Breaking News Archives - True Activist https://trueactivist.com Exposing the truth one lie at a time Tue, 10 Jan 2023 05:20:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.3 https://trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/favicon.png Breaking News Archives - True Activist https://trueactivist.com 32 32 An Experiment In Misinformation Has A Chance To “Immunize” Millions Of Social Media Users https://trueactivist.com/an-experiment-in-misinformation-has-a-chance-to-immunize-millions-of-social-media-users-t1/ Tue, 10 Jan 2023 05:20:34 +0000 https://trueactivist.com/?p=230719 You must have heard the saying, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet,” right? And that’s because there is a ton of fake news, fake data, just fake information...

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Cloud Front

You must have heard the saying, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet,” right? And that’s because there is a ton of fake news, fake data, just fake information all over the world wide web that leads to major misinformation.

Well, new research has found that by exposing social media users to the many tricks behind all the false information that’s shared online, they’ve managed to raised awareness of all of these different kinds of so-called “fake news.” In this light, Google is working towards putting an anti-disinformation campaign in place because of the study findings.

The online experiment, which was led by researchers from the University of Cambridge, put short animations in YouTube Ad slots, providing their viewers with an idea of the strategies used in many types of misinformation propaganda.

The team of psychologists from the universities of Cambridge and Bristol worked with Jigsaw, a unit within Google that works precisely to handle ‘threats to open societies,’ as they say on their website. Together, they made 90-second clips designed precisely to enlighten users to the manipulation techniques like ‘scapegoating and deliberate incoherence.’

This “pre-bunking” strategy, as they call it, is meant to exposes people early on to the very root of all of this malicious misinformation. That way, they don’t have to be victims but rather, they will be able to identify what is real and what is false online, regardless of what type of information they are looking at.

Called the Inoculation Science project, the researchers behind this undertaking compare it to a vaccine. They explain that by giving people a “micro-dose” of misinformation in advance, it actually helps stop them from falling for these types of misinformation in the future. This idea was actually based on what social psychologists’ call the “inoculation theory.”

The researchers published their findings in Science Advances, which were a result of at least seven experiments that involved at total of around 30,000 participants. This also included the first “real world field study” done using the inoculation theory on a social media platform, they note.


According to the research team, just a single viewing of even one of their film clips managed to increase the awareness to their viewers of misinformation online.

These videos managed to introduce the concepts form the “misinformation playbook,” which is illustrated with relatable examples from popular TV series’ or films, like that from Star Wars, which has false dichotomies, or from Family Guy.

Head of the Social Decision-Making Lab at Cambridge and study co-author, Prof. Sander van der Linden, who also led the study said, “YouTube has well over 2 billion active users worldwide. Our videos could easily be embedded within the ad space on YouTube to ‘pre-bunk’ misinformation.”

“Our research provides the necessary proof of concept that the principle of psychological inoculation can readily be scaled across hundreds of millions of users worldwide,” he added.

As for Dr. Jon Roozenbeek, lead author of the study also from the Cambridge Lab, he explaines the team’s videos as “source agnostic,” which avoids biases most people have about where their information comes from, as well as how it aligns, or doesn’t align, with what they may already believe.

He said, “Our interventions make no claims about what is true or a fact, which is often disputed. They are effective for anyone who does not appreciate being manipulated.”

He also shared, “The inoculation effect was consistent across liberals and conservatives. It worked for people with different levels of education, and different personality types.”

Google, which is YouTube’s parent company, they are already in the process of harnessing these findings. By the end of August, Jigsaw plans to roll out a ‘pre-bunking’ campaign on a number of different platforms, including Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic in order to debunk or disprove misleading information related to the Ukrainian refugees that have been forced from their country due to the Russian-led war. This particular campaign was also designed to ‘build resilience to harmful anti-refugee narratives,’ having partnered with such groups as the local NGOs, academics, fact checkers, and disinformation experts.

Co-author and Head of Research and Development for Google’s Jigsaw unit, Beth Goldberg, explained, “Harmful misinformation takes many forms, but the manipulative tactics and narratives are often repeated and can therefore be predicted.”

“Teaching people about techniques that manipulate them, like ad-hominem attacks, can help build resilience to believing and spreading misinformation, before harmful narratives take hold,” she said.


Moreover, the team contends that ‘pre-bunking’ may even be more effective at stopping misinformation than actual fact-checking each untruth since this is actually an impossibility at such a large scale. Plus it has the potential to even feed into more conspiracy theories as a result.

Another co-author, Prof. Stephan Lewandowsky from the University of Bristol claimed, “Propaganda, lies and mis-directions are nearly always created from the same playbook. We developed the videos by analyzing the rhetoric of demagogues, who deal in scapegoating and false dichotomies.”

He added, “Fact-checkers can only rebut a fraction of the falsehoods circulating online. We need to teach people to recognize the misinformation playbook, so they understand when they are being misled.”

There were initially six controlled experiments, featuring 6,464 participants. The sixth experiment was conducted a whole year after the first five experiments in order to make sure the earlier findings could be duplicated.

Every participants was asked for their data, from the basic info like age, gender, education and political preferences, to their levels of numeracy – which is their ability to understand and to work with numbers. They were also asked about conspiratorial thinking, gullibility, how many hours they spend looking at social media and news, as well as personality inventory and on many other parameters.

After collating all the data, the team saw that the inoculation videos managed to improve the participants’ abilities to spot misinformation, boosting their confidence when it came to being able to spot misleading information again. Moreover, the clips also improved the decision making for “sharing decisions,” which was whether or not they should share the alleged “damaging” content.

Afterwards, two of the animations were tested to be part of a large YouTube experiment. The clips were placed in the pre-video advert slot of the website which provides the option to skip it after five seconds.

Google’s Jigsaw managed to show it to around 5.4 million Americans YouTubers, with around a million watching it for at least 30 seconds. Then, they gave a random 30% of users made to watch the video a voluntary test question within the first 24 hours of their first viewing.

The clips were developed precisely to inoculate people against the tactics normally used to spread misinformation, such as the use of hyper-emotive language and the use of false dichotomies. They then did follow-up questions, which were based on fictional posts created just to test for the detection of such propaganda. Then, YouTube also provided a “control” group of users that didn’t view the video with the same test question. What they found was that 22,632 users answered a question.

You can see more about this in the clip below:

 

Regardless of the major distractions there are on YouTube, the ability to recognize manipulation techniques at the very center of this misinformation has increased by at least 5% on average.

Prof. van der Linden shared,  “Users participated in the tests around 18 hours on average after watching the videos, so the inoculation appears to have stuck.”

The researchers also explain that if other social media platforms joined in, there could be a rapid increase of misinformation recognition. And moreover, it would be quite inexpensive to do since the average case for every view of a significant amount of time would only cost $0.05.

Prof. Roozenbeek added, “If anyone wants to pay for a YouTube campaign that measurably reduces susceptibility to misinformation across millions of users, they can do so, and at a minuscule cost per view.”

 

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A Pregnant Elephant Lost Her Life After Eating Fruit Stuffed With Firecrackers https://trueactivist.com/a-pregnant-elephant-lost-her-life-after-eating-fruit-stuffed-with-firecrackers-t1/ Tue, 16 Jun 2020 18:25:26 +0000 https://trueactivist.com/?p=224740 In a horrible turn of events, a pregnant elephant from southern India has died after eating fruit filled with firecrackers. She had wandered into a nearby village located in the...

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Facebook – Jade Smalls

In a horrible turn of events, a pregnant elephant from southern India has died after eating fruit filled with firecrackers. She had wandered into a nearby village located in the Kerala’s Silent Valley Forest in search of food, when she found some pineapple stuffed with firecrackers.

Apparently, the very trusting elephant had found the pineapple and decided to take some to eat. When she bit down on the fruit, it suddenly exploded in her mouth. The firecracker managed to break her upper and lower jaw, ultimately injuring her entire mouth in the process. Because of this, she was left without the ability to eat or drink anything.

One wildlife official, Mohan Krishnan, made a sweet post on social media talking about what had happened after the pregnant elephant was found dying in a river nearby. He shared, “She trusted everyone. When the pineapple she ate exploded, she must have been shocked not thinking about herself, but about the child she was going to give birth to in 18 to 20 months.”


He continued, “She didn’t harm a single human being even when she ran in searing pain in the streets of the village. She didn’t crash a single home.”

“When we saw her she was standing in the river, with her head dipped in the water. She had a sixth sense that she was going to die,” he added.

