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Brazil escaped a January 6-style insurrection — for now

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September 7 was Brazil’s Independence Day, and Brazilian President <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/1/2/18165663/jair-bolsonaro-president-brazil-trump">Jair Bolsonaro</a> used the occasion to continue his assault on the country’s democratic institutions.
Bolsonaro had called on <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-donald-trump-courts-coronavirus-pandemic-brazil-e1545240e57ecb4d2257a7ba6bc689c9?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP">his hardcore supporters to rally</a>, as he battles <a href="https://brazilian.report/liveblog/2021/08/17/bolsonaro-doubles-down-supreme-court/">Congress and the judiciary</a> over their refusal to go along with his <a href="https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/politica/pauta-antiga-de-bolsonaro-voto-impresso-retorna-ao-debate-de-olho-em-2022/">attempts to rewrite electoral rules</a> ahead of the 2022 election and over <a href="https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/nosubscription/analysis-why-is-brazil-so-afraid-of-upcoming-pro-bolsonaro-demonstration-on-september-7/">probes into him and his allies</a> that could imperil them criminally.
He addressed crowds in Brasilia and São Paulo, using the platform to attack and threaten the supreme court. “Either the leader of this branch of power gets this minister under control, or this branch will suffer what none of us want,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-jason-miller-brazil-bolsonaro/2021/09/07/a3422d10-0ff8-11ec-bc8a-8d9a5b534194_story.html">Bolsonaro said</a>. He <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-donald-trump-courts-coronavirus-pandemic-brazil-e1545240e57ecb4d2257a7ba6bc689c9">said</a> he would not follow the decisions of certain justices, including one who will be in charge of the electoral tribunal during the 2022 elections.
Though an estimated 100,000 Bolsonaro backers <a href="https://valor.globo.com/politica/noticia/2021/09/07/manifestacoes-de-7-de-setembro-veja-mais-sobre-os-atos-pelo-brasil.ghtml">gathered in the capital, Brasilia</a>, as well as in <a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2021/09/governo-de-sp-estima-125-mil-pessoas-em-ato-bolsonarista-na-paulista.shtml">São Paulo</a>, according to Brazilian media outlets, the marches did not erupt in mass <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/07/world/bolsonaro-protest-supporters-brasilia-intl/index.html">violence and chaos</a>. Ahead of September 7, some feared a repeat of something like the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/6/22217657/us-capitol-breach-trump-rally-presidential-election">January 6 insurrection in the United States</a>.
That didn’t happen, despite worries that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-58479028">pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators might try to storm the Supreme Court</a>. Though police and protesters <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/07/bolsonaro-supporters-clash-with-police-before-major-rally-in-brasilia">clashed</a>, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-09-08/brazil-rallies-bolsonaro-raise-fears-political-violence">attempts to push past police barriers largely failed</a>.
But the threat to Brazil’s institutions has not lapsed, not from Bolsonaro nor from those who unquestionably back him.
That danger comes from Bolsonaro’s political weakness. A large swath of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/4/22456981/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-impeachment-protests-coronavirus">public is angry</a> over his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/4/28/21228512/brazil-bolsonaro-coronavirus-moro">mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic</a>, which has killed more than 580,000 people, <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality">one of the worst death rates in the world</a>. That, along with <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/brazils-economy-contracts-0-1-194540030.html">Brazil’s still-sluggish economy</a> and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/05/brazil-bolsonaro-corruption-investigation/">myriad scandals following Bolsonaro,</a> <a href="https://batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/brazil-on-edge-as-bolsonaro-tells-his-base-to-take-to-the-streets.phtml">has tanked his popularity</a>; his approval rating has hit an all-time low of <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/brazils-economy-contracts-0-1-194540030.html">around 23 percent</a>. Right now he’s losing — <a href="https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/brazil/lula-da-silva-leads-brazils-2022-election-poll-coming-in-at-49-vs-23-bolsonaro-ipec-survey-week-24/">badly</a> — in most recent presidential polls, with some suggesting the incumbent might even <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-lula-could-beat-bolsonaro-first-round-2022-vote-poll-shows-2021-06-25/">fail to advance to a runoff</a>.
Bolsonaro is seeing his political, and maybe personal, downfall in real time. Faced with these crises of his own making, he is creating another one against Brazil’s democracy, in a desperate attempt to hold power and protect himself.
“We cannot accept a voting system that does not offer any security in the elections,” <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bolsonaro-supporters-breach-police-cordon-ahead-tuesdays-marches-2021-09-07/">Bolsonaro said in São Paulo on Tuesday, according to Reuters</a>. “I can’t participate in a farce like the one sponsored by the head of the electoral court.”
Bolsonaro’s rhetoric isn’t new — <a href="https://medium.com/dfrlab/electionwatch-claims-of-electronic-voting-fraud-circulate-in-brazil-b09cdbe6777a">from him</a> or, you know, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/9/30/21494840/2020-debate-fact-check-trump-vote-by-mail-fraud">other people</a>. But just because the playbook isn’t original does not make it less of a menace.
“They are fine with going with these democratic processes, provided that they are the winners,” Paulo Barrozo, an associate law professor at Boston College, said of leaders in the mold of Bolsonaro and former US President Donald Trump. “The moment that there is any indication that they’re not going to win, then they are no longer committed to electoral democracy.”
“The playbook is the same, the motivation is the same,” Barrozo continued. “And it remains to be seen how much traction [Bolsonaro] is going to get in the larger Brazil society.”
Bolsonaro’s campaign to discredit Brazilian democracy began way, way before September 7. He <a href="https://medium.com/dfrlab/electionwatch-claims-of-electronic-voting-fraud-circulate-in-brazil-b09cdbe6777a">decried possible voter fraud</a> even after his first victory in 2018, and his efforts have intensified once in the presidency and as his electoral prospects have worsened.
For months, Bolsonaro has been trying to sow doubt in the electoral system and frame the institutions defending those norms as corrupt actors out to get him. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/us/politics/trump-impeachment.html">It may sound familiar</a>.
He has repeatedly attacked Brazil’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/world/americas/brazil-vote-bolsonaro.html">electronic voting system</a> — <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/9/30/21494840/2020-debate-fact-check-trump-vote-by-mail-fraud">a kind of mirror image of Trump’s attacks on vote-by-mail and the like during the 2020 election</a>. He is insisting that Brazilian voters must use <a href="https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/politica/2021/01/13/pauta-antiga-de-bolsonaro-voto-impresso-retorna-ao-debate-de-olho-em-2022">paper ballots</a> in the 2022 election, otherwise the results can’t be trusted. (Brazil’s electronic voting system was created <a href="https://www.ndi.org/e-voting-guide/examples/the-rationale-for-e-voting-in-brazil">to reduce fraud and corruption</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-12/dozens-of-fake-bolsonaros-are-running-in-brazilian-elections">to manage the logistics of a complex voting system</a>, and has been in use since the country’s 2002 election.) “I’ll hand over the presidential sash to whoever wins the election cleanly,” the far-right <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-bolsonaro-says-he-wont-hand-over-presidency-if-there-is-vote-fraud-2021-07-01/">Bolsonaro said in July</a>. “Not with fraud.”
Bolsonaro pushed Congress to change the rules, and on the day Congress debated the voting proposal, he <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/10/bolsonaro-military-parade-draws-criticism-in-brazil">presided</a> over a military parade in Brasilia. Still, Congress declined to pass a law requiring paper ballots; Bolsonaro attacked some of those lawmakers as having been <a href="https://www.efe.com/efe/america/politica/bolsonaro-ahora-pone-en-duda-al-congreso-tras-la-derrota-del-voto-impreso/20000035-4606213">“blackmailed.”</a>
Bolsonaro has also directed his ire toward the judiciary, both the supreme court and what’s known as the Superior Electoral Court, which oversees and administers the country’s elections.
Some <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/2/brazil-judges-push-back-against-bolsonaro-election-fraud-claims">current and former supreme court justices</a> have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-senate-head-criticizes-bolsonaro-attacking-supreme-court-2021-08-06/">directly criticized</a> Bolsonaro’s anti-democratic rhetoric and defended the integrity of Brazil’s elections. Ultimately the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/americas/brazil-bolsonaro-fraud-supreme-court-investigation-intl/index.html">opened an investigation</a> into Bolsonaro’s efforts to spread voting misinformation and threatening Brazil’s democracy.
The supreme court has also opened <a href="https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/nosubscription/analysis-why-is-brazil-so-afraid-of-upcoming-pro-bolsonaro-demonstration-on-september-7/">a bunch of other</a> investigations into Bolsonaro, along with <a href="https://brazilian.report/power/2021/08/14/supreme-court-roberto-jefferson/">those in his inner circle</a>, including an ally arrested for allegedly spreading fake news. Bolsonaro is under investigation for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-supreme-court-judge-opens-probe-into-bolsonaro-over-investigation-leak-2021-08-12/">posting a sealed document from an electoral investigation on social media, in an attempt to prove voter fraud</a>. He’s under investigation for his mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic, <a href="https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/nosubscription/analysis-why-is-brazil-so-afraid-of-upcoming-pro-bolsonaro-demonstration-on-september-7/">including a possible vaccine kickback scheme</a>. He and his sons are also implicated in <a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/The-Ranchadinha-Case-Reveals-How-the-Bolsonaro-Clan-Got-Rich-20210315-0006.html">other corruption schemes</a>, with potential criminal consequences.
All of these pressures are looking harder and harder for Bolsonaro to shake, and it’s happening against the shadow of Covid-19 and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-unemployment-rate-historic-high-147-quarter-through-april-2021-06-30/">high unemployment</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-25/brazil-s-inflation-speeds-up-with-more-key-rate-hikes-in-sight">inflation</a>. “The political scenario is worsening for him, so he’s trying to figure out some way to hold on to power to protect himself,” Sean T. Mitchell, an associate professor of anthropology at Rutgers University, told me last month.
