World
In China’s Covid Fog, Deaths of Scholars Offer a Clue
Wang Linfang,92,
molecular biologist
4 members of China’s two
most prestigious educational
establishments died in October –
consistent with the common in
current years.
These are among the
nation’s most adorned
scientists. The academies publish
obituaries to memorialize
their contributions.
Xie Sishen, 80,
physicist specializing
in nanotechnologies
Wang Wencai, 96, world-renowned plant taxonomist
In November,
Covid instances surged
throughout the nation.
Then, on Dec. 8,
China deserted its
tight Covid restrictions.
Zhao Zisen, 90,
developed China’s first
sensible optical fiber
The obituaries started
accumulating.
Because the weeks went on,
they shot up.
Ma Jianzhang, 85,
one in all China’s prime
wildlife scientists
Zhang Jinlin, 86,
nuclear submarine
professional
Fang Zhiyuan, 83,
cultivated greater than 30 new forms of cabbages
A complete of 40 students died
up to now two months.
Wang Linfang,92,
molecular biologist
4 members of China’s two most
prestigious educational establishments
died in October – consistent with the
common in recent times.
These are among the nation’s most
adorned scientists. The academies
publish obituaries to memorialize
their contributions.
Xie Sishen, 80,
physicist specializing
in nanotechnologies
Wang Wencai, 96, world-renowned plant taxonomist
In November, Covid instances surged
throughout the nation.
Then, on Dec. 8, China deserted
its tight Covid restrictions.
Zhao Zisen, 90,
developed China’s first
sensible optical fiber
The obituaries started
accumulating.
Because the weeks went on,
they shot up.
Ma Jianzhang, 85,
one in all China’s prime
wildlife scientists
Zhang Jinlin, 86,
nuclear submarine professional
Fang Zhiyuan, 83,
cultivated greater than 30 new forms of cabbages
A complete of 40 students died
up to now two months.
Wang Linfang,92,
molecular biologist
4 members of China’s two most
prestigious educational establishments
died in October – consistent with the
common in recent times.
These are among the nation’s most
adorned scientists. The academies
publish obituaries to memorialize
their contributions.
Xie Sishen, 80,
physicist specializing
in nanotechnologies
Wang Wencai, 96, world-renowned plant taxonomist
In November, Covid instances surged
throughout the nation.
Then, on Dec. 8, China deserted
its tight Covid restrictions.
Zhao Zisen, 90,
developed China’s first
sensible optical fiber
The obituaries started
accumulating.
Because the weeks went on,
they shot up.
Ma Jianzhang, 85,
one in all China’s prime
wildlife scientists
Zhang Jinlin, 86,
nuclear submarine professional
Fang Zhiyuan, 83,
cultivated greater than 30 new forms of cabbages
A complete of 40 students died
up to now two months.
Wang Linfang,92,
molecular biologist
4 members of China’s two most prestigious educational establishments died in October – consistent with the common in recent times.
These are among the nation’s most adorned scientists. The academies publish obituaries to memorialize their contributions.
Xie Sishen, 80,
physicist specializing
in nanotechnologies
Wang Wencai, 96, world-renowned plant taxonomist
In November, Covid instances surged
throughout the nation.
Then, on Dec. 8, China deserted
its tight Covid restrictions.
Zhao Zisen, 90,
developed China’s first
sensible optical fiber
The obituaries started accumulating.
Ma Jianzhang, 85,
one in all China’s prime
wildlife scientists
Because the weeks went on,
they shot up.
Zhang Jinlin, 86,
nuclear submarine professional
Fang Zhiyuan, 83,
cultivated greater than 30 new forms of cabbages
A complete of 40 students died
up to now two months.
Wang Linfang,92,
molecular biologist
4 members of China’s two most
prestigious educational establishments
died in October – consistent with the
common in recent times.
These are among the nation’s most
adorned scientists. The academies
publish obituaries to memorialize
their contributions.
Xie Sishen, 80,
physicist specializing
in nanotechnologies
Wang Wencai, 96, world-renowned plant taxonomist
In November, Covid instances surged
throughout the nation.
Then, on Dec. 8, China deserted
its tight Covid restrictions.
Zhao Zisen, 90,
developed China’s first
sensible optical fiber
The obituaries started
accumulating.
Because the weeks went on,
they shot up.
Ma Jianzhang, 85,
one in all China’s prime
wildlife scientists
Zhang Jinlin, 86,
nuclear submarine
professional
Fang Zhiyuan, 83,
cultivated greater than 30 new forms of cabbages
A complete of 40 students died
up to now two months.
We examined the obituaries printed over the previous 4 years by the state-backed Chinese language Academy of Engineering and the Chinese language Academy of Sciences.
The academies’ members, who’re drawn from analysis establishments throughout the nation, assist form nationwide coverage and steer analysis priorities. The engineering academy presently has about 900 members, and the science academy about 800, in accordance with their web sites.
Obituaries printed by the 2 state-backed establishments
Dec. 2022
23 members of the
two establishments died
Dec. 2022
23 members of the
two establishments died
Dec. 2022
23 members of the
two establishments died
The obituaries didn’t specify the students’ causes of dying past “sickness,” and the academies didn’t reply requests for extra specifics. However the spike late final 12 months coincided with the coronavirus’s fast unfold throughout the nation.
Infections had already begun rising within the fall, regardless of China’s strict “zero Covid” coverage of lockdowns and mass testing. Then, after the federal government immediately deserted the coverage in early December, amid a flailing financial system and protests in a number of cities, instances soared.
Throughout that chaotic interval, hospitals turned away sufferers and funeral properties staggered underneath the variety of our bodies. The federal government’s accounting, nevertheless, didn’t mirror these tragic scenes — for weeks it reported simply three dozen deaths — and it drew widespread criticism for a scarcity of transparency.
The federal government has launched extra information in current weeks, saying it recorded about 80,000 deaths because it lifted Covid restrictions. Nonetheless, many consultants say that determine is probably going an undercount, because it consists of solely individuals who died in hospitals; some have estimated that the dying toll in China may exceed 1 million folks within the coming months.
On Chinese language social media, customers have pointed to the skyrocketing variety of obituaries printed by locations like the 2 academies, to recommend that the true variety of deaths is far greater than the official determine.
Any rely is prone to be incomplete as a result of the federal government has largely deserted Covid testing, together with in hospitals, stated Jin Dongyan, a virologist on the College of Hong Kong. “The truth is that even the federal government may not know all the pieces,” he stated.
“It’s the federal government’s job” to collect and share correct data, Dr. Jin continued. “However they’re not doing their job.”
The deceased included molecular biologists, nuclear physicists and consultants in agricultural chemistry. One academy member, Ma Jianzhang, 86, was a wildlife scientist who specialised in Siberian tigers. He helped set up the nation’s solely school for wildlife and nature reserves, and led teams together with the China Zoological Society and the China Wildlife Conservation Affiliation.
Reached by telephone, a relative of Professor Ma stated that she didn’t know whether or not he had contracted Covid, as a result of he had not been examined. He had different underlying ailments, she added.
“To the surface world, he could also be somebody with nice achievements or affect,” the relative, Fu Qun, stated. “To our household, he was extra essential as a form of non secular chief. All of us revered him very a lot.”
The information drawn from the obituaries are removed from conclusive. The establishments additionally didn’t reply questions on whether or not the obituaries — each through the outbreak and earlier than — have been exhaustive of all students who had died.
Nonetheless, obituaries printed by different establishments confirmed comparable spikes in late December and early January.
From 2019 to 2021, the Harbin Institute of Expertise, one of many prime engineering colleges on this planet, had printed between one and three obituaries for professors and workers members in these months. Between December and final month, it introduced 29 deaths.
Obituaries printed by the Harbin Institute of Expertise
Jan. 2023
19 professors and
workers members died
Jan. 2023
19 professors and
workers members died
Jan. 2023
19 professors and
workers members died
College-wide obituaries weren’t publicly obtainable for Peking College, one in all China’s most prestigious. However some particular person departments printed obituaries for their very own professors and workers.
Those that died included Luo Xiaochun, 68, a former director of the library for the Overseas Languages division; Zhao Binghua, 91, a founding father of Peking College’s nursing college, who had recalled juggling house responsibilities and look after her two youngsters along with her duties as a pediatrician within the Nineteen Sixties; and Guo Xiliang, 93, a linguist who had continued publishing books on historic Chinese language phonetics into his 90s.
