TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Tens of thousands of grieving and angry Israelis surged into the streets Sunday night after six more hostages were found dead in Gaza, chanting “Now! Now!” as they demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a cease-fire with Hamas to bring the remaining captives home.
The mass outpouring appeared to be the largest such demonstration in 11 months of war and protesters said it felt like a possible turning point, although the country is deeply divided.
Israel’s largest trade union, the Histadrut, further pressured the government by calling a general strike for Monday, the first since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the war. It aims to shut down or disrupt major sectors of the economy, including banking, health care and the country’s main airport. (snip-MORE)
(Meanwhile, democracy in Israel doesn’t seem to be the system anymore, US Republicans’s statements regardless-) (This narrative runs current to the top. There’s a good feature at the bottom here.)
Arnon Bar-David, the chair of Histadrut Labour Federation, Israel’s main trade union which launched the strike, said he respects the decision by the labour court to end the strike at 14:30 (local time) 12.30 BST, according to the Times of Israel.
It reports him saying in a statement:
It is important to emphasise that the solidarity strike was a significant measure and I stand behind it. Despite the attempts to paint solidarity as political, hundreds of thousands of citizens voted with their feet.
I thank every one of you – you proved that the fate of the hostages is not right-wing or left-wing, there is only life or death, and we won’t allow life to be abandoned.
Meanwhile, the newspaper reports that the Hostages and Missing Families Forum encourages the public to continue the demonstrations despite the ruling. “This is not about a strike, this is about rescuing the 101 hostages that were abandoned by [prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu with the cabinet decision last Thursday,” the forum says, referring to the vote by ministers backing the IDF’s continued presence on the Philadelphi Corridor.Share
The labour court’s ruling that today’s strike must end was welcomed by Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich.
In a post on X, Smotrich praised the decision to end what he called a “political and illegal strike.”
The Times of Israel reports he said in his statement that Israelis went to work today “in droves,” proving they are no longer slaves to “political needs.”
He added: “We won’t allow harm to the Israeli economy and thereby serve the interests of [Yahya] Sinwar and Hamas.”
‘Strike was not as powerful as people expected’ – dispatch from Tel Aviv
Julian Borger
Julian Borger is the Guardian’s world affairs editor
Tel Aviv this morning did not feel like a society about to bring its government down.
The debris had been removed from last night’s demonstration on the Ayalon Highway, the motorway which passes through the city centre, and traffic was moving normally.
Protesters stopped traffic at a couple of junctions around the city but for the most part, the traffic flowed. The national rail line was working, though some buses and light railway lines stopped.
Private companies gave their staff the day off, but it was more in the spirit of some sombre holiday rather than the start of an existential struggle with the government.
Ben Gurion airport only closed for a few hours, and it was announced that the whole general strike would end at 6pm. It is not government-ending stuff.
Travellers line up at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. Photograph: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
The mood can best be described as bitterly realistic on Hostages Square, the name given to the plaza between the national library and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, where hostage families and their supporters gather every day.
“I’m not sure the strike was as powerful as people expected,” said Debbie Mason, a social worker for the Eshkol regional council, the area of southern Israel abutting Gaza.
She made a distinction between what she hoped would happen and what she believed would happen, the latter being that nothing would change for the hostages.
“Unfortunately, there are too many things that are going to obstruct a deal, whether it’s on our side, whether it’s on Hamas’ side, it just doesn’t seem to be in anyone’s interest, that something should happen,” Mason said.
Hostage Square, established in the plaza between the National Library, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Tel Aviv District Court. Buses arrive here daily with youth groups from the kibbutzes, moshavs and towns from the area of southern Israel invaded by Hamas on 7 October 2023. Photograph: Julian Borger/The Guardian
Rayah Karmin, who comes from Mabu’im, a village near Netivot, near the Gaza border, agreed that a one-day strike would change little.