Apparently, officials even attempted to bring the hurt elephant out of the river in order to get her treated, they even brought in two captive elephants to try to get her out of the water but she refused. Sadly, she stayed in the water until she took her very last breath.

Twitter

Once they were finally able to bring her body in for an autopsy, the results showed that she was indeed, two-months pregnant. She was later on brought back to the forest where her remains were cremated.

When asked about how something like this could have happened, a spokesperson for the Kerala Forest Department explained that it’s not uncommon for farmers to stuff different kinds of fruit with firecrackers and put them around the edges of their fields to keep wild boars from eating up their crops. Unfortunately this time, it was a sweet and docile elephant that happened to get to the fruit and eventually died a slow death because of it.

The spokesperson told Sky News, “It seems this elephant was very unfortunate and unlucky. In my 20 years of service I have heard of three such cases in the past with elephants. It is very sad and we are all very sad about it.”

The official Twitter page of Kerala Forest Department posted: “Article 51-A (g) of the Indian Constitution says that it shall be duty of every citizen of India to have compassion for living creatures.”


The post continued, “The pregnant elephant… was killed in human-wildlife conflict. Action has already been initiated. But where lies our duty?”

After the story of the pregnant elephant dying by firecracker went viral, people all over the world shared their sadness and horrified sentiments. Some also paid tribute to the innocent elephant and her unborn child by creating art and other types of tributes.

Although what had happened was most probably an accident and not a deliberate attack on the mommy elephant. A team from the Kerala Forest Department is still doing the proper investigation and questioning over the elephant’s horrendous death. There is even a petition on Change.org clamoring for justice for the elephant that has already gotten over 1 million signatures.

 

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Scientists Begin Preparations Of COVID-19 Vaccine Trials, Thanks To Previous MERS Research And Success https://trueactivist.com/scientists-begin-preparations-of-covid-19-vaccine-trials-thanks-to-previous-mers-research-and-success-t1/ Thu, 12 Mar 2020 09:55:23 +0000 https://trueactivist.com/?p=223891 A team of scientists at the National Institutes of Health have been doing round-the-clock research, and after weeks, they had their first key test for an experimental vaccine.  Kizzmekia Corbett,...

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The Progress

A team of scientists at the National Institutes of Health have been doing round-the-clock research, and after weeks, they had their first key test for an experimental vaccine. 

Kizzmekia Corbett, an NH research fellow and one of the scientists leading the vaccine development said “it was absolutely amazing,” when her team had given her the great news that this vaccine actually works. 

Different research groups all over the world are all competing to create the first COVID-19 vaccine as cases continue to multiply at an alarming rate on a daily basis. More importantly, these research groups are creating different types of vaccines to cure infected patients at a faster and more potent rate. Some are even trying to make temporary vaccines to guard people’s health for a month or two, while the longer-lasting protection is still being tested. 

Dr. Judith O’Donnell, vaccine expert and infectious disease chief at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center said that, “until we test them in humans we have absolutely no idea what the immune response will be. Having a lot of different vaccines — with a lot of different theories behind the science of generating immunity — all on a parallel track really ultimately gives us the best chance of getting something successful.”


The First step to testing these vaccines will be in small numbers of young and healthy volunteers. These participants will not get infected from the experiment, because they don’t have the virus itself. The goal is to see if these vaccines will have any side effects, which will set the stage for other experiments. 

Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle is already preparing to test 45 volunteers with different shots that were co-developed by NIH and Moderna Inc. 

Cloud Front

Inovio Pharmaceuticals is also next in line, as they begin safety tests to their chosen candidates that have volunteered at the University of Pennsylvania and a testing center located in Kansas City, Missouri. This study that Inovio is conducting is similar as to what both China and South Korea have done. 

Director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci has stressed numerous times that even if these initial tests have a positive outcome, “you’re talking about a year to a year and a half” before pharmaceutical companies can actually administer these vaccines for widespread use. 

“I can really genuinely understand everybody’s frustration and maybe even confusion. You can do everything as fast as possible, but you can’t circumvent some of these vital processes,” said Inovio’s research and development chief, Kate Broderick. 


In the NIH Lab, the coronavirus is covered in a protein that was named “spike,” which allows the virus to burrow itself into human cells. Once that protein can be blocked, people won’t get infected. That makes “spike” the biggest target in the vaccine research. 

Corbett’s team has a lead with this research because of all the years they had spent in trying to create a vaccine for the virus’ other cousin, MERS. They already discovered how to make proteins stable enough to immunize. They made all these spike proteins, froze them in vials and tested them on dozens of mice. Corbett mentioned that their work wouldn’t have progressed so quickly if not for all the years of law testing for the possible MERS vaccine that works similarly.

“I think about it a lot, how many of the little experimental questions we did not have to belabor” this time around, she said. When the first promising mouse tests came out, she said that, “I felt like there was a beginning of all of this coming full circle.”

 

 

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Ground Zero Of Coronavirus – Wuhan City Is A “Zombieland” As People Collapse On The Streets And Hospital Corridors Are Flooded With The Infected https://trueactivist.com/ground-zero-of-coronavirus-wuhan-city-is-a-zombieland-as-people-collapse-on-the-streets-and-hospital-corridors-are-flooded-with-the-infected-t1/ Sat, 25 Jan 2020 12:02:25 +0000 https://trueactivist.com/?p=223525 As the coronavirus outbreak grips Wuhan, images and videos have emerged of local residents collapsing in streets and hospitals throughout the quarantined city.  Wuhan, the ground zero of the deadly...

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Source: https://todayheadline.co/

As the coronavirus outbreak grips Wuhan, images and videos have emerged of local residents collapsing in streets and hospitals throughout the quarantined city. 

Wuhan, the ground zero of the deadly corona virus has been dubbed “zombieland” by some of its locals. 

Distressing photos on social media show people collapsing on the streets and hospitals during this epidemic that has already killed at least 26 people. 

In one disturbing video, an unconscious man is seen lying on the street while medics in hazmat suits and gas masks are attempting to help him up. 


According to passersby, the victim who had a protective mask on was in line for paperwork when he just collapsed and lost consciousness. 

Another photo that has been circulating on social media is of a man reportedly dead on the ground with blood on his head. A local news site reported the victim as dead from coronavirus. 

The news site posted the image on social media with this caption:

“It is stated that a person infected with coronavirus died in blood.”

Another unverified video circulated online which shows scenes inside a chaotic Wuhan hospital. This footage showed the hospital staff wearing full-covered protective body suits going over dead bodies, while the hallways were overcrowded with patients and doctors. 

A woman claiming to be a nurse shared this video to Weibo, China’s microblogging website. She wrote that the hospital staff and patients were “stuck” with the dead bodies that are covered in white sheets, because no one can take them away right now. 


A lot of other images circulating online are believed to be located in Wuhan, although they all still remain to be unverified.

Residents in the “ground-zero” city have been told not to go to any public gatherings and avoid crowds, making the virus-originating city look like a ghost town – even if there are 11 million inhabitants.

Source: https://www.dailythanthi.com/

 

Other images show residents crowding hospital corridors, all wearing masks, while they await to see a doctor. 

Supermarkets are all sold out with empty shelves after worried locals went and panic bought. 

All public transport to Wuhan has been on lock down on desperate bid to stop the epidemic from spreading to other nearby cities. 

Because of the rapid spread of the coronavirus, the local authorities of the city is building a 1,000 bed hospital just for patients infected with this sickness. Officials say that it will be completed by February 3, with photos already showing construction workers digging out to lay the foundations of the building. 

Meanwhile, it has been reported that nine people in the UK are being treated for symptoms that are found in coronavirus, while five have also come forward in Scotland, and another one in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 

The latest number of cases in China has now reached over 800 people, with other victims found in Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and the US. 

With this virus spreading rapidly all over the world, questions are being raised as to how the Chinese authorities handled the outbreak when it began in Wuhan. 

A wet seafood market located in Wuhan city, which is bigger than London is where the virus originated in December. Even if it’s been more than a week with public knowledge that this virus can be easily spread from human to human, it was only this Thursday that authorities locked down all public transportation in and out of the city. 

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A Simulation Run Three Months Ago Predicts That Coronavirus Could Possibly Kill 65 Million People https://trueactivist.com/a-simulation-run-three-months-ago-predicts-that-coronavirus-could-possibly-kill-65-million-people-t1/ Sat, 25 Jan 2020 10:56:56 +0000 https://trueactivist.com/?p=223520 As of January 24, the deadly outbreak known as the coronavirus from China has already killed 26 people and infected more than 900. Although according to a simulation that was...

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Source: Business Insider

As of January 24, the deadly outbreak known as the coronavirus from China has already killed 26 people and infected more than 900.

Although according to a simulation that was conducted only three months ago, things could get even worse, and quick. 


According to Business Insider, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Eric Toner, ran a simulation about a global pandemic of the exact same type of virus less than three months ago,. 

The simulation predicted that nearly 65 million people will die in an 18 month period.

“I have thought for a long time that the most likely virus that might cause a new pandemic would be a coronavirus,” he said 

At this moment, the outbreak is not yet pandemic, although it has already been reported to reach eight different countries in less than a month. Toner’s simulation showed that within six months, the deadly virus would reach nearly “every country in the world.”

“We don’t yet know how contagious it is. We know that it is being spread person to person, but we don’t know to what extent. An initial first impression is that this is significantly milder than SARS. So that’s reassuring. On the other hand, it may be more transmissible than SARS, at least in the community setting,” he said. 

Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/


Toner’s analysis made use of a fictional virus that is resistant to any modern vaccine and deadlier than SARS. This simulation virus that originated in Brazil’s pig farms was named CAPS. The outbreak would start small, with pig farms feeling flu-like symptoms, before it spreads to impoverished areas. 

The simulation also included how flights would be cancelled and travel bookings would fall to 45% as people would read false reports on social media. It also showed a financial crisis around the globe that would have an 11% GDP drop, as well as a 20-40% drop in the international stock market. 

The scientist also claimed that the real and dangerous coronavirus could create a major economic impact once the cases hit more than a thousand people. 

 “If we could make it so that we could have a vaccine within months rather than years or decades, that would be a game changer. But it’s not just the identification of potential vaccines. We need to think even more about how they are manufactured on a global scale and distributed and administered to people. It’s part of the world we live in now. We’re in an age of epidemics,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, the CDC in the United States is assuring everybody that there is no need for concern.

“We don’t want the American public to be worried about this because their risk is low,” says Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “On the other hand, we are taking this very seriously and are dealing very closely with Chinese authorities.”

Hopefully, they are right, and the outbreak will be contained to those that are already suffering it, and no one else. 

 

 

 

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China Quarantines Wuhan City With Its 11 Million Inhabitants After Reports Of Coronavirus Spreading To US https://trueactivist.com/china-quarantines-wuhan-city-with-its-11-million-inhabitants-after-reports-of-coronavirus-spreading-to-us-t1/ Sat, 25 Jan 2020 10:34:09 +0000 https://trueactivist.com/?p=223516 U.S. Financial Times reporter Gabriel Wildau picked up a Chinese newspaper which said that the whole city of Wuhan is under quarantine because of the rapid spread of a deadly...

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Source: https://foreignpolicy.com/

U.S. Financial Times reporter Gabriel Wildau picked up a Chinese newspaper which said that the whole city of Wuhan is under quarantine because of the rapid spread of a deadly virus called 2019 coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

 This highly infectious respiratory illness causes a type of pneumonia on those affected, and could even lead to death. Experts have compared it to the 2003 outbreak SARS, because it is also a type of coronavirus. Scientists have confirmed that the genetic code of the new virus is most closely related to SARS than any other that the humans have encountered. 

This deadly illness has originated from a seafood wet market in the city of Wuhan, China and has spread very quickly all across China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and now has reached the shores of the United States. 

Immediately after the U.S. reported its first case, the Chinese government had the city of Wuhan quarantined, and their 11 million residents will be trapped within the city unless they have special permission to leave after going through a screening process. 


Source: http://www.rfi.fr/

At this moment, only hundreds of cases have been officially reported, but experts fear that this deadly virus has already infected over thousands by now. 17 people have already died from the illness. 


Before the Wuhan quarantine, the local government was already censoring news about the outbreak, while deleted social media posts that went again the official statements regarding the sickness. 

Because of the local government’s terrible mismanagement of the SARS outbreak back in 2002 and 2003, China is now under intense scrutiny on their solutions of containing this outbreak. The Chinese government was initially accused of covering up the severity of SARS when it was starting to spread to different countries. 

Residents living in the three affected cities have been advised not to come in contact with live animals without protection. They have also been advised to thoroughly cook meet and eggs and to avoid other people that are showing flu-like symptoms. 

 

 

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Iran Refuses To Turn Over Black Box Of Crashed Boeing To United States https://trueactivist.com/iran-refuses-to-turn-over-black-box-of-crashed-boeing-to-united-states-t1/ Fri, 10 Jan 2020 03:24:48 +0000 https://trueactivist.com/?p=223307 All 176 people on board the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Flight PS752 bound for Kiev were killed when the plane crashed only two minutes after takeoff from Tehran Imam Khomeini...

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Source: https:// voanews.com

All 176 people on board the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Flight PS752 bound for Kiev were killed when the plane crashed only two minutes after takeoff from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport on Wednesday morning. Until now, the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate event have led to more questions instead of answers.

Kiev’s Foreign Ministry listed the following victims from seven countries: 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 10 Swedes, 4 Afghans, 3 Germans, 3 British, 2 Ukrainians and 9 crew members.

The black box was recovered, and according to international law, the airplane crash investigation of Ukrainian flight PS752 should be carried out in and by Iran, the country where the catastrophic event happened.


Iran stated that they will not surrender the black box to Boeing and neither do they intend to invite the United States to take part in the investigation.

“We will not give the black box to the manufacturer [Boeing] or America. The cause of the accident will not be discovered or announced until the black box is analyzed,” Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Tehran’s civil aviation organization, informed Mehr News Agency.

Abedzadeh was further quoted telling Ukrainian investigators that they will be present during the investigation.

The head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Authority also said that the pilot did not contact Air Traffic Control to report any problems.

Source: https:// gstatic.com


There were initial findings provided by Ukraine’s Tehran embassy that suggested engine failure as the reason behind the crash, but the consulate later retracted its statement and disclosed they were looking into other possibilities to determine the cause of the aviation accident.

Iranian state news likewise initially reported that the disaster was caused by mechanical trouble, and while some aviation experts wondered if the plane was brought down by a missile, terrorist attacks were quickly ruled out by Iranian officials.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, cautioned the public not to speculate or share unconfirmed theories about the plane crash in Tehran until official reports were released.

The Ukrainian leader wrote, “Tonight, our plane with a team of experts is going to Iran. All of them will be involved in the investigation, identification and repatriation of the bodies of Ukrainians killed in the plane crash.”

Even though Iran declined to give Boeing the black box, the American aerospace company readily offered its assistance in any way required.

Due to the tragedy, the management of the UIA announced the suspension of all scheduled Ukrainian flights, effective January 9, 2020.

 

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Satellite Photos Show Damage From Iranian Missile Attack On US Airbase In Iraq https://trueactivist.com/satellite-photos-show-damage-from-iranian-missile-attack-on-us-airbase-in-iraq-t1/ Fri, 10 Jan 2020 03:17:24 +0000 https://trueactivist.com/?p=223314 National Public Radio (NPR) circulated the first satellite images that revealed the aftermath of an Iranian missile strike at the Ain Assad Air Base located in Anbar Province, the largest...

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Source: https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com

National Public Radio (NPR) circulated the first satellite images that revealed the aftermath of an Iranian missile strike at the Ain Assad Air Base located in Anbar Province, the largest governorate in Iraq. The military airbase hosts Iraqi, American, and British armed forces.

NPR obtained the photos from Planet Labs, a private American imaging company, through the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and the pictures exposed the extent of damage to at least five structures at the airbase from Tuesday night’s missile attack.

David Schmerler, an analyst from the graduate school within Middlebury College informed NPR that the high-resolution satellite images of the base taken after the strike showed how the projectiles directly hit certain locations. It appeared the airstrike on government land was precisely targeted.

Schmerler added that the Iranians appeared to have purposely targeted structures on the base that would cause the least number of deaths to avoid airstrike retaliation from the United States. According to the analyst, the buildings hit by the missiles were used to store aircraft and equipment. There were other structures at the base that were exclusively for military personnel, and it was likely the Iranians deliberately chose to wipe out machines over people.

Source: https://www.therussophile.org

Chief Investment Strategist Salman Ahmed of Lombard Odier Investment Managers commented that while the images of the attack were visually dramatic, it was important to center on the absence of human casualties during the strike which gives an opportunity to alleviate the situation.

Jeffery Lewis who teaches at Middlebury Institute tweeted snapshots of the outcome of the missile attack. Based on his before and after photos, it seemed that two missiles struck a cluster of tents situated beside three helicopters.

Yuri Lyamin, a Twitter user who is not associated with Middlebury Institute, shared a Plant Labs satellite image of the airbase, taken on January 8th and in a much broader view. Lyamin marked nine specific sites that were possibly ravaged by the Iranian missile attack.

Soon after the attacks on Tuesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, “All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well-equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.”

 

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Former UN Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Kofi Annan Dead, at 80 https://trueactivist.com/former-un-secretary-general-and-nobel-peace-prize-winner-kofi-annan-dead-at-80-t1/ Mon, 20 Aug 2018 00:25:47 +0000 https://trueactivist.com/?p=202971 Kofi Annan, the first person from sub-Saharan Africa to become UN Secretary General has passed away on August 18, 2018, “after a short illness,” The Kofi Annan Foundation confirmed in...

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Source: https://www.graphic.com.gh/

Kofi Annan, the first person from sub-Saharan Africa to become UN Secretary General has passed away on August 18, 2018, “after a short illness,” The Kofi Annan Foundation confirmed in a Twitter post on Saturday.

Source: Twitter

Annan, a native of Ghana, served as the 7thUN Secretary-General for 9 years from 1997 to 2006 during which “he was an ardent champion of peace, sustainable development, human rights and the rule of law” according to the foundation’s tribute.

In 2001, the former Secretary-General was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with the United Nations “for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world and was remembered in the tribute as a “global statesman and deeply committed internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer, more peaceful world.’

Source: https://assets.letemps.ch/

Kofi Annan, who was born in 1938 in Ghana, attended the Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA after which he entered the World Health Organization in Geneva as a low-ranking officer in 1962. What he thought was a short stint turned out to be a lifelong career leading to him becoming the first Sec-Gen to rise from within the United Nations’ ranks.

In 1997, the year he was elected to the highest office in the UN, Annan became a Champion of Human Rights, urging the organization to protect people whose governments had turned on.

Source: https://3dwnh01icn0h133s00sokwo1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/

In a statement released by the United Nations, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “He provided people everywhere with a space for dialogue, a place for problem-solving and a path to a better world…he never stopped working to give life to the values of the United Nations Charter. His legacy will remain a true inspiration for all of us.”

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Cuba Airlifts 6 Dolphins To Safety As Hurricane Irma Slams The Island https://trueactivist.com/cuba-airlifts-6-dolphins-to-safety-as-hurricane-irma-slams-the-island/ Sun, 10 Sep 2017 01:17:00 +0000 https://trueactivist.com/?p=97904 Before Hurricane Irma could unleash its fury on Cuba, activists banded together to evacuate six dolphins from the Dolphinarium in Cayo Guillermo, a small island north of Cubas mainland. The...

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Credit: OSVALDO GUTIERREZ GOMEZ/ACN/AP

Before Hurricane Irma could unleash its fury on Cuba, activists banded together to evacuate six dolphins from the Dolphinarium in Cayo Guillermo, a small island north of Cubas mainland. The British newspaper Mirror reports that the mammals were wrapped in wet towels to ensure safety, then were put in helicopters traveling to the southern province of Cienfuegos.

The southern part of Cuba is thought to be a safer spot from Irma’s spot, which is why the dolphins were quickly moved there. Upon arriving, they were transferred to a swimming pool, reports the newspaper.

Gonzalo Carrero Escobar, the Dolphinarium manager, told the press that the pool offered dolphins “similar conditions to their natural life.” While a swimming pool will never compete with what the wild has to offer, the important thing is that the dolphins are secure. If weather conditions become unsafe in the pool, the mammals will be transported to a saltwater swimming pool at a nearby hotel.

Hurricane Irma, which downgraded to a Category 4 then surged back into a Category 5 storm, has left destruction and heartache in its wake. As of Friday night, at least 20 people were confirmed dead, according to the New York Times. Florida officials are still urging people to evacuate, as the storm’s path has shifted to the western coast of the state.

By now, most civilians in Florida are bunkering down and waiting for the hurricane to pass. We can only hope that the majority of people and animals have found adequate shelter. In the Caribbean, Irma reportedly destroyed 90 percent of the island Barbuda. It also caused extensive damage in St. John, St. Barths, and created power loss for thousands in Puerto Rico.

While there is presently more negative than positive news to report — specifically to do with unruly weather patterns, at least activists can celebrate the rescue of six lucky dolphins.

h/t People

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