Digital health technology, such as electronic health records, is believed to enhance patient-centred care, improve integrated care and ensure financially…
Saturday, 27 February 2021 04:22 Written by PREMIUM TIMES
The report finds that Muhammad bin Salman approved the operation to capture or kill Mr Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, has been implicated in a new classified U.S. intelligence report on the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The report finds that Muhammad bin Salman was responsible, saying he approved the operation to capture or kill Mr Khashoggi.
The findings could escalate pressure on the Biden administration in the U.S. to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for a murder that drew bipartisan and international outrage.
“We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the reports executive summary states.
The assessment released Friday by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence was based on intelligence on Mr Salman’s “control of decision-making” in the Kingdom.
“Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince’s authorization,” the report said.
It added that the 15-person Saudi team that arrived in Istanbul in October 2018 when Mr Khashoggi was killed included members associated with the Saudi Center for Studies and Media Affairs (CSMARC) at the Royal Court, led by Saud al-Qahtani, a close adviser to the prince.
The team also included “seven members of Muhammad bin Salman’s elite personal protective detail, known as the Rapid Intervention Force.”
The crown prince viewed Mr Khashoggi as a threat to the Kingdom and broadly supported using violent measures if necessary to silence him, the report added
“Although Saudi officials had pre-planned an unspecified operation against Khashoggi we do not know how far in advance Saudi officials decided to harm him,” the report concluded.
Saudi Arabia had repeatedly denied that the crown prince authorised the murder of Mr Khashoggi who was resident in the U.S. and was a columnist for the Washington Post.
Mr Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi embassy in Turkey. His body was never found and is believed to have been dismembered and dumped in a secret place by the Saudi killer squad.
Wednesday, 24 February 2021 02:44 Written by theconversation
Public banks around the world are working towards the public good during COVID-19. The Canada Infrastructure Bank, however, seems focused on privatizing critical public services instead of ensuring vital infrastructure across the country is built or maintained, like this project to repair the bridge spanning the Halifax harbour in 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
This is a shame. Much more could be done with them. In many parts of the world, public banks play a critical role in addressing major social, economic and environmental challenges (such as Germany’s transition to renewable energy), offering everything from retail services in remote communities to multi-billion-dollar financing for transformative projects.
There are more than 900 public banks around the world, with combined assets of about US$49 trillion. They are typically owned by governments or public agencies, and many have progressive public purpose mandates due to decades of institutional knowledge and expertise.
The COVID-19 pandemic has served to underscore the importance of public banks. In our new book, Public Banks and COVID-19: Combatting the Pandemic With Public Finance, we take a rapid-response snapshot of how public banks have responded to the crisis, drawing on case studies in more than 20 countries.
Five key lessons
The findings highlight five key lessons. First, public banks responded quickly to the pandemic. In January 2020, the People’s Bank of China and Chinese public commercial banks moved fast to maintain liquidity in the banking system and to provide low-cost lending. So too in Italy. Less than a week after the first case of COVID-19 was announced, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti set up measures to support enterprises and local authorities.
Second, when public banks had clear public purpose mandates, they were able to respond to the crisis with the full support of political authorities. By July 2020, for example, the Council of Europe Development Bank had provided 15 new loans worth three billion euros to 15 countries in support of health-care service provisions.
Third, many public banks took bold, generous and crisis-facing action by providing new loans and delaying payments on existing debts, often crafting innovative responses to support students, households, businesses, public service providers and local and national governments. Public banks offered time to breathe, time to adjust and time to overcome the worst of the immediate crisis.
In this March 2020 photo the logo of the ‘KfW’, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, bank (Credit Institute for Reconstruction) is pictured in Berlin, Germany.(AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
Fourth, public banks accomplished these tasks because they had institutional capacity and historical legacies. The German government tasked its development bank, KfW, with expanding domestic financing by 757 billion euros (24 per cent of the country’s GDP) while increasing and co-ordinating its development support programs abroad — an impossible prospect without the experience to do so.
Finally, we see the advantages of solidarity that have emerged between public banks and other public service authorities. For example, Portugal’s Caixa Geral de Depósitos worked closely with the country’s public health management departments.
Elsewhere, the Nordic Investment Bank, the Bank of North Dakota and Costa Rica’s Banco Popular have also demonstrated the socio-economic benefits of co-ordinating their responses with other public entities.
Canada’s public banks have also engaged in COVID-19 responses, but nothing on the scale or scope of public banks elsewhere in the world. Their mandates are also much narrower, providing little in the way of broad strategic support for major societal initiatives.
Even more problematic are the actions of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Rather than advancing public capacity through partnerships with other public organizations, its mandate is to “attract substantial private and institutional investment in new infrastructure.”
Its involvement in a recent attempt to privatize water in Mapleton, Ont., is one example of its aggressive multi-sector incursion into public services. Thankfully, this particular initiative has collapsed, in part because the COVID-19 crisis appears to have given local politicians pause about handing such a critical service over to a private operator.
Ironically, at a time when many other countries in the world are bringing services back into public ownership after decades of failed privatization, Canada appears to be heading the other way, with our public banks leading the charge.
Instead, we should listen to the advice of a group of UN Special Rapporteurs who recently published an op-ed arguing that “COVID-19 has exposed the catastrophic impact of privatizing vital services.”
Strong, democratic and accountable public banks in Canada could help reverse this trend.
In February, extreme weather events highlighted the fragility of the Texas electrical grid. A deep freeze left millions without power, and dozens of people died. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency and ordered that federal assistance be made available.
One way to improve the reliability and resilience of critical infrastructure is to increase the number of high voltage power lines and their maximum reliable capacity between jurisdictions. For example, there are currently 37 major transmission lines between the United States and Canada. According to the Canadian Electricity Association:
Every Canadian province along the U.S. border is electrically interconnected with a neighbouring U.S. state or states, with many provinces boasting multiple international connections. The result of the integrated Canada-U.S. electric grid is a flexible, reliable and secure grid on both sides of the border.
Maintaining grid infrastructure is expensive. In a 2015 report on grid modernization, the U.S. Department of Energy cites a study claiming that it could cost utility companies up to US$2 trillion by 2030 just to maintain current levels of service reliability.
Traditional grids suffer from line losses between generating stations and end users. Line loss is the amount of electricity lost during transmission and distribution across an electric grid.
Powerlines in Houston, Texas.(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
An alternative to expanding existing grid infrastructure is to shift towards smart microgrids at the community level. A microgrid is a local network of generators, often combined with energy storage. It can be disconnected from a large (macro) grid network easily, if required.
Such systems can increase reliability and drive down carbon emissions when renewable energy is used. When combined with smart meters that reconcile inflows and outflows of electricity, microgrids provide real-time energy data. When a microgrid goes down, it only affects the local region and not an entire state or province.
Because of their scalability and flexibility, microgrids may be less expensive to build when compared with energy mega projects and their associated transmission and distribution infrastructure. But for this shift to succeed, interconnection standards need to be developed to optimize a two-way flow of electricity.
A wind farm is shown near Pincher Creek, Alta.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Microgrids have the added benefit of being able to use a large percentage of existing wiring within communities to contain costs. Additionally, they may fit better with the wants and needs of communities, generate local employment opportunities, lower consumption of electricity and take advantage of regional energy sources.
Market mechanisms including peer-to-peer energy trading based on blockchain technologies like Bitcoin can be used within microgrids to track transactions and to increase market penetration. This has been demonstrated in Australia where owners of household solar arrays were able to buy and sell energy at an agreed upon price using real-time data.
When combined with a strategy to increase the adoption of electric vehicles, microgrids can take advantage of vehicle-to-grid technology by using energy stored in batteries of vehicles to reduce peak demand.
De-gridding and setting up a microgrid is challenging, as I learned in 2013 when I pushed to disconnect Gabriola Island from the provincial grid run by BC Hydro. By co-founding a solar non-proft called GabEnergy I was able to move the community in that direction somewhat. But provincial legislation granting the utility company exclusive rights in the region killed anything more ambitious.
Although microgrids have a lot of potential, they still face some challenges before they achieve wide-scale support.
Energy storage remains expensive. The cost of lithium ion batteries has dropped to about US$175 per kilowatt hour (kWh) of storage in 2019 from US$1,200 per kWh in 2010. But many industry experts say the cost must fall below US$100 per kWh to be competitive.
There are also several financial challenges, given the absence of a long track record. So far, investors have been reluctant to support microgrids, but this may be shifting. Schneider Electric is now partnering with investors to focus on microgrids to offer a hedge to companies who want longer term security with respect to the price they pay for electricity.
Legislation challenges also represent a barrier, and new regulatory frameworks and standardization are essential. Work to improve electrical codes for interconnecting with other grids will ensure safe operation of microgrids. Additionally, governments need to recognize that this approach can provide critical infrastructure to lower-income communities and regions most likely to be impacted by climate change. Microgrids represent a form of climate change adaptation.
In short, climate change represents a significant threat to electrical utilities and the communities they serve. It also offers the greatest opportunity for innovation, community development and risk minimization.
Smart microgrids are a leap forward in how we generate, transmit and consume electricity. We have the potential to make grid failures like what happened in Texas a thing of the past.
New details suggested that it was his dinner with American socialite, Blac Chyna, that led to his downfall, according to Black Sports Online.
Blac Chyna, Hushpuppi
A shocking discovery has revealed that suspected fraudster, Hushpuppi was caught by the FBI with the help of American model and entrepreneur, Blac Chyna.
This is coming days after US agents discovered that Hushpuppi had links with North Korean hackers, he allegedly helped to launder funds to the tune of $1.3 billion.
He is now being accused of helping three North Korean computer hackers steal the funds from companies and banks, including one in Malta, in February 2019, according to the Justice Department.
Last July, the Hushpuppi was arrested in still another, separate case.
He was extradited from Dubai to the U.S. where he was charged with “laundering hundreds of millions of dollars from business email compromise (BEC) frauds and other scams, including schemes targeting a US law firm, a foreign bank and an English Premier League soccer club,” according to the Justice Department.
Apparently, all of his woes would have been avoided if he had chosen to stay low rather than show off his extravagant lifestyle.
New details suggesed that it was his dinner with American socialite, Blac Chyna, that led to his downfall, according to Black Sports Online.
Well, not the dinner itself, but the fact that he posted it on his Instagram which exposed him to the FBI.
THE US Senate for the second time acquitted Donald Trump of inciting insurrection at the Capitol.
Senators voted 57-43 to acquit the former president.
Seven Republicans joined the 50 Democrats to find the former Republican President guilty.
But they fell short of the 67 votes needed to convict him.
Trump left office on Jan. 20, so impeachment could not be used to remove him from power.
But Democrats had hoped to secure a conviction to hold him responsible for a siege that left five people including a police officer dead and to set the stage for a vote to bar him from ever serving in public office again.
Given the chance to hold office in the future, they argued, Trump would not hesitate to encourage political violence again.
Trump’s attorneys argued that his words at the rally were protected by his constitutional right to free speech and said he was not given due process in the proceedings.
Republicans saved Trump in the Feb. 5, 2020, vote in his first impeachment trial, when only one senator from their ranks – Mitt Romney – voted to convict and remove him from office.
Romney voted for impeachment on Saturday along with fellow Republicans Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse, Pat Toomey, and Lisa Murkowski.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted “not guilty,” offered scathing remarks about the former president after the verdict.
“There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” he said.
“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.”
The drama on the Senate floor unfolded against a backdrop of gaping divisions in a pandemic-weary United States along political, racial, socioeconomic and regional lines.
The trial provided more partisan warfare even as Democratic President Joe Biden, who took office on Jan. 20 after defeating Trump in the November election, called for healing and unity after his predecessor’s four turbulent years in power and a caustic election campaign.
Seventy-one percent of American adults, including nearly half of all Republicans, believe Trump was at least partially responsible for starting the Capitol assault, but only about half of the country thought Trump should be convicted of inciting insurrection, according to an Ipsos poll conducted for Reuters.
Trump, 74, continues to hold a grip on his party with a right-wing populist appeal and “America First” message. The wealthy businessman-turned-politician has considered running for president again in 2024.
Trump is only the third president ever to be impeached by the House of Representatives – a step akin to a criminal indictment – as well as the first to be impeached twice and the first to face an impeachment trial after leaving office. But the Senate still has never convicted an impeached president.
Wednesday, 10 February 2021 13:01 Written by dailypost
Porn star, Stormy Daniels claimed sex she had with former President Donald Trump ‘the worst 90 seconds of my life’
Daniels shared the details of what she claims happened while chatting with former Trump fixer, Michael Cohen for his new podcast, which was released on Monday February 8.
Cohen spent time in jail for paying Daniels $130,000 hush money during the 2016 presidential campaign to try and cover up the alleged sex story.
The disgraced lawyer who Trump has branded a liar apologized to Daniels for causing her ‘needless pain’ by arranging the payment.
Trump is alleged to have had sex with Daniels months after Melania gave birth to their son Barron, who is now 14.
News of the alleged fling hit US tabloids shortly after, then re-emerged after Trump ran for office.
The former president – who met Daniels at a celebrity golf tournament a year after he wed third wife Melania – denies her claims of a fling.
But Daniel still insists it happened. Recalling the alleged sexual encounter, Daniels claimed that an almost-naked Trump sat on the edge of a hotel bed waiting for her.
‘I just froze and I didn’t know what to say.” She said in the Podcast which came out Monday night, February 8.
‘He had stripped down to his underwear and was perched on the edge of the bed doing his best yet horrifyingly disturbing impression of Burt Reynolds.’
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, continued: ‘I went to sidestep and he stood up off the bed and was like “This is your chance.” ‘And I was like “What?” and he was like “You need to show me how bad you want it or do you just want to go back to the trailer park?”
Daniels claims she then had sex with the ex-President.
She admitted the sex was consensual and has spoken about the alleged encounter before, telling an earlier interviewer that sex with Trump was ‘textbook generic.’
Workers prepare to greet passengers at the COVID-19 testing centre in the international arrivals area at Pearson Airport in Toronto on Jan. 26, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
Based on these reported exposures, PHAC estimates that international travel has accounted for between 0.4 per cent in May to 2.7 per cent in July 2020 of total confirmed cases over the past eight months. These estimates are then regularly quoted in the media by industry representatives, public health officials and government.
On the basis of this data, which suggests there is a low risk from travel, governments have hesitated to put into place stricter measures regarding who travels and what protocols they must follow.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces new travel restrictions and arrival protocols; courtesy CTV News.
For example, on Jan. 21, British Columbia Premier John Horgan defended his decision not to restrict inter-provincial travellers on the grounds that the government can only act “if they are causing harm to the health and safety of British Columbians. If we see transmission increase … we will impose stronger restrictions on non-essential travellers.”
Our international team is analyzing decision-making on the use of travel-related measures during the COVID-19 pandemic across different countries, including Canada. Comparing Canada’s travel-related measures with other countries, and the methods for detecting and counting imported infections, we argue that often-cited numbers are likely to under-represent travel-related COVID-19 cases. The current system is not systematically or rigorously collecting enough data to provide the basis for broad policy decisions.
This comes at a time when new COVID-19 variants make sound travel policies even more critical. A more robust, timely and accurate system is urgently needed.
Current estimates are based on international travellers arriving by air. Passengers must quarantine and self-monitor for 14 days and, if symptomatic, to get tested. If they test positive, and they report having been on an international or domestic flight, an alert is added to an online list of potential exposures.
Passengers in nearby seat rows are deemed at higher risk and may be notified. All other travellers are expected to check alerts and should be quarantining regardless. Only direct cases involving air passengers are counted. Any subsequent community transmission by travellers traced or otherwise is not officially counted.
There is no routine testing or contact tracing of travellers entering Canada. Only self-identifying symptomatic air travellers testing positive are included in current data. Travellers by land and sea, along with air travellers who are infected but untested or asymptomatic, are not. And no data is being collected on inter-provincial travel beyond detected exposures on domestic flights.
The current methods also make questionable assumptions about the reliability of testing, contact tracing and quarantine. Multiple tests over time are often needed to confirm infection; there are many false negatives and new variants are proving especially elusive. There is insufficient capacity to contact-trace all travellers at current volumes.
It’s assumed that all international arrivals adhere to the mandatory 14-day quarantine. Given limited enforcement, however, some arrivals may not quarantine properly for the entire time, if at all.
Last summer, airlines urged the government to ease COVID-19 travel restrictions, this time by adopting a ‘science-based approach’ that would open travel to countries with low risks of infection.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
However, many of the studies that report a low risk of catching the coronavirus on a flight are sponsored by the airline industry, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Importantly, these studies overlook infection risks along an entire journey.
Since Jan. 7, anyone flying to Canada from another country must provide a negative molecular test result (taken within 72 hours of travelling) to reduce the number of coronavirus-positive travellers. While this will help, this ignores exposures that occur during the three days between the test and actual travel.
Then there’s the journey to and from airports. Airport taxi drivers, for example, have contracted the virus from travellers. Many international passengers catch connecting domestic flights without isolating upon initial entry “unless there are provincial or territorial restrictions.” These passengers will also transit through airports before boarding connecting flights with domestic passengers. Non-flight infections linked to these scenarios are not currently counted.
Making travel safer
Travel and COVID-19 pandemic are intimately connected. The virus was originally imported into Canada by travel, and new infections continue to be brought in each day. This includes COVID-19 variants.
Even with the current partial data, PHAC reported more than 160 international flights and 90 domestic flights between Jan. 7 and Jan. 17, carrying confirmed positive COVID-19 cases. These cases have occurred despite new testing requirements.
If we’re going to make effective policy decisions to manage travel and COVID-19, we need far better data. The current tracking system is overwhelmed, so expanding data collection will be challenging. Reducing numbers to essential travellers only is an important starting point.
Resources can then be focused on improved testing, contact tracing and quarantine. Random sampling could be used to estimate infections by number of travellers at different points of entry, modes of transport and points along a journey. Ramping up and sharing the genomic sequences of positive results is then essential to identify any imported cases of new variants more thoroughly and quickly.
Only then can we get an accurate sense of travel-related risks and how to best address them.
Tuesday, 02 February 2021 23:31 Written by dailypost
Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program (FLTA)
The U.S Embassy in Nigeria has invited applications from Nigerians wishing to teach Hausa or Yoruba language and culture to American students in U.S. universities and colleges.
Successful applicants will be participating in the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program (FLTA).
The US consulate made the announcement in a post on its website urging qualified Nigerians to apply.
The post read “The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Mission Nigeria invites applications from qualified Nigerians wishing to teach Hausa or Yoruba languages and cultures to American students in U.S. universities and colleges.”
The application is in line with the mission’s Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Programme (FLTA).
The programme according to the mission is to give opportunity for participants to refine their teaching skills, increase their English language proficiency and extend their knowledge of the cultures and customs of the United States.
Successful applicants are going to teach language courses, supervise language labs, and lead language table discussions.
They may also act as resource persons in conversation groups, cultural representatives, attendants in language laboratories, coordinators of extra-curricular activities, guest speakers in civilization courses, head of language clubs, houses, tables, and much more.
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