- Graphic helmet-cam footage appears to show US volunteers in action in Ukraine, dodging bullets and mortar blasts in an intense battle with Russian forces Yahoo News
- Russia’s Precision Strike Obliterates Ukrainian Ammo Depot Within Seconds in Kupyansk | Watch Hindustan Times
- Russian Forces Claim To Have Repelled Multiple Attacks In Eastern Ukraine Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
- Russian military sees almost 5,000 casualties in one week of Ukrainian offensive Yahoo News
- Beyond the Counter-offensive: Where Is Ukraine Headed? Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: volunteers
Russia’s Plan To Recruit 400,000 ‘Volunteers’ To Fight Faces Hurdles: U.K. – Newsweek
- Russia’s Plan To Recruit 400,000 ‘Volunteers’ To Fight Faces Hurdles: U.K. Newsweek
- Russia will have to coerce people to get 400k ‘volunteer’ soldiers: UK Business Insider
- Russia will not be able to recruit 400,000 “volunteers”, people will be forced to join army – UK Defence Intelligence Yahoo News
- Putins drive to expand Armed Forces intensifying labour shortages in Russias economy Firstpost
- 50,000 North Korean Commandos Prepare To Join Russia’s Special Military Ops In Ukraine – Military Correspondent EurAsian Times
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Russia will not be able to recruit 400,000 “volunteers”, people will be forced to join army – UK Defence Intelligence – Yahoo News
- Russia will not be able to recruit 400,000 “volunteers”, people will be forced to join army – UK Defence Intelligence Yahoo News
- Putins drive to expand Armed Forces intensifying labour shortages in Russias economy Firstpost
- Russia’s Plan To Recruit 400,000 ‘Volunteers’ To Fight Faces Hurdles: U.K. Newsweek
- 50,000 North Korean Commandos Prepare To Join Russia’s Special Military Ops In Ukraine – Military Correspondent EurAsian Times
- Putin’s War Is Intensifying Russian Economy’s Labor Shortage Bloomberg
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tennessee vs. Missouri score, takeaways: No. 5 Volunteers dominate second half in bounce-back win over Tigers
No. 5 Tennessee put the disappointment of its first loss behind it in emphatic fashion as the Volunteers cruised to a 66-24 win over Missouri at Neyland Stadium. The SEC East showdown carried major postseason implications for both teams, and while the Tigers pushed Tennessee at times in the game, they ultimately had no answer for the Vols’ explosive offense.
Redshirt senior quarterback Hendon Hooker reignited his Heisman Trophy hopes with over 400 yards of total offense and four touchdowns as the Volunteers racked up a program-record 724 yards and set a school record for most points scored in an SEC game. When Missouri drew within 28-24 early in the third quarter, the Volunteers ticked off three straight touchdowns drives of 67 yards or longer to retake control of the game. Ultimately, they scored the game’s final 38 points and didn’t slow down even when backup quarterback Joe Milton entered late.
After finishing with just 289 total yards in a 27-13 loss at Georgia last week, Tennessee accumulated 365 yards in the first half alone. While Missouri quarterback Brady Cook gave the Volunteers defense fits with his scrambling ability at times, Tennessee came up with seven three-and-outs in the game as a sellout crowd offered support on the program’s Senior Day.
With the win, Tennessee finishes the home portion of its schedule unbeaten for the first time since 2007 as the Volunteers hit the road for games against South Carolina and Vanderbilt to close the regular season. At 9-1, Tennessee has now matched its best season win total since that ’07 season with at least three games still remaining.
College Football Playoff implications
With Georgia set to clinch the SEC East with a win in either of its next two games, Tennessee will likely need to earn a College Football Playoff berth as a one-loss squad that did not play in its conference championship game. That has only happened twice before in the eight years of the CFP’s existence. But Saturday marked a start toward redemption for Tennessee after the disappointing showing against the Bulldogs knocked the Vols from the No. 1 spot.