The September 7 marches fit with Bolsonaro’s attempts to hold power. The question now is whether the demonstrations were enough to embolden him to launch even more aggressive attacks on the country’s institutions.
In Brasilia and in São Paulo, Bolsonaro’s supporters draped themselves in the Brazilian flag, or <a href="https://twitter.com/pontejornalismo/status/1435279235757666314?s=20">wore its green and yellow colors</a>.
It wasn’t record turnout, but it also wasn’t a total flop. Bolsonaro’s loyalist base showed up, and they are motivated. (<a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210907-pro-anti-bolsonaro-rallies-on-brazil-national-day-pose-high-risk">There were also some anti-Bolsonaro counterprotests in cities Tuesday</a>, though opposition leaders largely urged their supporters to gather on September 12 instead to avoid potential clashes.) The marches also showed that they are buying into Bolsonaro’s attacks on Brazil’s democracy. They carried <a href="https://twitter.com/tomphillipsin/status/1435248922172268545?s=20">pro-Bolsonaro</a> signs, a <a href="https://twitter.com/samanthapearson/status/1435269853762539521?s=20">number in English</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/tomphillipsin/status/1435303136755961861/photo/1">Some blasted the Supreme Court</a>. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/07/jair-bolsonaro-supporters-brazil-rally">Some called for a military takeover</a>.
It was a show of President Bolsonaro’s die-hard supporters, which was the goal. Bolsonaro is losing popular support, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/4/22456981/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-impeachment-protests-coronavirus">the calls for his impeachment have intensified</a>. But so far, the public outrage hasn’t fully translated into political consequences; Bolsonaro still has <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/4/22456981/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-impeachment-protests-coronavirus">allies in Congress</a>, whom he’s managed to keep by making deals, not out of any ideological loyalty (Bolsonaro <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/bolsonaro-president-without-party-strategy-depoliticize-brazil/">actually doesn’t have a political party right now</a>). But Bolsonaro doesn’t want those ties fracturing.
“He’s trying to give a demonstration that will somehow overwhelm his 20 percent approval numbers, show that he has support where it’s really needed — he can bring people out to the streets,” said Amy Erica Smith, an associate professor of political science at Iowa State University. “He’s trying to rally support to himself by showing that he already has support.”
The September 7 marches were also a test for how far Bolsonaro and his backers might take their threats against democracy, and how law enforcement might respond.
Bolsonaro escalated his rhetoric against the supreme court and other institutions — walking up to the coup line, perhaps, but not quite crossing it. There was his threat that if the judiciary continued to act as it had been, it “will suffer what none of us want.” He also declared that he would no longer follow rulings made by one of the supreme court justices, Alexandre de Moraes, who initiated some of the investigations against him.
“I want to tell those who want to make me unelectable in Brazil: Only God removes me from there,” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-donald-trump-courts-coronavirus-pandemic-brazil-e1545240e57ecb4d2257a7ba6bc689c9">Bolsonaro said in São Paulo, according to the Associated Press</a>.
“There are three options for me: be jailed, killed or victorious. I’m letting the scoundrels know: I’ll never be imprisoned!”
Bolsonaro’s supporters spoke in all-or-nothing language. “Even if we need to pick up arms and die for Brazil then we’ll do that,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/07/jair-bolsonaro-supporters-brazil-rally">Luis Bonne, a 50-year-old civil servant and rally attendee, told the Guardian</a>.
And though the fears that September 7 might become a preemptive “stop the steal” didn’t materialize, experts said the danger hasn’t passed. Instead, it seems clear from Bolsonaro’s language that there is no scenario where he will let the election play out and not challenge the results, or willingly leave.
Where the military stands on this adds to the precariousness of the situation. Bolsonaro does have support among lower ranks and military police, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-governors-express-concern-bolsonaro-support-among-state-police-2021-08-24/">and elected leaders feared that many would turn out for the September 7 marches</a>.
<a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/brazil/might-and-right-how-far-will-brazils-military-back-bolsonaro">But whether high-ranking generals would go along with a Bolsonaro power grab or break with him is not at all clear</a>. Experts said it’s unlikely he has enough of their support to launch a full-scale coup, but unlikely is not exactly a comfort when it comes to a military takeover. “Nobody can say this with 100 percent certainty among many observers who are watching this,” Smith told me last month. “And the fact that people can’t say this with 100 percent certainty is a source of power for [Bolsonaro].”
Brazil’s institutions have, so far, reacted to Bolsonaro, in some cases quite strongly. “There are very good signs of that working,” Barrozo said. “But again, it’s too close to a fatal accident that it could derail things.”
September 7 showed that Bolsonaro is testing Brazil’s democratic institutions. The question is how far those institutions can push back on him — and how much of his onslaught they can withstand.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/9/8/22620570/bolsonaro-brazil-september-7-democracy-supreme-court">https://www.vox.com/2021/9/8/22620570/bolsonaro-brazil-september-7-democracy-supreme-court</a>

vox Brazil escaped a January 6-style insurrection — for now

September 7 was Brazil’s Independence Day, and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro used the occasion to continue his assault on the country...

RSVP now for our live Q&A with Susanna Clarke

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The Vox Book Club is linking to <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https://bookshop.org/shop/voxbookclub&referrer=vox.com&sref=https://www.vox.com/culture/21423100/idiot-elif-batuman-semiotics-language-word-games&xcust=___vx__p_22215715__t_w__r_vox.com/vox-book-club__d" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://bookshop.org/shop/voxbookclub\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/culture/21423100/idiot-elif-batuman-semiotics-language-word-games\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22427351__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_vox.com/vox-book-club__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://bookshop.org/shop/voxbookclub","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/culture/21423100/idiot-elif-batuman-semiotics-language-word-games","xcust":"___vx__p_22427351__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_vox.com/vox-book-club__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>Bookshop.org</a> to support local and independent booksellers.
This September, the Vox Book Club is reading one of the best and weirdest books of the past few years: <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/piranesi-9781432886578/9781635575637">Piranesi</a>, by Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell author Susanna Clarke. Then, at the end of the month, we’ll be meeting with Clarke herself live on Zoom — and <a href="https://vox-book-club-piranesi-susanna-clarke.splashthat.com/">you can join us</a>.
Piranesi is a sort of Narnia-by-way-of-Borges story, a “Paradise Lost” in a vast, flooded marble hall. It tells the story of a man called Piranesi, who wanders through the hall in a state of radiant and terrible innocence. As far as he knows, it is all there is of the world, and he’s one of the only living people in it. The result is astonishing to read, especially in this time of quasi-quarantine: a portrait of the trauma of being alone in the world, and a way of moving through and beyond that trauma into something else.
Our discussion with Clarke is at 12 pm Eastern on Monday, September 27. We’ll chat for about 45 minutes, and audience questions are encouraged. You can <a href="https://vox-book-club-piranesi-susanna-clarke.splashthat.com/">RSVP right here</a>.
In the meantime, we’ll meet you back on the site September 17 with our Piranesi discussion post, and you can <a href="http://vox.com/book-club-newsletter">subscribe to the Vox Book Club newsletter</a> to make sure you don’t miss anything.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22663310/susanna-clarke-live-event-zoom-rsvp-vox-book-club">https://www.vox.com/culture/22663310/susanna-clarke-live-event-zoom-rsvp-vox-book-club</a>

vox RSVP now for our live Q&A with Susanna Clarke

The Vox Book Club is linking to Bookshop.org to support local and independent booksellers. This September, the Vox Book Club is reading ...

How video game rocks get made

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In this video, Vox’s Phil Edwards interviews Galen Davis of Quixel at Epic Games. His job is as a game developer, but sometimes, he goes out into the desert to scan rocks.
This scanning process is a crucial new stage in making realistic 3D games today. Rather than modeling and texturing assets manually, designers often rely on scanned assets to make their games, movies, or other 3D productions look real. Quixel sent Davis to Moab, Utah, just to scan the exotic terrain there for use in the Unreal Engine video game.
There are other ways to get assets for 3D productions as well, from apps on your phone to the many different available marketplaces, which means photorealistic assets can be downloaded instead of created, allowing designers to save time and improve the quality of their work.
This process of photogrammetry isn’t just used for games, but in many different disciplines. For instance, you can browse and download the Smithsonian Museum’s collection of 3D objects, including the <a href="https://3d.si.edu/">Apollo 11 command module</a>.
You can find this video and all of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA">Vox’s videos on YouTube</a>.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22661604/video-game-rocks-3d-scan-unreal-engine">https://www.vox.com/22661604/video-game-rocks-3d-scan-unreal-engine</a>

vox How video game rocks get made

In this video, Vox’s Phil Edwards interviews Galen Davis of Quixel at Epic Games. His job is as a game developer, but sometimes, he goes ou...

Lets Talk About The Nipah Virus And Its 60-70% Death Rate

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Lets talk about this horrifying virus:
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Another virus has appeared, and it has a death rate of 50% to 70%. Its called Nipah. This virus recently killed a 12 year old boy in India, and there is serious concern that it could spark a pandemic. So far this virus has only been in south  and southeast Asia where it has been contained since the 1990s. But if it spreads, then it would a horrendous death count. According to the <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/nipah-virus-spread-covid-pandemic-kerala-7490952/">Indian Express</a>, “previous outbreaks have remained largely localised and have been contained relatively quickly.” Lets hope this does not spread at a global scale. The first time Nipah was discovered was in Malaysia in 1998 and then in Singapore in 1999. Its name is from the village in Malaysia where its first victim who was isolated died. All outbreaks have taken place in south and southeast Asian. There have been ten outbreaks in Bangladesh since 2001.
The virus is transmitted from animal to human, but once its in humans then it can spread from human to human, and like covid it can spread through nasal droplets. According to two Bangladeshi researchers “respiratory droplets of an infected person can transmit the virus”. In most of the cases it has been hospital staff and caregivers (people close to those infected) who have contracted nipah. 
The virus typically spreads from bats onto other animals, pigs, dogs, cats, goats, horses and sheep. From these animals, they can spread to humans. As the Indian Express reports: “Humans get infected mainly through direct contact with these animals, or through consumption of food contaminated by saliva or urine of these infected animals.” Nipah is not as contagious as covid, but obviously it is its death rate that concerning. For example, in an outbreak that hit Siliguri (a major city in India) in 2001, 66 people were infected and 45 of these died. But its infectious rate is rather slow, hence why it has been controlled for all of these decades. In 2018 there was an outbreak in Kozhikode (Indian city in Kerala) and nearby Malappuram districts. All of the people who had either direct or indirect contact with suspected Nipah cases had to be put under observation. Around 3,000 people were put in quarantine. Kerala already has a protocol to follow in the case of a nipah outbreak. When nipah appeared again in 2019, Kerala’s health department contained the situation and only one nipah case was reported in Ernakulam district.
When the state reported Nipah again in 2019, the health department already had a protocol in place to handle the situation. In 2019, only one case was reported in Ernakulam district. Kerala’s protocol system was intensely executed once the most recent nipah case was reported. Three hospital wards in Chathamangalam panchayat in Kozhikode, where the victim lived, were completely shut down. According to the Indian Express: “Movement to and from these three wards have been banned. Police have put up barricades and checkpoints at all locations leading to the village of the victim.” The Indian Express also explained its rate of contagiousness:
<blockquote readability="11">
“A study by Bangladeshi researchers P Devnath of Noakhali Science and Technology University and H M A A Masud of Chittagong University, published this year, noted that the reproductive number (R0) in the previous outbreaks of Nipah virus was about 0.48. The R-value is a measure of how quickly the virus spreads in the population. A value less than one means less than one person is being infected by an already infected person. In such a scenario, the outbreak is expected to diminish relatively quickly.”
</blockquote>
So far, contagiousness in low. In <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/11/1743/344101?login=true">Bangladesh</a>, the majority of cases are from drinking fresh date palm sap or animal infection. Bats, infected with the virus, will suck the sap from the tree, leaving nipah in the substance. Humans will consume a fresh date palm drink only hours after it has been harvested. Since nipah can survive for days on sugar-rich solutions, people who consume infected fresh sap, can indeed get the virus. There is also the phenomena of the virus spreading from pigs to humans. Bats will a chunk of fruit and the rest of it will drop to the ground where they are eaten by pigs. Humans with direct contact with these pigs can get infected through the saliva of the animal. Infections have also spread from cow to human. For example, a sick cow in Meherpur, Bangladesh in 2001 was strongly associated with Nipah infection.
Now, what is the chance of nipah becoming a pandemic? In the words of Stephen P. Luby, Professor of Medicine:
<blockquote readability="10">
“Characteristics of Nipah virus that increase its risk of becoming a global pandemic include: humans are already susceptible; many strains are capable of limited person-to-person transmission; as an RNA virus, it has an exceptionally high rate of mutation: and that if a human-adapted strain were to infect communities in South Asia, high population densities and global interconnectedness would rapidly spread the infection.”
</blockquote>
In an <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/05/5-questions-luby-on-virus-with-potential-to-cause-global-pandemic.html#:~:text=Epidemiologist%20Stephen%20Luby%20is%20among%20the%20Stanford%20researchers%20studying%20the%20Nipah%20virus.&text=A%20little-known%20virus%20discovered,bats%20or%20pigs%20to%20humans.">interview</a>, Luby stated:
<blockquote readability="9">
“Characteristics that might increase the risk of person-to-person transmission would be a virus that has a stronger tendency to move to the respiratory tract in high numbers. It is conceivable that the virus could acquire a mutation that would enhance this capacity. One concern is that anytime a virus infects a human, it is in an environment that selects for survival in that context.”
</blockquote>
   
