Nearly 65,000 music cassettes were sold in the UK in the first six months of 2020, according to the Official Charts Company.
The firm says this is double the cassette sales figure recorded during the same period in 2019 – and more than the entire year’s sales from 2018.
Lady Gaga has sold 12,000 cassettes of her latest studio album Chromatica since its release in May 2020.
The average cassette retails for about £10 ($13), compared with £15 for vinyl.
A triple-cassette edition of Chromatica is currently on sale for £23.99 ($30) online.
Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer shifted 12,000 cassette versions of its latest album Calm within the first week of release. It offers five different variations of the product.
There’s also a wide range of tape players available, including personal stereos – but the format is more likely to be sold as merchandise than to play, experts say.
Image caption
The triple-cassette version of Lady Gaga’s album Chromatica has sold 12,000 copies
Gennaro Castaldo from the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) said cassette sales represented a “tiny fraction” of UK music sales overall despite predictions that the figure could cross 100,000 this year, for the first time since 2003.
“Alongside core fans, younger consumers are now buying into their collectible appeal – as they have done with vinyl – and the more they do this, the greater the demand for labels and artists to cater to,” he said.
Memorabilia
Music analyst Mark Mulligan from Midia Research said that the cassette was unlikely to ever come close to vinyl in terms of popularity.
“Cassettes have always been an inferior product in terms of audio quality,” he said.
“The thing [cassettes and vinyl] have in common is that they are memorabilia. It’s almost like a gaping hole in the modern music business. Rather than sitting on display on your shelves, your music sits ephemerally in a cloud somewhere.
Countries like Japan, Korea and China cater more for music fans in terms of the merchandise they offered, he added.
“TenCent [the Chinese tech giant] makes many multiple times more revenue from its music products than from its streaming,” he said.
In a detailed, 87-page ruling penned by Justice Maqbool Baqar highlighted the definition and purpose of bail as well as the due legal processes. The News/Files
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court lambasted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in its detailed verdict issued Monday on a bail petition filed by PML-N leaders Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Salman Rafique in the Paragon Housing Society case.
In the detailed, 87-page ruling, penned by Justice Maqbool Baqar, the court highlighted severe lapses in the NAB’s due process and legal procedure, the definition and purpose of bail, and due processes in criminal cases.
The apex court had granted bail to the PML-N leaders in March after they approached it against a Lahore High Court decision rejecting their bail applications.
“In bail applications, generally, it has been laid down from the earliest times that the object of bail is to secure the appearance of the accused person at trail by reasonable amount of bail. The object of bail is neither punitive nor preventative. Deprivation of liberty must be considered a punishment, unless it can be required to ensure that an accused person will stand his trial when called upon.
“The courts owe more than verbal respect to the principle that punishment begins after conviction, and that every man is deemed to be innocent until duly tried and duly found guilty. From the earliest times, it was appreciated that detention in custody pending completion of trial could be a cause of great hardship.
“From time to time, necessity demands that some un-convicted persons should be held in custody pending trial to secure their attendance at the trial but in such cases, ‘necessity’ is the operative test.
“In this country, it would be quite contrary to the concept of personal liberty enshrined in the Constitution that any person should be punished in respect of any matter, upon which, he has not been convicted or that in any circumstances, he should be deprived of his liberty upon only the belief that he will tamper with the witnesses if left at liberty, save in the most extraordinary circumstances.
“Apart from the question of prevention being the object of a refusal of bail, one must not lose sight of the fact that any imprisonment before conviction has a substantial punitive content and it would be improper for any Court to refuse bail as a mark of disapproval of former conduct whether the accused has been convicted for it or not or to refuse bail to an unconvicted person for the purpose of giving him a taste of imprisonment as a lesson,” the ruling read.
Justice Baqar further underlined that “all civilized societies recognise the principle that punishment comes only after conviction, and the presumption of innocence subsist with the accused, till he is handed down punishment after trial”.
“It hardly needs any reiteration that the detention either pre-trial or during trial causes great hardship,” the judgement added.
Constitutional rights being trampled upon
According to the judge, it was unfortunate that “even after 72 years since the creation of our country, and despite 47 years since the adoption of the Constitution, we have not been able to realize the spirit and essence of the ideals set out therein”.