Professor Guo had been contaminated with the coronavirus when he died, in accordance with Zhang Meng, a former pupil and colleague of the professor at Peking College.
In December, each Peking College and Tsinghua College, one other top-ranked college in Beijing, issued notices urging better safety for retired college and workers.
Obituaries printed by Peking College Well being Science Middle
Dec. 2022
20 professors and
workers members died
Dec. 2022
20 professors and
workers members died
Dec. 2022
20 professors and
workers members died
Chinese language well being officers have stated that the outbreak peaked in late December and that instances are steadily declining. However the nation has nonetheless not addressed most of the underlying points in its well being system, equivalent to much less efficient vaccines and inadequate hospital beds, stated Professor Jin, in Hong Kong.
“Which means, even you probably have very small spikes sooner or later, extra folks will nonetheless die,” he stated. “In the event that they don’t study their lesson, that may be the brand new scenario.”
World
London court to decide whether WikiLeaks founder Assange is extradited to the US
LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces a hearing Monday in the High Court in London that could end with him being sent to the U.S. to face espionage charges, or provide him another chance to appeal his extradition.
The outcome will depend on how much weight judges give to assurances U.S. officials have provided that Assange’s rights won’t be trampled if he goes on trial.
In March, two judges rejected the bulk of Assange’s arguments but said he could take his case to the Court of Appeal unless the U.S. guaranteed he would not face the death penalty if extradited and would have the same free speech protections as a U.S. citizen.
The court said that if Assange, who is an Australian citizen, couldn’t rely on the First Amendment then it was arguable his extradition would be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, which also provides free speech and press protections.
The U.S. has provided those reassurances, though Assange’s legal team and supporters argue they are not good enough to rely on to send him to the U.S. federal court system.
The U.S., for example, said Assange could seek to rely on the rights and protections of the First Amendment but that a decision on that would ultimately be up to a judge. In the past, the U.S. said it would argue at trial that he was not entitled to the constitutional protection because he’s not a U.S. citizen.
“The U.S. has limited itself to blatant weasel words claiming that Julian can ‘seek to raise’ the First Amendment if extradited,” his wife, Stella Assange, said. “The diplomatic note does nothing to relieve our family’s extreme distress about his future — his grim expectation of spending the rest of his life in isolation in U.S. prison for publishing award-winning journalism.”
Assange, 52, has been indicted on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over his website’s publication of a trove of classified U.S. documents almost 15 years ago. American prosecutors allege that Assange encouraged and helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published.
His lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in prison if convicted, though American authorities have said any sentence would likely be much shorter.
Assange’s family and supporters say his physical and mental health have suffered during more than a decade of legal battles, including taking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London from 2012 until 2019. He has spent the last five years in a British high-security prison.
Assange’s lawyers argued in February that he was a journalist who exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sending him to the U.S., they said, would expose him to a politically motivated prosecution and risk a “flagrant denial of justice.”
The U.S. government said his actions went way beyond those of a journalist gathering information and put lives at risk in his bid to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified government documents.
If Assange prevails Monday, it would set the stage for an appeal process likely to extend what has already been a long legal saga.
If the court accepts the word of the U.S., it would mark the end of Assange’s legal challenges in the U.K., though it’s unclear what would immediately follow.
His legal team is prepared to ask the European Court of Human Rights to intervene. But his supporters fear Assange could possibly be transferred before the court in Strasbourg, France, could halt his removal.
The court could also postpone issuing a decision.
If he loses in court, he still may have another shot at freedom.
President Joe Biden said last month that he was considering a request from Australia to drop the case and let Assange return to his home country.
Officials provided no other details but Stella Assange said it was “a good sign” and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the comment was encouraging.
World
Iran's president, foreign minister, other officials confirmed dead in helicopter crash
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials were confirmed dead on Monday after their helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of the country’s northwest, Iranian state media reported.
State TV said earlier on Monday that there was “no sign of life” at the crash site of the helicopter that was carrying 63-year-old Raisi, 60-year-old Abdollahian and other officials after it made a “hard landing” on Sunday.
The crash site was across a steep valley, according to state media, which gave no immediate cause for the crash.
As the sun rose on Monday, rescuers saw the helicopter from a distance of roughly 1.25 miles, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society Pir Hossein Kolivand told state media. The officials had been missing for more than 12 hours when the helicopter was observed.
IRANIAN PRESIDENT EXPERIENCES ‘HARD LANDING’ IN HELICOPTER: IRANIAN MEDIA
Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian were traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province when the helicopter made what state TV described as a “hard landing” near Jolfa, a city on the border with the nation of Azerbaijan, roughly 375 miles northwest of Tehran. State TV later said it crashed further east near the village of Uzi, although details remained contradictory.
The governor of the East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards were also aboard, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. One local government official described what happened as a “crash,” while others referred to it as a “hard landing” or an “incident.”
“The esteemed president and company were on their way back aboard some helicopters and one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to the bad weather and fog,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in comments aired on state TV.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE EVENT OF RAISI’S DEATH? AN IRAN EXPERT WEIGHS IN
The incident comes as Iran, under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack against Israel last month.
Iran has also faced years of mass protests against its Shiite theocracy in response to a struggling economy and attacks on women’s rights.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
Fake news on the rise as the European elections draw near
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the shooting of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico and new EU anti-money laundering rules have all been the target of misinformation recently.
Ahead of the European elections between 6 and 9 June, EU leaders and the European Union itself are increasingly finding themselves as the targets of misinformation campaigns.
Whether it’s an attempt to discredit political rivals or claims about EU regulations, social media is rife with false narratives.
One such example stems from the dramatic shooting of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, which has prompted swathes of politically-motivated misinformation online.
Social media users are claiming that this picture shows Fico’s alleged attacker alongside Martin Šimečka, the father of the leader of the opposition party Progressive Slovakia.
Slovakian media has identified the alleged shooter as self-described writer Juraj Cintula.
However, the picture in the post doesn’t show Cintula and Šimečka together. In fact, the second man in the picture isn’t Šimečka at all, and the photo itself comes from one of Cintula’s book launches in 2019.
Facebook itself has now labelled the post as false information.
The attempted false association of the attack on Fico with his political rivals remains particularly dangerous ahead of the European elections.
Is Donald Tusk ashamed of his Polish identity?
Across the border in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been accused of attacking the notion of Polishness as an identity.
A picture posted on TikTok claims that Tusk called Polishness ‘an abnormality’ that comes to him ‘with painful persistence’. However, this is misleading.
The prime minister did state those words, but they come from an article he wrote over 40 years ago.
According to Polish fact-checkers, Tusk’s article critically discusses Poles’ attitudes to reality before confirming that he identifies with his own Polishness, at a time when Poland was a communist satellite of the Soviet Union.
“Despite its oppressive heritage it remains our common conscious choice,” he said.
As a strongly pro-EU prime minister who previously served as president of the European Council, Tusk is a crucial target for misinformation mere weeks before the elections.
Is the EU banning cash payments of over €100,000?
Often, it’s the EU itself that’s under attack from those spreading false narratives.
Some social media users say the bloc has prohibited all cash payments over €100,000.
This is partly true: the EU has approved rules limiting cash transactions to €100,000 as part of a raft of new anti-money laundering measures, but these restrictions don’t apply to all transactions.
Specifically, there’s a limit on professional traders barring them from accepting or paying cash over €100,000.
Transfers between private individuals in a non-professional context are excluded.
Ahead of the European elections, it’s critical that news is shared accurately and fairly, so that the electorate can vote with the proper information at hand.
-
News1 week ago
Skeletal remains found almost 40 years ago identified as woman who disappeared in 1968
-
World1 week ago
India Lok Sabha election 2024 Phase 4: Who votes and what’s at stake?
-
Politics1 week ago
Tales from the trail: The blue states Trump eyes to turn red in November
-
World1 week ago
Borrell: Spain, Ireland and others could recognise Palestine on 21 May
-
World1 week ago
Catalans vote in crucial regional election for the separatist movement
-
Politics1 week ago
North Dakota gov, former presidential candidate Doug Burgum front and center at Trump New Jersey rally
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”: Disney's New Kingdom is Far From Magical (Movie Review)
-
World1 week ago
Ukraine’s military chief admits ‘difficult situation’ in Kharkiv region