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“Thats Pretty Hypocritical.” Heated Debate Between Theodore Shoebat And Heather Green

armageddon “Thats Pretty Hypocritical.” Heated Debate Between Theodore Shoebat And Heather Green

By Theodore Shoebat This is part one of my debate with Heather Green, a Right-wing nationalist. In this part we debate over Milo Yiannopou...

Japan Considers Zero-Spectator Olympics Amid Backlash Over Covid Surge

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Initially, 6,00,000 fans from abroad had been projected to attend the games.
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After a year of empty bleachers and fake crowd noises, sports fans are returning to stadiums around the world. But the one arena where they might not be welcome is the biggest event of all.
Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics are set to decide next month if local spectators will be allowed to attend events, even as Japan works to tamp down a wave of infections that has cast doubt over the prospects of a mass gathering with cheering fans. Public opinion, already strongly against holding the games at all, is trending toward support for a zero-spectator Games.
Barring domestic fans would deliver a significant financial blow, eliminating a major source of revenue. Their absence will also dampen consumption and spending by sponsors counting on most ticket holders being allowed to attend. Yet a ban would ease the strain expected on an already-stretched medical system, and may be the organizers' last card to play in order to pull off the Games at all.
"We are prepared for no spectators," Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Japan Olympic Organizing Committee, said late last month. "But we want as many people to watch as the situation allows."
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Seiko Hashimoto
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Japan has expanded and extended a third state of emergency as cases continue to climb throughout the country. They have largely been driven by more infectious strains from abroad, adding to concerns about inviting thousands of overseas participants. Foreign athletes, meanwhile, have expressed safety concerns, with the U.S. track and field team canceling pre-Olympics training in the country.
A recent poll by the Asahi newspaper found 59% of respondents were against any fans, up from 45% in April, with those in favor of just capping attendance dipping to 33% from 49%. While the public may favor no fans, it would create a significant financial burden; organizers are projecting about $800 million from ticket sales.
Medical Attention
Initially, 600,000 fans from abroad had been projected to attend, but organizers ruled out that possibility in March, and punted a decision on domestic spectators to June as cases in Japan rose.
Rather than the state of the pandemic, however, the decision may hinge on the ability to secure medical staff. Japanese professional sports have continued to welcome fans in limited numbers even during the state of emergency, with baseball and soccer games capping spectators at 5,000 per game after extending the current emergency.
"They are considering holding the Olympics without spectators even though various other sports events are welcoming them; this will probably help from the standpoint of reducing the burden on medical staff," said Hiroshi Okudera, a professor at the University of Toyama, who was responsible for medical care at the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998.
Fans make up a sizable portion of those who need medical attention at the Games, especially considering the punishing summer temperatures in Tokyo. At the Atlanta Games in 1996, about 30% of those who required medical care were spectators, according to Okudera.
Hashimoto said on Friday that the event would need as many as 230 doctors and 310 nurses a day, with around 80% of them secured. Organizers have also reduced the number of officials and others expected to attend from overseas to around 78,000, not including athletes. As many as 60,000 coronavirus tests are expected to be carried out each day, she said.
The International Olympic Committee will send some medical staff to Tokyo, President Thomas Bach said last week, without specifying a figure.
Economic Loss
Sui Tanaka, a 30-year-old hair stylist in Tokyo, said that the situation would have to deteriorate significantly for him to reconsider watching one of his favorite sports, table tennis, live at an arena.
"As long as you sanitize, take temperatures, double-mask and frequently use portable hand sanitizer, then there isn't a problem," he said, adding that he sees the risk as fairly low if people avoid activities such as eating that involve removing masks.
Okudera said that one option for holding the Games could be to allow a limited number of people attend outdoor events, while barring spectators from competitions held indoors.
Ticket holders may be more willing to support some fans in stadiums compared with the rest of the Japanese public. Even during the states of emergency, Tokyo is unrecognizable from locked-down capitals elsewhere, with restaurants, schools and many workplaces operating as normal, with reduced operating hours. Residents of Japan purchased a total of 4.45 million tickets to events, though 810,000 of those were returned during a refund program.
Dean Steinman, a university student in Tokyo with tickets for beach volleyball, said his concerns about the Olympics contributing to the spread of Covid-19 are comparatively low, and hopes organizers enforce infection-prevention methods used by professional leagues around the world, such as a cap on fans.
"If it is announced that the games are to be held at 60% capacity or higher, I'd certainly consider getting a refund and watching from home," he said, given current infection levels.
Local businesses and sponsors are among those that stand to lose out most from a total ban. Kansai University professor Katsuhiro Miyamoto estimates the potential economic loss at 2.41 trillion yen ($22 billion). He expects gains from consumption by participants and fans would fall 90%, or 381.3 billion yen.
At 50% capacity, the loss would be 1.4 trillion yen, while an outright cancellation - something organizers have dismissed despite the speculation - would result in a 4.5 trillion yen loss, Miyamoto said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/japan-considers-zero-spectator-olympics-amid-backlash-over-covid-surge-2448179">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/japan-considers-zero-spectator-olympics-amid-backlash-over-covid-surge-2448179</a>

news world Japan Considers Zero-Spectator Olympics Amid Backlash Over Covid Surge

Initially, 6,00,000 fans from abroad had been projected to attend the games. After a year of empty bleachers and fake crowd noises, spor...

China Probes Deaths Of 21 Ultramarathon Runners After Freak Weather Hits Race

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At least 21 people were killed in China weather mishap.
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Beijing, China:
An investigation was underway Monday into the deaths of 21 runners during a mountain ultramarathon in northwest China, as harrowing testimony emerged from survivors who battled to safety through freezing temperatures and bone-chilling winds.
The extreme weather struck a high-altitude section of the 100-kilometre (62-mile) race held in the scenic Yellow River Stone Forest in Gansu province Saturday afternoon.
Provincial authorities have set up an investigation team to look into the cause of the incident, state media reported, as questions swirled over why organisers apparently ignored extreme weather warnings from the city's Early Warning Information Centre in the lead up to the race, which attracted 172 runners.
China's top sports body also vowed to tighten safety rules on holding events across the country.
Survivors gave shocking testimony of events on the rugged mountainside, where unconfirmed meteorological reports to local media said temperatures had plunged to as low as minus 24 degrees Celsius (minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit).
"The wind was too strong and I repeatedly fell over," wrote race participant Zhang Xiaotao in a Weibo post.
"My limbs were frozen stiff and I felt like I was slowly losing control of my body... I wrapped my insulation blanket around me, took out my GPS tracker, pressed the SOS button and lost consciousness."
He said when he came round he discovered a shepherd had carried him to a cave, placed him by the fire and wrapped him in a duvet.
'Foaming at their mouths'
Marathon survivor Luo Jing told state broadcaster CCTV she saw runners struggling back down the mountain wearing only T-shirts and shorts.
They "described to us people foaming at their mouths, and urged us to quit the race as soon as possible," she said.
Other survivors said insulation blankets provided by organisers were blown to shreds by strong winds.
One told state media as he battled down the mountain he saw many people lying on the ground, some he believed to be dead.
Gansu province is often subject to extreme weather conditions including sandstorms and earthquakes.
The Gansu Meteorological Bureau had warned of "sudden heavy showers, hail, lightning, sudden gale-force winds" and other adverse weather conditions across the province in a report dated Friday.
Victims included elite Chinese long-distance runners Liang Jing and Huang Guanjun, local media reported. 
Liang had won multiple Chinese ultramarathons in recent years while Huang won the men's hearing-impaired marathon at the 2019 National Paralympic Games.
Fury mounted on Chinese social media after the disaster, with many users blaming organisers for poor contingency planning.
More than 84 million viewed the hashtag "Is the Gansu marathon accident natural or man-made?", while 130 million scoured a thread around safety concerns for marathons and cross-county races.
"This is purely a man-made disaster," wrote one.
China's top sports governing body has issued instructions to the country's sports system to improve safety management in sports events.
The previous management model for safety in races "had some problems and deficiencies", the sports administration said in a readout published Monday, and said all organisations would now have to set up detailed contingency plans and a mechanism to halt the event quickly if needed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-probes-deaths-of-21-ultramarathon-runners-after-freak-weather-hits-race-2448150">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-probes-deaths-of-21-ultramarathon-runners-after-freak-weather-hits-race-2448150</a>

news world China Probes Deaths Of 21 Ultramarathon Runners After Freak Weather Hits Race

At least 21 people were killed in China weather mishap. Beijing, China: An investigation was underway Monday into the deaths of 21 runn...

Jack Ma To Step Down As President Of Academy He Founded: Report

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Jack Ma co-founded Hupan University, an elite business academy, six years ago
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Jack Ma will step down as president of Hupan University, an elite business academy he co-founded six years ago, amid pressure from Beijing, the Financial Times reported.
The move comes as Chinese authorities crack down on the influence of the billionaire co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. Ma abruptly fell from grace after blasting financial regulators in a public speech last October. Since then, his highly-anticipated initial public offering by Ant Group Co. has been put on hold, and Ma has largely stayed out of public view.
Hupan University, a training program for executives and entrepreneurs located in Hangzhou, Ma's hometown, had recently changed its name to Hupan Innovation Center, dropping the word "university" because it's not a degree-granting educational institution. The school will also restructure its curriculum because authorities were concerned that Ma was building a network at odds with the Communist party's objectives, the FT reported.
Ma was intent on remaining connected to the school, the newspaper said, but wouldn't hold any high-level official title. Hupan had suspended enrollment of new student earlier, the paper said.
Alibaba referred the FT's questions to Hupan, which didn't respond requests to the newspaper for comment.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ailbabas-jack-ma-to-step-down-as-president-of-hupan-university-amid-pressure-from-china-report-2448133">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ailbabas-jack-ma-to-step-down-as-president-of-hupan-university-amid-pressure-from-china-report-2448133</a>

news world Jack Ma To Step Down As President Of Academy He Founded: Report

Jack Ma co-founded Hupan University, an elite business academy, six years ago Jack Ma will step down as president of Hupan University, a...

