- Massive Automaton Fleet Invades ‘Helldivers 2,’ Has Taken Cyberstan Forbes
- The other shoe drops hard in Helldivers 2, as players go from celebrating total Automaton destruction to fending off a vengeful robot tide in the new major order PC Gamer
- Helldivers 2 Game Master Joel says sike, the previous Automaton force was “merely a vanguard,” and now a massive fleet is assaulting Cyberstan and beyond Gamesradar
- Two Days After Helldivers 2 Players ‘Eradicated’ the Automatons, the Bots Are Back With a Massive Invasion Fleet IGN
- ‘Helldivers 2’ Posts, Deletes Secret, Confusing Binary Message Forbes
Tag Archives: invades
Ridley Scott’s Apple Movie ‘Napoleon’ Invades Sony’s CinemaCon Presentation – Deadline
- Ridley Scott’s Apple Movie ‘Napoleon’ Invades Sony’s CinemaCon Presentation Deadline
- Ridley Scott’s Historical Epic ‘Napoleon’ With Joaquin Phoenix Shares Spectacular Battle Scene at CinemaCon Variety
- Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ Unveils Epic Battle Scene at CinemaCon Hollywood Reporter
- Ridley Scott’s Napoleon: CinemaCon Footage Showcases an Epic Battle Scene Starring Joaquin Phoenix IGN
- Napoleon Footage Reaction: Ridley Scott And Joaquin Phoenix Go Epic [CinemaCon 2023] /Film
- View Full Coverage on Google News
COVID directly invades the brain
Neuroinvasion is the techical name for this avenue of infection. In this case, the virus can travel directly up the nose, via what are known as sustenacular cells, to the olfactory bulb. Then, it can replicate or ride synapses up the olfactory nerve to central parts of the brain, potentially.
UC Davis publicized a statement about the research, which was published in Cell Reports. The statement included the following:
Using a recently developed nonhuman primate model of the disease, UC Davis researchers revealed that COVID reaches the brain by transport through the nose along the olfactory nerve, a nerve that starts in the brain and ends in the upper inside part of the nose.
“We not only demonstrated that the virus infects the brain, but also that it directly infects neurons and can be transported along nerve pathways to sites beyond the initial olfactory regions,” said senior author John Morrison, professor of neurology at UC Davis and director of the CNPRC [California National Primate Research Center].
[…]
Their findings leave no doubt that the virus was entering the brain and damaging brain cells along the way, said first author Danielle Beckman, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis. By comparing young and aged animals, it became clear that viral infection was exacerbated in the aged animals. Brain cells of infected aged monkeys appeared shrunken.
This is important because of the neurocytoarchitectural areas to which the olfactory bulb connect. One of those structures may be very familiar to you: the amygdala, also known as the “fear center” of the brain. (Really, it’s designed to detect threat; fear is a body state, not an environmental cue.)
Other vital connecting areas are those that, along with the amygdala, go on to help encode memory. This is why many researchers have sounded the alarm that Long Covid may produce its own version of dementia, on the order of Alzheimer’s if not triggering Alzheimer’s itself:
Perhaps most striking was the distance the virus traveled in aged animals compared to the young, healthy animals. While the virus was mostly found in the primary olfactory cortex in all inoculated animals, the virus spread further in aged animals. Cellular markers of SARS-CoV-2 were seen in regions of the brain extending beyond immediate sensation and perception of smell, and into areas highly involved in emotion, memory and cognition in aged animals. These findings raise concerns about potential spikes in neurodegenerative diseases and vulnerability to dementia-related illnesses, like Alzheimer’s, as infected adults age.
“In the aged monkeys in particular, the virus is infecting neurons in regions known to be highly vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease,” Morrison said.
(Emphases added.)
Now, what was the culprit: the virus itself or the inflammation as a downstream process? It appears that still needs to be teased out, but suffice to say that both could be occurring simultaneously; it doesn’t have to be one or the other. But the study showed that “the intensity with which SARS-CoV-2 induced inflammation in aged rhesus macaques led to significant damage,” according to one researcher.
I plan to write far more on this in the near future, but I wanted to get this stub of an article up quickly so as to give people more information, more ways for all of us to arm ourselves. These results are all the more reason to keep masking! Get boosted (that is, if your doctor does not feel that it would be contraindicated); but also protect your airways! Keep that critter out of the nose.
Edited to thank this is only a test for a crucial correction to the link to the study.
Biden says U.S. would intervene militarily if China invades Taiwan
Tokyo — President Biden said Monday the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, in one of the most forceful and overt statements of American government support for Taiwan in decades. Mr. Biden said the burden to protect the self-ruled island was “even stronger” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Mr. Biden was asked by CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes, “Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?”
He replied, simply, “Yes.”
Cordes followed up by asking, “You are?”
“That’s the commitment we made,” Mr. Biden said. “We agree with a ‘One China’ policy. We signed onto it and all the attendant agreements made from there. But the idea that it [Taiwan] could be taken by force, just taken by force, it’s just not — it’s just not appropriate. It’ll dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine. And so it’s a burden that is even stronger.”
The president then said U.S. “policy towards Taiwan has not changed at all,” stressing his government’s commitment to “the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and ensuring that there’s no unilateral change to the status quo.”
Mr. Biden said it was his “expectation” that China would not try to seize control of Taiwan by force, but he added that “a lot of it depends upon just how strong the world makes clear that that kind of action is going to result in long term disapprobation by the rest of the [international] community.”
The president said Beijing was “flirting with danger” with recent military flights close to Taiwan.
Beijing was quick to respond, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warning: “No one should underestimate the firm resolve, staunch will and strong ability of the Chinese people in defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to French news agency AFP.
It was the second time within a year that Mr. Biden has left people questioning his administration’s stance on the long-held, unofficial U.S. government policy of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan. In October 2021, after being asked during a CNN Town Hall in Maryland whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan in the face of an attack by China, he said: “Yes, we have a commitment.”
Soon after he made the remarks the White House released a statement insisting, as Mr. Biden did after his comments in Tokyo on Monday, that there had been no change in official U.S. policy on Taiwan.
JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS
Under the “One China” policy the U.S. recognizes Beijing as the government of all of China and doesn’t have engage in official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. However, Washington maintains unofficial contacts with Taiwan, including a de facto embassy in Taipei, its capital. The U.S. also supplies military equipment for the island’s defense.
Ukraine
Mr. Biden also said on Monday that Russia “has to pay a long-term price” for its “barbarism in Ukraine” in the form of sanctions on Moscow from the U.S. and its allies.
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to eliminate “the identity of Ukraine” since he “can’t occupy it.”
The president said if “the sanctions are not continued to be sustained in many ways, then what signal does that send to China about the cost of attempting to take Taiwan by force?”
The U.S. has steadfastly refused to get directly involved in the Ukraine war, instead supplying military and economic aid to the war-torn nation.
Recession
When asked if a recession is inevitable in the U.S., Mr. Biden replied simply, “No.”
That’s despite record high inflation and supply shortages caused partly by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He acknowledged the American economy has “problems,” but said it was better positioned than other countries.
“We have problems that the rest of the world has,” Mr. Biden said, “but less consequential than the rest of the world has.”
Mr. Biden acknowledged the impact that severe supply shortages and high energy prices are having on U.S. families. He said his administration was working to ease the pain for U.S. consumers, but said immediate solutions were unlikely.
“This is going to be a haul,” the president said. “This is going to take some time.”
Indo-Pacific Economic Framework
The comments came just before his planned launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a new trade deal his administration designed to signal U.S. dedication to the contested economic sphere and to address the need for stability in commerce after disruptions caused by the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Biden said the new framework would also increase U.S. cooperation with other nations in the region.
Observers say IPEF is part of a broader U.S. effort to reassert its influence in the region and counter China’s.
The White House said the framework will help the United States and Asian economies work more closely on issues including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy, worker protections and anticorruption efforts. The details still need to be negotiated among the member countries, making it difficult for the administration to say how this agreement would fulfil the promise of helping U.S. workers and businesses while also meeting global needs.
Critics say the framework has gaping shortcomings. It doesn’t offer incentives to prospective partners by lowering tariffs or provide signatories with greater access to U.S. markets. Those limitations may not make the U.S. framework an attractive alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which still moved forward after the U.S. bailed out. China, the largest trading partner for many in the region, is also seeking to join TPP. Beijing called the current proposed structure a “clique.”
Monkeypox
On another matter, he sought to calm concerns about recent cases of monkeypox that have been identified in Europe and the United States, saying he didn’t see the need to institute strict quarantine measures.
Speaking in Tokyo a day after he said the virus was something “to be concerned about,” the president said, “I just don’t think it rises to the level of the kind of concern that existed with COVID-19.“
Monkeypox is rarely identified outside of Africa. But as of Friday, there were 80 confirmed cases worldwide, including at least two in the United States and another 50 suspected ones. On Sunday, one presumptive case of monkeypox was being investigated in Broward County in South Florida, which state health officials said appeared to be related to international travel.
Although the disease belongs to the same virus family as smallpox, its symptoms are milder. People usually recover within two to four weeks without needing to be hospitalized, but the disease occasionally is deadly.
Mr. Biden said the smallpox vaccine works for monkeypox. Asked whether the U.S. has enough stockpile of that vaccine to handle the monkeypox spread, he replied, “I think we do have enough to deal with the likelihood of a problem.”
Japan and the U.N.
Japan’s Kishida said Mr. Biden supports Japan becoming a permanent member of a “reformed” U.N. Security Council as calls grow for such reform.
If approved by the world body, Japan would join the U.S., Britain, China, France, Russia, and the U.S. as permanent members.
Live Updates: Russia invades Ukraine
The United States assesses that Russian forces have sent “at least several thousand Ukrainians” to be processed at Russia’s so-called filtration centers “and evacuated at least tens of thousands more to Russia or Russia-controlled territory,” US Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Michael Carpenter said Thursday.
The forced displacement – and reported violence that are faced by those at the so-called filtration centers – amount to war crimes, Carpenter said according to the transcript of his remarks to the OSCE Permanent Council.
“Numerous eyewitness accounts indicate that ‘filtering out’ entails beating and torturing individuals to determine whether they owe even the slightest allegiance to the Ukrainian state,” Carpenter said.
Some background: A CNN investigation in April revealed that Russian forces and allied separatist soldiers were taking Mariupol residents to a so-called “filtration center” set up in Bezimenne, where they were registered before being sent on to Russia, many against their will. Ukrainian government and local Mariupol officials say that tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens have been forcibly deported to the Donetsk People’s Republic and Russia since the war began.
“Survivors of this process describe a coercive, multi-destination journey through various ‘filtration’ waypoints in the Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine, and eventually across the border into Russia itself,” Carpenter noted. “Survivors describe these centers as either makeshift encampments composed of military tents or civilian infrastructure such as schools or sports centers. Commercial satellite images show these encampments in various locations across Ukraine’s southeast.”
The US Mission to the OSCE declined to discuss the sources of the information, but said it is confident in the assessment and the scale of the numbers stated.
According to Carpenter, victims described an “invasive and humiliating” inspection process at these centers.
“Russia’s soldiers photograph victims from various angles, fingerprint and physically examine them for tattoos, inspect their cell phones and download their contacts and data onto devices, and record their biographic information in a variety of databases … In some cases, Russia’s soldiers confiscated passports, identification documents, and cell phones altogether,” Carpenter said.
“Once in Russia, survivors report that some Ukrainian citizens are permitted to stay with friends and family living in Russia but that people without money or documents are put onto trains destined for cities hundreds of miles away, to be given jobs by Russian authorities,” he added.
Russia invades Ukraine, battle for Donbas begins
Having regrouped to launch an offensive in the east of Ukraine, Russian forces have started what one Ukrainian official described as the “second phase of the war” — the battle for Donbas.
Control of Kreminna, a town in the eastern Luhansk region, has already been “lost” during heavy fighting, a Ukrainian official said.
The developments come after Russia bombarded cities across Ukraine on Monday, with a least four missile strikes reported in the western city of Lviv and at least seven people killed.
Here are the latest developments on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:
The battle for Donbas: Russian forces have begun an assault on the eastern Donbas region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Monday. He said Ukrainian forces would continue to fight, saying he is “thankful to all of our warriors, our soldiers, our heroic towns and towns in the region who are resisting and standing firm.”
Not a “single place” safe in Ukraine: Ihor Zhovka, chief diplomatic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that “not a single place, a town, a city or a village” is now safe in Ukraine following Russian missile strikes in Lviv on Monday. The city was previously seen as a safe haven due to its proximity to Ukraine’s western border with Poland.
Women, children in besieged steel plant: Video appearing to show women and children sheltering in the basement of the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol was posted on Telegram Monday evening by the Azov Battalion of Ukraine. The battalion’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko, also said Russian forces were firing “willingly” on the plant. The plant is one of the last areas under Ukrainian control in the city.
Moskva sinking latest: New images emerged early Monday on social media showing Russia’s guided-missile cruiser, the Moskva, badly damaged and on fire in the hours before the ship sank in the Black Sea on Thursday. The images show the Moskva listing to one side, with black holes from possible missile puncture marks, and a large plume of smoke billowing upwards.
No plans for Biden to visit Ukraine: White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated Monday that there were no plans for US President Joe Biden to travel to Ukraine, following comments from Zelensky encouraging him to do so. The US President suggested last week he wanted to go, though he said US officials are still “in discussions” on whether a high-level US official will visit Ukraine.
US describes “campaign of terror”: State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Russia’s attacks in Ukraine in recent days further illustrate that the country is “undertaking a campaign of terror” against the people of Ukraine.
Ceasefire “not on the horizon”: A ceasefire in Ukraine is not on the horizon, but may be “in a couple of weeks” depending on how the war and ongoing negotiations continue, said Martin Griffiths, United Nations under secretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, on Monday.
Russia invades Ukraine, battle for Donbas begins
Having regrouped to launch an offensive in the east of Ukraine, Russian forces have started what one Ukrainian official described as the “second phase of the war” — the battle for Donbas.
Control of Kreminna, a town in the eastern Luhansk region, has already been “lost” during heavy fighting, a Ukrainian official said.
The developments come after Russia bombarded cities across Ukraine on Monday, with a least four missile strikes reported in the western city of Lviv and at least seven people killed.
Here are the latest developments on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:
The battle for Donbas: Russian forces have begun an assault on the eastern Donbas region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Monday. He said Ukrainian forces would continue to fight, saying he is “thankful to all of our warriors, our soldiers, our heroic towns and towns in the region who are resisting and standing firm.”
Not a “single place” safe in Ukraine: Ihor Zhovka, chief diplomatic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that “not a single place, a town, a city or a village” is now safe in Ukraine following Russian missile strikes in Lviv on Monday. The city was previously seen as a safe haven due to its proximity to Ukraine’s western border with Poland.
Women, children in besieged steel plant: Video appearing to show women and children sheltering in the basement of the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol was posted on Telegram Monday evening by the Azov Battalion of Ukraine. The battalion’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko, also said Russian forces were firing “willingly” on the plant. The plant is one of the last areas under Ukrainian control in the city.
Moskva sinking latest: New images emerged early Monday on social media showing Russia’s guided-missile cruiser, the Moskva, badly damaged and on fire in the hours before the ship sank in the Black Sea on Thursday. The images show the Moskva listing to one side, with black holes from possible missile puncture marks, and a large plume of smoke billowing upwards.
No plans for Biden to visit Ukraine: White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated Monday that there were no plans for US President Joe Biden to travel to Ukraine, following comments from Zelensky encouraging him to do so. The US President suggested last week he wanted to go, though he said US officials are still “in discussions” on whether a high-level US official will visit Ukraine.
US describes “campaign of terror”: State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Russia’s attacks in Ukraine in recent days further illustrate that the country is “undertaking a campaign of terror” against the people of Ukraine.
Ceasefire “not on the horizon”: A ceasefire in Ukraine is not on the horizon, but may be “in a couple of weeks” depending on how the war and ongoing negotiations continue, said Martin Griffiths, United Nations under secretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, on Monday.
Russia invades Ukraine, Kharkiv endures heavy shelling
The northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv endured another day of heavy shelling, according to regional officials.
Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said on Telegram: “Today, in broad daylight, there were shellings of the central part of the city, the residential area of Saltivka from MLRS [multiple rocket systems] and artillery. Unfortunately, 20 people were injured, 5 people were killed. Apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure were damaged.”