“To the contrary, we have even failed to adhere to some of its most basic commands and prescriptions. The people of this country are frequently denied their constitutionally guaranteed rights. Principles of equality, fairness, tolerance and respect for democratic norms are flouted with impunity.
“Dogmatism, intolerance, nepotism, cronyism, incompetence, regression, deception, false pretence, self-projection, misplaced sense of superiority, different biases, and prejudices, and corruption have seeped into our society and have now inundated it.
“Efforts, whenever made for the supremacy of the Constitution, and the rule of law have been thwarted with full force. The principle of trichotomy of power and the concept of devolution have been trampled with contempt.
Suppression of dissent destroying democracy
“Arrogance, self-righteousness and apathy are ruling the roost. We have come to this unfortunate pass, in most part, because of the repeated direct unconstitutional interventions, and manipulations by undemocratic forces.
“Lust of power, desire to capture, and rule, and pursuit of self-aggrandization, have resulted in violation of the prescribed jurisdictional limits and ceding of political space in governance.
“Aggravating this is the denial of grass root representation of the people in the local government, which again is against our constitutional ethos, and violates the true essence and spirit of democracy. Public welfare and poverty alleviation are at the lowest rung of our priorities.
“The wide spread suppression of dissent is another anathema to our democracy. An egalitarian order remains a distant dream,” the judge wrote in his verdict.
Justice Baqar went on to say that the present case was “a classic example of trampling fundamental rights, unlawful deprivation of freedom, and liberty and the complete disregard for human dignity as guaranteed by the Constitution”.
‘NAB has utter disregard for law, fair play’
The top judge slammed Pakistan’s anti-graft watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), over various actions and processes, saying its “conduct throughout this case is a clear manifestation of their utter disregard for law, fair play, equity and propriety”.
“Indeed, curbing loot, plunder and combating corruption is a noble cause. Nonetheless, the means, process and mechanism employed therefor should be within the parameters as prescribed and mandated by the law and not in derogation thereof.
“As per the preamble of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 (“NAOâ€) the bureau has been set up to eradicate corruption and corrupt practices and hold accountable all those persons, accused of such practices and matters ancillary thereto,” the ruling added further.
It explained what the laws led to as opposed to what they were enacted for. “Rather than doing any good to the country or our bodypolitic and cleansing the fountainheads of governance, these laws and the manner in which they were enforced, caused further degeneration and created chaos, since the same were framed and applied with an oblique motive of arm twisting and pressurizing political opponents into submission, subjugation and compliance, or remove them from the electoral scene at least temporarily,” it read.
“These laws were successfully employed as tools to change political loyalties, for splintering and fracturing political parties.
“Pygmies were selected, nurtured, promoted, and brought to prominence and power. People with notorious backgrounds and criminal credentials were thrust to rule us in various capacities with predictable results.
“Similarly, those, who caused death, destruction and mayhem in our society were trained, financed, protected, promoted and eulogized, thus, turning them into Frankensteins.
“Meanwhile corruption, misconduct and malpractice in governance kept growing at exponential rates and became all pervading. None of the state institutions whichsoever remained free from this morass,” the SC ruling stated.
NAB failed to make a case
Conclusively, it underlined: “In any event. despite having all the required information and details, NAB has failed to place before us any material to show, or to otherwise persuade us to believe that the exchange was unfair and/or that the petitioners have through the said transaction illegally enriched themselves at the cost of the company.
“In any view of the matter, since the transaction was between private individuals/entities, who were free agents, and has/had no bearing on any public or governmental interest, no exception to the same could have possibly been taken by NAB,” it said.
“The whole episode lays bare the prosecution’s conduct and is a clear manifestation of their scant regard for the mandate of the law and the principles of fairness, equity and propriety,” it added.
Towards the end, the Supreme Court judge quoted Pakistan’s revolutionary poet Habib Jalib:
Twitter suffered a major hacking fiasco in which the accounts of several prominent people and companies were exploited to promote a cryptocurrency scam.
Goal was to steal bitcoins
The goal was to steal bitcoins from unsuspecting users by promising them double the amount they sent to the bitcoin address listed in the malicious tweet.
The incident also shines a light on the way cybercriminals abuse the trust many people have in social media as well as their willingness to respond to any kind of get rich quick scam they find, especially if it is from a supposedly trusted source.
Social networks security
The episode calls into question the security of social networks, especially ones such as Twitter, which many people rely on as a source of news and information. The onus is on companies like Twitter to tighten their security and better educate their employees.
Protect your Twitter account
REVIEW YOUR TWITTER SETTINGS
You can review and tighten your security either through the Twitter website or through the mobile app.
On the website, click More and then select Settings and privacy. In the app, tap your profile picture and then tap Settings and privacy. The next steps are the same for the site and the app.
Select Account and then Password. If you are using a simple or weak password here is the place to change it. Type your current password. Enter and then re-enter a new password.
Next, select Security. This setting offers two options. Two factor authentication (2FA) and password reset protection. Select two factor authentication to enable it.
Choose your preferred method text whether its message, authentication app or a physical security key. A text or authentication app will work with both the Twitter website and the Twitter app. A security key will work only with the website on a PC.
You can also set a backup code to use to sign into Twitter if your two-factor authentication method is not available. In addition, you can create a one-time password to use as a temporary method with a third party website or app that needs access to Twitter.
COMBINE 2FA WITH OTHER SECURITY METHODS
Two factor authentication is still the recommended security method. You should combine 2FA with the other available security methods offered by sites like Twitter. To continue, go to the Privacy and safety screen under Settings and privacy.
Depending on how much time and effort you are able to spend managing your Twitter account there are several steps you can take here.
PROTECT YOUR TWEETS
You can opt to protect your tweets so only people who follow you can see them. In this case you will have to approve every new follower which can be time consuming. You can also turn off photo tagging so other people can’t identify you by your photo in a tweet.
You can turn off the ability of anyone to send you a direct message and control read receipts for such messages. If you don’t watch live video via Twitter’s Periscope feature you can turn off the switch for Connect to Periscope.
TURN OFF DISCOVERABILITY AND PRECISE LOCATION
Select the option for Discoverability and contacts and turn off the ability to let others find you by email or by phone.
In the Safety section you can view and manage any accounts that have been muted or blocked.
In the Location section turn off Precise location to prevent Twitter from tracking your location. Finally the section for Personalisation and data allows you to control personalised ads and other content for which Twitter collects information about you.
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Mark Cuban thinks debates over athletes kneeling during the national anthem at sporting events have gotten out of control.
The Dallas Mavericks “governor†(the term he prefers to “ownerâ€) voiced his opinion about the topic in response to a tweet from a local talk show host who was looking forward to NBA games starting again July 30 ― but not if politics were involved.
“The minute one player kneels during the anthem, I am out,†Mark Davis tweeted to Cuban, asking him to “lead the way†for the NBA players “to do whatever gesture they wish without insulting the nation.â€
I am so ready to be be in on this year’s #Mavericks home stretch: so much promise, so much personality. But the minute one player kneels during the anthem, I am OUT. Surely @mcuban can lead the way for #Mavs, #NBA to do whatever gesture they wish without insulting the nation. https://t.co/PWMWrpgwAc
Cuban obviously wasn’t in the mood to deal with the threat based on this testy response:
The National Anthem Police in this country are out of control. If you want to complain, complain to your boss and ask why they don’t play the National Anthem every day before you start work. https://t.co/NUwv7asO44
As professional sports leagues prepare to start their seasons after coronavirus-related delays, debate over athletes kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice have resurfaced. Some critics have attempted to claim the protests are anti-military.
“If they were taking a knee and they were being respectful, I’d be proud of them,†he told ESPN. “Hopefully I’d join them.â€
Cuban’s clapback got support from “Westworld†actor Jeffrey Wright, who had some ideas of his own.
100. Also, can we add nurses, doctors, grocery store staff, restaurant kitchen workers, EMT’s, bus drivers, other ‘essential workers’ and, say, teachers, etc. to the moment during EVERY NBA game when only members of the US military are recognized? Can we spread the love a li’l? https://t.co/K7YpAHE6ui
Catherine E. De Vries is professor of political science at Bocconi University.Â
MILAN — When the British voted to leave the European Union, some in Brussels saw a silver lining: At least now striking a compromise at the EU table wouldn’t be so difficult, they thought, and the remaining 27 could move ahead unimpeded by the British veto.
The acrimonious debate over the EU’s coronavirus recovery fund has killed off any lingering notions that the bloc is not deeply divided — even without the U.K.
In part, this is because the old wounds of the eurozone crisis never truly healed. Countries are still locked into familiar positions — the Northern frugal “saints†versus the Southern “sinners.â€
But the real problem lies elsewhere — in how EU politicians have increasingly weaponized the topic of European integration to serve their domestic political goals.
The rise of these Euroskeptic political entrepreneurs — and the resulting political fragmentation — has had profound effects on the EU.
Whether you’re Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte or Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, you’re similarly beholden to a vocal, and ultimately powerful, political fringe that is agitating for a certain vision of the EU’s future — and those various domestic visions are almost always in conflict with one another.
The European Council summit, where EU leaders are attempting to hammer out a deal on the funds needed to mitigate the economic disaster wrought by the pandemic, has laid bare deep political divisions over Europe’s future: between North and South over financial solidarity and between East and West over the rule of law.
There may be strong approval of EU membership across the Continent, but citizens in different countries don’t necessarily agree on how to shape the bloc’s future or what its role in their lives should be.
As the EU has grown to include more members, it has moved from being mostly a project of economic integration to including other areas of cooperation — a hotly contested issue where member countries increasingly don’t see eye to eye.
These questions of European integration have become a perfect issue for political entrepreneurs who thrive on anti-establishment rhetoric and exploiting divisions within the political mainstream. Now part-and-parcel of the political debate in most countries, these Euroskeptic players have increased pressure on national leaders to show they are advocating for the national interest at the EU level.
The rise of far-right politician Geert Wilders in the Netherlands is a prime example of this trend. He founded his Party for Freedom on the heels of a successful campaign against the establishment of an EU constitution in 2005, where a majority of Dutch voters came out against the treaty in a referendum. Buoyed by that victory, he mobilized Euroskeptic sentiments among voters of mainstream parties to his electoral advantage.
In Italy, Matteo Salvini’s ascendancy as leader of the far right was the result of his successful mobilization of widespread views among Italians in the aftermath of the eurozone and refugee crises that the EU had left Italy hanging. In Brussels, he found the perfect scapegoat for a large array of domestic problems.
The rise of these Euroskeptic political entrepreneurs — and the resulting political fragmentation — has had profound effects on the EU. Most notably, it has made brokering deals much more difficult.
This is most apparent when elections are close — Rutte’s tough negotiation stance is partly an electoral calculation — but the pressure of upcoming votes is only part of the story. Both Austria and Denmark are also playing hardball in negotiations, even though elections were held last year.
Matteo Salvini, leader of the Italian League party | Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images
The way the issue is politicized varies tremendously between countries, which doesn’t help matters much: Every government has its own Euroskeptic agitator to appease and its own public sentiment to navigate.
Take the Dutch and Italian situations, for example — two countries that symbolize opposite sides in the current budget fight. In Italy, Salvini’s League and Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy are pushing the prime minister to a position of joint-issued debt without conditionality.
According to recent data by eupinions, Italian public opinion is wary of the EU not because Italians think there is too much integration, but because they think there has been too little. They feel they have been abandoned by the EU, and Conte needs to deliver on a deal that moves significantly beyond the current status quo.
In the Netherlands, meanwhile, Wilders’ Party for Freedom and Thierry Baudet’s Forum for Democracy are pushing Rutte to reject a deal that involves a significant amount of grants, joint-issued debt and little conditionality.
Again according to eupinions data, Dutch public opinion is in favor of less, not more, European integration. Rutte needs to deliver on a deal that stays as close to the current status quo as possible.
Both leaders — governing on razor-thin governing majorities, in one or both chambers of parliament — are up against a vocal political opposition that is agitating against Brussels, albeit it for different reasons and in opposite directions.
Factor in similar dynamics in other EU countries and you’ve got a recipe for long, painful negotiations — for this summit and for many more to come.
Bread makers can easily weigh more than 10 pounds. If you bake bread every week, you don’t want to have to lug an appliance in and out of drawers. Consider how much counter real estate you’re willing to sacrifice.
“Figure out where it’s going to live,†Hamel advises. “And then check the dimensions as you do the research.â€
Related
Bread maker capacity
The capacity of a bread maker should be instrumental in your shopping, especially informed by how many people are in your household. Bread machines are typically able to hold between one and three pounds of dough.
Smaller machines like the Zojirushi Mini Bread Maker, which can hold one pound of dough, will make enough bread for two people and take up less room on the counter. Here, I want to note that if you discover you enjoy baking bread, you’ll wish you had a larger machine. Smaller machines can’t handle more dough, but machines with a bigger capacity like the Oster Bread Maker Expressbake — which can hold up to two pounds of dough —can produce smaller loaves.
Bread makers will come with a wide variety of pre-programmed settings designed to produce a specific type of dough (bread, pizza), bread (gluten-free, sweet breads) or jam. You can also look out for how far in advance you can set a timer on a bread machine in order to have fresh-baked bread when you wake in the morning or get set to eat dinner.
If you want to add ingredients and be done with the process entirely, some bread machines offer features that automate the baking process. The Breville Custom Loaf Bread Maker will add nuts or fruit at just the right moment via a built-in dispenser, for example.
Even with the benefit of a bread machine’s programming, Hamel recommends keeping an eye on your dough early on in the process.
Sticky dough? It needs flour.
Stiff dough? Add water.
Dough has moved to one side of the bread pan after kneading? Take it out and reshape it before baking to get a more even loaf.
“You’ll get better bread on a consistent basis if you learn where your maker needs help, and give it what it needs,†Hamel says.
Related
Best bread makers to shop
There is a wide variety of bread machines out right now at various price points. To find the best one for you, we compiled some of the best-rated options alongside recommendations from the experts we consulted.
Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.
If you’re serious about bread making, you’ll eventually find your way to the Zojirushi. Hamel recommends this bread maker (Rhodes has a variant, the Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme Breadmaker) because you can customize the kneading, rising and baking times, in addition to the 14 pre-programmed options. A pair of kneading blades and a heating element in the lid helps produce evenly baked, well-formed loaves with a good rise. “Zojirushi has been making bread machines for decades — they were one of the first players in the game and, in my opinion, they’re still the best, quality-wise,†says Hamel.
This is a good place to start if you’re going to be making simple sandwich breads like wheat and white. It’s affordable and can bake a loaf in an hour with the Expressbake setting. Keep in mind there is no gluten-free setting on this model.
This bread maker from Hamilton Beach has 14 settings (including French and gluten-free) and can make loaves weighing from one to two pounds. The express bake setting can make fresh baked bread in under two hours.
This bread machine is built for experimenting with an automatic ingredient dispenser, 13 bake settings, as well as three different crust options (light, medium and dark) and the ability to make loaves that vary in size from one to two-and-a-half pounds.
This compact bread machine won’t take up a ton of room. The bread pan and kneading paddle are removable, which makes cleaning a lot easier. A window in the lid, lit from underneath, lets you peek at your bread’s progress.
If you’re an avid gluten-free baker, you’ll want to consider the T-Fal ActiBread because it has three distinct settings for gluten-free baked goods: salty (bread), sweet (dessert breads) and cake. It has an intuitive menu and can be programmed up to 15 hours in advance.
Related
Best bread making tools
If you’re just starting to bake bread, you can still produce something toast-worthy before you invest in a bread machine. Here are some kitchen tools that will come in handy, whether you bake bread with the help of an appliance or by hand.
Hamel recommends a digital scale that can tare (subtract the weight of your bowl) and measure in ounces and grams, calling it a critical tool for bread making because “the difference between a high-rising loaf and a brick can be a simple matter of a bit too much flour.â€
The KitchenAid Stand Mixer comes with a dough hook for mixing and kneading bread dough. If you’re making a lot of dough or bread regularly, this can help save your forearm muscles.
A nonstick coating helps prevent dough from sticking and a pair of handles makes it easier to get this 9.25-inch by 5.25-inch pan in and out of the oven. It’s the perfect size for making banana bread, pound cake and sandwich loaves.
A quality serrated knife will help slice bread without squishing it. While pastry chef Megan Garrelts uses this knife to chop chocolate for cookies, it can also chop nuts or dried fruit for bread loaves and help you slice up your sourdough.
Related
More shopping guides and recommendations
Catch up on the latest from NBC News Shopping guides and recommendations and download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak.
The foot race to develop the first effective vaccine against COVID-19 involves an awfully crowded field, with 137 candidate vaccines in pre-clinical study worldwide and another 23 actually in development. But a leader seemed to emerge today with research published in the Lancet reporting promising results in a robust study by investigators at Oxford University in England.
The study began in April, with a sample group of 1,077 adults aged 18 to 55—an age group young enough to tolerate exposure to SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, with less risk of adverse effects than would be seen in older, more vulnerable adults. The group was divided more or less in half, with 543 participants receiving the experimental COVID-19 vaccine, and the other 534 serving as a control group, receiving an existing vaccine against meningococcal vaccine. (The investigators chose not to use an inert saline solution for the control group because both vaccines can cause side effects such as achiness, fever and fatigue. Saline would cause no such symptoms and would thus reveal which group was the control group and which was not.)
The vaccine uses a harmless-to-humans chimpanzee adenovirus as a delivery vector. That virus is modified to carry spike proteins from SARS-CoV-2—the component of the coronavirus that, in theory, should induce the sought-after immune response in humans. What the researchers were looking for were two kinds of immune reaction: humoral immunity, or the system-wide generation of antibodies against the virus; and cellular immunity, or the activation of immune system T-cells that attack human cells infected with the COVID-19 virus.
They very much got what they were looking for. T-cell responses to the vaccine became detectable by day seven after the injection of the vaccine, peaked at day 14 and remained elevated at least until day 56. Humoral antibodies peaked at day 28 and also remained elevated at least until day 56. That eight-week mark is a good early measure of a vaccine’s efficacy and ability to confer at least short-term immunity
“We are seeing good immune responses in almost everybody,†Dr. Adrian Hill, a professor of human genetics at Oxford University and one of the researchers on this particular study, told the Associated Press. “What this vaccine does particularly well is trigger both arms of the immune system.â€
It actually does even more than that—if more of the vaccine is administered. Of the 1,077 subjects, a handful, just 10, were selected for a second booster dose on day 28, when they were still in the midst of their first-dose immunity. That small sample group kept the risk of overexposure limited to just a few subjects. When the antibodies of 37 of the subjects who had received a single dose were tested against the virus in vitro—or in a test tube—23 of them, or 62%, completely neutralized the virus as late as day 56. When the same study was conducted in vitro with the 10 subjects who had received a second dose, the neutralizing effect was a perfect 100%.
The vaccine, for all its promise, is not yet ready for prime time. Phase 2 and phase 3 trials must still be conducted, with much larger sample groups including people who have or have had COVID-19 already. In addition, while using a relatively young sample group was wise in terms of safety, the vaccine still must be tested in older individuals who, after all, are at much higher risk for complications and death as a result of COVID-19 and are the group most in need of an effective vaccine.
But even these early results are encouraging enough to help vindicate the decision of Cambridge-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to partner with Oxford. The company has committed to mass producing 2 billion doses of a successful vaccine as soon as it’s perfected.
Oxford is by no means alone. Of the 23 vaccines currently in development, another, by Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc., in collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is also racing ahead of the pack. In a phase 1 study released last week, 45 subjects who received the sample vaccine produced antibodies that neutralized SARS-CoV-2 in vitro as effectively as antibodies produced by people who had actually had the disease. New York-based Pfizer pharmaceuticals is developing its own vaccine in a Phase I/II trial—which tests safety, effectiveness, side effects and dosing and ideal dosing level—has similarly shown promising results, with the U.K. already lining up to buy 90 million doses once it is approved.
The Oxford study, the largest of its kind, does bring us a significant step closer to the release of a vaccine—or a whole arsenal of vaccines—against the COVID-19 pandemic. But we’re not there yet. For now, the disease still rages—and the world still waits.
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The deadly attack on the family of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in New Jersey on Sunday came amid skyrocketing threats against federal judges, whose security is overseen by an increasingly stretched federal agency that says it needs more help assessing when to deploy protective resources.
The killing of Daniel Anderl, a 20-year-old rising junior at Catholic University and Salas’ son, and the shooting of the judge’s husband highlight growing dangers for the federal judiciary in the internet era, when judges’ home addresses are often just a few clicks away. (ABC and CNN reported Monday that the suspected gunman died of what authorities believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.)
The U.S. Marshals Service, which falls under the umbrella of the Justice Department, is charged with protecting federal judges. Members of the federal judiciary rarely have security around the clock and typically only receive individual protection outside the courthouse when there’s a heightened threat to their lives.
In the 2019 fiscal year, the Marshals Service said there were 4,449 threats and inappropriate communications against its protected persons. That’s a huge spike from 2015 when it logged just 926 threats. The jump, according to the agency, was at least partially attributable to “improved effectiveness in data collection and reporting of potential threats.â€Â
But the number of significant threats that triggered a “predicate protective investigation†has also risen, spiking to 531 in 2018 (and up from 305 in 2015). Of those 305 threat investigations in 2015, just 17 resulted in threat-based protective details, according to the Marshals Service. The agency has also spent millions improving home security for judges by installing and repairing residential alarm systems.
In a congressional budget request earlier this year, the Marshals Service asked for additional resources to help develop “protective intelligence to make informed decisions regarding the employment, withdrawal, or withholding of scarce protective resources.†Without such intelligence, the agency said, it “could employ protective resources unnecessarily, inadvertently reduce their effectiveness, or even fail to employ them when needed most.â€
After news of the shooting broke on Sunday, the Marshals Service declined to talk about specific threats against Salas or protective measures the agency had taken but said it was “responsible for the protection of federal judicial officials and we take that responsibility very seriously.â€
A decade ago, former U.S. Marshals Director John Clark told this reporter that there were “more individuals who are more prone to threatening judges†in the modern era.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the availability of information with the use of technology and the internet,†Clark said in a 2010 interview. “Individuals can find out more about particular cases and judges’ decisions. They can use internet sources to find out more about the judge. So if someone is prone to want to threaten someone, there are a number of ways they can find material about a judge.â€
Despite what the Marshals Service described as “scarce protective resources,†the Trump administration last year proposed a study of whether the agency should take over security operations for Cabinet members.Â
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Kabisi has no sway against Tshidi’s silver tongue. A father’s heart breaks as he says goodbye to his daughter. Nontle wakes up to a horrifying discovery.
Watch: the latest episode 171, S29
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A place where drama, suspense and intrigue are the name of the game when you’re up against enemies you don’t even know you have. A place where people will stop at nothing to get their lovers even if it means resorting to violence, seduction and even murder.
The cast of Generations: The Legacy
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Sushant Singh Rajput case: Mumbai Police records statement of another doctorÂ
The Mumbai Police have recorded the statement of another doctor on Monday as part of their probe into the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The actor visited the lady doctor thrice at a time when he was struggling with depression the most. His girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty was also present when the actor visited the doctor. The late actor was already consulting four mental health professionals when he paid a visit to the female psychiatrist. The doctor was questioned at Bandra police station for about four hours. Before this, the doctor was interrogated by the Mumbai Police. The motive behind Sushant’s questioning of psychiatrists is to find out which medicines Sushant was taking, what mental problems he had, what he thought, what problems he had, and the reason behind his death.
Sushant Singh Rajput was undergoing treatment for depression since November 2019, police said. The actor was found hanging in his suburban Bandra apartment on June 14 in what the police claimed was a case of suicide. In the initial investigation, the Mumbai police had found that the actor was under medication for depression.
So far, the police have recorded statements of over 36 people, including director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Bollywood casting director Mukesh Chhabra, actress Sanjana Sanghi and Rajput’s friend Sandip Singh, among others.
Rajput’s friend, actor Rhea Chakraborty, has also given her statement to the police.
Filmmaker Aditya Chopra recorded his statement in connection with the case at the Versova Police Station on Saturday.
Rajput starred in films such as ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’, ‘Raabta’, ‘Kedarnath’ and ‘Sonchiriya’. But his most prominent role came as cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the biopic, ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’.
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