Vampire Circus (1972)
Class of Nuke ‘Em High (1986)
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4 U.S. senators sold stock after getting coronavirus threat briefings in January -
Senator Richard Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, and Kelly Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia, both completed their sales at a time when the Trump administration and GOP leaders were downplaying the potential damage the virus might cause in the U.S. and before drastic stock-market plunges set off by the pandemic.
Burr is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which receives frequent briefings about threats facing the country, and has experience responding to public-health crises. Loeffler – who was appointed to her seat in December after Senator Johnny Isakson announced that he was resigning because of health problems – is married to the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, Jeffrey Sprecher.Two other members of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, and Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, also sold stock after the briefings, according to financial records.
Loeffler did not make any sales from Jan. 6 until Jan. 24 – the day the health committee she sits on held a briefing that included presentations from top level U.S. public-health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci.
She and her husband began selling 27 stocks on Jan. 24, according to her financial disclosure form, including investments in Auto Zone and Ross Stores, worth millions of dollars. Loeffler’s stock sales were first reported by the Daily Beast.
‘Baseless Attack’
Loeffler responded on Twitter by calling criticism of her stock sales “a ridiculous and baseless attack.” The tweet said “I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio. Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband’s knowledge or involvement.”
Burr sold 33 stocks on Feb. 13, according to his financial disclosure form, with a total value between $628,00 and $1.7 million. His stock sales were first reported by ProPublica. Three of the assets he sold were in hotel companies, which have seen their value plummet as the coronavirus threat has drastically curtailed travel.
His office said that his sales were unrelated to any information he received by virtue of his position as intelligence committee chairman.
“Senator Burr filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the U.S. and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing coronavirus outbreak,” a Burr spokesperson said in a statement. “As the situation continues to evolve daily, he has been deeply concerned by the steep and sudden toll this pandemic is taking on our economy.”
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
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As coronavirus fears soar, Europe moves to ban wasteful "ghost flights" -
If you’re reading this article, you probably know that flying is one of the most carbon-intensive actions an individual can take in a given year. Air travel normally accounts for approximately 2.4 percent of the world’s carbon pollution. The novel coronavirus, which has temporarily flatlined flying demand worldwide, has the potential to reduce aviation emissions this year. But even as fear of the virus has slowed demand, a disturbing new trend is on the rise: Planes flying empty.
According to a decades-old policy, airlines that want to run flights out of major, busy airports have to bid on particular arrival and departure times. There’s just one problem — according to guidelines set by the International Air Transport Association, airlines are required to use their time slots at least 80 percent of the time. If not, they risk losing a slot that in some cases cost them tens of millions of dollars.
In Europe, as consumers increasingly opt not to travel, airlines have been operating vacant “ghost flights” in and out of major airports to hold onto their spots — needlessly burning thousands of gallons of fuel along the way. A short one-way flight from London to Rome, for example, can emit tens of thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide when it’s full of passengers. With no one on board, the plane could carry and use less fuel, but emissions would still be sky-high — with no real-world benefit to anyone.
Thankfully, government officials have stepped in to try to end the polluting practice. In the past week, the United Kingdom and Germany both requested relief from the 80 percent rule while aviation recovers from the coronavirus. This morning, the president of the European Commission promised to temporarily suspend the slot regulation across the bloc’s 27 member states. Other areas — like Latin America and the Caribbean — may soon follow suit.
So far, there haven’t been any reported “ghost flights” in the United States. Only three U.S. airports are so congested that they need to utilize the slot system, and domestic demand for air travel hasn’t fallen dramatically.
According to Michael Boyd, president of Boyd Aviation International, an aviation consulting group, U.S. demand for domestic flights hasn’t dropped as much as for international flights. “Now, it is a hit,” he said. “But we’re not flying empty airplanes from Omaha to LaGuardia. Because we haven’t been hit that bad.”
Empty flights notwithstanding, there will likely be a significant decrease in emissions from flying this year. But a drop in airline emissions isn’t necessarily a good thing. For one thing, we shouldn’t cheer for carbon reductions that come at the cost of human life and economic stability.
Moreover, the downturn could also slow airlines’ progress towards environmentally friendly policies. Air France-KLM has already requested that various European countries’ new taxes intended to curb emissions be delayed until airlines can recover from their financial losses. According to IATA, the aviation industry could lose $113 billion in revenue if the crisis continues.
But there could also be a silver lining. As businesses adapt to telecommuting and holding conferences and meetings remotely, they may discover that some corporate travel is unnecessary. And a long-term shift away from air travel wouldbe a climate win.
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
Coronavirus: fireworks in Wuhan as checkpoints are taken down, other cities in China ease controls -
The command centre handling the crisis ordered that the checkpoints – set up when the city was locked down in January to contain the spread of the virus – be cleared starting from Friday, as Wuhan prepares to return to work.
But routes out of the city would remain blocked, according to a notice issued by the command centre.
A video posted on social media by Dahe Daily on Saturday showed several checkpoints being taken down in Huangpi district, and fireworks being set off to celebrate the removal of one in Xinzhou district.
However, not everyone was cheering the development, with some of the city’s 11 million residents questioning how reliable the official data was.
Wen Ji, who lives in the city and runs photography classes online, confirmed that checkpoints within the city were being removed. But she doubted whether there really had been no new cases of Covid-19 in the past three days.
“I don’t believe this number – I think it’s safer to keep staying at home,” she said.
The crisis would be over when people could come and go freely from the city, according to Wen, who referred to a joke circulating online that “we know we’re healthy, they know we’re healthy … but no one is brave enough to let us leave”.
Andy Wang, a volunteer driver who has been ferrying medical workers to and from hospitals, said he was happy to see the checkpoints go and looked forward to being “honourably discharged” when public transport resumed and he was no longer needed.
“I can see Wuhan is almost at the point of victory, and life will probably go back to normal soon,” he said. “I hope all those who were fighting the epidemic can go home and reunite with their families.”
But it may still be some time before the control measures in Wuhan are completely lifted. Since Tuesday, people living in residential compounds considered to be “epidemic-free” for at least seven days have been allowed to leave their homes and move around within the compound. However, people are still unable to travel freely around Wuhan.
“The entire city needs to be a low-risk area for people to move around freely. We look forward to this day arriving soon,” Wu Hao, a member of an expert team from the National Health Commission, told state broadcaster CCTV. “If the city can also become an ‘epidemic-free area’ then the space for people to move around will be greater.”
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
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