Covid Shots Are All Highly Protective Against Death, Study Shows

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Vaccine efficacy was estimated for immunizations that are being rolled out on local and global scales.
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Current Covid shots provide a high level of protection against hospitalization and death, according to a summary of the efficacy of eight vaccines that showed the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE jab may better at stopping at least two worrisome coronavirus variants.
Efficacy against Covid-linked disease averaged about 85% after a full course, rising to almost 100% protection against severe disease, hospitalization or death, Julia Shapiro, Natalie Dean, Ira Longini and colleagues said in a paper released Friday before peer-review and publication. The University of Florida researchers compared data from journal articles and media reports for products that have gone through double-blinded, placebo-controlled, late-stage vaccine trials, as well as observational studies.
"These estimates should be useful for constructing mathematical models for vaccination impact and for making policy decisions involving vaccination," they said. They plan to update their research, which received funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, as more information becomes available.
The unprecedented speed with which safe and effective vaccines have been developed and rolled out across the world have enabled many economies to reopen, paving the way for a recovery from the worst pandemic in a century. Still, uncontrolled spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus risks spawning new variants that may undermine the potency of these immunizations.
Protection against any disease with infection for three so-called variants of concern averaged 86% for the B.1.1.7 strain first detected in the U.K., 61% for the P.1 strain that drove an explosive outbreak in Brazil, and 56% for the B.1.351 strain discovered in South Africa, the University of Florida researchers said.
Vaccine efficacy was estimated for immunizations that are being rolled out on local and global scales, they said. These include the Pfizer, Moderna Inc., Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca Plc, "Sputnik", Novavax Inc., Sinovac Biotech Ltd., and Sinopharm Group Co. products.
"Some of the estimates are based on rigorous, preplanned statistical analyses from double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials, while others are extracted from observational studies with different levels of control," the researchers said.
Vaccine efficacy to prevent any Covid-caused disease after two doses is summarized below:
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The researchers found vaccine efficacy against infectiousness was 54%, on average, indicating immunization reduces the direct transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to others by 54%. Data for four vaccines are summarized below.
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Estimates for vaccine efficacy for three variants of concern are summarized below. The researchers found B.1.1.7 led to "somewhat reduced" efficacy compared with the "wild type" strain. In contrast, the P.1 and B.1.351 variants led to considerably lower vaccine efficacy, owing to mutations that affect immune function.
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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="ptfstr9g" class="lozad" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-05/ptfstr9g_coronavirus650_625x300_24_May_21.jpeg" />   </div>
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-vaccine-covid-shots-are-all-highly-protective-against-death-study-shows-2448132">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-vaccine-covid-shots-are-all-highly-protective-against-death-study-shows-2448132</a>

news world Covid Shots Are All Highly Protective Against Death, Study Shows

Vaccine efficacy was estimated for immunizations that are being rolled out on local and global scales. Current Covid shots provide a hig...

Wuhan Lab Staff Sought Hospital Care Before Covid Outbreak: Report

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China refused to give raw data on early Covid cases to the WHO team probing the origins of the pandemic.
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Washington:
Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, months before China disclosed the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a previously undisclosed US intelligence report.
The newspaper said the report - which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits - may add weight to calls for a broader probe of whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory.
The report came on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization's decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
A National Security Council spokeswoman had no comment on the Journal's report but said the Biden administration continued to have "serious questions about the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins within the Peoples Republic of China."
She said the US government was working with the WHO and other member states to support an expert-driven evaluation of the pandemic's origins "that is free from interference or politicization."
"We're not going to make pronouncements that prejudge an ongoing WHO study into the source of SARS-CoV-2, but we've been clear that sound and technically credible theories should be thoroughly evaluated by international experts," she said.
The Journal said current and former officials familiar with the intelligence about the lab researchers expressed a range of views about the strength of the report's supporting evidence, with one unnamed person saying it needed "further investigation and additional corroboration."
The United States, Norway, Canada, Britain and other countries in March expressed concerns about the WHO-led COVID-19 origins study, and called for further investigation and full access to all pertinent human, animal and other data about the early stages of the outbreak.
Washington is keen to ensure greater cooperation and transparency by China, according to a source familiar with the effort.The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
On Sunday, China's foreign ministry noted that a WHO-led team had concluded a lab leak was extremely unlikely after a visit in February to the virology institute.
"The US continues to hype the lab leak theory," the ministry said in response to a request for comment by the Journal.
"Is it actually concerned about tracing the source or trying to divert attention?"
The Trump administration had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Chinese lab, which Beijing denies.
A State Department fact sheet released near the end of the Trump administration had said "the US government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses." It did not say how many researchers.
China refused to give raw data on early COVID-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the team's investigators, Reuters reported in February, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/chinas-wuhan-lab-staff-took-hospital-care-before-covid-19-outbreak-disclosed-wsj-report-2448111">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/chinas-wuhan-lab-staff-took-hospital-care-before-covid-19-outbreak-disclosed-wsj-report-2448111</a>

news world Wuhan Lab Staff Sought Hospital Care Before Covid Outbreak: Report

China refused to give raw data on early Covid cases to the WHO team probing the origins of the pandemic. Washington: Three researchers ...