The Volunteers could not afford another slip up, and they probably need some style points to help their case. That might explain why second-year coach Josh Heupel kept airing it out with the game out of reach and Milton in the game. Things got chippy when Tennessee scored its final touchdown with just 36 seconds on the clock, but if the goal was to make a statement with a dominant victory, then the extra pair of touchdowns in the final minutes helped accomplish that goal.
Hooker’s highlights
The Heisman Trophy race is still wide open, but Hooker needed a big game to revitalize his hopes after Georgia’s defense stymied Tennessee’s offense last week. The redshirt senior delivered through the air and on the ground to keep his name firmly in the race. He finished 25-of-35 passing for 355 yards with three touchdowns while also running for 54 yards and a score.
Hooker has now thrown for 24 touchdowns and just two interceptions with another five scores on the ground. The Virginia Tech transfer positioned himself to surpass 3,000 yards passing for the season next week against South Carolina.
Running back depth
While Tennessee’s aerial attack was on display with Bru McCoy and Jalin Hyatt each surpassing 100 yards receiving, its rushing game was on point against Missouri as well. Hooker, Jabari Small, Jaylen Wright and Dylan Sampson each rattled off runs of 19 yards or more as the Vols averaged 7.1 yards per rush attempt. Sampson’s performance was particularly noteworthy as the true freshman ran eight times for 98 yards and a score.
The workload marked his largest in a conference game this season, and the former three-star prospect made a compelling case to be a larger part of the running back rotation moving forward. With Tennessee leading just 35-24 in the third quarter, Sampson rattled off runs of 42 yards and 15 yards on consecutive plays to set up a 2-yard touchdown strike from Hooker to Princeton Fant.
require.config({"baseUrl":"https://sportsfly.cbsistatic.com/fly-0355/bundles/sportsmediajs/js-build","config":{"version":{"fly/components/accordion":"1.0","fly/components/alert":"1.0","fly/components/base":"1.0","fly/components/carousel":"1.0","fly/components/dropdown":"1.0","fly/components/fixate":"1.0","fly/components/form-validate":"1.0","fly/components/image-gallery":"1.0","fly/components/iframe-messenger":"1.0","fly/components/load-more":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-article":"1.0","fly/components/load-more-scroll":"1.0","fly/components/loading":"1.0","fly/components/modal":"1.0","fly/components/modal-iframe":"1.0","fly/components/network-bar":"1.0","fly/components/poll":"1.0","fly/components/search-player":"1.0","fly/components/social-button":"1.0","fly/components/social-counts":"1.0","fly/components/social-links":"1.0","fly/components/tabs":"1.0","fly/components/video":"1.0","fly/libs/easy-xdm":"2.4.17.1","fly/libs/jquery.cookie":"1.2","fly/libs/jquery.throttle-debounce":"1.1","fly/libs/jquery.widget":"1.9.2","fly/libs/omniture.s-code":"1.0","fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init":"1.0","fly/libs/jquery.mobile":"1.3.2","fly/libs/backbone":"1.0.0","fly/libs/underscore":"1.5.1","fly/libs/jquery.easing":"1.3","fly/managers/ad":"2.0","fly/managers/components":"1.0","fly/managers/cookie":"1.0","fly/managers/debug":"1.0","fly/managers/geo":"1.0","fly/managers/gpt":"4.3","fly/managers/history":"2.0","fly/managers/madison":"1.0","fly/managers/social-authentication":"1.0","fly/utils/data-prefix":"1.0","fly/utils/data-selector":"1.0","fly/utils/function-natives":"1.0","fly/utils/guid":"1.0","fly/utils/log":"1.0","fly/utils/object-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-helper":"1.0","fly/utils/string-vars":"1.0","fly/utils/url-helper":"1.0","libs/jshashtable":"2.1","libs/select2":"3.5.1","libs/jsonp":"2.4.0","libs/jquery/mobile":"1.4.5","libs/modernizr.custom":"2.6.2","libs/velocity":"1.2.2","libs/dataTables":"1.10.6","libs/dataTables.fixedColumns":"3.0.4","libs/dataTables.fixedHeader":"2.1.2","libs/dateformat":"1.0.3","libs/waypoints/infinite":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/inview":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/jquery.waypoints":"3.1.1","libs/waypoints/sticky":"3.1.1","libs/jquery/dotdotdot":"1.6.1","libs/jquery/flexslider":"2.1","libs/jquery/lazyload":"1.9.3","libs/jquery/maskedinput":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/marquee":"1.3.1","libs/jquery/numberformatter":"1.2.3","libs/jquery/placeholder":"0.2.4","libs/jquery/scrollbar":"0.1.6","libs/jquery/tablesorter":"2.0.5","libs/jquery/touchswipe":"1.6.18","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.draggable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.mouse":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.position":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.slider":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.sortable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.touch-punch":"0.2.3","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.autocomplete":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.accordion":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.menu":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.dialog":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.resizable":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.button":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tooltip":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.effects":"1.11.4","libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.datepicker":"1.11.4"}},"shim":{"liveconnection/managers/connection":{"deps":["liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4"]},"liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4":{"exports":"SockJS"},"libs/setValueFromArray":{"exports":"set"},"libs/getValueFromArray":{"exports":"get"},"fly/libs/jquery.mobile-1.3.2":["version!fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init"],"libs/backbone.marionette":{"deps":["jquery","version!fly/libs/underscore","version!fly/libs/backbone"],"exports":"Marionette"},"fly/libs/underscore-1.5.1":{"exports":"_"},"fly/libs/backbone-1.0.0":{"deps":["version!fly/libs/underscore","jquery"],"exports":"Backbone"},"libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs-1.11.4":["jquery","version!libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core","version!fly/libs/jquery.widget"],"libs/jquery/flexslider-2.1":["jquery"],"libs/dataTables.fixedColumns-3.0.4":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"libs/dataTables.fixedHeader-2.1.2":["jquery","version!libs/dataTables"],"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js":["https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js"]},"map":{"*":{"adobe-pass":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js","facebook":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js","facebook-debug":"https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all/debug.js","google":"https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js","google-platform":"https://apis.google.com/js/client:platform.js","google-csa":"https://www.google.com/adsense/search/async-ads.js","google-javascript-api":"https://www.google.com/jsapi","google-client-api":"https://apis.google.com/js/api:client.js","gpt":"https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js","hlsjs":"https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/hls.js/1.0.7/hls.js","recaptcha":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?onload=loadRecaptcha&render=explicit","recaptcha_ajax":"https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/js/recaptcha_ajax.js","supreme-golf":"https://sgapps-staging.supremegolf.com/search/assets/js/bundle.js","taboola":"https://cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/cbsinteractive-cbssports/loader.js","twitter":"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js","video-avia":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/2.4.0/player/avia.min.js","video-avia-ui":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/2.4.0/plugins/ui/avia.ui.min.js","video-avia-gam":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/2.4.0/plugins/gam/avia.gam.min.js","video-avia-hls":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/2.4.0/plugins/hls/avia.hls.min.js","video-avia-playlist":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/avia-js/2.4.0/plugins/playlist/avia.playlist.min.js","video-ima3":"https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3.js","video-ima3-dai":"https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/sdkloader/ima3_dai.js","video-utils":"https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js","video-vast-tracking":"https://vidtech.cbsinteractive.com/sb55/vast-js/vtg-vast-client.js"}},"waitSeconds":300});
Your Brain Is Ready to Learn About New Things Without You Even Realizing
Simply being exposed to things we’re not familiar with – new objects or species of animals, for example – puts us in learning mode, new research has revealed, and makes us more ready to learn about the new thing later on.
Once we’ve encountered a new thing, our brains are able to capitalize on a period of brief learning later on to take in more knowledge about it. The new study should help scientists understand this kind of subconscious learning or latent learning.
Much of how we perceive different things in the world has to do with categorizing them, but the ways we learn these categories are often not explicit. For example, we learn that ‘cat’ and ‘dog’ are different categories mainly by being exposed to cats and dogs, rather than being sat down and taught the specifics.
In this study, the researchers wanted to find out more about how such incidental exposure contributes to us learning different categories.
“We often observe new things out in the real world without a goal of learning about them,” says psychologist Vladimir Sloutsky from Ohio State University.
“But we found that simply being exposed to them makes an impression in our mind and leads us to be ready to learn about them later.”
The team ran five different experiments involving a total of 438 adult volunteers. Researchers used a custom computer game to expose the participants to unfamiliar fantastical creatures, which in some cases were split into two categories – categories similar to cats and dogs.
During the initial phase, the participants were instructed to react as quickly as possible to a creature jumping either to a red panel on the left side of the screen, or a blue panel on the right side. Unbeknownst to the participants, the side the creatures jumped to was always the same as their category, and there were a couple of different types of category structures.
While nobody figured out the ‘secret’ categories in this initial phase, it was clear from the results that people who’d been exposed to the creatures in the initial phase were able to learn the categories faster.
Later in the experiments, there was a period of explicit learning, in which the made-up categories – ‘flurps’ and ‘jalets’ – were revealed to those taking part. The teaching also involved explaining how to distinguish between creatures in the two categories (different colored tails and hands, for example).
Examples of the creatures used for the experiments. (Unger and Sloutsky, Psychol. Sci., 2022)
The volunteers exposed to pictures of ‘flurps’ and ‘jalets’ in advance were much faster in being able to grasp the differences between the creature categories, even though they weren’t exposed to any kind of learning instructions during the initial phase.
“Participants who received early exposure to Category A and B creatures could become familiar with their different distributions of characteristics, such as that creatures with blue tails tended to have brown hands, and creatures with orange tails tended to have green hands,” says psychologist Layla Unger from Ohio State University.
“Then when the explicit learning came, it was easier to attach a label to those distributions and form the categories.”
In experiment five, the initial phase images were accompanied by one of two sounds assigned at random, and the participants had to respond to the sound rather than the picture – in other words, they didn’t need to pay attention to the creature at all.
Those volunteers who glimpsed ‘flurps’ and ‘jalets’ during the initial phase with sounds still did better in the learning phase, suggesting that a lot of what was being absorbed was done at a subconscious level. Simple exposure was enough to start learning.
“The exposure to the creatures left participants with some latent knowledge, but they weren’t ready to tell the difference between the two categories. They had not learned yet, but they were ready to learn,” explains Unger.
Studies of this type of latent learning are rare, and future studies could expand on the current analysis of adults to look at the process in infants and children too.
“It has been very difficult to diagnose when latent learning is occurring,” says Sloutsky.
“But this research was able to differentiate between latent learning and what people learn during explicit teaching.”
The research has been published in Psychological Science.
Ukraine volunteers detained by Russia recall horrors: ‘It was like a nightmare come to life’
US sending Ukraine more military equipment
Retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis discusses how Russian forces are beginning an offensive in the Donbas region and how the Ukrainians might fare in the fight on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Two Ukraine volunteers who say they spent three weeks in Russian captivity are now opening up about their harrowing experience, describing the beatings and conditions they allegedly suffered as like a “nightmare come to life”.
Volodymyr Khropun and Yulia Ivannikova-Katsemon were working for the Red Cross and helping people flee villages along the front lines in northern Ukraine when they were captured by the Russian military in March, according to Reuters. On April 9 – after spending time in Belarus and in detention centers in Russia – they were freed as part of a prisoner swap.
“It was like a nightmare come to life,” Khropun told Reuters, recalling how he and Ivannikova-Katsemon were held with around 40 others in an unheated room at a factory in Dymer, north of Kyiv, sharing a plastic pot for a toilet.
Red Cross volunteer Volodymyr Khropun clasps his hands together to show how his hands were bound while being held by Russian troops inside a factory during Russia’s invasion in the village of Dymer, in the Kyiv region of Ukraine.
(REUTERS/Alessandra Prentice)
RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE: LIVE UPDATES
“They arrested me, closed my eyes — as in, they pulled a hat over my eyes, bound it on with scotch tape — and then wrapped my hands in tape, like a terrorist,” he added.
After about a week of surviving on one to two meals a day – sometimes consisting only of army crackers – the pair said they and about a dozen others were brought by military truck to Belarus where they underwent interrogations, Reuters reports.
“The first stage was being stripped naked, photographed, the noting of scars, I have a few. Then the pouring of water [on me] and a beating,” Ivannikova-Katsemon told Reuters.
Dirty mattresses are seen on a cement floor of a factory room where Russian troops held Red Cross volunteers Volodymyr Khropun and Yulia Ivannikova-Katsemon together with dozens of other locals in the village of Dymer, Ukraine.
(REUTERS/Alessandra Prentice)
The volunteers say they each received documents with their identification and details that accused them of being “a person who has shown opposition to the special military operation.”
At one point after being further transferred to a detention center in Russia, Ivannikova-Katsemon claims she was told she would be sent to work at a logging camp in Siberia.
Khropun said that during the interrogations in all three countries he was forced to kneel for long periods of time or was attacked on his knees and ribs. Other captives, he told Reuters, had their hair, beards and mustaches partially shaved off as an act of humiliation.
Families wait to board a train at Kramatorsk central station as they flee the eastern city of Kramatorsk, in the Donbas region, in early April.
(Photo by FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The pair were finally freed after learning they were picked to be exchanged in a prisoner swap.
“There was always hope with God that I would return,” Ivannikova-Katsemon told Reuters. “The hard thing was not being able to tell family and friends that I was alive and in captivity.”
US volunteers reach the frontline of the war in Ukraine | Ukraine
US volunteers have been seen in video footage from the frontlines in Ukraine, suggesting that the international legion fighting alongside the Ukrainian army is playing an increasingly active role.
Two video clips featuring US fighters appeared on Twitter on Thursday: one showing an American in combat gear posing in front of the burnt remains of what he said was a Russian tank. Off camera, a Ukrainian shouts “Welcome to America!” and the American repeats the phrase.
In the other, narrated by a different soldier with an American accent, shows a detachment of soldiers taking cover by a wall alongside a road, in a village the narrator claims they have recaptured from the Russians.
The first video was posted by James Vasquez, a US army veteran and building contractor from Connecticut, who, according to his Twitter feed, arrived in Poland on 15 March and crossed into Ukraine the next day, bringing with him several surveillance drones. He was sent to the frontlines from Lviv on 18 March.
“I kind of feel like I’m on an awesome very dangerous vacation,” he said. And in another tweet: “When I need to amp myself up for battle, I just think about the most punchable face on the planet … Tucker Carlson.”
He gives an account of patrolling Ukraine going through numerous checkpoints and showing his passport.
“They are … shocked to see an American passport when I hit checkpoints,” he said. “They let me right through because they think it’s awesome an American soldier is here to fight alongside them.”
In his account of Thursday’s battle for a village he does not name, Vasquez said he was tasked to “find a pack of Russians spotted hiding by civilians” and he used a drone to try to spot them.
A few hours later, he tweeted: “Just went through six straight hours of combat. I have crazy video I’ll post later. 2 men were shot but will be OK. One fatality.”
Initial accounts of the international legion suggested that the foreign volunteers were a mixed bag, many with no experience. The military news website Task&Purpose reported there was “a swarm of Fantasists for every one candidate with experience in combat”.
“Selection apparently follows no discernible process other than separating those that don’t have military experience from those that do. The former are put through a four-week training course – the latter are given a weapon and sent to the front in ad-hoc units with a Ukrainian officer,” the report from Ukraine said.
Volunteers sign up to help in cyberwars between Russia and Ukraine
Cyber warfare is being waged, not only between Ukraine and Russia, but on behalf of these countries by “digital soldiers” from around the world.
Rapeepong Puttakumwong | Moment | Getty Images
Cyber warfare related to the Ukraine-Russia conflict is surging as digital volunteers from around the world enter the fight.
The number of cyberattacks being waged by — and on behalf of — both countries since the outbreak of the war is “staggering,” according to the research arm of Check Point Software Technologies.
“For the first time in history anyone can join a war,” said Lotem Finkelstein, head of threat intelligence at Check Point Software. “We’re seeing the entire cyber community involved, where many groups and individuals have taken a side, either Russia or Ukraine.”
“It’s a lot of cyber chaos,” he said.
Grassroots, global uprising
In the first three days following the invasion, online attacks against Ukrainian military and governmental sectors increased by 196%, according to Check Point Research (CPR). They also modestly increased against Russian (4%) and Ukrainian (0.2%) organizations, according to the data, while simultaneously falling in most other parts of the world.
Since then, Ukrainian authorities estimate some 400,000 multinational hackers have volunteered to help Ukraine, said Yuval Wollman, president of cyber security company CyberProof and the former director-general of the Israeli Intelligence Ministry.
Source: Check Point Research
“Grassroots volunteers created widespread disruption — graffitiing anti-war messages on Russian media outlets and leaking data from rival hacking operations,” he said. “Never have we seen this level of involvement by outside actors unrelated to the conflict.”
Three weeks in, Ukraine continues to sustain a barrage of online attacks, with most aimed at its government and military, according to CPR’s data.
Moscow has consistently denied that it engages in cyberwarfare or assists cyberattacks. On Feb. 19, the Russian embassy in Washington said on Twitter that it “has never conducted and does not conduct any ‘malicious’ operations in cyberspace.”
CPR data shows attacks on Russia decreased over the same timeframe, said Finkelstein. There may be several reasons for that, he said, including Russian efforts to reduce the visibility of attacks or increased security to defend against them.
‘IT Army of Ukraine’
As a long-time target of suspected Russian cyberattacks, Ukraine is seemingly welcoming the digital help.
Following a request posted on Twitter by Ukraine’s digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov, some 308,000 people joined a Telegram group known as the “IT Army of Ukraine.”
One member of the group is Gennady Galanter, co-founder of information technology company Provectus. He said the group is focused on disrupting Russian websites, preventing disinformation and getting accurate information to Russian citizens.
“It’s working,” he said, clarifying that he’s acting in his own capacity, and not for his company.
Still, Galanter said he has mixed feelings about participating. One tactic employed by the group is distributed denial of service attacks, which try to make targeted websites inaccessible by overwhelming them with online traffic.
The reality is that a lot of my friends in Russia, my relatives … they’re completely misinformed.
Gennady Galanter
co-founder of Provectus
“It’s hooliganism,” he said, yet at the same time Galanter, who fled the Soviet Union in 1991 and whose wife is Russian, said he feels compelled to help do his part to “deliver truth and deny lies.”
He’s donated money, he said, but now, he added, “I’m doing this because I don’t know what else to do.”
Galanter said he’s concerned current efforts may be insufficient against Russia’s cyber capabilities. He also said he’s worried the group’s efforts may be dismissed as Ukrainian or Western propaganda or labeled a disinformation machine of the very type he says he’s fighting against.
“The reality is that a lot of my friends in Russia, my relatives … they’re completely misinformed,” he said. “They have a deeply inaccurate view of what’s going on — they just put to doubt what we say.”
Galanter said his company shut down its operations in Russia and helped to relocate employees who wanted to leave. He said the company told employees: “The world has become pretty white and black. Those of you who share our perception of reality, you’re welcome to join us.”
“Just like these people are now, I was a refugee,” he said. “What [Putin] wants to create is exactly what I escaped.”
Moscow retaliation
It’s widely expected that Moscow and its supporters will retaliate against countries that side with Ukraine, and potentially the growing list of banks and businesses that are withdrawing from the country.
Elon Musk tweeted on March 4 that the decision to redirect Starlink satellites and deliver internet terminals to Ukraine meant that the “probability of being targeted is high.”
Experts warn reciprocal retaliation could lead to a “global cyberwar” between Russia and the West.
Russia is widely believed to be behind several digital attacks against Ukraine in the weeks prior to the invasion, but since then Russia has shown restraint, “at least for now,” according to Wollman.
Still, reports of growing anger inside the Kremlin over new sanctions, compounded by Russia’s military failures in Ukraine, may make cyber warfare one of few remaining “tools” in Putin’s playbook, he said.
“What tools does the Kremlin have against sanctions? They don’t have economic tools,” said Wollman. “According to some, a cyber response would be the likeliest Russian countermeasure.”
Spillover to other conflicts?
The Ukraine-Russia war could inflame other long-standing territorial conflicts as well. Two Taiwanese tech startups, AutoPolitic and QSearch, announced last week they are providing free technology assistance to Ukraine and to “Ukrainian online activists around the globe” to counter Russian propaganda on social media.
“Being a Taiwanese who lived under constant propaganda and threats of invasion from our cousin-neighbor, I feel a special bond with Ukrainians and acidic anger at their invaders,” said AutoPolitic founder Roger Do, via a press release.
Minneapolis Volunteers Headed To Poland With 15 Bags Of Supplies For Ukrainian Refugees – WCCO
HENNEPIN CO., Minn. (WCCO) – Two Minnesotans headed to Poland on Saturday to help with the growing refugee crisis in eastern Europe.
They’re volunteers from the Minneapolis-based Global Humanitarian Organization, Alight.
READ MORE: Investigation Underway After Man Found Dead In South Minneapolis
Alissa Jordan and Andezu Orionzi arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on a mission and with a U-Haul truck.
Minneapolis @We_Are_Alight volunteers Alissa Jordan and Andezu Orionzi are heading to Poland this afternoon with 15 bags of supplies. They’re joining other relief workers at Medyka, the busiest border crossing in #Poland. More on their mission tonight at 10pm on @WCCO pic.twitter.com/lx3KkkksRL
— Kirsten Mitchell (@Kirsten_TV) March 12, 2022
“There is a heaviness attached to travel like this, but there is also an element of hope,” Orionzi said.
They’re bringing 15 bags of high-demand supplies to the Ukrainian-Poland border to help with the growing refugee crisis.
“We are actually sending some of these medical supplies into Ukraine to those holed up in bomb shelters or to hospitals that need resupplying,” Jordan said.
READ MORE: Negotiations Continue On 5th Day Of Minneapolis Educator Strike
The volunteers have a long journey. They’re taking a 13-hour flight through Amsterdam to get to Warsaw, then driving five hours to Medyka, the busiest border crossing in Poland.
“Many of whom are women and children walking for hours and crossing the border, we know we need to keep them warm and safe,” Orionzi said.
They’ll be joining eight other Alight volunteers at the border, who have been there since the end of February. They’ve been handing out thousands of blankets and creating warming tents for the refugees who have to wait hours in the cold before moving to the reception center.
Both women have been on humanitarian missions before but it’ll be their first time in eastern Europe.
“I’m sure it will be challenging but this is our job, this is what we do as humanitarians, and we are really proud to be doing anything we can to support people who are fleeing,” Jordan said.
MORE NEWS: Man In Serious Condition After Apartment Fire In North Minneapolis
Once the two arrive in Poland, Alight will have 10 volunteers from around the world there, including three from Minnesota.
Scientists deliberately infected volunteers with COVID-19 – study
Researchers have taken healthy people and intentionally infected them with coronavirus, just to see what happens to them.
At face value, for most of us who have been trying for two or so years to do everything we can just to not get infected, this seems like a bit of a strange decision, but the truth is that this experiment is of great scientific importance and many are awaiting its results.
The initial findings from the experiment were published on the preliminary platform Springer Nature, an open platform for sharing research before it is published in established journals and undergoing peer review.
