Twitter has long banned users from sharing misinformation about the coronavirus that could lead to harm. In March, the company introduced a policy that explained the penalties for sharing lies about the virus and vaccines.
“We’ve observed the emergence of persistent conspiracy theories, alarmist rhetoric unfounded in research or credible reporting, and a wide range of unsubstantiated rumors, which left uncontextualized can prevent the public from making informed decisions regarding their health, and puts individuals, families and communities at risk,” the company said in its policy against sharing Covid misinformation.
People who violate that policy are subject to escalating punishments known as strikes and could face a permanent ban if they repeatedly share misinformation about the virus. A 12-hour ban, like the one Ms. Greene is experiencing, is Twitter’s response to users who have either two or three strikes. After four strikes, Twitter suspends users for seven days, and after five strikes, Twitter bars the user altogether.
Other Republicans who have been suspended from Twitter have complained that the social media company is censoring them.
In January, Twitter barred President Donald J. Trump after the company determined that his social media posts played a role in inciting violence during the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Trump has argued that Twitter and Facebook, which also suspended his account, were censoring him and said the companies required government oversight.
Ms. Greene was previously suspended from Twitter in April, but the company said it was a mistake caused by one of its automated systems for detecting spam and abuse.
“Everyone knows that’s a LIE, and it was no mistake,” Ms. Greene tweeted after her suspension was lifted.
Sin piedad, con un palo y armas blancas, cuatro personas –incluida una mujer- atacaron al joven de 17 años en el sur de Bogotá.
El crimen de Frank Sebastián Vera ocurrió el pasado 22 de julio en el barrio Bochica, pero hasta ahora las autoridades no han dado con los responsables.
Briyid Serrano, madre de la víctima, con el corazón roto pero decidida a que se haga justicia, se dio a la tarea de buscar pruebas y las encontró: halló un video que muestra cómo mataron a su hijo.
En las imágenes se ve a varias personas que, con armas blancas e incluso un palo, agreden a Sebastián y lo hieren mortalmente.
“Se encontraba allí con unos amigos, cuando tuvieron un problema. Él salió corriendo, salieron todos de una casa y todos atacaron a mi hijo”, relata Briyid y agrega: “se (ve) a los hermanos atacando con un palo a mi hijo. Él se para, sale un amigo, lo alcanza a recoger del piso, y lo cogen y me lo apuñalean”.
El menor, que cursaba grado once en un colegio del sector, alcanzó a ser llevado a la sala de urgencias de un hospital. Pese al esfuerzo de los médicos, falleció.
La familia de Sebastián espera que la Policía y la Fiscalía actúen, pues dos semanas después no hay detenidos. “Nosotros mismos somos los que hemos estado en la búsqueda de ellos”, dice la mamá.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman have called on Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley to lose his job over alleged secret calls to China amid concerns about former President Donald Trump.
Peril, an upcoming book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, alleges that Milley made two calls to his Chinese counterpart Gen. Li Zuocheng—one days before the 2020 election and the other days after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol—over fears that Trump’s actions could start a war, according to The Washington Post.
Rubio sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday demanding that he fire Milley “immediately” for working to “actively undermine” Trump.
“[Milley] worked to actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces and contemplated a treasonous leak of classified information to the Chinese Communist Party in advance of a potential armed conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” wrote Rubio. “These actions by General Milley demonstrate a clear lack of sound judgement, and I urge you to dismiss him immediately.”
“General Milley has attempted to rationalize his reckless behavior by arguing that what he perceived as the military’s judgement was more stable than its civilian commander,” he continued. “You must immediately dismiss General Milley. America’s national security and ability to lead in the world are at stake.”
Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have called on Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley to resign or be fired over phone calls he reportedly made to his Chinese counterpart. Milley is pictured during a press conference at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on September 1, 2021. SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty
Vindman, a key witness in Trump’s first impeachment who the former president later called “very insubordinate,” said in a tweet that Milley should resign if the alleged phone calls took place. Vindman argued that the alleged phone calls “set an extremely dangerous precedent” that “you can’t simply walk away from.”
“If this is true GEN Milley must resign,” tweeted Vindman. “He usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military.”
Peril reportedly alleges that on October 30, 2020, Milley called Li after becoming concerned by intelligence reports the indicated China believed that the U.S. was preparing a military strike. The general reportedly assured his Chinese counterpart that no such attack was planned and that if one were on the way it was “not going to be a surprise” because he would call “ahead of time.”
The second alleged call reportedly took place on January 8, 2021, shortly after Milley had received a call Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who argued that the Capitol insurrection was evidence that Trump was “crazy.” Milley reportedly feared that the former president would launch a nuclear strike and told Pelosi that he agreed with her before calling Li to say that the U.S. was “100 percent steady” and that the situation was “fine.”
Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday that Milley’s reported promise to warn of an impending attack was “treasonous,” while insisting that he “did not ever think of attacking China.” Milley, who previously served as chief of staff for the Army, became the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman in 2019, having been nominated to the position by Trump during the previous year.
Newsweek reached out to the White House and the office of the Chairman of Joints Chiefs of Staff for comment.
Immigrants from Eastern Europe have flocked to Manville, and its Polish population is one of the state’s largest: One downtown church, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, holds two Polish Masses on Sunday, and there are two delis that sell Eastern European food like pierogies and stuffed cabbage. Immigrants from Central and South America have made Manville more diverse.
Mauro Rojas and Karla Licano, who are from Costa Rica, moved to Manville two years ago. They looked at 30 houses but bought the one on Boesel Avenue, in the Lost Valley. The house was near a vast park and close to a river, and had a backyard with a big porch and an aboveground pool. It was perfect for a family with a young daughter and dog.
The couple had heard that the house had a 1 percent chance of flooding, and even knew that several surrounding lots were empty because the government had bought and demolished flood-prone homes. They took a chance. But the night the floodwaters rose, they saw their dream house — and all of the items in it — disappear.
When water began to leak into their first floor from the basement and front door, Mr. Rojas, who runs a painting business, grabbed a ladder and led his family, including their Beagle mix, to the roof.
Their daughter, Elena, snuggled into her blanket. The dog shook. In tears and with disbelief, the family watched their 1,200-gallon pool rise from the ground, lifted by the water below it.
In the morning, after climbing into a rescuer’s boat, Elena began to weep when she saw the 27 rainbow-colored bags she and her mother had filled with lighted eyeglasses, hair bows, chocolates and other treats the night before. They were floating down the street. It was her sixth birthday.
“She said, ‘Mom, my birthday bags! No!’ and my heart broke,” Ms. Licano, a secretary, said on Tuesday as she stood crying on a muddied floor.
Al menos 14 viviendas de Colombia, en Huila, resultaron afectadas por los seísmos de la noche del domingo.
El segundo movimiento, que ocurrió a las 21H05 locales (02H05 GMT del lunes), tuvo como epicentro una zona rural a 21 kilómetros del municipio de Colombia, con una profundidad inferior a 30 kilómetros.
El epicentro de ese nuevo sismo fue en la misma zona de la localidad de Colombia, donde a las 19H20 locales (00H20 GMT), había ocurrido otro movimiento telúrico de magnitud 5,4 y de profundidad superficial.
Los dos movimientos provocaron angustia en diversas regiones de Bogotá, el centro y el sur del país.
Irresponsables empezaron a enviar mensajes informando de un supuesto nuevo temblor hacia la medianoche, por lo que algunos ingenuos decidieron pasar la noche fuera.
La Red Sismológica Nacional de Colombia, sin embargo, reiteró a los ciudadanos que los movimientos telúricos no se pueden predecir:
Just as millions of families around the United States navigate sending their children back to school at an uncertain moment in the pandemic, the number of children admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 has risen to the highest levels reported to date. Nearly 30,000 of them entered hospitals in August.
Pediatric hospitalizations, driven by a record rise in coronavirus infections among children, have swelled across the country, overwhelming children’s hospitals and intensive care units in states like Louisiana and Texas.
Children remain markedly less likely than adults, especially older adults, to be hospitalized or die from Covid-19. But the growing number of children entering the hospital, however small compared with adults, should not be an afterthought, experts say, and should instead encourage communities to take on more efforts to protect their youngest residents.
“It should concern us all that hospitalizations — indicators of severe illness — are rising in the pediatric population, when there are a lot of steps we could take to prevent many of these hospitalizations,” said Jason L. Salemi, an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida, who tracks Covid-19 hospitalization data.
Public health officials and experts also caution that even small increases in the number of pediatric Covid-19 patients can put a major strain on pediatric hospitals and I.C.U.s, many of which are already overstretched with nursing shortages and an unusual summer surge of respiratory syncytial virus or R.S.V.
“The average pediatric I.C.U. in the U.S. has 12 beds,” said Dr. Christopher Carroll, a pediatric intensivist at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. “In a system that small, even a few patients can quickly overrun the capacity. And there are fewer specialty trained pediatric clinicians to pick up the slack.”
The strain on hospital resources for children has prompted doctors and hospital executives to plead with adults to get vaccinated and return to mask wearing and social distancing to protect children, especially those under 12, who cannot yet be vaccinated.
“What really protects children are the interventions directed at the rest of society,” said Dr. Thomas Tsai, an assistant professor in the health policy department at Harvard University.
State-level vaccination coverage appears to be making a difference. States with the highest vaccination rates in the country have seen relatively flat pediatric hospital admissions for Covid-19 so far, while states with the lowest vaccine coverage have child hospital admissions that are around four times as high.
During the summer surge, the hospitalization rate was about 10 times as high in unvaccinated adolescents as in those who were vaccinated, according to a recent federal study. But data on hospitalizations among children of different ages is limited. A federal survey offers a breakdown for infants, children and adolescents, but it is based on 14 states, many of which have not experienced the worst of the Delta-led wave.
Scientists have said that there is not yet enough evidence to determine whether the Delta variant causes more severe disease in children than other variants.
There is no doubt, on the other hand, that pediatric hospitalizations have been pushed to new highs because Delta’s greater transmissibility has led to record levels of adult and pediatric cases of coronavirus across the country.
More child coronavirus cases — greater than 250,000 — were recorded in the past week than at any previous point in the pandemic, according to the most recent American Academy of Pediatrics survey of state data. More than five million children have tested positive for coronavirus since the pandemic’s start.
New cases in children are higher than ever
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Public health experts caution that the magnitude of childhood infections matters even if most cases are mild, because scientists are still working to understand the long-term impacts of the disease, including “long Covid,” the presence of lingering neurological, physical or psychiatric symptoms after Covid infection.
“These are children whose development and futures may be compromised,” said Dr. James Versalovic, the interim pediatrician in chief at Texas Children’s Hospital. “The collective impact when we look ahead is significant.”
A boat thought to be illegally smuggling humans into the United States capsized Sunday morning off the coast of San Diego, leaving three people dead and 27 others injured. Though smuggling humans by sea isn’t a new trend, Sunday’s tragedy shines a new light on the border crisis, and it will likely put more pressure on the White House with recent record numbers of illegal crossings.
Local and federal authorities feel certain this was another mission to illegally bring migrants into the U.S. by way of sea.
The United States Customs and Border Patrol said it has every reason to believe this was a human smuggling operation, and that they have begun questioning the boat operator they believe is the chief smuggler
“The man who we believe was the operator, agents are with him, and is the suspected smuggler, but the investigation is still unfolding,” Border Patrol agent Jeff Stephenson said.
This operation comes just a few days after USBP Chief Agent Aaron Heitke said his agency would increase its patrols this weekend to help curb smuggling by sea.
“We were putting more resources out in the water to interdict vessels like this and we announced it in advance to try to deter as much as we could to try and send a message to smugglers,” Stephenson said Sunday at a press conference.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks as U.S. President Joe Biden listens during an event on the American Rescue Plan in the Rose Garden of the White House on March 12, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act into law that will send aid to millions of Americans struggling from the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
The 40-foot cabin cruiser carrying 30 people overturned Sunday morning off Point Loma Coast, according to KTLA. Rescue crews arrived at the scene and found that the boat had “basically broken apart,” according to San Diego Lifeguard Lt. Rick Romero.
Lifeguards, fire and rescue crews began arriving at the scene in boats and jet skis around 10 a.m. local time on Sunday, only to find the boat in tatters and that it was going to be a more arduous rescue task on the rugged and rough peninsula.
“There are people in the water, drowning, getting sucked out the rip current there,” Romero said.
The area where the boat was maneuvering is diced with splintered wood and other debris in choppy waters.
“In that area of Point Loma it’s very rocky. It’s likely the waves just kept pounding the boat, breaking it apart,” San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Jose Ysea said.
Debris is littered along the shoreline off Cabrillo Monument on May 2, 2021 in San Diego, California. Two people died and Twenty were rescued after a vessel overturned on Sunday afternoon off Point Loma area of San Diego Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump used the migrant crisis on the southern border as his rallying cry to help him get elected in 2016. As illegal border crossings plummeted toward the end of his administration, the new administration under Joe Biden relaxed some stringent border tactics. Since then, illegal border crossings have hit new highs.
There were 172, 331 border encounters in March this year, which dwarfs any month during the Trump administration. And it was only Biden’s second full month as president.
Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to be in charge of the new migrant crisis. Since her appointment, Harris has not been to the southern U.S. border, which has drawn expected heavy criticism from Republicans, but also from the left already.
Hawai’i Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono said the border and migrant scenarios are a “crisis,” and that the vice president should see it with her own eyes.
“I think the president calls it a crisis,” Hirono said. “I would call it a crisis. We can call it a challenge. But we know what the factors are. We know what is happening. So whatever you call it, we’re going to need to deal with it. We’re going to need to address it in a humane way.”
Yuvi Pallares, una de las conductoras del noticiero latinoamericano Desnudando la Noticia (DLN), cumplió su promesa de dar el resumen de los más recientes duelos de la Copa América de Chile, despojándose completamente de su ropa, luego de la victoria de Venezuela 1-0 ante Colombia.
Este sexy acto continuará según la conductora, siempre y cuando, la selección “Vinotinto” gane en sus respectivos juegos dentro del certamen sudamericano.
El video de Pallares, ha causado revuelo en las redes sociales, y le está dando la vuelta al mundo. Anteriormente, una de las conductoras que conforman este característico equipo de televisión, había realizado algo similar, esto cuando la dedicatoria fue para el delantero del Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Por si fuera poco, DNL, ha creado una nueva tendencia con cierta similitud a lo que presentó en su momento, el tan afamado “Pulpo Paul”, quien pronosticaba los partidos de la Copa del Mundo de Sudáfrica 2010, con un acto muy particular.
Se trata de la conductora conocida como “Teresa la teta”, quien ha provocado euforia por pronosticar los resultados de los duelos de Copa América, utilizando sus senos al descubierto, realizando una serie de movimientos provocadores, y con las dos banderas de las Selecciones que previamente disputarán un partido.
En el siguiente video, se muestra la forma en que la conductora realiza su sensual pronóstico, en este caso, pronosticó el empate entre México y Bolivia, primer duelo del “Tricolor” en la justa:
Las sensuales mujeres que conforman este noticiero, dan un toque sexy e inusual a la información deportiva, despojándose de su ropa mientras dan las noticias, con lo que buscan romper el tabú que existe sobre la desnudez femenina, demostrando que pueden hacer su trabajo sin prejuicio alguno.
Hoy, 14 de marzo cumple seis años la guerra de Siria, uno de los conflictos más grandes y preocupantes del mundo que alteran la paz, principalmente en medio oriente y sus alrededores. También, sabrás de las próximas elecciones en Francia y Holanda, incluso te enterarás del descubrimiento de una fosa clandestina, considerada la más grande de México hasta entonces.
Los fotógrafos captan instantes informativos para que tengas mayor cercanía con lo que pasa en el orbe.
Bienvenido a tu guía de The New York Times. Te presentamos la información más relevante y destacada de hoy, con enlaces en español e inglés. El resumen se actualiza durante el día, así que sigue revisando para más información.
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El gobierno estadounidense incrementa la presión sobre Nicolás Maduro con nuevas sanciones económicas que afectan el desempeño de PDVSA. Credit
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
Donald Trump firmó este viernes una orden ejecutiva que le impone sanciones financieras a Venezuela al prohibir las transacciones con el gobierno de Nicolás Maduro y la petrolera estatal PDVSA. Mediante un comunicado, la Casa Blanca dijo “no nos haremos a un lado mientras Venezuela se desmorona”. La medida prohíbe los trámites de nueva deuda y patrimonio emitidos por el gobierno de Venezuela y PDVSA, así como las transacciones en ciertos bonos existentes propiedad del sector público venezolano y los pagos de dividendos al gobierno sudamericano.
“La dictadura de Maduro sigue privando al pueblo venezolano de alimentos y medicinas, encarcelando a la oposición democráticamente elegida y suprimiendo violentamente la libertad de expresión”, afirma el comunicado del gobierno estadounidense. “Estas medidas se han estudiado cuidadosamente con el fin de negarle a la dictadura de Maduro una importante fuente de financiamiento para mantener su régimen ilegítimo, proteger al sistema financiero de Estados Unidos de la complicidad con la corrupción de Venezuela y el empobrecimiento del pueblo venezolano y permitir la asistencia humanitaria”.
Precisamente, Francisco Monaldi analiza el impacto que estas sanciones podrían tener para Venezuela, y especialmente, para los venezolanos. Lee más aquí.
El general retirado John Kelly, actual jefe de gabinete del gobierno de Donald Trump Credit
Tom Brenner/The New York Times
John Kelly, el nuevo jefe de gabinete de Donald Trump, pasó tres semanas estudiando el caos informativo que rodea a su jefe y diseñó un sistema que busca controlar la información que el presidente maneja, ofrecerle herramientas para la toma de decisiones, programar sus reuniones, regular la redacción de sus discursos y prever las posibles respuestas del mandatario.
“El general Kelly está implementando procesos para asegurar que el presidente tenga la información y el análisis necesario que le permitan tomar decisiones”, dijo Sarah Huckabee Sanders, la secretaria de Prensa de la Casa Blanca.
Pese a la habilidad y dedicación del funcionario, Trump ya ha mostrado algunos signos de rebelión como cuando culpó a “ambos bandos” por la violencia racial en Charlottesville y su reciente discurso en Arizona donde acusó a los medios de comunicación de tergiversar sus declaraciones.
Lee el artículo que Maggie Haberman escribió sobre la misión que tiene John Kelly.
Lee Jae-yong, el heredero del imperio tecnológico de Samsung, fue acusado de sobornar a funcionarios del gobierno surcoreano para obtener la aprobación de un acuerdo de fusión empresarial. Credit
Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Un tribunal surcoreano condenó a cinco años de prisión a Lee Jae-yong, heredero del imperio empresarial de Samsung, por soborno y malversación de fondos, sentenciando así a uno de los magnates más importantes del país.
La decisión podría respaldar a los líderes de Corea del Sur para que presionen más a los grandes emporios financieros controlados por un grupo de poderosas familias que, luego de la Guerra de Corea, contribuyeron a que ese país se convirtiera en una potencia económica. Ahora muchas de esas empresas son consideradas como fuentes de corrupción que impiden el progreso de la nación asiática.
Manifestantes muestran afiches con la foto de Santiago Maldonado, el activista desaparecido desde el 1 de agosto, en una protesta en la Plaza de Mayo, el 11 de agosto. Credit
Victor R. Caivano/Associated Press
Un grupo de manifestantes se congregó anoche en Buenos Aires para reclamar por el caso de Santiago Maldonado, el joven activista desaparecido el 1 de agosto durante un operativo de la Gendarmeria Nacional Argentina en tierras de la comunidad mapuche. La marcha partió de la Plaza San Martín y finalizó cuando un hombre arrojó una bomba molotov al edificio del Anexo del Senado de Buenos Aires.
Fuentes policiales aseguraron a los medios locales que el incidente no provocó grandes daños materiales gracias a la actuación de los bomberos que sofocaron un principio de incendio. Las instalaciones solo sufrieron la rotura de algunos vidrios y las paredes quedaron pintadas con grafitis que rezaban: “Anarquía, anarquía” y “Muerte al Estado”.
El vicegobernador de la provincia de Buenos Aires, Daniel Salvador condenó los hechos en su cuenta de Twitter: “Todos queremos la aparición con vida de Santiago Maldonado, pero nada justifica la violencia contra el @Senado_BA. Mi repudio absoluto”.
Ayer en la noche también explotaron dos bidones de gasolina frente al Ministerio de Seguridad bonaerense. Los guardias de seguridad encontraron dos bidones con combustible y un sistema pirotécnico compuesto de un recipiente con pólvora y mecha. Las autoridades se encuentran investigando todas las acciones sucedidas anoche y esta mañana ofrecerán una conferencia de prensa.
La marea se agita en el muelle Bob Hall de Corpus Christi, Texas mientras se acerca el huracán Harvey, el 25 de agosto de 2017. Credit
Courtney Sacco/Corpus Christi Caller-Times, vía Associated Press
Si estás en Tamaulipas, sigue las instrucciones de Protección Civil, que reportó que el huracán Harvey pasó a 180 kilómetros al noreste de Matamoros. Los vientos sostenidos que presentaba eran de de 175 kilómetros por hora con rachas que alcanzaban los 215 kilómetros por hora.
El Centro Nacional de Huracanes de Estados Unidos registró que a las 14:00 horas del viernes, Harvey entró en la categoría tres con vientos sostenidos de más de 190 kilómetros por hora. Puedes seguir la trayectoria de Harvey en este especial meteorológico que reporta en vivo las incidencias del fenómeno.
Las autoridades estadounidenses esperan que el meteoro se detenga en Texas y produzca más de 89 centímetros de lluvia en algunas zonas, con lo que colapsarían algunas vías de comunicación y podrían presentarse inundaciones.
El presidente colombiano Juan Manuel Santos durante un evento, el 17 de agosto de 2017 Credit
Reuters
• Los expresidentes colombianos Álvaro Uribe y Andrés Pastrana solicitaron a la Fiscalía General de la Nación, a la Procuraduría, a la Corte Suprema de Justicia y a la Comisión de Acusación investigar y “verificar alcances y veracidad” de la entrega de varios miles de millones de pesos procedentes de Odebrecht a la campaña electoral de 2014 del actual presidente Juan Manuel Santos.
Esta es la primera denuncia que Pastrana y Uribe realizan de manera conjunta contra Santos, en el marco del escándalo protagonizado por los sobornos de la multinacional Odebrecht. Ambos líderes políticos acordaron aliarse para armar una coalición amplia que les permita competir por el poder durante el próximo proceso electoral de Colombia previsto para 2018. Tanto la fiscalía como el Consejo Electoral de Colombia también investigan la presunta entrega de recursos de Odebrecht a la campaña uribista en 2014.
El presidente ecuatoriano Lenín Moreno Credit
Rodrigo Buendia/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• El presidente ecuatoriano Lenín Moreno presentó en la Asamblea Nacional el proyecto de Ley Orgánica Integral contra la Violencia de Género. “No podemos seguir impávidos ante los asesinatos de mujeres”, expresó el mandatario. “Este proyecto es un paso importante para garantizar el derecho de las mujeres a una vida libre de violencia, a una vida de alegría y dignidad”. Moreno también dijo que es inaceptable que, en promedio, cada tres días muera una mujer en su país por hechos de violencia.
Agentes del Instituto Brasileño de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales Renovables comprueban un área quemada durante la operación “Ola Verde” en el estado de Amazonas, el 31 de julio de 2017. Credit
Bruno Kelly/Reuters
• Los ambientalistas criticaron un decreto del presidente brasileño Michel Temer que permite la minería en el corazón de la Amazonia. La medida elimina las protecciones a la reserva nacional entre los estados de Pará y Amapá, al norte del país, y allana el camino para que el sector privado minero realice exploraciones en la selva. La zona es rica en oro y tiene una extensión de 47.000 kilómetros cuadrados. El gobierno dijo que los indígenas de la zona serán protegidos y que la minería atraerá a inversionistas extranjeros y creará trabajos.
República Dominicana busca impulsar el merengue por todos los países con los que tiene relaciones diplomáticas. Credit
Orlando Barria/European Pressphoto Agency
• República Dominicana emprende una campaña internacional para convertir el merengue, su ritmo más tradicional, en una marca país, después de que el género fue calificado como Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la Humanidad por la Unesco. La cancillería dominicana anunció que colaborará con los principales exponentes del género, como Johnny Ventura, para fomentar actividades culturales en otras naciones con el fin de promocionar el merengue e impulsar nuevos talentos.
Rechazan demanda contra la ONU por el cólera en Haití
Víctimas del cólera protestaron afuera de la sede de Naciones Unidas durante una visita de la delegación del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, en Puerto Príncipe, Haití, el 22 de junio de 2017. Credit
Dieu Nalio Chery/Associated Press
Un tribunal de Brooklyn rechazó la última demanda en la que se acusaba a las Naciones Unidas de ser responsables por la introducción del cólera en Haití, hace siete años, por tropas de ese organismo internacional provenientes de Nepal. La jueza Sandra L. Townes confirmó la inmunidad diplomática de la organización y no procesó la demanda.
Hace poco más de un año, un tribunal federal de apelaciones de Nueva York rechazó la única demanda colectiva que buscaba la reparación de los haitianos, por parte de las Naciones Unidas, por la epidemia de cólera. Esa sentencia también sostuvo que esa organización no podía ser demandada en los tribunales de Estados Unidos.
El rechazo del caso en Brooklyn parece acabar con las esperanzas de los ciudadanos haitianos que fueron víctimas de la epidemia y buscaban una compensación financiera de las Naciones Unidas. Desde 2010, casi un millón de haitianos se han enfermado y aproximadamente 10.000 han muerto por el cólera. Una indemnización por daños y perjuicios contra las Naciones Unidas podría haber alcanzado una cifra de miles de millones de dólares. Averigua más aquí.
Mayra González, directora general de Nissan México: “La gente no descubre su potencial hasta que los llevas al límite y cuando haces eso pasan dos cosas: o se caen o vuelan”. Credit
Rodrigo Cruz para The New York Times
A sus 40 años, Mayra González se enorgullece de haberse convertido en la primera mujer en ocupar la dirección general de Nissan México, así como en ser la primera directiva de la marca japonesa a nivel global y la mujer más joven en estar al frente de esa empresa en un país. “Una persona me dijo que yo tenía los tres pecados: ser mujer, joven y mexicana, pero hoy puedo decir que esas han sido mis tres grandes ventajas”, comenta la directora general en esta entrevista exclusiva en la que habla de su experiencia como gerente en una industria dominada por los hombres.
• El final de la séptima temporada de Game of Thrones se acerca y para llegar actualizado a la transmisión de este domingo, te recomendamos la reseña que hicimos del que muchos califican como el episodio más triste de la saga. También hablamos con el director de este episodio, Alan Taylor, quien reveló los secretos que George R. R. Martin le contó durante las primeras grabaciones del programa. También Richard Dormer, quien interpreta a Beric Dondarrion, nos habló de que se siente blandir una espada de fuego y haber sido revivido en seis ocasiones.
Floyd Mayweather Jr., a la izquierda, enfrentará a Conor McGregor el sábado 26 de agosto. Credit
A la izquierda, John Locher/Associated Press; a la derecha, Julio Cortez, vía Associated Press
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• Para muchos es más una cuestión de negocios que de deportes, pero este sábado el boxeador Floyd Mayweather se enfrentará al campeón actual de la UFC, Conor McGregor, y hay un claro favorito: lee más para saber quién es.
One year ago, we were looking forward to a safer and sounder 2021.
The Food and Drug Administration had granted emergency authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines against COVID-19.
A new presidential administration was poised to take office in the next month, armed with a commitment to bring together a nation cleaved by four years of divisive policymaking.
It was not to be.
For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain
Instead of unity and immunity, this year has brought us stupidity and insanity on an unimaginable scale. In the categories of public health, education policy, fiscal policy and investment options, we appear to have taken leave of our collective senses.
Certainly there are other years or periods in which stupidity or heedlessness brought civilization in general close to eradication.
Consider 1914, when most of Europe dived hellbent to war for no discernible reason. (Read Barbara Tuchman’s book “The Guns of August” for the full horrific picture.) The Dark Ages were a period benighted by scientific ignorance.
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Some individual countries and national leaders stand out for tempting fate, to their and their citizens’ misfortune. Britain in 1938 under Neville Chamberlain. Russia’s warmongering with Japan in 1904-1905. Louis Napoleon poking a stick into the Prussian bear’s cage in 1870-1871. Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait in 1990.
The perpetrators of some of these errors might assert in their defense that they were brought low by circumstances they didn’t know at the time.
But America in 2021 can’t plead that it didn’t know. Didn’t know that vaccines representing stupendous scientific achievements were the solution to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Didn’t know that Donald Trump wasn’t joking when he demanded that government officials overturn a fair presidential election? Didn’t know that bitcoin, NFTs, SPACs and meme stocks were destined, even designed, to take unwary investors to the cleaners?
Of course we knew, and know. We don’t seem to care.
In reviewing the most intellectually demoralizing events of 2021, I’ll leave aside a few discrete outbursts of asininity.
The job-gain narrative is competing with the inflation narrative in assessments of the economy, and the inflation narrative is winning.
Or the shameful behavior of congressional Republicans, who cowered in safety during the Jan. 6 insurrection, pleading with Trump to help quell the riot, only to claim ever since that the violence of the crowd was no big deal.
Or the posting of Christmas cards by politicians showing their families hoisting assault weapons, as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) did just four days after a gunman killed four students at a Michigan high school. He was followed by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
The pandemic is surely the focus of the most obtuse and ignorant public reactions and state and local policy responses to any crisis in American history. It’s as if the grown-ups have all been beamed up, and we are left in the hands of people like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (I am paraphrasing a line from the great pandemic movie “Together.”)
In any rational world, the refusal or failure by some 50 million adult Americans to take a vaccine of known efficacy against a deadly disease would be inexplicable. But this is not a rational world, and the situation is even worse.
Vaccine refusal is seen in many benighted corners of the United States not merely as the exercise of personal choice for personal reasons but as a means of showing moral superiority over the vaccinated.
A conservative critic of anti-pandemic measures writing from rural southwest Michigan for the Atlantic bragged absurdly and selfishly, “I am now closer to most of my fellow Americans than the people, almost absurdly overrepresented in media and elite institutions, who are still genuinely concerned about this virus.”
Are inflation fears unreasonable? It depends on how you’re spending your money.
The author may think he’s remote from virus concerns, but that’s not the case at a hospital visited by CNN in Lansing, Mich., which can’t be much more than 100 miles from his location and where “the latest COVID-19 surge is as bad as healthcare workers there have seen.”
How did it come to pass that Americans, who almost uniformly are inoculated against at least a half-dozen serious diseases in childhood, chose this moment to refuse a spectacularly effective shot against one of the most dangerous diseases to arise in their lifetimes, out of pure ignorance?
Its effectiveness is scarcely disputable: The Commonwealth Fund estimates that the vaccine averted about 1.1 million American deaths from COVID-19 and more than 10.3 million hospitalizations this year.
The answer lies in politics.
Trump drew the line first, dismissing social distancing steps and refusing to speak up for vaccination. He established these steps as partisan choices, and his political acolytes followed him over the cliff.
DeSantis has been a leader in this descent into the Inferno. He’s chosen to make Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and America’s most respected authority on the pandemic, a target of partisan calumny. He’s appointed a vaccine doubter as his state’s top public health official.
What is the outcome? Florida currently ranks eighth-worst among states in its COVID-19 death rate, with more than 62,000 Floridians having perished from the virus. Of the seven states with worse records, six are red states like Florida.
Corporate America has not showered itself in glory. On Dec. 18, Boeing announced that it was dropping its requirement that all U.S. employees be vaccinated. Its explanation was that a federal judge had blocked the enforcement of a federal executive order that employees of government contractors be vaccinated.
This is absurd. Nothing in the ruling required Boeing to drop its requirement. The company announced its step back just as the Omicron variant was about to produce a surge in infections. The pusillanimity of American corporations on this subject continues to astound. (The Times, which is owned by a physician and biomedical entrepreneur, is requiring all employees to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 31.)
Banks and the right wing know Saule Omarova may be an effective regulator, so they’re absurdly attacking her as a communist.
To its credit, on Dec. 17 the Biden White House issued an uncompromising warning about the dangers of remaining unvaccinated.
“For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said. “So, our message to every American is clear…. Wear a mask in public indoor settings. Get vaccinated, get your kids vaccinated, and get a booster shot when you’re eligible.”
Investment follies
In May, I asked whether we were experiencing a peak in investment absurdity. The examples then were bitcoin, dogecoin and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), as well as meme stocks, the prices of which were not tied to sober reflections about their issuers’ business prospects but to internet-fueled speculation.
Assets like these, which are priced in accordance with the “greater fool” theory (they have no intrinsic value beyond what you can cadge from a bigger fool than yourself), have only proliferated since then. Or perhaps it’s only the absurdity that has ballooned.
NFTs, for instance, are tradable digital files that confer no ownership to anything but the digital file, which may be an image of an object that is actually owned by someone else. Someone has parodied the NFT market by purporting to sell NFTs of images of individual Olive Garden restaurants, but it’s the kind of parody that gets at the essential truth of the target.
You don’t get to own the restaurant or the photo. You don’t get a discount on menu items or a guarantee that the photo is even accurate. You supposedly get to own something on the Non-fungible Olive Garden Metaverse, whatever that is, and you can try to find a greater fool to sell it to.
NFTs generally don’t confer ownership of the underlying asset or even the digital representation of the asset. The market doesn’t exist for any reason except to produce activity to suck in greater fools.
The best clue that there’s something hinky about these markets is that the Trump family is going all in. A purported media company started by Donald Trump, for instance, is merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
Wall Street is enticing investors with SPACs — funds that won’t say what they’re buying.
As I reported, the deal promptly came under the scrutiny of financial regulators. In any case, no discernible business plan of any substance has emerged for the Trump company. People appear to have invested because of his name.
Now Melania Trump has gotten into the act, hawking NFTs of paintings of her eyes—”an amulet to inspire,” the pitch says, though obviously you don’t get to own the eyes or even the original watercolor.
Software developer Stephen Diehl, an established skeptic of these things, writes that we are entering upon “a hustler’s paradise … where the market now provides a financial token game for every meme, every celebrity, every political movement, and every bit of art and culture.” The old saw applies about how if you’re looking around the poker table and can’t identify the mark, it’s you.
Inflation and Build Back Better
Republicans and conservatives have never cottoned to spending on programs that assist the middle and working class. President Biden’s Build Back Better program was destined to get their backs up.
How could they attack a program that provides for universal prekindergarten education, assistance with child care, caps on the price of drugs such as insulin and better access to healthcare? Simple: Raise the old bugaboo of inflation.
That’s been the approach of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who recently announced — via Fox News, of course — that he couldn’t support the plan in any way. He’s since backed off a bit from his adamantine opposition, but the core of his position was concern that the measure would add to inflation.
As we’ve reported, that’s just wrong. Not even former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who sounded an inflation alarm about the pandemic relief package enacted this year, thinks it applies to this measure. The provisions of Build Back Better are paid for and represent investments in the economy, so they’re anything but inflationary.
The SPAC craze may have peaked with Trump’s bizarre pitch for a right-wing media company.
Indeed, Wall Street views Manchin’s resistance as an economic negative. According to MarketWatch, Goldman Sachs cut its growth forecast for the first quarter of next year to 2% from 3%, for the second quarter to 3% from 3.5% and for the third quarter to 2.75% from 3%.
That’s not counting the direct impact of Build Back Better on Manchin’s own state, which is among the poorest in the nation and one in which government programs are crucial. That’s well understood on the ground: The United Mine Workers union publicly urged Manchin to reconsider his opposition to a program that would have “a meaningful impact on our members, their families, and their communities.”
Much more happened in 2021 that prompts one to hold head in hands. To be fair, however, there were also glimmers of hope.
Biden on Dec. 21 announced steps to strengthen the country’s response to the Omicron variant, including mobilizing troops to help staff overwhelmed hospitals, opening thousands of vaccine sites and sending 500 million free testing kits to households. The Build Back Better plan is not entirely dead, and a revival effort will start in January.
Whether 2022 will be as stupid and insane as 2021 won’t be known until we can view it in a rearview mirror 12 months from now. We can only hope.
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