Ihor Terekhov, the city’s mayor, said residential areas came under attack in the morning, and missiles were fired at the city center in the afternoon. He said dozens of buildings had been damaged, and the casualties included dead and wounded.
Terekhov said the Russians had not given up on “attempts to destroy the civilian population of Kharkiv, sow panic in the city and break our spirit. Still, the will of Kharkiv, the will of us Ukrainians, cannot be harmed by the enemy. Today, I was convinced of this when I saw how a medic covered a wounded woman during the shelling.”
Writing on his Telegram channel, Terekhov said Russian forces “continue to bombard the city furiously. Therefore, I urge you again, if possible, to stay in the shelter and metro stations.”
The State Emergency Services said on Sunday afternoon, “18 addresses in Kharkiv were hit as a result of enemy shelling in the central part of the city. Apartments on the fourth and fifth floors were on fire in a five-story building.” It said 160 firefighters and 33 units of equipment were involved in extinguishing the fires.
Synegubov said despite the attacks, Ukrainian forces were pushing the Russians back to the east of the city. He claimed several villages had been liberated some 25 miles (40 kilometers) to the southeast of Kharkiv.
If true and if the Ukrainian gains east of Kharkiv are sustained, Russian efforts to resupply forces being gathered in eastern Ukraine for an offensive in Donbas might be hampered. Last week Ukrainian special forces destroyed a bridge on one resupply route south of Kharkiv.
Russia invades Ukraine, country braces for major Donbas offensive
Note: This post contains graphic imagery.
The worst thing I have seen since arriving in Kyiv nearly a month ago would have to be the body of a man we were shown in a backyard in Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv.
We were led to the site by the owner of the house, who had fled town in the first few days of war. She returned as the invading troops withdrew, only to find her home had been ransacked by Russian soldiers.
Behind her garden shed, she showed us a man, with a bag over his head, his hands tied behind his back and his trousers pulled down, exposing his underwear and heavily bruised leg.
He had a gunshot wound to the head, and a single bullet case was still lying next to his body.
He appeared to have been tortured and executed by Russian soldiers, although we do not know for sure what happened to him.
By this time, we had already seen the now infamous mass grave in Bucha, but the image of that man has stuck with me – I find the individual more relatable than the collective. It is easier to compartmentalize, to dissociate a group from the humanity they were robbed of.
Some context: Borodianka was home to 13,000 people before the war, but most fled after Russia’s invasion. What was left of the town, after intense shelling and devastating airstrikes, was then occupied by Russian forces, which moved in on Feb. 28. The town came back into Ukrainian control on April 1.
Read more about what CNN journalists have witnessed in Ukraine here:
Russia invades Ukraine, country braces for major Donbas offensive
One of the Russian Navy’s most important warships is either floating abandoned or at the bottom of the Black Sea, a massive blow to a military struggling against Ukrainian resistance 50 days into Vladimir Putin’s invasion of his neighbor.
Russian sailors have evacuated the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, after a fire that detonated ammunition aboard, Russian state media reported Wednesday.
State media outlets TASS and RIA, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, said the Moskva had been seriously damaged in the incident and that the cause of the fire was being investigated. The Russian reports gave no information on possible casualties.
But hours earlier, a Ukrainian official claimed the Russian warship had been hit by cruise missiles fired from Ukraine.
Due to large storms over the Black Sea obscuring satellite imagery and sensory satellite data, CNN has not been able to visually confirm the ship has been hit or its current status, but analysts noted that a fire on board such a ship can lead to a catastrophic explosion that could sink it.
Whatever the reason for the fire, the analysts say it strikes hard at the heart of the Russian navy as well as national pride, comparable to the US Navy losing a battleship during World War II or an aircraft carrier today.
“Only the loss of a ballistic missile submarine or the Kutznetsov (Russia’s lone aircraft carrier) would inflict a more serious blow to Russian morale and the navy’s reputation with the Russian public,” said Carl Schuster, a retired US Navy captain and former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center.
“Massive blow”: Alessio Patalano, professor of war and strategy at King’s College in London, said losing the warship would be a “massive blow” for Russia.
“Ships operate away from public attention and their activities are rarely the subject of news. But they are large floating pieces of national territory, and when you lose one, a flagship no less, the political and symbolic message — in addition to the military loss — stands out precisely because of it,” he said.
Read more: