Mysterious blue fireball streaks above Western Australia, puzzling astronomers

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Mysterious blue fireball streaks above Western Australia, puzzling astronomers

A streak of blue light that flashed across the sky on Monday surprised western Australia’s night owls and befuddled the astronomy community. 

The blue fireball was seen at 1 a.m. local time on June 15, according to ABC News Pilbara. “It was really a spectacular observation,” Glen Nagle, the education and outreach manager at the CSIRO-NASA tracking station in Canberra, told the news agency. Sightings were reported across the remote Pilbara region as well as in the country’s Northern Territory and in South Australia, Nagle said. 



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UAE seeks new astronauts to expand human spaceflight program

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UAE seeks new astronauts to expand human spaceflight program

Less than a year after sending its first-ever astronaut to space aboard a Russian capsule, the United Arab Emirates is combing through a second batch of applications for its spaceflyer ranks.

The country’s space program intends to select another two astronauts for the corps, even as its existing pair — Hazzaa AlMansoori and Sultan AlNeyadi — enter a new stage of training. When the program opened calls for astronaut applicants, it received just over 4,300 submissions, from which it plans to select two by January, despite procedural changes caused by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The program is focused on how the UAE can get more involved in the International Space Station (ISS).



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‘Let’s Just Make It Home.’ The Unwritten Rules Blacks Learn To Navigate Racism in America

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‘Let’s Just Make It Home.’ The Unwritten Rules Blacks Learn To Navigate Racism in America

Speak in short sentences. Be clear. Direct but not rude. Stay calm, even if you’re shaking inside. Never put your hands in your pockets. Make sure people can always see your hands. Try not to hunch your shoulders. Listen to their directions.

Darnell Hill, a pastor and a mental health caseworker, offers Black teenagers these emotional and physical coping strategies every time a Black person is fatally shot by a police officer. That’s when parents’ worries about their sons and daughters intensify. “They’re hurting,” Hill says. “They’re looking for answers.”

Hill, who is African American, learned “the rules” the hard way. When he was 12, he and a group of friends jumped a fence to go for a swim in a lake. That’s when two police officers approached them. One of the cops, a white man, threatened to shoot Hill and everyone else if he ever caught them there again. “I was so afraid,” Hill, now 37, recalls. “He made all of us sit down in a line right by the lake.” He still tells himself that the officer didn’t mean what he said that day. But Hill’s tone changes when he thinks about the second time white men threatened him with a gun.

Hill and his family moved to a small, mostly white town in Florida. He rarely left the house at night, but one day when he was a sophomore in high school, his grandmother, who wasn’t feeling well, asked him to take their car and drive to a convenience store for ginger ale. He got lost along the way and asked two white men for directions. Instead of offering help, the men tormented him, Hill says. When he tried to drive away, the men followed him in their vehicle, chasing him around in the dark. He thought surely they would kill him if they caught him.

“They told me it was [N-word] season,” Hill recalls. “I was terrified.” The traumatic event is hard to talk about, Hill says. His voice still shakes as he describes how the night unfolded. That’s one reason he’s helping Black teenagers unpack their trauma—and guard against experiencing more—as they try to cope with the mental health burden of other people’s racist assumptions.

His unofficial guide to what he calls “living while Black” can be tough to remember under pressure. But Hill says the survival skills feel essential to many who grow up feeling that the color of their skin makes them vulnerable to becoming the next George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25, an event that prompted civil rights protests around the world.

But well before Floyd’s death, Hill’s phone had already begun to ring more. It was the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and his young clients from the Hopewell Center, a mental health agency in St. Louis, needed help processing the closing of schools, loss of jobs, social isolation and loss of loved ones. So instead of working from home, Hill put a folding chair in the back of his car and started making house calls. He planted his seat in front yards and sidewalks while his clients stayed on their front porches.

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The conversations Hill was having grew more complicated, though, after Floyd’s killing. Two months before Floyd’s death, Breonna Taylor was killed in Kentucky after officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department entered the Black woman’s apartment dressed in plainclothes. Taylor’s boyfriend thought the officers were intruders, so he fired a single shot. Officers responded by shooting Taylor at least eight times. Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased down and fatally shot while jogging in Glynn County, Georgia. Three white men were arrested. And most recently, Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black father of four, was shot and killed by a white police officer at a Wendy’s drive-thru in Atlanta.

The mental anguish for some Black families exploded as they saw these images and stories repeatedly on the news. “When these [events] happen, we have to address them,” says Lekesha Davis, vice president of the Hopewell Center. “It’s having a direct impact on [Black families’] mental and emotional well-being.”

Hill offers coping skills as he makes his rounds every week. His conversations during regular visits now include discussions about police brutality, civil unrest and how to survive. Part of Hill’s work is teaching the mechanics of navigating everyday encounters—from walking in a public space like a park to being stopped by the police or entering a business.

Don’t make any sudden moves. Watch your body language. Don’t point your fingers, even if you’re mad. Don’t clap your hands. Listen. Know the law. But don’t say too much. Make eye contact.

While many Black families have their own sets of rules, he hopes that following his “do’s and don’ts” will allow kids to survive as unscathed as possible to realize their life ambitions. “Let’s just make it home,” Hill tells them. “We can deal with what’s fair or not fair, what’s racial or not racial at a later date.”

White children and teenagers, meanwhile, aren’t generally taught these sometimes-futile survival skills with the same urgency. They’re just as unlikely to learn about the systemic racism that continues to create the problems, and almost certainly not what it would take to undo it.

Hill knows his training sessions don’t guarantee a win. He’s a husband, father, nonprofit board member and the president of the parent-teacher organization at his youngest child’s school. His voice is friendly and his demeanor is calm. Still, sometimes none of that matters when Hill drives in a predominantly white neighborhood. While he knows not all white people stereotype him, he remains aware that his height and weight (he’s 5-foot-10 and over 300 pounds) and the color of his skin could turn him into a target—even when he’s trying to order lunch.

It’s impossible for him to prevent an officer from invading the wrong apartment. He can’t teach Black boys how to sleep, jog or bird-watch in non-threatening ways. And he can’t stop a prejudiced cop from firing shots at an unarmed Black man. Hill’s just glad he can fill in the gaps when families need him. And he knows it has helped on occasion: A 16-year-old client recently told him he’d channeled the advice when he was stopped by two police officers near Ferguson, Missouri. The teenager had been walking around with his lawn mower to make some money cutting grass. On his way home, the officers stopped him and asked why he was outside and how he had obtained the lawn mower. The teen told Hill the next day his advice had helped him stay calm and defuse the situation so he could get home safely.

Another teen Hill has worked with, Isaiah McGee, 18, has aged out of one of Hopewell’s youth mental health programs, but Hill still checks in with him every other week. The teen recently graduated from high school and plans to study music in college this fall. “I’m just trying to make it somewhere in life,” McGee says. “Leave my thumbprint on the world, become a legend.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Contact us at editors@time.com.

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The Maya Ruins at Uxmal Still Have More Stories to Tell

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The Maya Ruins at Uxmal Still Have More Stories to Tell

As the sun sets over the Yucatan jungle, its fading light falls on the western staircase of the Pyramid of the Magician, just as it has for more than a millennium. In pre-Hispanic times, on Maya religious holidays, a priest or ruler might ascend these stairs to pass through the gateway to a holy temple—or, as historian Jeff Kowalski writes in Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya, “a cave portal to a sacred creation mountain.” Watching from the plaza below, the commoners may have seen a leader emerging from this ornate doorway as a manifestation of the planet Venus, or as the sun itself.

More than a four-hour drive from the spring break cliché of Cancun, the Maya ruins of Uxmal (pronounced oosh-mawl) preserve the grandeur of what was. The second-most visited archaeological park in Mexico (before the COVID-19 pandemic), Uxmal was a seat of power in the Puuc region, the low range of hills in the otherwise flat grasslands of the Yucatan. Its ruins contain ornate carvings, friezes and sculptures embedded in the architecture, but at some point in the 10th century, construction on this thriving city stopped, and before the Spanish came, the Maya left.

“At Uxmal the last buildings, such as the Nunnery Quadrangle, and House of the Governor, the House of the Turtles, and the later upper temples of the Pyramid of the Magician, all display a kind of superlative finished cut stonework that, I guess you would say, that is some of the finest architectural sculpture found in the ancient Maya world, particularly sculpture made from cut stone,” Kowalski says.

The dates of Uxmal’s eventual abandonment are unknown and controversial, although the Maya likely stayed there longer than in their southern cities, which fell beginning in the 9th century. Kowalski thinks Uxmal was no longer an active political capital in the region by about 950 A.D., though some scholars say a centralized government continued deeper into the 10th century or later.

Modern archaeologists still study the site’s exquisite ruins, including the storied pyramid, the grand House of the Governor, and others to figure out how the Maya adapted to changing threats from enemies and the natural environment. Uxmal continues to surprise and to offer new hints about what life was like there more than a millennium ago.






The House of the Governor at Uxmal with the two-headed jaguar throne in front.

(Jeff Kowalski)

The Jewel of the Puuc

Since around 1000 B.C., people speaking variants or dialects of Mayan languages have been living in parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. The Maya created a distinctive system of hieroglyphic writing. Attuned to astronomy, they used the movements of the moon, sun and planets in the development of a calendar system based on cycles. (This included the famous Long Count cycle that concluded on December 21, 2012, and gave rise to the modern rumor that the world would end on that day. It did not.)

No one knows when the Maya first settled in Uxmal. A legend tells of a magician-dwarf who built the Pyramid of the Magician overnight, but hard evidence from the earliest temple suggests construction began around the 6th century A.D. and continued expanding the city thereafter. The city would become the center of life for the Maya of the Puuc.

Maya thrived in Uxmal for centuries because of favorable environmental conditions. In its heyday, the city enjoyed more rainfall and richer soil than in the rest of the northern Yucatan. It prospered in agriculture, allowing the people here to cultivate the raw materials for its signature buildings.

“That also explains to us the presence of a very beautiful architecture,” says José Huchim, director of the Archaeological Zone of Uxmal and the Puuc Route. “It is a very rich region. That led to control, confrontation and also the construction of a wall that would protect it from the enemy.”

That enemy came from the northeast.






An iguana scampering out of one of the chambers in the Nunnery Quadrangle at Uxmal

(Elizabeth Landau)

Defending the City

Uxmal probably reached the height of its power in the 8th and 9th centuries under a ruler researchers call Lord Chac, known also as Chan Chak K’ak’nal Ajaw (his name reflects that of the Maya rain god, Chac). Ruling at the turn of the 10th century, Lord Chac appears to have commissioned construction on Uxmal buildings such as the House of the Governor, a titanic endeavor that would have required 1,200 workers laboring for 33 years to construct the palace and its large supporting platform. It has a two-headed jaguar throne on a platform in front, a carved lattice pattern symbolizing rulership and representations of Lord Chac’s rain god namesake. A sculpture of Lord Chac himself, surrounded by two-headed serpents, stands above the central doorway.

In 2019, Huchim and archaeologist Lourdes Toscano, who together direct the Uxmal Project, focused on excavating the area under the large platform that supports the palace. In December 2019, they announced their team had found two arches, one about 21 feet high and another about 24 feet, demarcating an 82-foot-long passageway under the top part of the building. Austere and characterized by fine cuts in limestone, these arches could pre-date the grander palace structures by as much as 200 years.

Their findings indicate the palace, likely used for residential or administrative purposes, or both, was originally built as three separate buildings. Later, the Maya built vaulted passageways to unite them at the basement level. The passageway united the three foundations now covered by a platform, with stairs on all four sides providing access to the upper part of the building. The Uxmal elite closed off the three staircases in the basement and the main stairway as a means of protection, giving invaders fewer access points. (The excavators are also restoring the city’s defensive wall built around this time.)

Why go to this trouble? The team’s working hypothesis is that as the 9th century came to a close, so did mounting political pressure from Chichen Itzá, a Maya city known today for its photogenic step pyramid. The similarity in iconography and architecture found in some buildings at both sites suggest at least a brief alliance between the two kingdoms in the later ninth to early 10th century. But some historians believe the construction of buildings like the grand palaces stopped because Uxmal was conquered by the rulers of Chichen Itzá in the 10th century.

Other Maya sites such as nearby Kabah show signs of rituals that involve “taking the soul out of the buildings” that will not be used anymore by destroying parts of them, Toscano notes. In Uxmal, the Maya may have similarly deliberately cut the heads off of sculptures when they were leaving, which may explain why Lord Chac’s head in a sculpture found at the House of the Governor is missing.






Researchers have recently uncovered a passageway that was part of the substructure of the House of the Governor at Uxmal.

(Mauricio Marat, INAH)

The Maya Are Still Here

Water powered Uxmal’s rise, but lack of water caused its fall.

With no natural bodies of water to tap, people of the Uxmal region made or modified basins called aguadas for collecting fresh rainwater to prepare for dry seasons, sometimes increasing their water capacity by digging bell-shaped pits under them called buktes, which were with stone. They also made bottle-shaped storage tanks called chultunes, allowing them to stock up with 2 to 5 million cubic meters of water from falling rain. Thanks in part to this aquatic prowess, Kowalski estimates that at its peak Uxmal may have had 15,000 to 18,000 inhabitants, but other sources put it as high as 25,000 people; Huchim says even up to 35,000. Smaller Mayan sites whose ruins have been discovered, like Kabah, Sayil and Labna, were under Uxmal’s control at its peak.

However, most historians agree that drought ultimately prompted the Maya to leave Uxmal and other Puuc centers for good. Shortages of rain would have strained the drinking water supply for the people of Uxmal and made it difficult to grow crops like beans, corn and squash. Deforestation may have also played a role. The Maya felled trees to make crop fields and produce the lime for building materials, Huchim says, and they also modified the soil for use in construction. While the fall of Maya civilization has been a longstanding mystery, factors including climate changes and the transformation of their environment seem to have been important drivers of decline.

Even so, the spirit of Uxmal runs deep in Huchim. His grandfather Nicolas was in charge of keeping the Uxmal site clean and helping archaeologists restore the monuments from 1940 to 1970. His father grew up at the site and also became its official guardian. As a child, Huchim watched the restoration of the Pyramid of the Magician every morning from 1969 to 1970. Since 1992, Huchim has been in charge of studying, maintaining and operating the archaeological site. He saved the pyramid after Hurricane Gilbert structurally damaged it in 1997.

Although Uxmal is now closed to tourists and researchers because of COVID-19, Huchim is still there, keeping watch.

He treasures being one of few people experiencing the revival of Uxmal’s “ancestral” flora and fauna. Huchim wrote recently in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada Maya that in the absence of tourists, a variety of indigenous animals have reclaimed their place at the archaeological site. He hears “a great concert” of birds singing and sees groups of dozens of iguanas congregating. Turkeys and deer, which his father had told him were once common, now populate the site and he can hear the sound of an anteater at nightfall. “One can perceive floating in the environment the spirit of the Mayan culture,” Huchim wrote.

He’s been looking out for damage from a recent fire, carrying out maintenance and cleaning endeavors, and working on a report about the archaeological project. The civilization that built these structures is long gone, but Huchim is one of 7 million people of Maya descent living in places like Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

“The Maya do not die, they do not end. We are alive. What’s more, we have a large population,” says Huchim, “I am Mayan, but we don’t build pyramids today.”






View of Uxmal ruins from the Great Pyramid.

(Elizabeth Landau)



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Protest updates: Ted Cruz, John Cornyn dismiss systemic racism; Quaker Oats to remove Aunt Jemima brand, report says

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Protest updates: Ted Cruz, John Cornyn dismiss systemic racism; Quaker Oats to remove Aunt Jemima brand, report says

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Amid Black Lives Matters protests across the country, President Trump signs an executive order that raises the standards for policing across the country.

Wochit

During a Senate Judiciary hearing about police violence Tuesday, Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz dismissed the idea that systemic racism exists in U.S. institutions, including police departments.

The senators’ rejections came on the same day that President Donald Trump signed an executive order to address police misconduct after meeting with some families of Black victims of police violence that was described as both “contentious” and “compassionate.”

“A great many of our colleagues use the phrase ‘systemic racism’ to suggest that the entire criminal justice system is imbued with racism,” Cruz said of Democrats. “I don’t believe that’s accurate.”

Also Tuesday, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas removed its ‘Hey Reb’ statue from campus after calls to take down its mascot that featured a man wearing a Confederate Army cap and uniform.

A closer look at some recent developments: 

  • Quaker Oats announced that the Aunt Jemima brand of pancake mix and syrup will receive a new name and image, after acknowledging that the brand’s “origins are based on a racial stereotype,” NBC reports. 
  • President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing police departments to adopt new standards for the use of force. Some experts, however, say it may not be enough because it fails to address questions of systemic racism and sweeping policy changes.
  • Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced the resignation of Police Chief William Smith, three days after a police SUV drove into several protesters and two weeks after police used tear gas against a crowd of peaceful protesters before curfew.
  • New audio recording released this week revealed that a 911 dispatcher called her supervisor to express concern over the apprehension of George Floyd, which she saw in real-time on surveillance footage.

Our live blog will be updated throughout the day. For first-in-the-morning updates, sign up for The Daily Briefing.

Report: Quaker Oats to rebrand Aunt Jemima to remove ‘racial stereotype’

NBC reported that Quaker Oats announced Wednesday that the Aunt Jemima brand, which features a Black woman in its logo, will get a new name and logo.

“We recognize Aunt Jemima’s origins are based on a racial stereotype,” Kristin Kroepfl, vice president and chief marketing officer of Quaker Foods North America, said in a press release. “As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers’ expectations.”

Quaker Oats said the new packaging will hit shelves in the fall, with a new name for the brand to be announced at a later date.

Car drives into protesters in Portland, strikes three in hit-and-run

Protests raged on in downtown Portland, Oregon, again late Tuesday night. A little after 1 a.m., police say a car hit a group of demonstrators and three people were taken to the hospital.

“The vehicle struck several demonstrators and left at a high rate of speed, driving the wrong way on streets,” police said in a statement. “It appeared to be followed by several other vehicles that were associated with the protesters.”

Three people were taken to the hospital for treatment, and all injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Air support officers tracked the driver’s location and eventually arrested Anthony Eaglehorse-Lassandro, 27, who was charged with three counts of felony hit and run, reckless driving and possession of a controlled substance.

Senate GOP to introduce police reform bill

Senate Republicans on Wednesday will introduce a sweeping police reform package, the GOP’s legislative response to George Floyd’s death and nationwide protests over police brutality and racism. 

The bill, led by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. — the chamber’s lone Black Republican — is expected to include measures aimed at increasing transparency at police agencies and use-of-force incidents while also encouraging departments to ban chokeholds and utilize body cameras through federal grants. 

