5 p.m. Friday, when there were about 20 vehicles involved.
"By the time we had units on the scene, we had 100 cars (on fire). We lost count after the hundreds," she said.
Read more here. (CNN)
Apr
04
Mobile phone mast fires are being investigated amid conspiracy theories claiming a link between 5G and coronavirus.
There have been fires at masts in Birmingham, Liverpool and Melling in Merseyside.
A video, allegedly of the blaze in Aigburth, was shared on YouTube and Facebook, claiming a link between the mobile technology and Covid-19.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said it was "dangerous nonsense".
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said on Twitter "there is absolutely no credible evidence" of a link, while trade body Mobile UK said such rumours and conspiracy theories were "concerning".
Read more here. (BBC)
There have been fires at masts in Birmingham, Liverpool and Melling in Merseyside.
A video, allegedly of the blaze in Aigburth, was shared on YouTube and Facebook, claiming a link between the mobile technology and Covid-19.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said it was "dangerous nonsense".
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said on Twitter "there is absolutely no credible evidence" of a link, while trade body Mobile UK said such rumours and conspiracy theories were "concerning".
Read more here. (BBC)
Apr
04
An online petition calling for the head of the World Health Organization to resign over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic has received over 560,000 signatures worldwide.
The petition on the US-based Change.org platform says that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is unfit for his role as WHO Director-General. It says the spread of the coronavirus is partly due to his underestimation of the situation.
It says, "A lot of us are really disappointed, we believe WHO is supposed to be politically neutral." It adds that the WHO head had believed death and infection numbers given by China "without any investigation."
Japan's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Thursday that the petition came as many people worry the World Health Organization may have to change its name to the "Chinese Health Organization."
The WHO chief has made no mention of the petition so far.
[URL='http://An online petition calling for the head of the World Health Organization to resign over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic has received over 560,000 signatures worldwide. The petition on the US-based Change.org platform says that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is unfit for his role as WHO Director-General. It says the spread of the coronavirus is partly due to his underestimation of the situation. It says, "A lot of us are really disappointed, we believe WHO is supposed to be politically neutral." It adds that the WHO head had believed death and infection numbers given by...
The petition on the US-based Change.org platform says that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is unfit for his role as WHO Director-General. It says the spread of the coronavirus is partly due to his underestimation of the situation.
It says, "A lot of us are really disappointed, we believe WHO is supposed to be politically neutral." It adds that the WHO head had believed death and infection numbers given by China "without any investigation."
Japan's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Thursday that the petition came as many people worry the World Health Organization may have to change its name to the "Chinese Health Organization."
The WHO chief has made no mention of the petition so far.
[URL='http://An online petition calling for the head of the World Health Organization to resign over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic has received over 560,000 signatures worldwide. The petition on the US-based Change.org platform says that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is unfit for his role as WHO Director-General. It says the spread of the coronavirus is partly due to his underestimation of the situation. It says, "A lot of us are really disappointed, we believe WHO is supposed to be politically neutral." It adds that the WHO head had believed death and infection numbers given by...
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