“Only a longer strike will make the people in government understand that the economy of Israel is going to go down,” Karmin, a vitamin supplement salesperson, said.
She pointed out that all the demonstrations and strikes were up against an immovable political fact. If a ceasefire is agreed, the far-right members of the coalition, notably Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, will walk out and the government will fall.
“Smotrich and Ben-Gvir will leave Netanyahu, and then he will be without a coalition, and he will have to go home,” Karmin said. “And he knows that next time he won’t be elected, so he wants to stay as long as he can.”
“Bibi is a magician, a really big fucking magician,” Aaron, a 28-year-old legal adviser in a pharmaceutical corporation, said. He had been out on the streets for Sunday’s mass protests, but he had no illusions about who they were up against.
“If there’s a hostage deal, the government will fall, so they are not interested in a deal,” Aaron said. “What Ben-Gvir wants and what Smotrich wants, they get, because Bibi doesn’t want to go to jail. He doesn’t want to lose power, because Bibi will be voted out in the first election if the government falls.”
I’ve masked consistently since the beginning of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, first with a cloth mask, before I knew better, and then for the last few years with KN95s or N95s. And I have, to my knowledge, continued to avoid catching the virus. In fact, I haven’t been sick for at least 4.5 years, and I attribute that in large part to masking. I also opt for patios if I go out to eat, if at all possible, so that’s also part of why I haven’t been sick. But it’s also definitely the masking. Needless to say, I’m already a huge believer in the science of masking. In simple terms: masks work.
However, it’s hard to convince folks who have swallowed the fake news that masking is harmful or that masks don’t work. I won’t link to those (flawed) “studies” because I definitely don’t want to share more misinformation, but suffice it to say, folks who believe masks don’t work are either not reading actual science, or aren’t actually masking, or aren’t using high quality masks, or if they are wearing masks, aren’t wearing them properly (yeah, you’re right, masks around your chin don’t actually work!).
In case you still have the patience to try to convince a mask skeptic—or even a rabid anti-masker—that masks *do* actually work, here’s a great, brand-new, peer-reviewed study to share with them. The paper, which is based on a narrative review and meta-analysis research project, was written by an international team of 13 researchers from universities including University of Oxford (UK), University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia), University of Toronto (Canada), University of Otago (Wellington, New Zealand), and University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada).
The paper synthesizes evidence from over 400 studies in total, including 100 published reviews, as well as primary studies from disciplines such as epidemiology, public health, engineering, and social studies—all of which focused on the exploring the efficacy of masking. The authors explain that they even re-analyzed “contested meta-analyses of key clinical trials”—including the infamously controversial Cochrane review. In fact, the authors state specifically that their review “was commissioned partly because of controversy around a Cochrane review which was interpreted by some people as providing definitive evidence that masks don’t work.” However, that’s never what the Cochrane review actually stated, as explained by the authors of this current review:
The need for a new review on masks was highlighted by a widely publicized polarization in scientific opinion. The masks section of a 2023 Cochrane review of non-pharmaceutical interventions (9) was—controversially—limited to randomized controlled trials (RCTs). It was interpreted by the press and by some but not all of its own authors to mean that “masks don’t work” and “mask mandates did nothing” (10). Cochrane’s editor-in-chief felt the need to state publicly that in Cochrane’s view, the review’s findings did not support such a conclusion (11). Some scholars were quick to question the review’s methodology, especially key flaws in the meta-analysis and omission of a vast body of non-RCT evidence (12–16).
I, for one, am thrilled that this study explicitly addresses—and debunks—the Cochrane review, because that single study probably did more damage than almost anything else to widespread attempts to get people to mask to keep themselves and others safe from COVID-19.
The authors of this new review found evidence that led them to seven main findings:
First, there is strong and consistent evidence for airborne transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and other respiratory pathogens.
Second, masks are, if correctly and consistently worn, effective in reducing transmission of respiratory diseases and show a dose-response effect.
Third, respirators are significantly more effective than medical or cloth masks.
Fourth, mask mandates are, overall, effective in reducing community transmission of respiratory pathogens.
Fifth, masks are important sociocultural symbols; non-adherence to masking is sometimes linked to political and ideological beliefs and to widely circulated mis- or disinformation.
Sixth, while there is much evidence that masks are not generally harmful to the general population, masking may be relatively contraindicated in individuals with certain medical conditions, who may require exemption. Furthermore, certain groups (notably D/deaf people) are disadvantaged when others are masked.
Finally, there are risks to the environment from single-use masks and respirators.
The authors also provide some recommendations for future research:
We propose an agenda for future research, including improved characterization of the situations in which masking should be recommended or mandated; attention to comfort and acceptability; generalized and disability-focused communication support in settings where masks are worn; and development and testing of novel materials and designs for improved filtration, breathability, and environmental impact.
University of Calgary News recently published an overview of the study which included some discussion of the study by lead author Professor Trisha Greenhalgh from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, who stated, “Our review confirms that masks work, with a clear dose-response effect. . . The more consistently and correctly you wear a mask, the better protected you are. Respirators, when worn continuously, provide even greater protection than ordinary masks.”
Co-author Dr. Joe Vipond, MD and Associate Professor at University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine also commented on the study, stating that it is the “definitive answer on masks”:
“In a world of misinformation, questioning the effectiveness of everything from masking to vaccines, it’s important to have solid science to support any assertion . . . This is the definitive answer on masks, looking beyond the narrow view of randomized controlled trials to the entirety of the evidence. And behold, the current science upholds the standards and protocols that for decades have protected health care workers, and more recently the public, from biohazards.”
I know it would be naive to think that this robust study on the efficacy of masking will change die-hard anti-maskers’ minds. But perhaps it will persuade some people who are still open to learning from actual data. Here’s hoping, anyway! Mask up, folks! And if you’re looking for me, I’m the one in the hot pink mask!
Click here to read the full study and here to read the rest of the summary and interviews with several of the authors from University of Calgary News
This is what the fundamentalist religious / maga right want to do in the US notice the reason why they feel they need to pass this law. Because it is changing tradition. Tradition is peer pressure from dead people. The right wing straight cis people like the way things are and don’t want to include other ideas or ways. Just a warning. Hugs. Scottie
The legislation would ban LGBTQ+ rights on multiple fronts, including adoption, marriage, and civil IDs.
TBILISI, GEORGIA – MAY 17, 2018: Family day. People attend a rally marking the Day of Family Purity and opposing the International Day Against Homophobia and TransphobiaPhoto: Shutterstock
Georgia’s parliament on Thursday pushed ahead a sweeping package of bills that would effectively outlaw LGBTQ+ identity in the former Soviet republic.
The set of bills proposed by the ruling pro-Putin Georgian Dream party bans depictions of same-sex relationships in the media, outlaws gender-affirming surgery, and will make Pride events and the public display of the Pride flag in Georgia a thing of the past.
Parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili describes the bills as necessary to control “LGBT propaganda,” which he said was “altering traditional relations.”
The first reading of the bill titled “On the Protection of Family Values and Minors,” which draws heavily from Russia’s anti-LGBTQ+ “propaganda” law passed last year, drew widespread support among Georgia Parliament deputies. The bill is scheduled for second and third readings in the fall.
In addition to outlawing public gatherings “promoting” same-sex relationships, the legislation would also limit adoption to heterosexuals, ban gender changes on official identification, and outlaw “LGBT propaganda” in education.
Georgian Dream MPs have also proposed introducing “genetic” requirements in establishing legal marriage, whereby marriage would be a union of a “genetic woman” and a “genetic man.”
The Constitution already bans same-sex marriage in Georgia, where the deeply conservative Orthodox Church holds outsized influence in the government and public sphere.
Georgia enjoyed decades of progress on human and LGBTQ+ rights following the Rose Revolution in 2003, as a majority of citizens supported a pro-Western turn and integration into the European Union and NATO.
The rise of the Georgian Dream party in the last ten years, however, has seen the government reorienting toward Russia, with the Church encouraging the rapprochement.
Georgia’s version of Putin’s draconian “LGBT propaganda” law seems designed not only to roll back progress on LGBTQ+ rights but to scuttle any hope of Georgia entering the European Union, with its strict requirements upholding civil liberties and personal freedoms.
The introduction of the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation follows the Georgia Parliament’s passage of another Russian-inspired law to label Western NGOs “foreign agents,” teeing up a harassment campaign aimed at expelling human rights and other groups that far-right conservatives and the Orthodox Church have accused of infecting Georgia and other countries with “degeneracy.”
Speaking of opponents of the nascent legislation in March, Mamuka Mdinaradze, leader of the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority, said, “Even if they brand the law against LGBT ‘propaganda’ not Russian, but Soviet, we will follow it through, given that it is the biggest challenge of modern times.”
Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment runs high among extremists in the onetime Soviet vassal. In 2021 and 2023, violent mobs shut down Pride marches in the capital Tbilisi.
Organizers say foreign agents, delivered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, joined far-right fascist political gangs and members of the Georgian Orthodox church to sabotage the peaceful demonstration. Hundreds were injured in the two incidents.
Rights groups and supporters described the attacks as “pogroms.”
Biologists have studied an extreme gymnast of the animal kingdom, watching as it moves so quickly it appears to all but vanish.
The globular springtail (Dicyrtomina minuta) is a small but mighty bug that can backflip more than 60 times higher and 100 times longer than its own body length.
This tiny bug grows to only a couple of millimetres and can’t sting, bite, or fly its way out of danger. Instead, its preferred method of avoiding predators is to flip out so forcefully it seems to disappear! (snip-More on the page, with photos)
A study has found promising antibiotic candidates inside bacteria harvested from the deep Arctic Sea.
The research, by Finnish and Norwegian researchers, is published in Frontiers in Microbiology.
Antibiotic discovery has slowed in recent decades, which has exacerbated the risks of antibiotic resistance.
Most licensed antibiotics – about 70% – have been derived from a type of soil-dwelling bacteria called actinobacteria.
“For example, members of the Streptomyces genus produce several secondary metabolites, including clinically useful antibiotics such as tetracyclines, aminoglycocides and macrolides,” says corresponding author Dr Päivi Tammela, a professor at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
But soil isn’t the only place these bacteria can be found.
“Marine actinobacteria found in the sea, on the seafloor, or within the microbiome of marine organisms, have received far less attention as possible sources of antibiotics,” says Tammela. (snip-More on the page)
Countries in the Asia-Pacific region account for 76% of the world’s thermal coal power generation, and many of these plants will need to retire early to meet global emissions targets.
But according to a new analysis, it’s possible to phase these coal plants out and transition to renewable energy while investors still make money.
The study, done by Australian, Singaporean and Chinese researchers, is published in Energy Policy.
“There is a drive and interest from a number of different investors like the Asian Development Bank, but also private sector investors, to finance the early retirement coal fired power plants,” lead author Professor Christoph Nedopil Wang, director of Griffith University’s Asia Institute, tells Cosmos.
Nedopil and colleagues looked specifically at 6 Chinese-sponsored coal-fired power plants in Vietnam and Pakistan.
“With investors wanting to invest in, and ideally also providing lower cost financing for, green projects, refinancing of these coal fired power plants becomes possible at a lower cost,” says Nedopil.
The researchers modelled the future performance of these stations under a variety of financing and geoeconomic scenarios.
“That brought us to the conclusion that, depending on the age of the coal-fired power plant, we can retire these plants earlier than currently envisaged, while reducing the financing cost and therefore increasing enterprise value,” says Nedopil. (snip-More on the page)
Car companies are tracking drivers’ data and selling it to third-party data brokers — leaving their customers to suffer the consequences.
R.J. Cross
Director, Don’t Sell My Data Campaign, PIRG
A new investigation found that GM, Honda, Kia, Subaru, Hyundai and Mitsubishi are tracking drivers’ data on everything from when they drive to how hard they hit their brakes.
At least they’re guarding that data and only using it to make their cars safer, right?
Wrong.
Right now, some of the biggest car companies are tracking millions of drivers’ data, sneakily selling it to third-party brokers, and leaving their customers to suffer the consequences.
The consequences we’ve seen so far are scary, such as insurance companies jacking up rates with no explanation. But the secretive wheeling and dealing of consumers’ personal data means that there’s a world of data breaches, identity theft and targeted scams right around the corner.
What information does your car computer track?
Cars and their connected apps know a lot about their drivers. They know how far you go, the start and end time of your trips, how hard you brake, how quickly you accelerate — and they may be tracking that information without drivers’ knowledge.
One data broker has detailed driving data on more than 10 million drivers.
Overnight and without explanation, one of these drivers found that his insurance had spiked by 21%. Why? Because GM had sold his driving data to a third-party broker, which compiled 130 pages of his driving behavior and sold it to his insurance company.
What does it mean when a company sells your data?
After automakers collect the data, third-party brokers sell that data to other companies — in this case, insurance companies — that use it against consumers without them knowing it.
The consequences could span far beyond insurance rates, though. With every secret handoff from data broker to buyer, we’re more at risk for data breaches, identity theft or targeted scams.
Your data includes personal information about you, your habits, behavior and preferences. If that information — your identity — gets into the wrong hands, it can be used against you.
How do I opt out of car data collection?
Unfortunately, much of the data-collecting technology that your vehicle uses can’t be opted out of. Most new cars today will have some type of location-tracking technology included.
Consumers shouldn’t have to worry that their car’s computers or connected apps are sharing their data with other entities. It’s time for car companies to reverse course by committing to not sharing or selling consumer data for anything other than what consumers are expecting — a functional car and safe driving experience.
Sign our petition to tell automakers to stop sharing your data.
September 2, 1885 A mob of white coal miners, led by the Knights of Labor, violently attacked their Chinese co-workers in Rock Springs, Wyoming, killing 28 and burning the homes of 75 Chinese families. The white miners wanted the Chinese barred from working in the mine. The mine owners and operators had brought in the Chinese ten years earlier to keep labor costs down and to suppress strikes.Chinese fleeing Rock Springs The unfortunate story and illustrations of the scene (scroll down)
September 2, 1945 Revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam a republic and independent from France (National Day). Half a million people gathered in the capital of Hanoi to hear him read the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, which was modeled on the U.S. Declaration of Independence. note: Ho Chi Minh translates to ‘He Who Enlightens’ Read about how it was influenced by the U.S. Declaration
September 2, 1966 On what was supposed to be the first day of school in Grenada, Mississippi—and the first day in an integrated school for 450 Negro children—the school board postponed opening of school for 10 days because of “paperwork.” Nevertheless, the high school played its first football game that night. Some of the Negro kids who had registered for that school tried to attend the game but were beaten, and their car windows smashed.
September 2, 1969 Vietnamese revolutionary and national leader Nguyen Tat Thanh (aka Ho Chi Minh), 79, died of natural causes in Hanoi. Uncle Ho, Ho Chi Minh Ho and his struggle for Vietnamese independence
Masks WORK! Photo: Jennifer Sandlin
TBILISI, GEORGIA – MAY 17, 2018: Family day. People attend a rally marking the Day of Family Purity and opposing the International Day Against Homophobia and TransphobiaPhoto: Shutterstock
Chinese fleeing Rock Springs
Uncle Ho, Ho Chi Minh
Scottie's Playtime 