 
 
source <a href="https://shoebat.com/2021/09/08/lets-talk-about-the-nipah-virus-and-its-60-70-death-rate/">https://shoebat.com/2021/09/08/lets-talk-about-the-nipah-virus-and-its-60-70-death-rate/</a>

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World's Largest Plant Capturing Carbon Dioxide From Air Starts In Iceland

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="World's Largest Plant Capturing Carbon Dioxide From Air Starts In Iceland" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-09/nolf3aac_iceland-carbon-dioxide-plant_625x300_09_September_21.jpg" title="World's Largest Plant Capturing Carbon Dioxide From Air Starts In Iceland" /></div>
A facility for capturing carbon dioxide from air. (Reuters File)
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Reykjavik:
The world's largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turning it into rock started running on Wednesday, the companies behind the plant said.
The plant, named Orca, after the Icelandic word "orka" meaning "energy", consists of four units, each made up of two metal boxes, similar in appearance to the containers used for maritime transport.
Constructed by Switzerland's Climeworks and Iceland's Carbfix, when operating at capacity the plant will draw 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air every year, according to the companies.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that equates to the emissions from about 870 cars.
To collect the carbon dioxide, the plant uses fans to draw air into a collector, which has a filter material inside.
Once the filter material is filled with CO2, the collector is closed and the temperature is raised to release the CO2 from the material after which the highly concentrated gas can be collected.
The CO2 is then mixed with the water before being injected at a depth of 1,000 metres into the nearby basalt rock where it is petrified.
Proponents of so called carbon capture and storage (CCS) believe these technologies can become a major tool in the fight against climate change.
Critics however argue that the technology is still prohibitively expensive and might take decades to operate at scale.
(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/worlds-largest-plant-capturing-carbon-dioxide-from-air-starts-in-iceland-2534731">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/worlds-largest-plant-capturing-carbon-dioxide-from-air-starts-in-iceland-2534731</a>

news world World's Largest Plant Capturing Carbon Dioxide From Air Starts In Iceland

A facility for capturing carbon dioxide from air. (Reuters File) Reykjavik: The world's largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxi...