Above Photo: Michael Christopher Brown / Conservation.org. Toronto, Canada – Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the deadly manifestations of the climate crisis, there were few places to hide for most of us in 2021. Ageing billionaires riding booming stock markets could take their first flights into space in their own rockets, but for the rest of Planet Earth’s 8 billion people with their feet on the ground it was a year of placing hope in the hands of scientists and our political leaders to turn the tide. Our review of 2021, as seen through the eyes of IPS reporters and contributors around […]
Grim
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Above Photo: Author, Tony Platt. (T.William Wallin/The Lumberjack) Tony Platt’s recently re-released book, “Grave Matters” digs into the Golden State’s dark history of not only massacring Indigenous Peoples, but later desecrating their graves and excavating their remains without their descendants’ consent. The United States of America is founded on the original sin of Native American genocide and the myth that the Indigenous Peoples that lived on these lands for thousands of years had no right to it. White settler colonialism is not just a stain on the country’s history, it is its very raison d’etre. To this day, all non-Native Americans live […]
After teasing a “little surprise visit” via video on Twitter, President Trump left the hospital on Sunday afternoon to wave to supporters from the back seat of an SUV. “It’s been a very interesting journey. I learned a lot about COVID,” Trump, who is still suffering from the coronavirus, said in the video. “I learned it by really going to school, this is the real school, this isn’t the ‘let’s the read book’ school, and I get it, and I understand it,” he added. Then, contradicting his own words and the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the […]
Formula 1 icon Michael Schumacher is unlikely to ever fully recover from the injuries he suffered in a skiing accident in the French Alps in 2013, according to respected neurosurgeon Erich Riederer. The status of Schumacher’s health has been a closely guarded secret since the accident, with only the vague updates released by his family and just a week after former Ferrari head Jean Todt told the media that Schumacher was ‘fighting’ his illness after a recent visit with the German driver, Riederer has offered a more pessimistic perspective. Also on rt.com ‘He is fighting’: Ex-Ferrari boss Jean Todt gives Michael Schumacher […]
If we thought lockdown was bad enough, then the ‘New Normal’ being prepared for us in Britain looks even worse. ‘Welcome to the ‘House of Fun’ sung the upbeat ska group Madness in 1982. Well, in the Britain of 2020 we haven’t got much fun but plenty of madness. Unfortunately though, its not of the musical variety. Consider the utterly depressing new ‘guidance’ on weddings. From 4th July, weddings and social partnerships can go ahead, but only with a maximum of 30 people, including the couple, staff, the photographer (s) and witnesses. There should be no food or drink consumed at […]
Meet the grim reaper of Texas. Not that state Attorney General Ken Paxton outwardly resembles the hooded, scythe-wielding spectre from the time of the Black Death. But 14th century Europe had no figure quite like this Lone Star politician from the present pandemic. Here is a guy who is actively opposing measures to keep a deadly contagion from spreading even as he leads an effort that could suddenly leave more than a million people without health care. Source link
Three-year-old Mekhi James had just gotten his first barbershop haircut when he became one of 104 people shot in Chicago on Father’s Day weekend. “It hurts! It hurts!” Mekhi cried out after a bullet struck him in the back. The gunfire had come from another car as the boy’s stepfather was driving him home on Saturday. The stepfather sped instead to Western Suburban Medical Center. Mekhi proved to be beyond saving and became one of 14 gunshot victims in the city who died, four of them juveniles. Source link
Former Bellator MMA champion Alexander Shlemenko has spoken of his ordeal and told fans not to risk their lives by going for a swim after diving into the Irtysh River to pull out a body before calling the police to the scene. The popular Russian fighter looked troubled and still had water on his head as he revealed his horror at spotting a body in the river, diving in to recover the floating figure, returning to the shore and contacting the emergency services. Known as “Storm”, Shlemenko had previously published videos showing himself taking dips in the water with his family […]
FalconX raised an inflation-adjusted equivalent to Facebook’s 2005 Series A, Bakkt has unveiled $600 million in total insurance cover and Andressen Horowitz anticipates another age of growth. Crypto trading platform FalconX closed a mult-imillion dollar seed funding round led by Accel, a venture capital firm that took a gamble by investing early in Facebook. Looking at these two raises separated by 15 years is revealing. Adjusting Facebook’s 2005 Series A to today’s terms brings it to around $17 million, or the amount FalconX was just handed. You’re reading Blockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto […]