Known to American intelligence as the Taliban emissary to Al Qaeda, Mr. Haqqani showed up in Kabul last week as their new chief of security, brazenly armed with an American-made M4 rifle, with a protection squad dressed in American combat gear.
“Governing a war-ravaged country will be the real test and imposing challenge especially as the Taliban have been a warring force, not one adept at governing,” Maleeha Lohdi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations, wrote in a column in The Dawn newspaper this week.
During the war the Americans tolerated Pakistan’s duplicitous game because they saw little choice, preferring to fight a chaotic war in Afghanistan to warring with nuclear-armed Pakistan. Moreover, Pakistan’s ports and airfields provided the main entry points and supply lines for American military equipment needed in Afghanistan.
Pakistan did that, even as its spy agency provided planning assistance, training expertise and sometimes on the ground advice to the Taliban all through the war, American officials said.
Though Pakistan was supposed to be an American ally, it always worked toward its own interests, as nations do. Those interests did not include a large American military presence on its border, an autonomous Afghanistan with a democratic government it could not control, or a strong and centralized military.
Rather, Pakistan’s goal in Afghanistan was to create a sphere of influence to block its archnemesis, India. The Pakistanis insist that India uses separatist groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army, operating from havens in Afghanistan, to stir dissent in Pakistan.
In this Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 file photo shows the University at Buffalo campus in Buffalo, N.Y. Sebastian Serafin-Bazan, a University at Buffalo student, died Wednesday, April 17, 2019, from a suspected hazing incident last week. The 18-year-old freshman from Port Chester, N.Y., was hospitalized early Friday morning after the incident at an off-campus house. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)
A woman receives the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 at a drive-in vaccination event last week in Meerbusch, Germany.
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A woman receives the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 at a drive-in vaccination event last week in Meerbusch, Germany.
Lukas Schulze/Getty Images
The emergence of new and more infectious variants of the coronavirus has raised a troubling question: Will the current crop of COVID-19 vaccine prevent these variants from causing disease?
The research was fairly straightforward. Scientists took blood from volunteers who had received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and looked at the levels of neutralizing antibodies, the kind that prevent a virus from entering cells.
“What we showed is that the neutralizing antibodies are reduced about fivefold to the B.1.351 variant,” says Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Under the new nomenclature proposed by the World Health Organization, B.1.351 is now called Beta. It first appeared in South Africa.
“That’s very similar to what other investigators have shown with other vaccines,” he says. “But what we also showed is that there’s many other types of immune responses other than neutralizing antibodies, including binding antibodies, FC functional antibodies and T-cell responses.”
And it’s that last immune response, the T-cell response, that Barouch says is critically important. Because T cells, particularly CD8 T cells, play a crucial role in preventing illness.
“Those are the killer T cells,” Barouch says. “Those are the types of T cells that can basically seek out and destroy cells that are infected and help clear infection directly.”
They don’t prevent infection; they help keep an infection from spreading.
“The T-cell responses actually are not reduced — at all — to the variants,” Barouch says. It’s not just the Beta variant, but also the Alpha and Gamma variants.
That may help explain why the Johnson & Johnson vaccine prevented serious disease when tested in volunteers South Africa, where worrisome variants are circulating.
“The data is very solid,” says Alessandro Sette, an immunologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. “Dan Barouch’s data really show very nicely that there is no appreciable decrease in [CD8 T-cell] reactivity.”
Sette’s lab has had similar results with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. So has Marcela Maus at Massachusetts General Hospital. Although it will take studies in people to be certain the vaccines will work against variants, “Anything that generates a T-cell immune response to the SARS-CoV-2, I would say has promise as being potentially protective,” Maus says.
What’s not clear yet is how long the T-cell response will last, but several labs are working to answer that question.
São Paulo – Sudan has opportunities to develop its agriculture, but needs to promote investment and improve management of its agribusiness. According to the final statement of the Sudanese Mining and Food Security Forum, released this Thursday (11th) in Khartoum, the North African country must also solve the United States’ funding boycott, enforce legal certainty of contracts, seek out international cooperation and develop its infrastructure.
The Forum took place on Wednesday and Thursday this week and was sponsored by the General Union of Arab Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. The event was attended by business executives, government officials and delegates from the Arab Chambers of Commerce in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Mauritania, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Germany, Belgium, Australia, Austria and Greece. The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce was represented by its CEO, Michel Alaby.
Arab Chamber
Social responsibility was on the agenda of Arab chambers forum
According to Alaby, on Thursday, the event featured panels focusing on food security and ways to increase agricultural production in Sudan. The meeting was opened by the Egyptian minister of Supply and Domestic Trade, Khaled Hanify, who said Sudan’s natural resources must be managed wisely. He advised on the creation of cooperative-like condominium systems for production and sale of agricultural products. He also suggested that a futures and commodities exchange be established by Arab countries, in order to provide funding to small and medium farmers.
Alaby also reported that the forum’s final statement outlines suggestions for the public and private sectors to foster the development of agriculture and mining in Sudan. One of the issues is legal uncertainty. “The laws are changed constantly and arbitration is not employed when it comes to contracts. When it comes to government-to-government negotiations, such as between China and Sudan, rules are more stable, but between government and private enterprises, contracts get breached and it takes as long as four years before claims are tried in first instance,” said Alaby.
The Brazilian example
At the summit, Alaby presented Brazilian projects and figures in agriculture and livestock production. Brazil’s grain crop amounted to 200 million tonnes in 2014 and may be as high asd 400 million tonnes by 2020. The country has implemented the Bolsa Família income transfer program to assist the neediest, as well as social projects targeting small farmers. In turn, Brazil requires further financing projects for small farmers, minimum price guarantees for agriculture and livestock products and surplus production purchases by government.
Alaby said that following the meeting, attendees met with the Sudanese vice president, Bakry Ahmad Hassan.
Social responsibility
This Thursday also saw the annual forum of secretary generals and CEOs of Arab and foreign chambers of commerce. At the forum, the secretary general of the General Union of Arab Chambers of Commerce, industry and Agriculture, Emad Shehab, introduced the Union’s new president, Mohamedou Ould Mohamed Mahmoud, who also chairs the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Mauritania.
The theme of this year’s forum was the social responsibilities of Arab chambers and sponsoring entrepreneurship. At the event, Shehab said the General Union will enter into a partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido) to support Arab business incubators. Towards the end of this month, the Unido is set to hold an event showcasing incubator success cases.
At the forum, Alaby discussed social and professional development projects carried out by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, such as Programa Jovem Aprendiz (Young Apprentice Program), Programa de Estágio Remunerado (Paid Internship Program) and clothes donations to impoverished people.
The wind effects of Zeta, which came ashore in Cocodrie, Louisiana, and barreled northeast, were felt all the way from the Gulf Coast to southern New Jersey. At the height of the outages, as many as 2.6 million people were without power across seven states from Louisiana to Virginia. Utility crews were out assessing the damage and fixing it.
El presidente de Rusia, Vladimir Putin, describió el derribamiento de un avión de combate ruso por la fuerza aérea de Turquía como “una puñalada en la espalda”.
Cazas F-16 de Turquía derribaron este martes un avión ruso que, dice Ankara, violó su espacio aéreo.
El incidente ocurrió cerca de la frontera con Siria, donde Rusia realiza bombardeos aéreos contra grupos de oposición armada al gobierno del presidente sirio Bashar al Asad.
Turquía denunció que el avión de combate, un Su-24 ruso, ignoró al menos 10 advertencias emitidas por su fuerza aérea turca, por lo que dos aviones caza lo derribaron.
Por su parte, Moscú aceptó que uno de sus aviones había sido derribado pero negó que algún momento hubiese entrado en el espacio aéreo de Turquía.
En un principio el Kremlin dijo que su nave había sido derribada desde tierra, por fuego antiaéreo, pero luego el propio Putin dijo que había sido por misiles aire-aire desde otro avión.
Putin calificó lo ocurrido de “puñalada en la espalda” por parte de “cómplices de los terroristas”. Putin estaba hablando durante una reunión con el rey Abdalá II de Jordania, en la ciudad rusa de Sochi este martes.
Por su parte, el presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, dijo desde Washigton que Turquía está en su derecho de defender su espacio aéreo.
Reunido con su par francés, François Hollande, para tratar sobre cómo combatir al autodenominado Estado Islámico, Obama insistió en que la prioridad ahora es evitar una escalada del conflicto.
Entretanto, el primer ministro de Turquía, Ahmet Davutoglu, ordenó al Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores a consultar con OTAN, la ONU y países involucrados de los recientes acontecimientos en la frontera siria.
La alianza de la OTAN, de la que Turquía es miembro, dijo estar siguiendo la situación “de cerca” y que estaba en contacto con las autoridades turcas.
La OTAN estará realizando una “reunión informal” de embajadores, en Bruselas, para analizar el caso.
“Serias consecuencias”
Es la primera vez que un avión ruso es derribado en Siria desde que Moscú lanzó, a finales de septiembre, su campaña de ataques aéreos contra los grupos armados que combaten las fuerzas del gobierno de Asad.
El presidente Putin advirtió que el incidente tendrá “serias consecuencias” en la relación de Moscú con Turquía.
Image copyright EPA
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En lo único en que coinciden turcos y rusos es que el avión cayó en Siria.
Explicó que el avión de combate realizaba una operación contra el autodenominado Estado Islámico en las montañas del norte de Latakia, donde se concentran los extremistas que, en su mayoría originan desde territorio ruso.
“Así que llevaban a cabo una tarea de ataques preventivos contra aquellos que podrían regresar a Rusia a cualquier momento. Estas son personas que deben ser directamente catalogadas como terroristas internacionales”, recalcó el mandatario
“De todas formas, nuestros pilotos, los aviones en ningún sentido amenazaron el territorio turco. Eso está muy claro”, concluyó
Los pilotos
El avión se estrelló en territorio de Siria a unos 4 kilómetros de la frontera, según Putin.
Un canal de televisión turco mostró imágenes del avión cayendo en las montañas cerca de la frontera.
Image copyright EPA
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Los círculos enmarcan los paracaídas de los dos pilotos que lograron abandonar la nave por eyección.
Los dos pilotos lograron salir por eyección de la aeronave en llamas, que luego se estrelló contra la falda de una montaña en Siria.
Imágenes de video muestran dos paracaídas descendiendo en territorio controlado por rebeldes.
Luego se publicaron otras imágenes de lo que parece ser el cadáver de uno de los pilotos rodeado de rebeldes armados.
No se conoce la suerte del segundo piloto.
Rusia envió un helicóptero en misión de rescate y confirmó que fue derribado por los rebeldes.
En esa región, aviones de combate sirios y rusos han estado lanzando ataques contra militantes yihadistas y grupos rebeldes sirios que están apoyados por Occidente.
Rusia han realizado cientos de misiones sobre el norte de Siria desde septiembre.
Moscú insiste en que los objetivos han sido exclusivamente “terroristas”, pero activistas aseguran que los ataques han sido mayoritariamente contra grupos rebeldes respaldados por Occidente.
Image copyright Reuters
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El avión cayó en una región montañosa, cerca de la frontera.
La corresponsal de la BBC en Turquía, Selin Girit, comentó que el derribamiento del avión es un momento significativo en torno a cómo está el gobierno de Ankara involucrado en el conflicto en Siria.
Girit señala que el avión parece haberse estrellado cerca de un campamento de refugiados turcomanos.
Los turcomanos, una etnia cercana a la turca dentro de Siria, han estado huyendo de los ataques aéreos rusos y de la guerra contra las fuerzas del presidente sirio Bashar al Asad.
Turquía ha expresado su preocupación sobre la suerte de los turcomanos y, recientemente, abrió la frontera para permitir la entrada de algunos refugiados de esta etnia, informó la corresponsal.
Peligro latente
Según Jonathan Marcus, corresponsal de asuntos internacionales de la BBC, este incidente es precisamente el tipo de riesgo que se temía cuando Rusia lanzó sus operativos aéreos en Siria.
Los peligros de volar cerca de la frontera turca han quedado en evidencia, señala Marcus.
Image copyright EPA
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La televisión turca trasmitió lo que dijo ser un Sukhoi Su-24 estrellado en territorio sirio.
Aviones turcos ya habían derribado por lo menos un jet de la Fuerza Aérea siria y posiblemente un helicóptero, informa el corresponsal.
Turquía se opone vehementemente al presidente sirio Asad y ha advertido contra las violaciones de su espacio aéreo por aviones rusos y sirios.
El mes pasado Ankara dijo que sus F-16 habían interceptado un jet ruso que cruzó hacia su territorio, y que dos jets turcos habían sido hostigados por un MiG-29 no identificado.
Pero esta es la primera vez que un avión de combate ruso es derribado.
El mes pasado, aviones turcos derribaron un dron de supuesta fabricación rusa que también había violado el espacio aéreo de ese país.
BOSTON — Actresses and chief executives are among 50 people arrested in a nationwide college admissions cheating scam, authorities announced Tuesday.
According to charging documents, actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among those involved facing charges.
The suspects allegedly paid bribes of up to $6 million to get their kids into elite colleges, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and USC.
In most cases, the students did not know their admission was contingent on a bribe.
University athletic coaches and administrators of college entrance exams were also among those arrested.
The alleged scam centered around a man in California who ran a business helping students get into the college of their choice.
Authorities say parents would pay him a predetermined amount, with full knowledge of what they were doing. He would then steer the money to one of two places: either an SAT or ACT administrator, or a college athletic coach.
The coaches would allegedly arrange a fake profile that listed the prospective student as an athlete, and exam administrators would either hire proctors to take the test or correct the answers of a student.
The bribes ranged from a few thousand dollars to up to 6 million, according to officials. The charging documents, unsealed in Boston federal court, are more than 200 pages long.
They allege that Huffman and her husband “made a purported charitable contribution of $15,000…to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter. Huffman later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter, before deciding not to do so.”
Federal agents say they have recorded telephone calls with Huffman and a cooperating witness.
The documents say that Loughlin and her husband “agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team — despite the fact that they did not participate in crew — thereby facilitating their admission to USC.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized thousands of falsified COVID-19 vaccine cards from China in Memphis, Tenn.
Border Patrol agents have had 121 seizures of fake vaccination cards so far this fiscal year, amounting to 3,017 falsified cards confiscated, according to a statement from the agency on released Friday.
One of the shipments described in the statement included was a package from Shenzhen, China, going to New Orleans labeled “PAPER CARD, PAPER.” The shipment contained 51 falsified vaccination cards.
Officers already knew the shipment would contain false documents, according to the statement. The shipments with fake vaccination cards are “always from China” and are commonly labeled “Paper Greeting Cards/ Use For-Greeting Card” and “PAPER PAPER CARD.”
The fake cards have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) logo along with blank lines to fill in information such as name and the dates the shots were given. The cards normally come in packs of 20, 50 or 100.
However, the statement says there are multiple ways to tell these cards are fake. For example, the cards contain typos, misspelled Spanish verbiage on the back and they are not imported from a medical facility.
“These vaccinations are free and available everywhere,” Michael Neipert, Area Port Director of Memphis, said.
“If you do not wish to receive a vaccine, that is your decision. But don’t order a counterfeit, waste my officer’s time, break the law, and misrepresent yourself. CBP Officers at the Area Port of Memphis remain committed to stopping counterfeit smuggling and helping to protect our communities. But just know that when you order a fake vaxx card, you are using my officers time as they also seize fentanyl and methamphetamines,” Neipert added.
Falsifying vaccination cards is a crime that can land someone a fine and five years of prison time.
News of the false cards come as cities across the U.S. have begun to mandate proof of vaccination via a vaccine card in restaurants, theaters and other indoor businesses.
The newest requirement by localities was driven in part by the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, which has shown to penetrate the vaccine, causing breakthrough infections. However, the majority of those with breakthrough infections have reported mild symptoms.
Matthew Dyman, a public affairs specialist for the CBP, told The Hill he has looked to see if fake vaccine cards were confiscated by border patrol agents in other areas, “but as of right now the cards are only being found shipped through Memphis.”
The cards have only been found in Memphis as it is the “shipping hub location” for the CBP and “has the ability to screen cargo,” Dyman said.
Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, center, arrives on Capitol Hill, Friday, Oct. 11, 2019, in Washington, as she is scheduled to testify before congressional lawmakers on Friday as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Yovanovitch testified behind closed doors that Trump and Giuliani wanted her removed since the summer of 2018 because she refused to let Giuliani use the US Embassy in Ukraine in his efforts to obtain political dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
She said she felt “shocked” and “threatened” by the attacks leveled against her.
Yovanovitch also told Congress a top State Department official confirmed to her that her recall in May came despite her having “done nothing wrong.”
Multiple witnesses, including Bill Taylor, now the US’s chief envoy in Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official, have corroborated Yovanovitch’s claims.
Yovanovitch raised concerns with senior State Department officials about Giuliani before her ouster, but despite having their own concerns, they didn’t think they could stop him. After Yovanovitch was recalled, the acting assistant secretary of state, Philip T. Reeker, told her Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “was no longer able” to protect her from Trump.
Michael McKinley, who served as a top deputy to Pompeo, quit a few days before his testimony to Congress because of the State Department’s unwillingness to issue a statement supporting Yovanovitch. He also testified that several department employees had their careers derailed for political reasons.
Several government officials, including Taylor and Kent, have already testified to Congress behind closed doors, and their revelations paint a damaging portrait of a concerted effort across the administration to leverage US foreign policy to pressure Ukraine into acceding to Trump’s demands.
Specifically, the president wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make a public statement committing to investigate the Bidens and a bogus conspiracy theory suggesting it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election.
Officials also outlined the lengths White House officials went to in order to conceal records of a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky.
Witnesses have testified that five men were part of an effort to condition security assistance to Ukraine and a White House meeting on Zelensky publicly announcing the investigations Trump wanted.
The men are Giuliani; the US ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland; the special representative to Ukraine at the time, Kurt Volker; the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney; and the outgoing energy secretary, Rick Perry.
The president’s defenders have said he did nothing wrong and that this is a normal part of how diplomacy and foreign policy are conducted.
But national security veterans, legal scholars, and at times Trump’s own officials who have testified have suggested his actions open him up to a variety of charges including abuse of power, bribery, extortion, misappropriation of taxpayer funds, and soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 election.
Eight more diplomats and national security officials are expected to testify publicly in the next week. Here’s the latest impeachment hearings schedule.
“¡Buenos días a todos! Empezamos con las noticias”, anuncia a bordo de un destartalado colectivo de Caracas un grupo de jóvenes periodistas que se apresta a contar, sin control oficial, lo último de la crisis que viveVenezuela en más de dos meses de protestas.
Sujetándose del pasamanos para no caer en cada frenazo, María Gabriela Fernández y Dereck Blanco se asoman, ante la mirada curiosa de los pasajeros, detrás de un marco de cartón negro y perilla roja que imitan a un televisor, bajo un rótulo en letras azules: “El Bus TV”.
“Esta iniciativa surge de la necesidad de romper con el cerco comunicacional que hay en el país y llevar noticias veraces a través de un transporte tan masivo como el autobús”, explicó a AFP la redactora creativa Claudia Lizardo.
En tres minutos, Bus TV informa a los pasajeros -más habituados a la música que pone a todo volumen el chofer-, sobre seguridad, salud, deportes, espectáculos y, por supuesto, economía y política: infaltables en un país con severa escasez e inflación, envuelto en una ola de protestas que deja 68 muertos.
Nuevos disturbios en Venezuela tras un recurso contra la Constituyente
“Cada bomba lacrimógena cuesta 40 dólares, al cambio del dólar paralelo unos 200.000 bolívares, es decir un salario mínimo integral”, dice Blanco, al referirse a los enfrentamientos entre fuerzas de seguridad y manifestantes opositores, que no se ven en las pantallas de televisión.
Entrando de primera a los autobuses, la periodista y productora Laura Castillo negocia con los conductores. Casi siempre se les permite subir, sin cobrarles el pasaje.
Laura Castillo (izq.), Maria Gabriela Fernandez (centro) y Dereck Blanco (der.) presentan las noticias en colectivo. / AFP
“Es una maravillosa idea. Me gusta cuando las cosas son claras, sin violencia. Me parece muy importante que nos informen de lo que está ocurriendo, para abrir los ojos”, declaró Glenda Guerrero, ama de casa de 68 años, tras escuchar atenta el noticiero.
Suben y bajan, en las mañanas, tomando varias rutas de la capital. “¡Qué valientes!”, les grita una mujer. “¡Están locos!”, afirma un señor.
Blanco, presentador en un telenoticiero nacional, se sumó al Bus TV al admitir que hay “presiones” oficiales que impiden la difusión de ciertas noticias: “Es un reto, el periodista debe reinventarse para llevar la información a la gente”.
Dereck Blanco, Laura Castillo, Maria Gabriela Fernandez Y Abril Mejias se dirigen a una parada de colectivo para informar. / AFP
Con seis periodistas y artistas, el Bus TV arrancó al 28 de mayo para marcar el décimo aniversario del cierre de Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), el que era el canal más antiguo del país, crítico del gobierno del entonces presidente Hugo Chávez, fallecido en 2013.
Su sucesor, Nicolás Maduro, casualmente un ex chofer de autobús, acusa a un sector de la prensa de una campaña de desprestigio en su contra como parte de una conspiración para derrocarlo.
Pero la ONG Espacio Público y el Sindicato Nacional de Periodistas (SNTP) denuncian que el gobierno “censura” a los medios que le son incómodos.
Los jóvenes periodistas embarcan en un colectivo para dar las últimas noticias sin censura. / AFP
Ha sacado del aire programas radiales y a la cadena internacional CNN en español, y a algunos diarios les limita la entrega papel -monopolio del Estado- para dejarlos fuera de circulación, aseguran.
Varios medios, como el diario El Nacional -el principal del país- y el digital La Patilla, fueron demandados y otros comprados por figuras vinculadas al gobierno para cambiar su línea editorial, según Espacio Público.
“El gobierno ha ganado el pulso de la hegemonía comunicacional. Las fuentes de información son entonces las redes sociales, pero no todos tienen acceso a ellas y mucho allí es rumor. Bus TV informa lo que no sale en los medios tradicionales”, comentó Castillo.
Los pasajeros escuchan. / AFP
La iniciativa se extiende, cuenta la periodista, y ya hay Bus TV en la ciudad de Valencia (oeste) y otro en Puerto La Cruz (este), adaptado a la situación local.
Venezuela, donde el SNTP ha registrado 300 agresiones a periodistas durante las protestas, ocupa el puesto 137 -de 180 países- en el ránking de libertad prensa de Reporteros Sin Fronteras.
El Bus TV, dice Fernández, quien trabaja en un periódico nacional y usa a diario el colectivo, informa de la realidad cotidiana del venezolano que no reflejan los medios tradicionales: “Somos una alternativa necesaria”, aseguró.
“En economía: Un kilo de alitas de pollo cuesta 9.700 bolívares; el venezolano que gana sueldo mínimo debe de trabajar un día y medio para poder pagarlo”, prosiguen Blanco y Fernández en la lectura de noticias.
Este día, el Bus TV informó de la reaparición de enfermedades que estaban erradicadas, de la pérdida de peso de muchos venezolanos por mala alimentación, del histórico éxito de la vinotinto en el Mundial Sub-20 de Fútbol y, en espectáculos, del mensaje de solidaridad de Ricky Martin con Venezuela.
En política, continúan, “el presidente Maduro cambiará la Constitución de Chávez sin consultar antes a los venezolanos en un referendo”.
“Y mientras tanto, las panaderías continúan sin pan”, concluye el noticiero, entre aplausos de los pasajeros: “¡Muchas gracias!. Esto fue el Bus TV. Seguiremos informando”.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart vivió solo 35 años, pero su basto legado musical lo comenzó cuando era un niño de 5 años.
Es el mejor lanzamiento de 2016, y este genio de la música ni siquiera canta. Tampoco toca algún instrumento de esta grabación, ni está vivo.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), una de las mentes más prolíficas de la música clásica, vendió 1,25 millones de discos compactos en noviembre, convirtiéndose en el mejor lanzamiento del año para Billboard.
El sitio especializado en la industria musical dio a conocer la noticia, pero hay algunos detalles que muestran la verdadera razón por la que Mozart logró ese asombroso lanzamiento.
“Mozart 225: La nueva edición completa” es una de las mayores recopilaciones de la obra del austriaco que se haya puesto en circulación: 200 discos compactos en un gran paquete lanzado el 28 de octubre pasado.
Son 240 horas de música interpretada por 600 solistas y 60 orquestas que fueron editadas y curadas en 18 meses por el sello Universal.
Billboard cuenta cada CD del paquete como una venta individual, lo quiere decir que esta gran complicación vendió en realidad 6.250 piezasque multiplicadas por los 200 discos que forman cada caja, da lugar al número mágico de los 1,25 millones de ventas.
Image copyright Getty Images
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Mozart demostró desde pequeño dotes únicos para el piano, pero también tocó el violón y fue director.
En la era de las ventas en línea de discos, además de las reproducciones mediante servicios como Spotify o Apple Music, el cantante canadiense Drake logró vender 852.000 copias de su álbum Viewsen una semana.
De todos modos, las 6.250 copias vendidas de “Mozart 225”, titulado así por el 225 aniversario de su muerte, es igualmente un buen dato si se considera que este año se han vendido apenas 50 millones de discos, un 11.6% menos que en 2015, según Billboard.
Lo que además no queda en duda es la genialidad de Mozart, un hombre capaz de componer tanta música en su corta vida como para ocupar 200 discos.
Media captionFootage shows missile strike on Ukrainian plane in Iran
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has said the country’s military should elaborate more on how it shot down a passenger plane by mistake last week.
Separately, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif acknowledged that Iranians “were lied to” for days afterwards.
He insisted that he and the president were also kept in the dark.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards killed 176 people when they “unintentionally” shot down the Ukrainian aircraft amid escalating tensions with the US.
Hours before, Iranian missiles had targeted two airbases in Iraq housing US forces.
Speaking on state television on Wednesday, President Rouhani called on the military to take the next steps of the investigation with “more coordination and monitoring”.
“The first thing is to inform people honestly. People’s grief will alleviate when they know that we feel responsible for what happened and talk with them honestly,” he said.
He urged the forces “to explain to people what sessions and meetings were held since the moment that the incident happened”.
Mr Zarif, during a televised interview while on a trip to India, said: “I and the president did not know [what brought the plane down] and, as soon as we did, we communicated it.”
He also praised the military for being “brave enough to claim responsibility early on”. However, critics have decried the three-day delay and said they only owned up after Western authorities claimed to have contrary evidence.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption
University of Tehran students hold pictures of victims during a memorial after the plane crash
Flight PS752 was brought down after it took off from the capital, Tehran, on 8 January, when the Revolutionary Guards – a force set up to defend Iran’s Islamic system – mistakenly perceived it as a threat amid escalating conflict with the US. Everyone on board died.
The deaths and the apparent initial cover-up – when the act was denied and the crash site was bulldozed – have sparked protests in various Iranian cities.
Police in Tehran have been accused of using live ammunition against demonstrators.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is expected to deliver Friday prayer sermons in the capital this week for the first time since 2013, in an apparent bid to ease domestic tension.
How has Iran’s crisis unfolded?
Last Wednesday, Iran launched a series of strikes on two military bases in neighbouring Iraq, which were housing US troops. It was a retaliatory move after US President Donald Trump ordered a strike in Iraq that killed top Iranian General Qasam Soleimani.
Media captionMartin Patience explains why recent events have sparked protests on Iran’s streets
A few hours after the Iranian strikes, Flight PS752 crashed near Tehran in initially unclear circumstances, although Iran’s authorities immediately blamed technical difficulties.
On Thursday, various Western powers – including Canada, which had 57 citizens onboard the plane – said they had evidence that Iran’s military had downed the plane.
Iran reiterated its denials until Friday, when it conceded that the passenger jet was hit by its air defence systems.
Mr Zarif has now personally insisted that he and President Rouhani only found out about what had really happened on that day.
Brig-Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace commander, has said a missile operator acted independently and alone, mistaking the plane for a “cruise missile” as there had been reports that such missiles had been fired at Iran.
He also claimed government officials had been alerted soon afterwards.
What action has been taken?
On Tuesday, Iran’s judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Esmaili, announced that several people had been arrested.
He added that about 30 people had been detained for “taking part in illegal gatherings” – an apparent reference to recent anti-government protests.
Also on Tuesday, President Hassan Rouhani said the investigation into the aircraft strikes would be overseen by a “special court” and insisted that it would be about more than just the person who “pulled the trigger”.
Iran is leading the investigation domestically and has refused to hand over recovered black-box flight recorders to manufacturer Boeing or to the US.
The video was shared on social media soon after the crash, leading analysts to deduce that the plane was directly hit.
It is believed the person being detained will face charges related to national security.
However, an Iranian journalist based in London who initially posted the footage has insisted that his source is safe, and that the Iranian authorities have arrested the wrong person.
Trump cites ‘disaster’ trial runs for mail-in voting that produced missing ballots, delayed results and litigation.
A co-founder of the Federalist Society, which famously compiled a list from which President Trump selected his two Supreme Court nominees, described the president’s Thursday tweet about “delay[ing] the election until people can properly, securely and safely vote” as grounds for “immediate impeachment.”
Northwestern University Law Professor Steven Calabresi wrote in a New York Times opinion piece published late Thursday that Trump “should be removed unless he relents” the sentiment expressed in the tweet.
Calabresi said he voted for Trump in 2016, and has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1980. He added that he staunchly defended Trump against what he called an “unconstitutional investigation by Robert Mueller” into alleged collusion with Russia and penned another op-ed opposing the president’s impeachment earlier this year.
“But I am frankly appalled by the president’s recent tweet seeking to postpone the November election,” he wrote. “Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats’ assertion that President Trump is a fascist.
“But this latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president’s immediate impeachment again … and his removal from office by the Senate.”
In the tweet, Trump slammed the prospect of mass mail-in voting as a prelude to the “most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history” and a “great embarrassment to the USA.”
Calabresi emphasized that the U.S. “has never canceled or delayed a presidential election. Not in 1864, when President Abraham Lincoln was expected to lose and the South looked as if it might defeat the North. Not in 1932 in the depths of the Great Depression. Not in 1944 during World War II.”
The professor went on to say that the date of each election is fixed by an 1845 federal law and noted it is up to each state to determine whether they will implement universal mail-in voting, since “Article II of the Constitution explicitly gives the states total power over the selection of presidential electors.”
Meanwhile, Calabresi called on “every Republican in Congress” to inform Trump that postponing the election would be “illegal, unconstitutional, and without precedent in American history.
“Anyone who says otherwise should never be elected to Congress again.”
When former Vice President Joe Biden proclaimed “I will win South Carolina,” at Tuesday’s Democratic debate in Charleston, it wasn’t just braggadocio — all of the most recent South Carolina polls suggest he’s right.
In fact, nearly every poll taken in February found Biden to have a sizable lead on his fellow candidates.
For instance, in a Monmouth University telephone poll of 454 likely Democratic primary voters taken just ahead of that debate — from February 23 to 25 — Biden had a 20 percentage-point lead on his nearest rival in the state, Sen. Bernie Sanders. (Sanders is still considered the frontrunner in the race nationally.)
Overall, that poll found Biden to have 36 percent support in the state; Sanders nearly tied with entrepreneur Tom Steyer, with 16 and 15 percent support, respectively; Sen. Elizabeth Warren in fourth with 8 percent support; and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar with 6 and 4 percent support, respectively. The only other candidate on the Democratic ballot Saturday, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, had 1 percent support.
The Monmouth poll does have a 4.6 percentage point margin of error, but that margin is small enough to protect Biden’s lead. It could, however, mean that the race for second is even closer than it appears, with either Steyer, Sanders, or Warren occupying the number two spot.
While a number of other recent polls found similar results — a February 17-25 poll from Clemson University found the former vice president to have an 18 percentage point lead and a February 26-27 Emerson College survey a 16 percentage-point lead — Biden’s lead isn’t quite that strong across the board.
A Post and Courier poll of 543 likely primary voters taken February 23-27, for example, saw Biden only 4 percentage points ahead of Sanders, at 28 percent support to the senator’s 24 (with Steyer and Warren again in third and fourth). Unlike the Monmouth results, Biden’s lead in this poll is within its 5.1 percentage point margin of error.
All these polls suggest Biden will likely win the South Carolina primary, and that the only question is what his margin of victory will be.
That’s good news for Biden, who has had disappointing finishes in 2020 Democratic primary contests thus far. Once the national frontrunner, he finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses, fifth in the New Hampshire primary, and a distant second in the Nevada caucuses.
He is counting on South Carolina to reverse that trend, allowing him to pick up much-needed pledged delegates (Sanders currently has a 30 delegate lead on him), and — ahead of Super Tuesday’s 14 primaries and one caucus — change the narrative around his campaign. A big win in South Carolina would be the most powerful argument the Biden campaign could make that he’s the candidate best suited to unite Democrats’ diverse base as the party prepares to take on President Donald Trump in the fall.
South Carolina is seen as a test of candidates’ ability to win over black voters
South Carolina is the first state in the Democratic primary calendar in which the majority of the electorate is black, and as such is typically seen as a test of candidates’ black support. It is a particularly important test for Biden, who has long said this key Democratic demographic makes up an important part of his base.
“All I know is, I am leading everybody, combined, with black voters,” Biden said at Vice News presidential forum in late January. “Name me anybody who has remotely close to the support I have in the African American community nationally.”
Joe Biden takes a selfie with black supporters in Columbia, South Carolina.Sean Rayford/Getty Images
It is true that Biden’s black national support seemed unassailable in January, but that has changed in recent weeks according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis, with his average advantage over Sanders among that demographic now less than 10 percentage points. And as Vox’s Li Zhou reports, there’s a generational divide in Biden’s support — older black voters are much more likely to back him.
Still, in South Carolina, the former vice president is leading among black voters as a whole — an East Carolina University (ECU) poll taken February 23-24, for instance, found 34 percent of likely African American primary voters supported Biden, compared to the 24 percent who supported Steyer, and the 22 percent who supported Sanders. (The poll has a margin of error of 3.37 percentage points.)
Buttigieg and Klobuchar have struggled to win black support so far — and it would appear they continue to do so in South Carolina. ECU found Buttigieg to have just over 2 percent support from black voters, while Klobuchar received 0.4 percent.
Given that South Carolina’s electorate is 60 percent black, these numbers present serious challenges for both candidates. (They also present strategic and narrative concerns for both campaigns down the road — more on that later.)
Warren, whose base of support also tends to be less diverse, is doing slightly better than Klobuchar or Buttigieg among black South Carolina Democrats — her black support in the ECU poll was about 6 percent. Again, however, such a level of support means it will be difficult for her to compete with Biden, Sanders, and Steyer for delegates.
The frontrunners in South Carolina are Biden, Sanders, and Steyer
The vice president’s confidence about his chances Saturday is in marked contrast to how he described some of the previous races. He admitted during the New Hampshire primary debate that he fully expected to lose that state’s primary, saying, “I took a hit in Iowa, and I’ll probably take a hit here,” and didn’t bother to stick around to watch the results come in with his supporters. Instead, he left — for South Carolina.
It was a signal of just how important the state is to Biden’s campaign — in fact, Anton Gunn, Barack Obama’s 2008 South Carolina political director, told Vox’s Li Zhou that South Carolina is literally make-or-break for the former vice president.
“If Joe Biden wins by a small margin, then I think his campaign is on life support,” Gunn said. “If he comes in second or worse, I think he’s done.”
How large a margin Biden might win by depends on the poll one is looking at, but polling averages suggest a Biden victory could be the largest percentage-point win of the 2020 primary cycle so far — RealClearPolitics’ polling average puts him 12.6 percentage points ahead of Sanders.
RealClearPolitics’ 2020 South Carolina Democratic primary polling average, which shows a sizable Biden lead.RealClearPolitics
The polls are clear — Biden is the state race’s frontrunner. And he received an important boost Wednesday: an endorsement from Rep. James Clyburn, one of Congress’s most powerful black Democrats — and a man seen as a kingmaker in the state.
Sanders has nevertheless gained ground in the state in recent weeks — his RealClearPolitics polling average spiked on February 12, the day after he won the New Hampshire primary.
Richland County vice director Dalhi Myers, who began the primary cycle a Biden backer and now supports Sanders, told Zhou that Sanders’s successes so far (he also won in Nevada) have captured the attention of many South Carolina Democrats.
“People aren’t going to vote for someone who can’t win,” Myers said. “If you’re the most electable, you’re going to have to get elected somewhere.”
One particular difficulty for Sanders is that polling suggests he will not be able to rely on what has been a key demographic for him in past contests — young voters. In New Hampshire, for instance, Sanders received more of the youth vote than all of his rivals combined. But Monmouth’s work found 31 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 49 backed Biden, compared to the 18 percent of 18- to 49-year-olds who said they plan to vote for Sanders. Other polls, like ECU’s, also found Biden leading Sanders among young voters.
Closing Biden’s lead both among young voters, and South Carolina voters generally, will require Sanders to pick up last-minute support from what polls suggest is a significant number of undecided voters. Monmouth’s pollsters, for instance, found 15 percent of likely voters hadn’t yet decided on a candidate as of last Tuesday, and weren’t yet leaning towards anyone.
These undecided voters also present an opportunity for Steyer, who is battling Sanders for second place. South Carolina marks the first contest in which the entrepreneur has been considered a frontrunner, in part because he has invested heavily in the state. He’s spent more than $18 million in advertising in there. And he has been praised for his strong canvassing operation, as well as his practice of hiring black businesses for campaign work.
“If you’re black, you probably get two to three mailers from Steyer a week,” Democratic strategist and former Booker campaign adviser Clay Middleton told Zhou. “I even saw his commercial on the weather channel.”
Tom Steyer speaks with supporters following a February town hall in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
The effort has paid off in the polls for Steyer, but it is not clear it will allow him to do well enough to pick up delegates.
South Carolina’s 54 pledged delegates will be awarded both based on the results statewide and in its seven congressional districts. To get pledged delegates — either statewide or in the congressional districts— a candidate must clear a threshold of at least 15 percent, with 19 delegates available to those who meet that criteria statewide and 35 on offer to those performing well enough on the district level.
Whether Steyer clears the 15 percent mark depends on the poll, and his RealClearPolitics polling average is around 14 percent, making it unclear whether he can expect to receive any delegates statewide. His polling would seem to put him in strong contention for receiving delegates on the district level, particularly in districts that play to his strengths. District 6, for instance, has more women than men, a large black population, and a large population with a median income of less than $50,000 — all groups with which Steyer has support approaching 20 percent, according to Monmouth’s work.
Any delegates Steyer receives in South Carolina would be his first. He is unlikely to receive enough to become the frontrunner, but a strong showing could give him enough delegates to surpass Warren’s current total of eight, and would put him in a competitive position for at least some of Super Tuesday’s contests.
South Carolina sets the nation up for Super Tuesday
Super Tuesday is in just three days, and candidates will be competing for 1,344 pledged delegates. Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg will be on the ballot for the first time, and the effect his $500-million advertising campaign will have on the race will become apparent.
But Bloomberg’s impact isn’t the only unknown — it’s also difficult to predict results in a number of primaries due to a lack of polling; Alabama’s last 2020 presidential primary poll, for instance, was taken in July 2019.
That makes South Carolina an important harbinger of contests to come. As my colleague Li Zhou has explained, “Historically, at least four Southern states — Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi — have voted for the same Democratic nominee as South Carolina, giving this candidate a windfall of delegates.”
Should Biden have a decisive win in South Carolina, expect his campaign to regain some of its lost steam, possibly picking up wins in not just those four southern states, but collecting a sizable delegate haul in places like Texas as well. Similarly, a strong showing from Sanders would burnish his frontrunner status, boosting his argument that his coalition is more diverse than his 2016 one. And a better-than-expected showing from Steyer could give him momentum, particularly given he has made considerable financial investments in Super Tuesday states.
While Super Tuesday following so closely on South Carolina’s heels means the state’s winners can expect benefits, it also gives the state’s losers little incentive to drop out, as they hold out hope for quick reversals of fortune.
New at Five: Working together to find forever homes for more than 120 animals. The Martinsville Henry County spca along with The North Shore Animal League America and The American Humane Association teamed up for the biggest animal rescue and transport to date. WDBJ7’s Danielle Staub was there for all the action and has the full story tonight. nat dogs…. One after another, puppies, kittens and then the big dogs are loaded into the moblie units for transfer. Keisha Wooten, spca Staff “a lot o these guys, this is their second chance. a lot of them wouldn’t have gotten this opportunity otherwise if it wasn’t for north shore.” The Martinsville spca transfers animals to other shelters to help make room for the overflow. Early Tuesday morning, North Shore Animal League America and the America Humane Association collaborated for the biggest transfer to date in Martinsville. More than 120 animals were loaded onto the mobile units to start their journey to Port Washington, New York. Cindy Szczudlo, Rescue Manager,” It’s really exciting, ya know we are excited to recieve these animals and find loving homes for them and it’s a great opportunity for us to clear out almost all the animals here in Martinsville so they have an opportunity to rescue more.” The Animal League says it is very likely all these animals will be adopted by the end of the week. Szczudlo “We are th largest no kill shelter in the world and that affords us the opportunity to have our name out there and so many people coming to our shelter every day.” As happy as volunteers and staff are to see them find a new home, sometimes, it’s hard to say good bye. Wooten “laughs, h does his little dance in the morning. And as they get to know you, there are some guys that come in shy and as you work with them and everything, they start to trust you, and that’s basically just getting them prepared for their home.” stand up Everyone packed up and headed out. And now rooms that used to be filled with puppies are empty and quiet. but the director says, these cages will be full, within the week. Nicole Harris, Executive Director “honestly w could probably do it today. but we are going to slowly graduate everybody back into the shelter, so probably within the next three days we will be full again.” The spca says controling the animal population in Martinsville and Henry County continues to be an issue so they try to education the public, as much as possible. “Constantly talk t everybody about over breeding, about getting their animals fixed and this is obviously an aftermath of un altered animals, this many animals in a shelter at any given moment. Without this partner ship these guys could have faced death.” In Martinsville, Danielle Staub wdbj7 What
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