The aim of the study was to see exactly what happens in the body from the moment of exposure to COVID-19, until recovery and its eventual dispelling from the body. For the purpose of the study, the researchers recruited 34 healthy and young volunteers aged 18-30 to take part in the experiment. None of them had previously had Covid or had any resistance to the virus, as confirmed through a serological test for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies conducted at the beginning of the experiment for all volunteers.
The experiment began with the insertion of nasal droplets containing the coronavirus particles into the noses of the healthy, antibody free volunteers. The drops contained the average amount of virus particles that can be found in a droplet spray emitted from the nose of a coronavirus patient at the stage of the disease where it is most contagious.
The strain of the virus used by the researchers (the experiment began in mid-2020) preceded the alpha variant, but was still different from the original virus that started the global pandemic because it already carried mutations in the spike protein, which the researchers believe made it more contagious.
34 were exposed, 18 were infected, zero severe cases
Following the exposure to the virus, 18 of the volunteers contracted COVID, of which 16 developed mild-to-moderate symptoms of the disease (sore throat, headache, muscle and joint pain, fatigue and fever). Around a third of the volunteers (13) lost their sense of smell. It was restored for 10 of them within three months of infection, and three still suffered from the symptom for over three months.
Fortunately, to the researcher’s relief, “in our study model that intentionally infected young and healthy adults there were no cases of serious clinical morbidity,” said Dr. Christopher Cho, lead researcher in the trial and infections disease specialist at the Institute of Infections and Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London. In a statement issued to the media upon the publication of the initial study findings, he said that for this reason, the findings of the study are particularly relevant for mild-to-moderate cases of morbidity.
Among the 18 volunteers who were infected, the researchers found that the average incuvation period of the virus (the length of time that elapsed between the initial exposure and the first time the virus levels in the body were high enough to detect through testing) was 42 hours. The researchers performed COVID tests on the participants twice a day, during which they took samples from both the throat and the nostrils of each person.
With PCR tests conducted in the laboratory, they calculated the amount of active and contagious virus particles in each of them. Thus, they found that the viral load in the infected increased a rapid rate at the end of the incubation period. The virus can be detected in the throat earlier – about 40 hours after initial exposure, and in the nose, 58 hours after exposure on average.
The researchers also found that the viral load in the infected peaked on the fifth day after exposure, on average. And usually, the viral presence in the throat was lower than that found in the nose of the sick volunteers and peaked earlier before beginning to decline.
Another interesting finding reported by the researchers was that all participants had quite similar levels of viral load, regardless of the severity of the symptoms they experienced.
At what stage do rapid tests become reliable?
The researchers also tested, in their experiment, the detection ability of rapid antigen tests throughout the stages of the disease. They concluded that these tests were able to reliably detect the virus at the time of the disease, although were slightly less sensitive at onset and at the end – when the viral load is lower.
In other words, the rapid tests were less likely to come out positive when the virus levels were lower which means that at the beginning and end of the disease they may give a false negative result.
“We found that antigen tests overall were able to produce a correlation with the presence of the virus in the body, as also confirmed by lab tests,” said Dr. Cho.
“If used correctly and repeatedly, and of course by also acting accordingly when they show a positive result, these tests can effectively affect the stemming of the chain of infections,” he added.
As stated, these are just the initial findings of the study, and next the researchers intend to delve deeper and examine why some of the volunteers contracted the coronavirus while others did not.
In addition, they plan to conduct another experiment of intention infection – this time with the Delta variant. They did not specify whether there was a plan to test with the Omicron variant as well, which is the most contagious strain to date and the most dominant at the moment.
“Although there are differences in the level of infection due to the emergence of different variants such as Delta and Omicron, at its foundation it is still the same disease and the same factors will be responsible for protection against it,” said Dr. Cho.
“A new strain can make a difference in terms of the response size, but at the end of the day, we expect that our research has broadly presented the processes that take place in the body following COVID-19 infection,” he concluded.