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Medicare for All holds out the promise of addressing this problem, and finally reaching the elusive goal of universal coverage, by automatically enrolling everybody in the government plan and then using regulation to set prices for doctors, hospitals, and the rest of the health care industry. Typically, such proposals envision people paying for coverage entirely through taxes or income-related premiums, with little or no co-payments, deductibles, and other forms of cost-sharing.

Source Article from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-medicare-for-all_us_5c505f9be4b0f43e410b1454

(CNN)A children’s hospital in Louisiana is experiencing a wave of Covid-19 hospitalizations as the Delta variant pervades the region.

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/30/us/baton-rouge-childrens-hospital-surge/index.html

Incredible GoPro footage takes you inside the gunfire-heavy raid that ended drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s six months on the run.

The video, obtained from Mexican authorities, looks as if it’s from an action movie. The camera follows the armed men as they storm the house, unleash grenades and bullets, and search room to room.

The Friday raid was called “Operation Black Swan,” according to the Mexican show “Primero Noticias.” Authorities decided to launch the raid Thursday after they got a tip about where Guzman was sleeping, the show reported.

Seventeen elite unit Mexican Marines launched their assault on the house in the city of Los Mochis at 4:40 a.m., “Primero Noticias” said.

They were met by about one dozen well-armed guards inside who were prepared for a fight, the show said.

The Marines moved from room to room, clearing the house. Upstairs they found two men in one room and found two women on the floor of a bathroom. All were captured, “Primero Noticias” said.

After 15 minutes, the Marines controlled the entire house, according to “Primero Noticias.”

In the end, five guards were killed and two men and two women were detained. One of the women was the same cook Guzman had with him when he was detained a couple years ago, according to “Primero Noticias.”

Eventually the marines determined that the only bedroom on the first floor was Guzman’s and they began pounding on the walls and moving furniture, finding hidden doors, the show said.

His room had a king-sized bed, bags from fashionable clothing stores, bread and cookie wrappers, and medicine including injectable testosterone, syringes, antibiotics and cough syrups, the show said. The two-story house had four bedrooms and five bathrooms. There were flat-screen TVs and Internet connection throughout the house, according to “Primero Noticias.”

The Marines eventually found a hidden passageway behind a mirror, with a handle hidden in the light fixture. The handle opened a secret door, leading down into the escape tunnel, the show explained.

The escape tunnel was fully lit and led to an access door for the city sewage system, “Primero Noticias” said, adding that Guzman had at least a 20-minute head start on the Marines.

The address where Guzman was captured had been monitored for a month, Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez has said. According to Gomez, Guzman and his lieutenant escaped through that drainage system.

“Primero Noticias” said it obtained surveillance footage showing Guzman and his lieutenant emerging from the manhole cover, where they then stole two cars to flee, the show said.

Guzman was finally caught when he and the lieutenant were stopped on a highway by Mexican Federal Police, the show said.

Authorities took them to a motel to wait for reinforcement. The men were then taken to Los Mochis airport and transfered to Mexico City.

Rebecca Blackwell/AP PHOTO
Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted by soldiers and marines to a waiting helicopter, at a federal hangar in Mexico City, Jan. 8, 2016.

Guzman is now back in prison as his lawyers fight his extradition to the U.S.

The drug kingpin escaped from the Altiplano prison near Mexico City on July 11, launching an active manhunt. When guards realized that he was missing from his cell, they found a ventilated tunnel and exit had been constructed in the bathtub inside Guzman’s cell. The tunnel extended for about a mile underground and featured an adapted motorcycle on rails that officials believe was used to transport the tools used to create the tunnel, Monte Alejandro Rubido, the head of the Mexican national security commission, said in July.

Guzman had been sent there after he was arrested in February 2014. He spent more than 10 years on the run after escaping from a different prison in 2001. It’s unclear exactly how he had escaped, but he did receive help from prison guards who were prosecuted and convicted.

Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was once described by the U.S. Treasury as “the most powerful drug trafficker in the world.” The Sinaloa cartel allegedly uses elaborate tunnels for drug trafficking and has been estimated to be responsible for 25 percent of all illegal drugs that enter the U.S. through Mexico.

Source Article from http://abcnews.go.com/International/inside-dramatic-raid-el-chapo/story?id=36216172

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended Vice President Kamala Harris‘ position in the Biden administration on Sunday amid her sinking poll numbers.

“For anyone who needs to hear it. @VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country—from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband,” Psaki tweeted.

Psaki’s tweet comes after Harris’ office appeared to respond to a CNN article on Sunday that suggested “dysfunction” within the vice president’s team.

Symone Sanders, who serves as senior advisor and chief spokesperson for Harris, wrote, “It is unfortunate that after a productive trip to France in which we reaffirmed our relationship with America’s oldest ally and demonstrated U.S. leadership on the world stage, and following passage of a historic, bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create jobs and strengthen our communities, some in the media are focused on gossip — not on the results that the President and Vice President have delivered.”

Shortly afterwards, Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh tweeted, “Honored to work for @VP every day. She’s focused on the #BuildBackBetter agenda and delivering results for the American people.”

“Proud to be on team @VP every single day,” Assistant Press Secretary Rachel Palermo wrote.

CNN reporters Edward-Isaac Dovere and Jasmine Wright published an article titled “Exasperation and dysfunction: Inside Kamala Harris’ frustrating start as vice president.” The article highlights repeated conflicts between Harris, her staff, and the White House.

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“But, with many sources speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the situation more frankly, they all tell roughly the same story: Harris’ staff has repeatedly failed her and left her exposed, and family members have often had an informal say within her office. Even some who have been asked for advice lament Harris’ overly cautious tendencies and staff problems, which have been a feature of every office she’s held, from San Francisco district attorney to U.S. Senate,” the reporters wrote.

Harris was recently panned for her overseas trip to France after visiting a COVID-19 lab in Paris where she apparently used a French accent. A recent poll showed Harris’ approval rating below Biden’s with a 28% approval rating among Americans.

Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/psaki-does-damage-control-for-kamala-harris-reputation-as-poll-numbers-plummet

Other recent polls have shown the first question vote within two or three percentage points, so the eight-percentage-point lead in this poll is surely a welcome sign for the governor.


The other very encouraging development for Newsom is that the partisan enthusiasm gap appears to be closing. Previously, Republicans were far more engaged with the recall and likelier to cast ballots, but in this poll, the party enthusiasm figures were similar.

83% of Republicans said they already sent in their ballots or were likely/certain to vote, and 81% of Democrats said the same. The previous SurveyUSA/San Diego Union-Tribune poll found that 84% Republicans were likely or certain to vote (ballots had not been sent out yet) compared to just 62% of Democrats who said the same.

The poll also changed the way it surveys voters on the recall ballot’s second question (which candidate should replace Newsom if he is recalled?) by offering the option of leaving the question blank as the California Democratic Party has directed. The pollster also included other Democratic candidates in the survey and found that support for YouTuber Kevin Paffrath — who received 27% support in the previous SurveyUSA poll — plummets once other Democrats are on the ballot.

With these changes, the poll found that 27% of voters who plan to vote on question two are backing conservative radio host Larry Elder. The next closest candidates are Paffrath and businessman John Cox, who received 6% support apiece. No other candidate received more than 5% support.

You can check out the full poll results from SurveyUSA.

Source Article from https://www.sfgate.com/gavin-newsom-recall/article/Gavin-Newsom-recall-poll-Elder-California-ballot-16426108.php

Agents in South Texas found a three-year-old immigrant boy wandering alone in a cornfield near the border early Tuesday, according to Customs and Border Protection.

The toddler was crying and in need of attention when agents from the Rio Grande Valley Sector discovered him near Brownsville on Tuesday morning.

The only piece of information found on the boy was a phone number and name written on the bottom of one of his shoes.

The boy’s nationality is unknown, but he is believed to have been part of a larger group that illegally crossed into the U.S. from Mexico and got separated from a person in the group.

The child was taken to a Border Patrol station and will be transferred to the Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for unaccompanied minor immigrants.

Agents have called the number on the boy’s shoe, but were not able to make contact as of Tuesday evening.

The Rio Grande Valley region has seen far more children arriving by themselves as well as families at the border since October than any of the other eight sectors. More than 15,000 unaccompanied children and 78,000 people traveling with family members have been apprehended since then, according to CBP data.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/border-patrol-finds-3-year-old-alone-by-mexico-border

Derechos de autor de la imagen
Facebook/Paul Horner

El escritor que llegó a la fama por diseminar noticias falsas durante la campaña para las elecciones de Estados Unidos en 2016 murió a los 38 años.

Paul Horner fue encontrado muerto en su cama en Laveen, Arizona, el 18 de septiembre después de una supuesta sobredosis de medicamentos, dijeron las autoridades.

Horner publicó artículos falsos en Facebook y sitios web que creó y declaró que él fue la razón por la que Donald Trump fue elegido presidente en noviembre de 2016.

Las noticias falsas fueron uno de los principales problemas durante y después de la pasada campaña electoral estadounidense.

Algunos analistas determinaron que esas historias fraudulentas influyeron en los votantes.

Entre las creaciones de Horner se encuentra la falsa afirmación de que el expresidente Barack Obama era homosexual y musulmán radical.

El hijo del presidente Trump, Eric, y su director de campaña, Corey Lewandowski, postearon una de sus noticias falsas sobre unos manifestantes que habían recibido un pago de US$3.000 para protestar contra el entonces candidato republicano.

“Humor y comedia”

Muchos de los sitios de internet creados por Horner, como newsexaminer.net, tenían nombres que sugerían legitimidad.

Sin embargo, Horner defendió su trabajo como “sátira política”.

Hay mucho humor y comedia en ello“, le dijo a CNN en diciembre. “Lo hago para intentar educar a la gente”.

Derechos de autor de la imagen
CNN/YouTube

Image caption

Hablando en la cadena estadounidense CNN, Paul Horner defendió su trabajo como “sátira política”

Su hermano, Jj Horner, publicó en Facebook que había fallecido mientras dormía en la casa de su madre, y lo describió como un genio de internet, humanitario, activista, filósofo y comediante”.

El portavoz del alguacil del condado de Maricopa, Mark Casey, confirmó más tarde su muerte y dijo que la autopsia no mostró signos de algo sucio.

Agregó que Horner tenía un historial de abuso de medicamentos y que las “evidencias en el lugar sugerían que puede haber sido una sobredosis accidental”.

“Odio a Trump”

Después de estar bajo presión, sitios como Facebook empezaron a trabajar con investigadores estadounidenses para rastrear a los autores de las noticias falsas en internet y establecer si pretendieron influir en los votantes.

Derechos de autor de la imagen
AFP/Getty Images

Image caption

El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, tiende a calificar las historias en los medios que no le gustan como “noticias falsas”.

En una entrevista con el Washington Post en noviembre, Horner dijo: “Creo que Trump está en la Casa Blanca gracias a mí”.

“Mis sitios fueron buscados por los seguidores de Trump todo el tiempo… Sus seguidores no verifican nada. Postean todo, creen todo”.

Pero cuestionado sobre si dirigió noticias falsas hacia los seguidores de Hillary Clinton para ayudar al republicano, contestó: “No. Yo odio a Donald Trump”.

Source Article from http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-41426119

The New York State Department of Health is urging parents to get all children who are 5 and older vaccinated, citing a jump in pediatric hospitalizations associated with the coronavirus.

Beginning the week of Dec. 5 through the current week, there has been a fourfold increase in Covid hospital admissions among children in New York City, where the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly, the department said in an advisory on Friday. About half were under the age of 5, and not eligible for vaccination.

The advisory did not give the specific number of New York City’s pediatric Covid hospitalizations, but state data shows that more than 50 children under the age of 5 were hospitalized with Covid across New York as of Thursday.

The jump in pediatric cases is evident in other states as well. The American Academy of Pediatrics reported last week that Covid cases were “extremely high” among those under the age of 18 across the country. Citing data as of Dec. 16, the academy said cases among those under 18 had risen by 170,000 for the prior week, an increase of nearly 28 percent since early December. Pediatric cases are higher than ever before in the Northeast and Midwest, the data show, and all regions of the country have significantly more such cases since schools reopened for in-person instruction this fall.

The New York State advisory reported that during the week that preceded Dec. 19, none of the 5- to 11-year-old Covid patients admitted to the hospital had been fully vaccinated. In the same period, one-fourth of the 12- to 17-year-old hospitalized Covid patients had been fully vaccinated. As of Friday, only 16 percent of the state’s children aged 5 to 11 were fully vaccinated, the advisory said, a proportion that rose to 64 percent for those aged 12 to 17.

“The risks of Covid-19 for children are real,” Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the acting state health commissioner, said in a statement. “We are alerting New Yorkers to this recent striking increase in pediatric Covid-19 admissions so that pediatricians, parents and guardians can take urgent action to protect our youngest New Yorkers. We must use all available safe and effective infection control, prevention and mitigation strategies.”

Overall, cases in the state have spiraled upward this month, driven by the fast-spreading Omicron variant. The new variant made up 92 percent of new cases in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate released Monday that grouped the four areas together. There were 32,591 new cases reported in New York on Friday, according to a New York Times database, a stark increase from the 6,644 reported on the last day of November.

Some public health officials are predicting a continued steep increase in Omicron cases over the next few weeks, followed by a steep decline, similar to South Africa’s experience with the variant.

Dr. Bassett said that parents could help shield children too young to be eligible for vaccination by ensuring that those around them have been vaccinated and received boosters, as well as by wearing masks, avoiding crowds and taking tests.

The department encouraged parents and guardians to be aware of common Covid symptoms in children, including fatigue, headache, trouble sleeping, muscle aches, a cough that becomes productive, sore throat, chills, nasal congestion and a new loss of taste or smell. If a member of the household is exposed to the coronavirus, the advisory said, children should also undergo testing, social distancing and quarantining.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/25/world/omicron-covid-vaccine-tests

DEKALB COUNTY, GA. — A triple shooting at a DeKalb County grocery store in Georgia has left a cashier dead and a deputy and the gunman injured, ABC affiliate WSB-TV reported.

The shooting happened Monday afternoon at the Big Bear grocery store along Candler Road.

The incident started when a man walked into the store and refused to put on a mask.

[Man arrested, accused of shooting outside AMC Theatres at Concord Mills]

“I have a friend who works in this store and I think it was her who got shot and it’s just really sad,” witness Marquisha White said. “I don’t know what the world is coming to — period.”

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the cashier told Victor Lee Tucker, Jr., 30, of Palmetto, to put on a mask and that’s when the chaos unfolded.

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“Tucker left the store without making his purchase, but immediately returned inside. Tucker walked directly back to the cashier, pulled out a handgun and shot her,” the GBI said in a news release.

“The deputy returned fire, shooting the suspect who has also been transported to a local hospital,” said DeKalb County Sherriff Melody Maddox.

The GBI said two DeKalb County police officers arrested Tucker as he was attempting to crawl out the front door of the store.

Fernandes spoke with owner of Big Bear, who did not give his name.

He said he hired and off-duty deputy to help enforce the mask policy at the store.

After Monday’s triple shooting, he said he may not allow customers to carry any guns inside the store anymore.

“How come they carry all the guns in a public place like that?” he asked, calling the practice “bad.”

People who frequent the store say the gunman is well known at Big Bear and they believe he may have some mental health issues.

Tucker was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital where he was last listed as being in stable condition.

Another cashier was also grazed by a bullet. She was treated at the scene.

The deputy was taken to Atlanta Medical Center where he was last listed as being in stable condition.

Source Article from https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/triple-shooting-over-masks-georgia-grocery-store-leaves-cashier-dead-deputy-man-injured/BUGEDLFUVVBXXLRET55FJC6ZEI/

Dr. Marc Harrison, like Colin Powell was, is fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

But, also like Powell, the Intermountain Healthcare CEO suffers from multiple myeloma — the blood cancer that likely left Powell vulnerable to COVID-19 before he died from the virus this week.

“For people with blood cancers — lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma — only about half of them respond to an mRNA vaccine,” Harrison said Monday, after Powell’s death. Powell, who served as a four-star Army general, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State under George W. Bush, died Monday from the coronavirus.

While the overwhelming majority of Americans dying from COVID-19 right now are unvaccinated, the virus still is claiming victims from the 2% of people who are immunocompromised by other conditions — such as cancer or organ transplants — as well as by drugs that treat other illnesses, like inflammatory bowel disease, Harrison said.

“Somebody is giving them COVID. Somebody is killing us,” Harrison said. “The surest way to decrease that is for people to get their vaccinations.”

Among the immunocompromised, the vaccine may well be protective, especially with a booster shot, Harrison said. But only about half of patients with blood cancer develop antibodies in response to the vaccine, he said — and only one-third of transplant recipients do.

Harrison, for example, only has one-tenth to one-twentieth of some types of immune cells that are needed for “an adequate immune system.”

“I guarantee you that everybody knows somebody out there like Gen. Powell or like me,” Harrison said. “The way herd immunity works is, we are relying on [others] to take good care of themselves and get vaccinated.”

Despite the state’s slightly-below-average vaccination rate, Utahns, Harrison said, are generally “charitable and good neighbors and very responsible.

“I can only believe that people must really just not understand if they are so cavalier. … I can’t imagine they don’t care about one out of every 50 people.”

With about two-thirds of eligible Utahns fully vaccinated, Harrison remains vigilant about who he has contact with, frequently masking and asking others’ vaccine status.

But at one recent public meeting, Harrison said, he found himself in a large group of people who were not masking and were not vaccinated. His risks are so elevated that simply being in the room made him eligible for monoclonal antibodies — an effective but limited-supply treatment typically given to high-risk patients who have contracted the virus but have not yet developed serious symptoms.

“It did make me feel not very valued that people are putting their own convenience ahead of my own life and death,” Harrison said.

He declined to specify the meeting. At an August news conference, Harrison urged Utahns to wear masks in public settings, get vaccinated, stop the spread of misinformation, and “put your virtual arms around” health care workers. After a bone marrow transplant and experimental CAR T-cell therapy, his cancer has been in remission.

Source Article from https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/10/19/were-all-very-much-risk/

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Los damnificados indicaron que no tuvieron tiempo de intentar escapar.

“Un terremoto siempre puede matar, también uno puede morir cruzando la calle, pero si cruza con los ojos cerrados corre más riegos”.

El ingeniero Enrique García, experto en daño sísmico consultado por BBC Mundo menos de 24 horas después del sismo de magnitud 7,8 en Ecuador, se refiere así a los problemas en el sector de la construcción que tuvieron una consecuencia directa en los más más de 600 muertos que dejó.

Tras sus primeras visitas a las zonas afectadas, el presidente Rafael Correa admitió que muchos edificios se habían derrumbado “por mala construcción”.

Correa recordó que tras los terremotos de Chile y de Haití, Ecuador implementó normas de construcción “mucho más fuertes”. De ahí surgió la Norma Ecuatoriana de Construcción (NEC).

Consultado por BBC Mundo, el ingeniero estructural Fabián Carrasco indicó que la norma ecuatoriana es buena, pero agregó que en el país no se cumplen ni los códigos ni las normas.

“Los permisos de construcción dependen de cada municipio. Algunos exigen la intervención de un ingeniero estructural a partir de un determinado número de pisos, otros no, pero esto sólo es en el estudio de los planos, luego no hay nadie que supervise la construcción”, dijo.

Para Enrique García, éste es uno de los pecados de la construcción en Ecuador. Otros son la informalidad (las construcciones quedan a cargo de maestros de obra y no de ingenieros o arquitectos), la falta de control de la calidad de los materiales y la ausencia de diseños sísmicos adecuados.

BBC Mundo recorrió las zonas afectadas con un arquitecto para analizar los errores de los edificios colapsados y los aciertos de las construcciones que no cayeron.

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El arquitecto Fausto Cardoso observa bloques destruidos.

Primera parada: Manta

El puerto más importante de Ecuador presenta un aspecto desolador, con edificios emblemáticos en estado inservible, pero para un ingeniero estructural, lo importante no es si un inmueble sufre daños irreparables o no: lo importante es que no se derrumbe y se lleve vidas en su caída.

Esto ocurrió con varias casas de Manta que simplemente cayeron sobre sí mismas o se inclinaron violentamente debido a que las bases no pudieron soportar a las plantas superiores.

BBC Mundo se detuvo frente a dos de estas construcciones –una casa particular y un local comercial– y consultó al arquitecto Fausto Cardoso sobre las posibles causas del colapso.

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Este local comercial sufrió la caída de los pisos superiores.

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Una buena estructura debe evitar el colapso del inmueble, a diferencia de lo que sucedió con esta casa.

“A primera vista hay un peso muy grande en la parte superior y las estructuras no son lo suficientemente sólidas para sostenerla. El sentido común en zonas sísmicas indica que los elementos más pesados deben estar abajo y conforme vas elevando la construcción tienes que ir aligerando el peso“, comenta Cardoso.

“Aquí vemos lo contrario: se colocan losas de hormigón arriba y estructuras frágiles abajo, en el medio columnas pequeñas que cumplen una función estética y no soportante. Se gasta mucho en los ornamentos del edificio, pero se descuida la seguridad”.

El otro elemento clave es el uso adecuado de los materiales: una buena cantidad de hierro para la cohesión de la estructura y el uso de arena de minas o ríos, nunca de mar.

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La cantidad de hierro utilizado, su grosor y el hecho de que sea corrugado o liso puede determinar la supervivencia o no de la estructura.

Pero al escuchar este último dato, muchos de los vecinos de la casa derrumbada señalaron que la mayoría de las casas de Manta obtenían su arena de las playas.

“La arena del mar no es buena para construir debido a que la sal daña el hormigón y termina corroyendo el hierro“, responde el arquitecto.

Uno de los tertulianos que observaba las construcciones caídas, Julio Bermúdez, opina desde su experiencia como trabajador de la construcción que en Ecuador se construye sin técnica.

“Igual este terremoto en cualquier parte del mundo te tiraba casas abajo, pero hay casas que aguantaron porque las construyeron de forma más consciente. Muchas personas, para ahorrar dinero, ahorran materiales. O son inescrupulosos los maestros contratistas y ponen materiales de menor calidad. Eso no es sólo en Manta, sino en todo el Ecuador”.

Segunda parada: Bahía de Caráquez

A la entrada al malecón de esta ciudad costera encontramos una casa antigua que estaba a punto de ser declarada bien patrimonial y aún se sostiene en pie. ¿Sus materiales? Madera y caña.

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La antigua casa debe tener entre 80 y 100 años.

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Sus materiales livianos la mantuvieron en pie pero también colaboró el buen trabajo elaborado en madera.

“Cada lugar desarrolla una tecnología de acuerdo con el material que tiene. Estos elementos tienen la ventaja de ser muy livianos. Se mueven con el sismo y regresan a su posición original, disipando la energía”, señala el arquitecto Cardoso que al ser también restaurador, siente pasión por las antiguas técnicas de construcción.

Por eso se lamenta al ver cómo, a pocas cuadras, el derrumbe de una casa de cemento y hormigón, afectó las paredes de casas de madera vecinas.

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Según los vecinos, dos personas fueron halladas sin vida en esta casa.

Para el arquitecto, no hay que tampoco “satanizar” el cemento, ya que toda tecnología se puede utilizar de forma responsable. Pone como ejemplo entonces el Museo de Bahía de Caráquez, cuya fachada sufrió daños pero su estructura se mantuvo intacta.

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El museo de Bahía de Caráquez resultó seriamente dañado pero no colapsó.

Cardoso considera que la informalidad en la construcción va a continuar una vez que se olviden los efectos del terremoto, por lo que –en su opinión– el Estado debería alentar el regreso a la arquitectura vernácula, con materiales propios de la región, en vez de permitir peligrosas construcciones en cemento de varios pisos que no cumplen con las normas adecuadas.

Pero esto no sería suficiente. Los ingenieros estructurales recuerdan que si la gente levanta casas en lugares inadecuados como orillas de los ríos, quebradas y pendientes, el efecto benefactor de los materiales livianos queda anulado por la mala ubicación de la construcción.

Tercera parada: San Vicente

La pequeña ciudad ubicada frente a Bahía de Caráquez está unida a su vecina mayor por un puente que, al menos a primera vista, no parece haber sufrido ninguna “herida” en el terremoto.

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A pesar de los rumores que corrieron en las primeras horas, el puente nunca dejó de unir las dos orillas

Aquí una construcción llama la atención del arquitecto. De ella salen hierros como chorros de agua expulsados por una fuente. Cardoso los llama “los hierros de la esperanza”.

“Es tanto un fenómeno ecuatoriano como latinoamericano. La gente empieza una obra con la esperanza de añadir nuevos pisos en el futuro”.

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Los hierros “de la esperanza” se oxidan en las zonas costeras.

“Entonces construyen los cimientos con una pequeña estructura de hormigón, cierran las paredes, funden una losa en la primera planta para usarla como cubierta y lanzan un sistema de hierros para unirse a los futuros pisos”.

El problema es que en la costa, la brisa marina oxida los hierros, dañando la mayor conexión que tendrán esas diferentes plantas en el futuro.

“Si a esto sumamos los problemas de la calidad del material y las sales que entran en el hormigón al usar arena de mar, entonces estamos creando un coctail de arquitectura tremendamente peligroso cuando hay un riesgo sísmico”, concluyó Cardoso.

Cuarta parada: Canoa

Al ingresar a uno de los centros turísticos por excelencia de la costa ecuatoriana, la primera reacción de los viajeros es comprobar el estado de la estructura hotelera, ya que de ello depende el futuro de Canoa.

Había edificios que pensabas que se iban a caer sin necesidad de un terremoto. Un día que soplara un poco de viento se iban a caer”

En este censo improvisado de hoteles, uno de los primeros destinos presenta una postal muy poco optimista: el Royal Pacific ha perdido toda la planta baja debido al colapso de su estructura causando, según dice un vecino que vive en frente, la muerte de seis personas.

“No podemos saber a ciencia cierta qué sucedió. Se nota que hay mucho hierro, pero el hierro y el hormigón no trabajaron juntos. El edificio se cayó sobre sí mismo, la estructura se mantuvo pero la base no resistió”, indicó Cardoso.

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Los vecinos indican que más de cinco personas murieron en este hotel.

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Los rescatistas han buscado varias veces entre sus ruinas.

El Royal Pacific recuerda en su caída al clásico videojuego del Tetris, en el que las piezas desaparecían al llegar a la superficie. La primera planta ha sido completamente aplastada por los pisos superiores.

Pero a dos cuadras de este hotel se levanta otro que no presenta grietas, como si la estructura no se hubiese enterado de que hubo un terremoto o el sismo hubiera elegido perdonarle la vida.

Los dueños del Amalur son dos españoles, Diego San José y Lorena Rojo, y el secreto de su éxito no tiene secretos.

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Este hotel sobrevivió al colapso general.

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Los dueños del Amalur contaron que pusieron especial atención a los cimientos.

“Nosotros nos tardamos dos meses en los cimientos, otros se apuran para comenzar lo más rápido con el negocio y no hacen una buena cimentación“, dice Diego.

“Mucha gente usa arena de la playa y es salina y se va comiendo el hierro. Nosotros usamos arena del río, lavada y tamizada. Mira el tamaño de nuestras columnas. Y sólo hemos levantado un piso. La base del hotel es de hormigón y la parte de arriba es madera y bambú”, acota Lorena.

La descripción de lo que ocurría con algunas construcciones en Canoa que exponen ambos es desoladora: “Acá presentaban el plano de un piso y luego construían cinco y nadie se daba cuenta. Había edificios que pensabas que se iban a caer sin necesidad de un terremoto. Un día que soplara un poco de viento se iban a caer”.

Esto a pesar de que en 1998 hubo un terremoto que afectó Bahía de Caráquez y Canoa.

Aunque el presidente Correa expresó su deseo de que se aprenda la lección “de esta dolorosísima experiencia”, el experto en daños sísmicos Enrique García no es muy optimista.

“En el 2008 hubo un congreso en Bahía de Caráquez para determinar qué habíamos aprendido del sismo del 98 y mira lo que pasó ahora. Se van a tomar algunas medidas pero yo creo que esto en un año se olvida“.

Source Article from http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2016/04/160422_ecuador_terremoto_problemas_construcciones_arquitectura_ab

If New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo doesn’t resign following the state attorney general’s report this week that found the governor had sexually harassed 11 women, a majority of state Assembly members are reportedly prepared to start impeachment proceedings. 

At least 86 Assembly members – more than half the total of 150 – have either publicly said or told The Associated Press they would be in favor of taking that step to remove Cuomo in the wake of the latest bombshell against him. 

Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation began after several women came forward to accuse Cuomo of harassment earlier this year. 

As recently as last year, Cuomo was a prominent voice in the Democratic Party and lauded for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but the tidal wave of allegations and accusations he downplayed the number of coronavirus nursing home deaths has left him with few supporters. 

TIME’S UP CO-FOUNDERS HELPED GOV. CUOMO IN DRAFTING LETTER ATTACKING ACCUSER LINDSEY BOYLAN: AG REPORT

State Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Democrat, called on the assembly to return to session “immediately” to begin impeachment proceedings.

“There is no measure left to hide the truth. The governor broke the law so we must hold him accountable,” Kim said in a statement. 

“There is no measure left to hide the truth. The governor broke the law so we must hold him accountable.”

— Ron Kim, New York state assemblyman

New York state Assemblyman Ron Kim, left, has been a vocal critic of embattled New Yorkl Gov. Andrew Cuomo (AP/ Reuters)

“When institutions fail to believe victims, allow predators to act with impunity, or fail to put policies of protection in place, it sends a strong signal that condones this type of unacceptable behavior. We cannot afford to ignore his transgressions any longer: doing so will erode the integrity of our legislative body and demonstrate complicity in sheltering a sexual predator.”

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, said in a statement: “As I said, when these disturbing allegations first came to light, the governor must resign for the good of the state. Now that the investigation is complete and the allegations have been substantiated, it should be clear to everyone that he can no longer serve as governor.”

“It should be clear to everyone that he can no longer serve as governor.”

— Andrea Stewart-Cousins, New York state Senate majority leader 

New York state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins speaks in New York City, June 12, 2020. (Reuters)

Prominent Democrats at the national and state level, including President Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and both of New York’s U.S. senators, have called for Cuomo to resign. The report found Cuomo engaged in “unwanted groping, kissing, and hugging,” made inappropriate remarks toward staffers and oversaw a workplace culture “rife with fear and intimidation.”

CUOMO SEXUALLY HARASSED MULTIPLE WOMEN IN VIOLATION OF STATE AND FEDERAL LAW, NY AG FINDS

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday, “The president believes Governor Cuomo should do the right thing, resign, and leave space for future leadership in New York,” Psaki said.

One of the governor’s closest allies, New York Democratic Party chairperson Jay Jacobs, declared that Cuomo “has lost his ability to govern, both practically and morally.” Jacobs told Spectrum News he had tried privately to persuade Cuomo to resign but “wasn’t making headway.”

Cuomo, in his third term, denied many of the allegations written in the report on Tuesday and claimed others were mischaracterized or misconstrued. He said “politics and bias” were interwoven throughout the report. 

Assembly Democrats, who lead the chamber, debated virtually for hours Tuesday about whether to impeach the governor now, wait to see whether he resigns, or give the Judiciary Committee time to wrap up its wide-ranging investigation into topics from sexual misconduct to the Cuomo administration’s months-long obfuscation of the total number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19.

At least 40 Democrats back starting impeachment proceedings if Cuomo doesn’t leave on his own. The assembly includes 106 Democrats, 43 Republicans and one Independent.

It takes a simple majority to authorize an impeachment trial.

Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay urged Democratic Speaker Carl Heastie this week to convene an emergency special session to vote to impeach Cuomo and Hestie said he wants to conclude the body’s investigation quickly.

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Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris told The Associated Press the Assembly has been preparing for an impeachment trial for months that could start in the next few weeks. 

“We’ll be ready to go if and when the impeachment articles are sent over,” he said. “It could happen very quickly.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cuomo-facing-impeachment-votes-from-majority-of-ny-assembly-if-he-doesnt-resign-report


En una sentencia en la que determinó que la Nación tiene la obligación de garantizar la seguridad de sus asociados frente a actos terroristas, pues es “utópico pretender que los ciudadanos tienen el deber de soportar las cargas que su ocurrencia implica”, la Sección Tercera del Consejo de Estado declaró a aquélla patrimonialmente responsable de los daños ocasionados a una congregación religiosa perteneciente a la comunidad de la Madre Laura, tras la destrucción de su convento en un ataque perpetrado en Caldono (Cauca) por guerrilleros de las Farc, en 1999.

El fallo resulta interesante, además, porque al estudiar el acápite de las pruebas aportadas por los demandantes el tribunal precisó que “en relación con la valoración de los recortes de prensa o periódicos que fueron allegados como prueba, se hace necesario reiterar que las noticias difundidas en medios escritos, verbales, o televisivos, en términos probatorios, en principio no dan fe de la ocurrencia de los hechos en ellos contenidos, sino simplemente, de la existencia de la noticia o de la información; por consiguiente, no es posible dar fuerza de convicción a dichos documentos, en tanto que a partir de los mismos no se puede derivar certeza sobre el acaecimiento y las condiciones de tiempo, modo y lugar de los sucesos allí reseñados”.

Con ponencia del consejero Enrique Gil Botero, el Consejo de Estado reiteró una jurisprudencia reciente de la Sala Plena y recordó que “conforme el artículo 175 del Código de Procedimiento Civil y a lo que ha sostenido la doctrina procesal, la publicación periodística que realice cualquiera de los medios de comunicación puede ser considerada prueba documental. Sin embargo, en principio sólo representa valor secundario de acreditación del hecho en tanto por sí sola, únicamente demuestra el registro mediático de los hechos. Carece de la entidad suficiente para probar en sí misma la existencia y veracidad de la situación que narra y/o describe. Su eficacia como plena prueba depende de su conexidad y su coincidencia con otros elementos probatorios que obren en el expediente”.

En ese sentido comentó que las noticias, los reportajes o las crónicas, considerados individual e independientemente, no pueden constituir el único sustento de la decisión del juez. “En la jurisprudencia de esta Corporación existen precedentes que concuerdan con esta posición. Se ha estimado que las publicaciones periodísticas (…) son indicadores sólo de la percepción del hecho por parte de la persona que escribió la noticia”, y que si bien “son susceptibles de ser apreciadas como medio probatorio, en cuanto a la existencia de la noticia y de su inserción en medio representativo (periódico, televisión, internet, etc.) no dan fe de la veracidad y certidumbre de la información que contienen”. Lo anterior equivale a que cualquier género periodístico que relate un hecho (reportajes, noticias, crónicas, etc.), en el campo probatorio sólo puede servir “como indicador para el juez, quien a partir de ello, en concurrencia con otras pruebas regular y oportunamente allegadas al proceso, podría llegar a constatar la certeza de los hechos”.

En ese contexto, las noticias o informaciones que los medios de comunicación obtengan y que publiquen como reportaje de una declaración, no pueden considerarse por sí solas con el carácter de testimonio sobre la materia que es motivo del respectivo proceso, consigna el fallo.

En relación con este último punto, el Consejo de Estado ha indicado que “las informaciones publicadas en diarios no pueden considerarse dentro de un proceso como prueba testimonial porque carecen de los requisitos esenciales que identifican este medio de prueba, en particular porque no son suministradas ante un funcionario judicial, no son rendidos bajo la solemnidad del juramento, ni el comunicador da cuenta de la razón de la ciencia de su dicho”, por cuanto es sabido que el periodista “tiene el derecho de reservarse sus fuentes”.

Así las cosas, concluye el Consejo de Estado, se tiene que no es posible dar convicción a la información difundida en los diferentes medios de comunicación, en cuanto se relacionan con la configuración del daño antijurídico y su imputación, ya que a partir de los mismos no se puede derivar certeza sobre el acaecimiento y las condiciones de tiempo, modo y lugar de los sucesos allí reseñados. Sin que ello suponga desconocer la fuerza probatoria que revisten los recortes de prensa. 

ravila@elespectador.com

Source Article from http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/nacional/noticias-no-son-pruebas-articulo-485288

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/24/poll-views-gun-laws-after-atlanta-boulder-show-even-deeper-divide/6963810002/


Nearly 6 in 10 voters, 57 percent, disapprove of the job President Donald Trump is doing, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

White House

Despite the slide to 39 percent, there is little support for using impeachment to remove the president.

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped 5 points, equaling his presidency’s low-water mark, since last week’s release of the special counsel report into the 2016 election, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

Despite his sinking poll numbers, however, there is little support for removing Trump through the impeachment process, the poll shows.

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Only 39 percent of voters surveyed in the new poll, which was conducted Friday through Sunday, approve of the job Trump is doing as president. That is down from 44 percent last week and ties Trump’s lowest-ever approval rating in POLITICO/Morning Consult polling — a 39 percent rating in mid-August 2017, in the wake of violence in Charlottesville, Va.

Nearly 6 in 10 voters, 57 percent, disapprove of the job Trump is doing.

But while views of Trump have tumbled since the publication of Robert Muller’s redacted report, so has support for impeaching him. Only 34 percent of voters believe Congress should begin impeachment proceedings to remove the president from office, down from 39 percent in January. Nearly half, 48 percent, say Congress should not begin impeachment proceedings.

The split decision in public opinion — a decline in views of Trump’s job performance but fewer voters wanting Congress to pursue impeachment — mirrors the report itself, which clears Trump and his campaign of criminally conspiring with the Russian government to boost his election but which documents numerous, examples of Trump’s efforts to stymie the investigation.

“President Trump’s approval rating has dipped to its lowest point of his term in the immediate aftermath of the redacted Mueller report release,” said Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult’s vice president. “This week, 57 percent of voters disapprove, and 39 percent approve of the president’s performance — a net approval rating of –18 percentage points, compared with 55 percent who disapproved and 42 percent who approved — a net approval rating of –13 percentage points — one month ago in the aftermath of Attorney General [William] Barr’s summary of the Mueller report to Congress.”

While the report is damaging to Trump in the short term — other post-report polls also show decreases in Trump’s approval rating — it could also paint Democrats into a corner on impeachment. Mueller seemingly kicks the obstruction of justice case on Trump to Congress, and the Democratic-led House is squeezed between a majority of Democratic voters who want impeachment, 59 percent, and slightly more than a third of the electorate that agrees.

For now, most Democrats are treading lightly. In a letter to her Democratic colleagues on Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that her conference’s positions “range from proceeding to investigate the findings of the Mueller report or proceeding directly to impeachment.” And most of the party’s presidential hopefuls have steered clear of impeachment, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) being the highest-profile candidate to take the impeachment plunge thus far.

While Democrats in Congress are split on impeachment, most party leaders, including Pelosi, are calling for the House to pull on some of the investigative threads in the Mueller report. Voters are split on whether Congress should continue to investigate whether Trump or his campaign associates and staffers obstructed the investigation: Forty-three percent say Congress should continue to investigate, while 41 percent say it should not.

Nearly three in four Democrats, 73 percent, want Congress to keep investigating, more than the 59 percent who want Congress to begin impeachment proceedings. Most notably, independents are split, 39 percent to 37 percent, on whether Congress should keep investigating — but just 31 percent of independents support beginning impeachment proceedings, compared with 44 percent who oppose impeachment.

As for the report itself, roughly a third of voters, 32 percent, say they have seen, read or heard “a lot about it,” while another third, 34 percent, have seen, read or heard “some” about it. The remaining 34 percent haven’t seen much about it or anything at all.

Among those voters who have seen, read or heard at least something about the release of the Mueller report, only 28 percent say they actually read any of the redacted report. Most of them, 73 percent, say they followed news coverage about it.

A plurality of voters, 46 percent, think the investigation into Russia’s influence on the 2016 presidential election was handled fairly, while 29 percent think it was handled unfairly. There is rare partisan agreement on this question: Forty-eight percent of Democratic voters, 46 percent of Republicans and 43 percent of independents say they think the investigation was handled fairly.

Despite positive grades for the Justice Department, Barr earns lower marks for his handling of the release of information from the Mueller-led investigation. Only three in 10 voters, 30 percent, approve of the way Barr handled the case — less than the 37 percent who disapprove.

Voters were also unsure whether Barr accurately described the contents of Mueller’s report before its release, with 32 percent saying Barr described it very or somewhat accurately, 32 percent saying he didn’t describe it accurately and 35 percent undecided.

Despite Mueller’s report, which “did not establish that the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” voters are still split on the question. More than 4 in 10, 41 percent, say they think Trump’s campaign worked with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. The same percentage, 41 percent, say they don’t think Trump’s campaign worked with Russia. The remaining 18 percent have no opinion.

The results on this question are little changed over the past six weeks. In mid-March, before Barr’s letter to Congress after he received the report, 43 percent thought Trump worked with Russia, while 37 percent did not. Three weeks ago, between Barr’s letter and the release of the report, the percentage of voters who thought Trump’s campaign worked with Russia had ticked down to 40 percent, while 43 percent did not think his campaign worked with Russia.

While voters are divided on whether Trump’s campaign worked with Russia, only 28 percent say they think Mueller found evidence that Trump or his campaign conspired with Russia — though just a 43 percent plurality say Mueller found no evidence of coordination. Three in 10 voters are unsure.

There is greater agreement on whether Trump tried to impede or obstruct the investigation. A plurality, 47 percent, say he did, while just 34 percent say he didn’t. Nearly 2 in 10 voters, 18 percent, have no opinion.

But many voters appear confused about what Mueller found in his report. Two in 10, 20 percent, say Mueller found that Trump obstructed the investigation, while 16 percent say Mueller found that he didn’t. A plurality, 37 percent, say correctly that Mueller did not make a determination on whether Trump obstructed the investigation, but 27 percent are unsure.

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll surveyed 1,992 voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: https://politi.co/2Prrf5R | Crosstabs: https://politi.co/2vgx8cK

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/22/trump-approval-mueller-report-1286386

Deadly tensions between India and Pakistan are boiling over in Kashmir, a disputed territory at the northern border of each country.

A regional conflict is worrisome enough, but climate scientists warn that if either country launches just a portion of its nuclear weapons, the situation might escalate into a global environmental and humanitarian catastrophe.

On February 14, a suicide bomber killed at least 40 Indian troops in a convoy traveling through Kashmir. A militant group based in Pakistan called Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the attack. India responded by launching airstrikes against its neighbor — the first in roughly 50 years — and Pakistan has said it shot down two Indian fighter jets and captured one of the pilots.

Both countries possess about 140 to 150 nuclear weapons. Though nuclear conflict is unlikely, Pakistani leaders have said their military is preparing for “all eventualities.” The country has also assembled its group responsible for making decisions on nuclear strikes.

“This is the premier nuclear flashpoint in the world,” Ben Rhodes, a political commentator, said on Wednesday’s episode of the “Pod Save the World” podcast.

For that reason, climate scientists have modeled how an exchange of nuclear weapons between the two countries — what is technically called a limited regional nuclear war — might affect the world.

Read more: Here’s why India and Pakistan are at each other’s throats again — and why the stakes are so high

Though the explosions would be local, the ramifications would be global, that research concluded. The ozone layer could be crippled and Earth’s climate may cool for years, triggering crop and fishery losses that would result in what the researchers called a “global nuclear famine.”

“The danger of nuclear winter has been under-understood — poorly understood — by both policymakers and the public,” Michael Mills, a researcher at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, told Business Insider. “It has reached a point where we found that nuclear weapons are largely unusable because of the global impacts.”

Why a ‘small’ nuclear war could ravage Earth

A Pakistani NASR missile battery, which can launch small “tactical” nuclear weapons.
Anjum Naveed/AP

When a nuclear weapon explodes, its effects extend beyond the structure-toppling blast wave, blinding fireball, and mushroom cloud. Nuclear detonations close to the ground, for example, can spread radioactive debris called fallout for hundreds of miles.

But the most frightening effect is intense heat that can ignite structures for miles around. Those fires, if they occur in industrial areas or densely populated cities, can lead to a frightening phenomenon called a firestorm.

“These firestorms release many times the energy stored in nuclear weapons themselves,” Mills said. “They basically create their own weather and pull things into them, burning all of it.”

Mills helped model the outcome of an India-Pakistan nuclear war in a 2014 study. In that scenario, each country exchanges 50 weapons, less than half of its arsenal. Each of those weapons is capable of triggering a Hiroshima-size explosion, or about 15 kilotons’ worth of TNT.

The model suggested those explosions would release about 5 million tons of smoke into the air, triggering a decades-long nuclear winter.

The effects of this nuclear conflict would eliminate 20% to 50% of the ozone layer over populated areas. Surface temperatures would become colder than they’ve been for at least 1,000 years.

The bombs in the researchers’ scenario are about as powerful as the Little Boy nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, enough to devastate a city. But that’s far weaker than many weapons that exist today. The latest device North Korea tested was estimated to be about 10 times as powerful as Little Boy. The US and Russia each possess weapons 1,000 times as powerful.

Still, the number of weapons used is more important than strength, according to the calculations in this study.

How firestorms would wreck the climate

The city of Dresden in 1946, about a year after allied troops firebombed the city.
AP Photo/James Pringle

Most of the smoke in the scenario the researchers considered would come from firestorms that would tear through buildings, vehicles, fuel depots, vegetation, and more. This smoke would rise through the troposphere (the atmospheric zone closest to the ground), and particles would then be deposited in a higher layer called the stratosphere. From there, tiny black-carbon aerosols could spread around the globe.

“The lifetime of a smoke particle in the stratosphere is about five years. In the troposphere, the lifetime is one week,” Alan Robock, a climate scientist at Rutgers University who worked on the study, told Business Insider. “So in the stratosphere, the lifetime of smoke particles is much longer, which gives it 250 times the impact.”

The fine soot would cause the stratosphere, normally below freezing, to be dozens of degrees warmer than usual for five years. It would take two decades for conditions to return to normal.

This would cause ozone loss “on a scale never observed,” the study said. That ozone damage would consequently allow harmful amounts of ultraviolet radiation from the sun to reach the ground, hurting crops and humans, harming ocean plankton, and affecting vulnerable species all over the planet.

But it gets worse: Earth’s ecosystems would also be threatened by suddenly colder temperatures.

Change in surface temperature (K) for (a) June to August and (b) December to February. Values are five- year seasonal averages.
Earth’s Future/Michael J. Mills et al.

The fine black soot in the stratosphere would prevent some sun from reaching the ground. The researchers calculated that average temperatures around the world would drop by about 1.5 degrees Celsius over the five years following the nuclear blasts.

In populated areas of North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, changes could be more extreme (as illustrated in the graphic above). Winters there would be about 2.5 degrees colder and summers between 1 and 4 degrees colder, reducing critical growing seasons by 10 to 40 days. Expanded sea ice would also prolong the cooling process, since ice reflects sunlight away.

“It’d be cold and dark and dry on the ground, and that’d affect plants,” Robock said. “This is something everybody should be concerned about because of the potential global effects.”

Read more: 8 horrifying ways the Earth could end

The change in ocean temperatures could devastate sea life and fisheries that much of the world relies on for food. Such sudden blows to the food supply and the “ensuing panic” could cause “a global nuclear famine,” according to the study’s authors.

Temperatures wouldn’t return to normal for more than 25 years.

The effects might be much worse than previously thought

An Indian air force Mirage 2000 fighter jet.
Public Domain

Robock is working on new models of nuclear-winter scenarios; his team was awarded a nearly $3 million grant from the Open Philanthropy Project to do so.

“You’d think the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies would fund this research, but they didn’t and had no interest,” he said.

Since his earlier modeling work, Robock said, the potential effects of a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan have gotten worse. That’s because India and Pakistan now have more nuclear weapons, and their cities have grown.

“It could be about five times worse than what we’ve previously calculated,” he said.

Because of his intimate knowledge of the potential consequences, Robock advocates the reduction of nuclear arsenals around the world. He said he thinks Russia and the US — which has nearly 7,000 nuclear weapons — are in a unique position to lead the way.

Read more: About 14,525 nuclear weapons exist today in the arsenals of these 9 nations

“Why don’t the US and Russia each get down to 200? That’s a first step,” Robock said.

“If President Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize, he should get rid of land-based missiles, which are on hair-trigger alert, because we don’t need them,” he added. “That’s how he’ll get a peace prize — not by saying we have more than anyone else.”

Kevin Loria contributed reporting to a previous version of this article. Alex Lockie also contributed to this post.

Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/india-pakistan-kashmir-nuclear-weapons-climate-cooling-2019-2

FALMOUTH, England – At what President Joe Biden calls a “defining” time for democracy, he makes his first international trip for the G-7 summit with a packed agenda.

Among the highlights: getting the global economy back on track in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that is still firmly entrenched in most parts of the world; climate change; defense and security; and easier – though no less important – talking about the solidarity, multilateralism and shared democratic values that many close European allies felt had all but vanished under former President Donald Trump’s administration. 

“This is a defining question of our time: Can democracies come together to deliver real results for our people in a rapidly changing world? Will the democratic alliances and institutions that shaped so much of the last century prove their capacity against modern-day threats and adversaries? I believe the answer is yes. And this week in Europe, we have the chance to prove it,” Biden wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.

Biden will participate in the in the G-7 summit in Cornwall, England, NATO in Brussels,  followed by a highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a leader he actively dislikes, in Geneva.

Biden will announce that the U.S. will purchase and donate 500 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to 92 low and lower middle-income countries and the African Union. The shots will be distributed through the global vaccine alliance known as COVAX, with 200 million to be shared this year and the remaining 300 million to be donated through the first half of 2022. 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/06/10/biden-meet-g-7-nato-allies-defining-moment-democracy/5288083001/