While the legislation is expected to have broad support from Republicans, House Democrats on Wednesday are moving forward on their own bill that goes further and would both end some police practices that have been factors in recent high-profile deaths of Black people and also take away protections that shield officers from lawsuits after misconduct. 

The House on Wednesday will be examining the Democratic proposal in the House Judiciary Committee and considering any changes before the chamber votes on it likely next week. The Senate, similarly, could vote on its bill next week. 

– Christal Hayes

Confederate-themed ‘Hey Reb’ statue removed from Las Vegas campus

In the wake of George Floyd’s death and nationwide protests against racial injustice, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas removed its “Rebel” mascot from campus Tuesday. The ‘Hey Reb!’ statue was donated to the university in 2007.

UNLV President Marta Meana notified students about the removal and suggested the mascot’s future is uncertain. 

“In recent conversations with the donor, we mutually agreed it was best to remove the statue and return it,” Meana said in an email Tuesday. “Over the past few months, I have had discussions with multiple individuals and stakeholder groups from campus and the community on how best the university can move forward given recent events throughout our nation. That includes the future of our mascot.”

On the night the statue was removed, a change.org petition calling for a new UNLV mascot had almost 4,000 signatures.“Having a mascot that is inextricably connected to a failed regime whose single aim was to preserve the institution of slavery is an embarrassment to our campus and to our community,” the petition said.

– Ed Komenda, Reno Gazette Journal

Texas Sens. Ted Cruz, John Cornyn dismiss idea of systemic racism in police, society

Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz on Tuesday rejected the notion of systemic racism within policing, and beyond, in the United States. 

Speaking during a Senate Judiciary hearing about police violence, both senators dismissed the idea of systemic racism to witnesses, including S. Lee Merritt, an attorney representing George Floyd’s family.

“I would like the witnesses to tell us if they believe that the police department and the police in America are systemically racist,” Cornyn asked the panel. “Would anybody like to raise their hand agreeing with that statement?”

A few of the witnesses testifying appeared to raise their hands. Cornyn responded, “And that means all 18,000 police departments, all 800,000 law enforcement officers? Is that true?”

– Savannah Behrmann

More on protests

Man arrested on charges of starting fire at Minneapolis police station

Federal agents have arrested a Minnesota man they accuse of starting a fire inside the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct station during the protests and subsequent rioting over the death of George Floyd.

Dylan Shakespeare Robinson, 23, was arrested in Colorado on Sunday after federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents asked for the public’s help in identifying several people they say were recorded on video in the area of the police station when the fires started on the night of May 28. In a court filing, ATF agent Nathan Boyer said a tipster identified Robinson as a schoolmate of her son.

ATF agents previously arrested another man, Branden Michael Wolfe, 23, for setting a fire inside the police station. Agents said Wolfe confessed after he was caught with a stolen police radio, pistol, body armor and baton.

– Trevor Hughes

Florida mourners want justice for  Oluwatoyin Salau: I am outraged’

Dozens gathered at a vigil Tuesday for Oluwatoyin Salau, demanding answers and “justice for” the activist.

Her body was found on southeast Tallahassee’s Monday Road on Saturday night. She was reported missing on June 6. The body of Victoria Sims, 75, also was discovered in the same area.

“We don’t know what happened to her,” Danaya Hemphill said, her voice heavy with grief, tears streaming down her face. “What was she doing out here? I am hurt! I am outraged by this!”

Salau was affiliated with Movement 850, which describes itself as “student leaders and community residents working together to demand justice and policy change” for police reform in Tallahassee. She spoke at recent protests and spent her final days carrying signs in the protests for Black lives.

Aaron Glee Jr., 49, was arrested after police found the bodies of Salau and Sims on his property, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. He is being charged with felony murder and kidnapping, according to court documents.

Sims was a retired state worker, grandmother and volunteer who was well-known for her work in local Democratic politics.

– Elinor Aspegren

Richmond, Virginia, chief resigns after police vehicle strikes protesters

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced city Police Chief William Smith’s resignation at a news conference Tuesday.

“Richmond is ready for a new approach to public safety,” Stoney said during the press conference. “There is work to be done, and we’re ready to do it.”

The announcement comes days after a police SUV struck several Richmond protesters blocking its path near the Robert E. Lee statue Saturday night and two weeks after police dispensed tear gas into a crowd of peaceful protesters more than 20 minutes before curfew. 

The mayor also outlined a series of police reforms he hopes to implement, including the establishment of an independent civilian review board to investigate complaints about police misconduct and an alert system so that behavioral health specialists will be the first to respond – rather than police – when someone is experiencing a mental health crisis.

– Elinor Aspegren

Dispatcher warned police sergeant as officer pinned down George Floyd

A 911 dispatcher who was apparently watching in real time as a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into the neck of George Floyd called a supervisor to tell him what she saw, not caring if it made her look like a “snitch,” according to a recording of the call made public Monday.

In the recording, the dispatcher calls a police sergeant and says what she was seeing on live video looked “different” and that she wanted to let him know about it. The dispatcher was in a 911 call center at the time and was watching video from a surveillance camera posted at the intersection where police apprehended Floyd, according to city spokesman Casper Hill.

“I don’t know, you can call me a snitch if you want to, but we have the cameras up for 320’s call. … Um, I don’t know if they had used force or not. They got something out of the back of the squad, and all of them sat on this man. So, I don’t know if they needed you or not, but they haven’t said anything to me yet,” says the dispatcher, whose name is edited out of the recording.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Ronit Roy opens up on battling depression and alcoholism when he was jobless : Bollywood News – Bollywood Hungama

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Ronit Roy opens up on battling depression and alcoholism when he was jobless : Bollywood News – Bollywood Hungama

Film and Television actor Ronit Roy has been a part of the industry for nearly three decades now. Recently, the actor spoke about the period in his career when he had no work and was depressed and turned to alcohol.

Talking to a news portal, Ronit Roy spoke how the success of his debut film Jaan Tere Naam could not assure a successful career. Roy’s first film was a silver jubilee. However, despite its success, the actor was not getting work. He said that in panic, he started taking whatever he was offered of which some did not work and some did not get made.

Ronit said that he did not have anyone to guide him and made wrong decisions and the films did not work. He said that his career was in a slump for four-five years and he made money by doing special appearances in television shows. The actor said that he would get an episode every three or four months and get paid Rs 2000-3000 for one episode. He said that during this phase he had no money or food and had got into a depressive and alcoholic space.

Ronit Roy said that he entered the industry to become a star like Rajesh Khanna but wants to be an actor now.

ALSO READ: Ronit Roy has been selling his belongings to support 100 families 

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UK ministers order urgent vitamin D coronavirus review

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UK ministers order urgent vitamin D coronavirus review

The government has ordered an urgent review of the potential ability of vitamin D to reduce the risk of coronavirus.

It comes amid growing concern over the disproportionate number of black, Asian and minority ethnic people (BAME) contracting and dying from the disease, including a reported 94% of all doctors killed by the virus.

A delayed Public Health England review into the reasons why BAME people are disproportionately affected which pointed to historical racism was said not to have yet reviewed the role of diet and vitamin D.

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) was ordered to do this work last month and consider recent evidence on vitamin D and acute respiratory tract infection in the general population.

In a parallel development, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is conducting a “rapid” evidence review on vitamin D “in the context of Covid-19” with support from Public Health England. It is understood the reviews will be published in the coming weeks.

Public Health Scotland and NHS boards are also assessing emerging evidence to see if the so-called sunshine nutrient should be prescribed in hospitals and to high-risk groups to mitigate a second wave of Covid-19.

Adrian Martineau, a professor of respiratory infection and immunity at Queen Mary University of London, welcomed the reviews and said deaths among BAME NHS staff had brought the question of vitamin D deficiency to the fore.

“Vitamin D could almost be thought of as a designer drug for helping the body to handle viral respiratory infections,” he said. “It boosts the ability of cells to kill and resist viruses and simultaneously dampens down harmful inflammation, which is one of the big problems with Covid.”

He is currently leading a national study collecting information about risk factors for Covid-19 with a focus on vitamin D deficiency to address the absence of research in this area. Any UK resident aged above 16 is eligible to participate.

“There are no clinical trials of vitamin D to prevent Covid ongoing anywhere in the world to my knowledge and clinical evidence for its use to reduce risk of acute respiratory infections is mixed.”

However, studies have suggested that vitamin D supplementation is safe and protects against acute respiratory tract infection. Higher levels of melanin in the skin lead to lower levels of vitamin D absorption which are exacerbated in colder countries which see less sunlight. This can cause immune systems to be weaker.

NHS England has acknowledged reports about vitamin D potentially reducing the risk of coronavirus but has said there is currently not enough evidence to support this.

It currently advises people to consider taking 10mg of vitamin D a day to maintain bone and muscle health because they may not be getting enough sunlight if indoors most of the day. There is heightened concern over lack of exposure to sunlight during the lockdown.

Current UK vitamin D advice is focused on musculoskeletal health conditions such as rickets and there are fears that its effect on general immune systems has been overlooked. On 3 June the Scottish government specifically recommended people from minority ethnic groups with dark skin to take the supplement.


Across the UK, as many as 750 frontline NHS staff have received free immune support packs including liposomal vitamin C, vitamin D and zinc from a voluntary initiative, and there has been some frustration that a more holistic approach to the pandemic has not been implemented.

Singapore general hospital reportedly routinely gives coronavirus patients aged over 50 a mix of vitamin D, magnesium and vitamin B12, while countries which have recently had summers have generally been less affected by the pandemic.



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Special delivery: activists urge France to rein in Amazon

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Special delivery: activists urge France to rein in Amazon

A climate activist holds a sign reading “Amazon : the government should say Stop” during a demonstration near the Bercy Finance Ministry in Paris, France, June 17, 2020. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

PARIS (Reuters) – Environmental campaigners delivered a 12-foot (3.6-metre) tall mock-up of an Amazon parcel to the French finance ministry on Wednesday to demand that the government rein in the e-commerce giant’s expansion in France.

The campaigners – who did not have official permission for their protest – parked a rental van outside the ministry, and unloaded panels which they then assembled into a box, as security guards looked on.

The box was decorated with the Amazon logo and the slogan: “#StopAmazon”. The campaigners also used spray paint and stencils to write the phrase: “Amazon: the state must say stop” on the pavement in front of the ministry.

“We put this parcel in front of the ministry to challenge the government about the dangers of the expansion of e-commerce in France,” said Alma Dufour, a campaigner with the French chapter of green group Friends of the Earth.

The activists behind the protest say Amazon promotes a culture of consumption which hurts the environment, and that it squeezes out small businesses.

Amazon said in a statement it believed e-commerce was less harmful for the environment than traditional retail and that it was committed to reaching the threshold of net zero carbon for all its businesses by 2040.

It said it had created over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs in France in the past 20 years, including at small businesses which trade on the Amazon platform.

Reporting by Christian Lowe; Editing by Mike Collett-White

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Wall Street Set to Rally: Live Market Updates

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Wall Street Set to Rally: Live Market Updates

Target will raise its hourly minimum wage to $15 and offer “recognition” bonuses.

Target said on Wednesday that it would raise its hourly minimum wage for workers by $2 to $15 starting July 5. It will also offer a one-time “recognition bonus” of $200 to hourly employees in its stores and distribution centers at the end of July.

Target, which said in 2017 that it would raise its starting wage to $15 by the end of 2020, had already temporarily increased pay to that amount in March because of the pandemic. The increase, which was scheduled to run through July 4, will now be permanent. The additional pay will affect 275,000 employees at its stores and distribution centers, the company said. Target has nearly 1,900 stores and 41 distribution centers and more than 350,000 employees.

The retailer also said that as part of its response to the pandemic, it would offer free virtual doctor visits to workers via the CirrusMD app through the end of the year, and continue extending the option for a 30-day paid leave to employees who are 65 and older, pregnant or have an underlying medical condition. It will also continue to offer free backup care to workers through the end of August.

The announcement comes as retailers, particularly discount chains and groceries, have come under pressure to compensate low-wage employees for working during the pandemic and putting themselves at risk of contracting the virus. Target, which is based in Minneapolis, said that it would invest nearly $1 billion more this year in the “well-being, health and safety of team members” than in 2019.

U.S. stock futures rose as global markets rallied on Wednesday, after several days of turbulence fueled by a cascade of news about the coronavirus and its impact on the global economy.

Futures for the S&P 500 were up nearly 1 percent, pointing to a fourth consecutive day of gains on Wall Street. European stocks were trading slightly higher after a mostly positive trading day in the Asia-Pacific region. Japanese stocks were the exception, falling 0.6 percent after the release of data showing a sharp drop in exports in May.

Markets went on a wild ride during the previous four trading days. Investors grew concerned as the number of infections grew in states like Florida and Texas. A fresh outbreak in Beijing has also raised questions about China’s efforts to contain the outbreak.

At the same time, investors also reacted positively to reports of efforts by governments to address the economic damage, as well as data signaling improvement. The latest data point came on Tuesday, when stocks were buoyed by a report showing retail sales in the United States jumped 18 percent in May, a stronger-than-expected bounce.

On Wednesday, investors were also cheered by a lack of immediate worsening of tensions between China and India over a border clash that occurred on Monday.

The I.P.O. comes roaring back in the pandemic.

A growing number of start-ups have moved quickly to go public as the initial shock of the coronavirus pandemic has worn off. The stock market, which plummeted when the outbreak swept the United States, has rallied strongly in recent weeks. Since its nadir in late March, the S&P 500 index has climbed 40 percent.

As the market has bounced back, several companies have gone public, including SelectQuote, an online insurance provider; ZoomInfo, a sales software data provider; Warner Music Group, a record label; and Vroom, a start-up that sells used vehicles online. And more initial public offerings are on the way.

Some of the biggest Silicon Valley start-ups are also taking steps toward an I.P.O. Airbnb, the home rental start-up valued at $31 billion, said it had not ruled out going public this year. Palantir, a digital surveillance company valued at $20 billion, is preparing to file for an I.P.O. in the coming weeks, said a person briefed on the start-up’s plans, who declined to be identified because the talks were private.

“The window is open,” said Previn Waas, a partner focused on I.P.O.s at the accounting firm Deloitte. “Everyone has figured out that a virtual I.P.O. is possible. There’s an appetite for companies to go public.”

An Illinois businessman who applied for small-business relief is charged with fraud.

A businessman in Evanston, Ill., tried to fraudulently obtain a $440,000 loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, a government relief fund for small companies harmed by the pandemic, by using false tax and payroll records, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Rahul Shah describes himself on LinkedIn as the chief executive of Katalyst Technologies, which says on its website that it makes business software. In late April, he applied for a P.P.P. loan for a different company, N2N Holdings, which does business as Boardshare and lists Mr. Shah on its website as its chief executive.

Mr. Shah’s loan application claimed that N2N had 10 employees and an average monthly payroll of $176,455, according to a criminal complaint filed against him in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. But it raised alarms at the bank — not named in the complaint — because tax records from the Internal Revenue Service showed a far more modest payroll, with N2N’s employee wages dropping to $0 at the end of last year. The bank declined to make the loan.

When federal law enforcement agents interviewed Mr. Shah last month, he acknowledged that there were “errors” in his documentation, the complaint said. He is charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. Mr. Shah did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Lawmakers and government officials have said they will seek out and prosecute those trying to bilk the loan program, a rushed and often chaotic effort to distribute $660 billion to needy small companies devastated by coronavirus shutdowns. Last month, two New England men were arrested and charged with using false documents to seek loans totaling more than half a million dollars.

Table for two in the street? As restaurants reopen, seating moves outdoors.

As restaurants around the country look to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic, outdoor seating is becoming a survival option, and local governments are helping by cutting red tape.

With the spread of the coronavirus still a danger, many states are requiring that restaurants reduce their capacity to 25 to 50 percent of normal operations to ensure there is at least six feet between tables. Some, like New Jersey, are prohibiting indoor dining altogether for the time being.

However, local officials are trying to give at least some of that capacity back by allowing eating establishments to expand onto patios and parking lots, and even city sidewalks and streets. And they are reducing or waiving fees and quickly approving plans that previously may have taken months to process.

The effort appears to be paying off. OpenTable, a provider of online restaurant reservations, has counted a tenfold increase in outdoor seating this spring compared with a year ago.

Catch up: Here’s what else is happening.

  • Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the path to economic recovery remained uncertain and warned that a prolonged downturn could widen existing inequalities. “Low-income households have experienced, by far, the sharpest drop in employment, while job losses of African-Americans, Hispanics and women have been greater than that of other groups,” he said.

Reporting was contributed by Sapna Maheshwari, Erin Griffith, Mohammed Hadi, Stacy Cowley, Jane Margolies and Kevin Granville.

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Former Nagaland Governor’s son remembers Sushant Singh Rajput’s ‘quiet’ donation during the 2018 floods : Bollywood News – Bollywood Hungama

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Former Nagaland Governor’s son remembers Sushant Singh Rajput’s ‘quiet’ donation during the 2018 floods : Bollywood News – Bollywood Hungama

Sushant Singh Rajput’s demise has left millions of his fans shocked, and that’s not just because he was a polular actor but because he touched people’s lives in ways more than one. Sushant was known to be making generous contribution in times of disasters and natural calamities. Charudutt Acharya, the son of former Nagaland Governor PB Acharya, recalled one such instance.

In 2018, Nagaland faced a major flood which caused major destruction across the state and left thousands in distress. Charudutt recalled how Sushant quietly donated over a crore for the relief fund.

“From 2014 to 2019, my father was the Governor of the state of Nagaland. In 2018, a massive flood had ravaged the state. The government of Nagaland had put out an appeal to all the citizens of the country to donate to the CM’s Flood Relief Fund. At that time, Sushant was shooting in Delhi. He quietly came to Dimapur, the commercial capital of Nagaland, and handed over a cheque of 1.25 crores to the CM Neiphiu Rio. (pictures attached). There was no fanfare. There was no major publicity. (He had made a similar quiet donation of 1.25 crores to the Kerala CM’s Fund too). Later, he called my father in Kohima and spoke quite warmly. My father thanked him for his kind and large hearted gesture and invited him to Kohima. Sushant expressed his desire to visit Kohima too. But the journey from Dimapur to Kohima is only by road and takes four hours. And in the flood situation, it could have taken much longer. And Sushant had to rush back to Delhi for his shoot,” he wrote, regretting how the meeting will now never happen.

He signed off calling him a ‘true hero’ and stating that the people of Nagaland were going to remember him forever.

Sushant, who was reportedly taking medical help for depression, was awaiting the digital release of his film Dil Bechara, alongside debutant Sanjana Sanghi.

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