By Reuters Staff
KUWAIT/PARIS
(Reuters) - Kuwait’s retail co-ops have pulled French products in boycott over
the use of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a French school class on freedom
of expression whose teacher was then beheaded by a Chechen teenager.
In Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economy, a hashtag calling for
the boycott of French supermarket retailer Carrefour was the second most
trending on Sunday.
France’s foreign affairs ministry said there had been calls to boycott
French products, notably food products, in several Middle Eastern countries as
well as calls for demonstrations against France over the cartoons.
Muslims see any depiction of the Prophet as blasphemous.
“These calls for boycott are baseless and should stop immediately, as
well as all attacks against our country, which are being pushed by a radical
minority,” the ministry said.
The ministry also called on authorities to speak out against such
boycott actions in order to help French companies and ensure the safety of
French citizens.
In Kuwait, the non-governmental Union of Consumer Co-operative
Societies, which groups more than 70 establishments, issued the boycott
directive in an Oct. 23 circular. Several co-ops visited by Reuters on Sunday
had cleared the shelves of items such as hair and beauty products made by
French companies.
Union head Fahd Al-Kishti told Reuters the products had been removed in
response to “repeated insults” against the Prophet.
The co-ops, some the size of hypermarkets, carry government-subsidised
staples and account for a big part of retail in Kuwait. Kuwait’s imports from
France stood at 255 million dinars in 2019, according to Kuwait’s Central
Statistics bureau.
Kuwait’s foreign minister, who met the French ambassador on Sunday,
condemned the Oct. 16 killing as a horrendous crime but stressed the need to
avoid insulting religion in official and political remarks that “inflame
hatred, enmity and racism”, the ministry tweeted.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan also said on Sunday President
Emmanuel Macron had “attacked Islam” by encouraging the display of the
cartoons.
----
France recalled its ambassador to Turkey on Saturday after
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Macron, who this month declared war on
“Islamist separatism”, needed mental help over his attitude towards Muslims.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-kuwait-france-boycott/kuwait-retail-co-ops-remove-french-products-over-prophet-cartoon-idUKKBN27A0NP
The Arctic winter sea-ice expansion and
northern hemisphere snow cover. From around mid-October, the northern
hemisphere snow cover usually rapidly expands, while the Arctic ice gradually
expands back towards its winter maximum.
Over simplified, a rapid expansion of
both, especially if early, can be a sign of a harsher than normal arriving norther
hemisphere winter. Perhaps more so in 2020-2021 as we’re in the low of the
ending sunspot cycle, which possibly also influenced this year’s record
Atlantic hurricane season.
Adding to this year’s winter concerns,
a developing La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific. While the La Nina effect
on the winter weather of western Europe is weaker than that of an El Nino
pattern, which tends to make for a milder winter, a La Nina pattern tends to
make for a colder winter.
The early take, Eur-Asia turned snowy
fast in mid-October. North America is now playing catchup. The Arctic sea ice
expansion is slow, but with the vastly expanded snow cover, it will probably
now speed up.
US National Ice
Center.
https://www.natice.noaa.gov/ims/
The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and
institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
Walter Bagehot.
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Astra Jab Reported to Trigger
Response in Elderly: Virus Update Bloomberg News October
25, 2020, 10:23 PM GMT Updated on October 26, 2020, 5:19 AM GMT
The World Health Organization’s director general said some
countries in the northern hemisphere are facing a “dangerous moment” as U.S. coronavirus
infections hit a record for the second day and France’s cases rose by more than
50,000.
AstraZeneca
Spain announced a nationwide curfew dismantle
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-25/u-s-adds-more-than-85-000-cases-in-one-day-record-virus-update?srnd=premium-europe
New York and New Jersey Cases at
Highest Since May: Virus Update Bloomberg News October 23, 2020, 11:49 PM GMT+1 Updated on October 24, 2020,
10:39 PM GMT
New York and New Jersey reported the most new Covid-19
cases since May, while daily infections across the U.S. reached a record of
more than 83,000. President Donald Trump blamed the surge on testing .
“The news from around the country is another reminder that
while we have come a long way, this pandemic is not over and we must remain
vigilant,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. New Jersey’s
Phil Murphy extended a public health emergency for another month. Illinois had
the most new cases since the pandemic began.
France reported a third straight day of record cases and
its positive-test rate jumped by almost a full percentage point. Italian
cabinet ministers, faced with anti-curfew protests ,
met into Saturday night to consider tighter restrictions.
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-23/u-s-cases-surge-past-70-000-france-tops-record-virus-update?srnd=coronavirus
New coronavirus type found in
Norway: It is transmitted at large distances The mutated virus is called M439K and
belongs to the genetic subgroup of the coronavirus B.1.5
14:45, 21 October 2020
n Norway, the new mutation of SARS-CoV-2
coronavirus is found; it has never been observed in the country before – it
is easier to get infected with it than with the usual form as Verdens
Gang reported citing Senior Medical Officer at City of Trondheim Tove
Røsstad.
“Preliminary, it is a new variant of the virus that the
Ministry of Health and Care Services has never seen before in Norway,” Røsstad said.
The outbreak in Trondheim is tied with the new mutation of
the virus. The new type of coronavirus was observed from October 16 up to
October 18 as eight locals infected.
Related: Vaccination
against Covid-19 to start from middle of 2021, - WHO
According to scientists, the mutated virus is called M439K
and belongs to the genetic subgroup of the coronavirus B.1.5. The surface of
this protein differs from the common SARS-CoV-2. It has shorter spikes that
help the virus to attach to the cell and infect it. The new type of coronavirus
can easily bind with the cells in the body.
The peculiarity of this mutation of the virus is that it
has a higher level of transmission: people should not stay in close contact to
infect with it.
As we reported, British scientists have found that Covid-19 may
cause sudden and permanent hearing loss , adding that such problems need
early detection and urgent treatment. This statement was made by researchers
from University College London and the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear
Hospital.
https://112.international/society/new-coronavirus-type-found-in-norway-it-is-transmitted-at-large-distances-55794.html
The
coronavirus pandemic has caused nearly 300,000 more deaths than expected in a
typical year October 20, 2020
The CDC said the novel coronavirus, which causes covid-19,
has taken a disproportionate toll on Latinos and Blacks, as previous analyses
have noted. But the CDC also found, surprisingly, that it has struck 25- to
44-year-olds very hard: Their “excess death” rate is up 26.5 percent over
previous years, the largest change for any age group.
It is not clear whether that spike is caused by the shift
in covid-19 deaths toward younger people between May and August or deaths from
other causes, the CDC said.
The report comes with just two weeks left in a presidential
campaign whose central issue is President Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
Trump has sought at every turn, including in remarks Monday,
His Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden,
has made his plans to tackle the pandemic the major focus of his bid to capture
the White House.
“The number of people dying from this pandemic is higher
than we think,” said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society
and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, who has conducted independent
analyses of excess mortality. “This study shows it. Others have, as well.”
----The new CDC data covers Feb. 1 to Oct. 3. Woolf said
the total is likely to reach 400,000 by the end of the year. The numbers were
assembled by the National Center for Health Statistics, a unit of the CDC.
Outside analyses, including some by The Washington Post and researchers at Yale University
More
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/coronavirus-excess-deaths/2020/10/20/1e1d77c6-12e1-11eb-ba42-ec6a580836ed_story.html
Next, some vaccine links
kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most
informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World
Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines . https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY
Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford
Website . https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory
Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker . https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
https://rt.live/
Covid19info.live
https://wuflu.live/
Centers for Disease Control
Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC or DC energy
mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards.
It's Official: Solar Is the
Cheapest Electricity in History Tough break for fossil fuels.
By
Caroline Delbert
Oct 22, 2020
cost per megawatt to build solar plants is below fossil
fuels worldwide for the first time.
Public success stories like Elon Musk's solar and wind battery farm in Australia have
helped move public sentiment.
All four IEA scenarios include a mix of
renewables as well as nuclear and the world's remaining fossil fuel plants.
In a new report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says solar is now the cheapest form of electricity for utility
companies to build. That’s thanks to risk-reducing financial policies around
the world, the agency says, and it applies to locations with both the most
favorable policies and the easiest access to financing. The report underlines
how important these policies are to encouraging development of renewables and
other environmentally forward technologies.
Carbon Brief (CB) summarizes the annual report with a lot of key details. The
World Energy Outlook 2020 “offers four ‘pathways’ to 2040, all of which see a
major rise in renewables,” CB says. “The IEA’s main scenario has 43 [percent]
more solar output by 2040 than it expected in 2018, partly due to detailed new
analysis showing that solar power is 20 [to] 50 [percent] cheaper than
thought.”
The calculation depends on financing figures compared with
the amount of output for solar projects. That means that at the same time panel
technology gets more efficient and prices for basic panels continue to fall,
investors are getting better and better financing deals. CB explains:
“Previously
the IEA assumed a
range of 7 [to] 8 [percent] for all technologies, varying
according to each country’s stage of development. Now, the IEA has reviewed the
evidence internationally and finds that for solar, the cost of capital is much
lower, at 2.6 [to] 5.0 [percent] in Europe and the US, 4.4 [to] 5.5 [percent]
in China and 8.8 [to] 10.0 [percent] in India.”
So
the statistic “20 to 50 percent cheaper” is based on a calculus of companies
building solar projects, not something that has throughput for consumers or
even solar homeowners. But it’s still a big deal, because the cost to build
power plants is a major part of why so much of the world has stuck with coal
and gas power. With the new, lowered cost of capital, solar’s cost per megawatt
has fallen almost completely below both gas and coal worldwide.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a34372005/solar-cheapest-energy-ever/
US Politics Betting Odds https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/us-politics
A permanent Governor of the European Central Bank [your Central
Bankster here,] would be one of the greatest men in Euroland. He would be a
little `monarch` in every City; he would be far greater than the Elected
Leaders. He would be the personal embodiment of the ECB; he would be constantly
clothed with an almost indefinite prestige. Every nation in business would bow
down before him and try to stand well with him, for he might in a panic be able
to save almost anyone he liked, and to ruin almost anyone he liked. A day might
come when his favour might mean prosperity, and his distrust might mean ruin. A
position with so much real power and so much apparent dignity would be
intensely coveted.
With Apologies to Walter Bagehot. Lombard
Street. 1873
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