- Oregon State women’s basketball no longer a 4th-quarter pushover as Beavers beat USC with stretch-drive wrath OregonLive
- Everything Kelly Graves, Te-Hina Paopao and Endyia Rogers said after the Washington win 247Sports
- UW’s run at Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament ends with close loss to Oregon The Seattle Times
- Oregon State rally leads No. 11 seed Beavers to 56-48 win over USC in Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament OregonLive
- Kelly Graves weighs in on Oregon’s NCAA Tournament chances after UW win 247Sports
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Wrath
Florida’s insurance woes could make Hurricane Ian’s wrath even worse
And as insurers assess the impact of the storm and assess future risk as extreme weather events grow more common, coverage could get pushed even more out of reach for Floridians.
“Obviously this is going to be a multibillion-dollar storm, and with the insurance industry already crumbling, this is going to be devastating,” said state Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Republican.
A Fitch Ratings analysis Thursday estimated insured cost losses could be from $25 billion to $40 billion in the state.
A unique confluence of factors makes Florida an exceptionally difficult place for private insurers to do business, and for homeowners to find affordable comprehensive plans from private companies. As Ian has shown, the state is susceptible to dangerous weather events, something that’s likely to increase over time because of climate change. Insurance companies’ risk models, which incorporate thousands of years of weather data, have proved unreliable when it comes to the most recent storms, said Danielle Lombardo, chair of the Global Real Estate Practice at Lockton, an independent insurance brokerage and consultancy.
“It is the most risky piece of land in the world for insurers from a catastrophe standpoint,” Lombardo said.
Lawmakers and industry officials said Ian could doom private homeowner insurers unless the state legislature steps in, while consumer advocates said residents faced getting completely priced out of the market.
More than 400,000 Florida consumers have lost coverage already this year due to failed insurers or policy increases, according to Mark Friedlander, corporate communications director for the Insurance Information Institute, a research and communications nonprofit for the industry.
Already, some consumers “are now in a position where they are having to attempt to try to locate new coverage, and they just simply aren’t able to find any insurance company that is willing to write them,” said Tasha Carter, Florida’s insurance consumer advocate.
Florida’s laws regarding insurance litigation tend to favor plaintiffs, according to industry officials and independent experts, so that insurance companies are constantly dealing with a barrage of lawsuits. According to the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation, Florida accounted for 76 percent of all homeowners lawsuits nationwide in 2021.
Meanwhile the state’s population has continued to grow, creating more demand, even as risk-averse insurers are trying to exit the marketplace, leading to less supply. All of this combines for higher rates for consumers.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called a special session in May to address the property insurance crisis, but many say the law he signed does nothing to help consumers now. And some of the elements of the law, such as My Safe Florida Home, which is supposed to offer grants to homeowners who retrofit their homes to add hurricane protection, still aren’t up and running four months later.
In an interview on the Weather Channel this week, DeSantis said the goal was to avoid disputes over damages and make people whole as quickly as possible.
“The goal is to get these claims as quickly as possible. So it’s basically leveraging government to get everybody in line, and let’s get people back on their feet,” DeSantis said.
Florida residents do have recourse to a state-created nonprofit often referred to as the “insurer of last resort” — Citizens Property Insurance Corporation of Florida. Citizens will insure people who can’t find private insurance, and their rates are capped at 10 percent annually — which has kept them lower than some private insurers that have raised rates astronomically.
Citizens has seen exponential growth in demand over the last couple of years, with 1.1 million policyholders, double where it was two years ago, spokesman Michael Peltier said. But there’s a catch: The legislature required Citizens to operate without state funding, so when a big disaster hits and claims pour in, it assesses fees up to 45 percent on its policyholders.
“The true cost of a Citizens policy can increase dramatically following a major disaster,” the company itself notes in its literature.
Citizens is facing approximately 20,000 lawsuits, Peltier said.
WotLK release time – here’s when Wrath Classic goes live
Wrath of the Lich King Classic is shortly set to go live for World of Warcraft, and as usual Blizzard has provided precise details on the WotLK release time so you’ll know exactly when you can log in.
The WotLK release time is set for midnight CEST on the morning of September 27. That’s a single, global release time, so you won’t have to endure Australia and New Zealand playing hours ahead of you or anything. That also means that folks in the Americas will be able to get in the evening of September 26, so no need to wait for the official release date for the WoW Classic expansion to roll around.
Blizzard’s provided a chart (opens in new tab) breaking down how the release will spread across time zones. If you’ve got to squint to make them out, however, you scroll a bit further to see those times in bullet point form.
WotLK release time
- September 26
- 3pm PDT
- 6pm EDT
- 7pm BRT
- 11pm BST
- September 27
- 12am CEST
- 1am TRT
- 2am GST
- 6am CST
- 7am KST
- 8am AEST
As with all WoW Classic expansions. Wrath of the Lich King is included as part of your normal WoW subscription. You can purchase upgrades for various in-game bonuses, however. The Heroic upgrade gets you a level 70 character boost with appropriate gear, the Pebble penguin pet, and a tuskarr fishing companion. The Epic upgrade gets you all that that plus a Whalebone Glider mount in Classic and a Tuskarr Shoreglider in non-Classic, and 30 days of game time.
Get in the mood to return to the glory days of one of the best MMOs with an incredible Wrath of the Lich King trailer built by a community legend.
Swarm Spacecraft Dodges Collision With Space Junk During Climb To Escape Sun’s Wrath
Artist’s view of Swarm, ESA’s first Earth observation constellation of satellites. Credit: ESA–P. Carril, 2013
The pressure is rising at ESA’s mission control. A European Space Agency (ESA) satellite dodges out of the way of a mystery piece of space junk that was spotted just hours before a potential collision.
This means a vital step in the spacecraft’s ongoing journey to safer skies now has to be quickly rescheduled, as violent solar activity related to the ramping up of the solar cycle warps Earth’s atmosphere and threatens to drag the satellite down out of orbit…
A swarm? Of bugs?
Not quite – Swarm is actually ESA’s mission to unravel the mysteries of Earth’s magnetic field. It’s comprised of three satellites, A, B, and C – affectionately known as Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie.
What happened?
A small piece of human-made junk circling our planet – known as space debris – was detected hurtling towards Alpha at 16:00 CEST (10:00 a.m. EDT), on June 30. From the trajectory, a potential collision was predicted just eight hours later, shortly after midnight. The chance of impact was great enough that Alpha needed to get out of the way – fast.
Swarm constellation. Swarm is ESA’s first Earth observation constellation of satellites. Its mission is to unravel one of the most mysterious aspects of our planet: the magnetic field. Credit: ESA–P. Carril, 2013
There’s junk in space?
A lot of it. Rocket parts, old satellites, and small pieces of debris left over from previous collisions and messy breakups orbit our planet. Each little piece can cause serious damage to a satellite, while larger ones can destroy a satellite and create a large amount of new debris.
Was this the first time this has happened?
That day? Maybe. Ever? No way. Each one of ESA’s satellites has to perform on average two evasive maneuvers every year – and that’s not including all the alerts they get that don’t end up needing evasive action.
The picture shows Sentinel-1A’s solar array before and after the impact of a millimetre-size particle on the second panel. The damaged area has a diameter of about 40 cm, which is consistent on this structure with the impact of a fragment of less than 5 millimeters in size. Credit ESA
Then what’s the big deal?
Carrying out evasive action – known as a ‘collision avoidance maneuver’ – requires a lot of planning. You have to check that you’re not moving the satellite into a new orbit that puts it at risk of other collisions and you have to calculate how to get back to your original orbit using as little fuel and losing as little science data as possible.
ESA’s Space Debris Office analyses data from the US Space Surveillance Network and raises the warning of a potential collision to ESA’s Flight Control and Flight Dynamics teams, usually more than 24 hours before the piece of debris comes closest to the satellite.
In this case, we only got eight hours’ notice.
And worse, the alert meant that the Swarm team was now suddenly racing against two clocks. Another maneuver was planned for just a few hours after the potential collision and had to be canceled to give Alpha enough time to duck out of the way of the debris. That maneuver was also very time sensitive and had to be entirely replanned, recalculated, and carried out within a day.
What was the other maneuver?
Alpha and Charlie were climbing to escape the wrath of the Sun. Both satellites needed to carry out 25 maneuvers over a period of 10 weeks to reach their new higher orbits. One of Alpha’s maneuvers was planned for just a few hours after the possible collision.
Solar cycle 25 prediction, NOAA, July 2022. The number of sunspots on the surface of the Sun increases and decreases in solar cycles of approximately 11 years. Our star is currently entering a very active period in its 25th solar cycle. Credit: NOAA
Wait, the Sun is killing satellites?
Our Sun is entering a very active part of its ‘solar cycle’ right now. This activity is increasing the density of Earth’s upper atmosphere. Satellites are running through ‘thicker’ air, slowing them down and requiring them to use up more limited onboard fuel to stay in orbit. Alpha and Charlie were moving up into a less dense part of the atmosphere where they can stay in orbit and collect science data hopefully for many more years and mission extensions!
What would have happened without this maneuver?
Alpha would have drifted towards Charlie and the orbits of the two satellites would have soon crossed. This would have left the overall Swarm mission ‘cross-eyed’, limiting its ability to do science until another set of maneuvers realigned Alpha and Charlie.
Is Swarm OK now?
The Swarm team got to work with a reaction time to rival an Olympic sprinter. Working together with the Flight Dynamics team at ESA’s mission control, they planned and carried out the evasive action in just four hours, and then replanned and carried out the other maneuver within 24 hours.
Alpha is now safe from a collision with that piece of debris and has completed its climb to safer skies alongside Charlie. But there is lots of debris out there, and this shows with how little warning it can threaten a satellite.
ESA’s laser ranging station in Tenerife aims its green laser to the sky. Credit: ESA
How are your teams keeping up with all these collision alerts?
With new tech, more sustainable behavior and by taking our space debris responsibility very seriously. ESA is building new technology to track more debris, developing new computational tools that will help us plan and carry out the rapidly increasing number of evasive maneuvers, and working on guidelines that limit the amount of new rubbish we and other satellite operators add to the problem. We’re even working on ways to grab larger pieces of debris and remove them from orbit using a ‘space claw’.
Trump news today: Report slams $700m Covid loan as McCarthy faces right-wing wrath
‘I’m a more honest man than you’: Trump ends Piers Morgan interview
A new congressional report has detailed how senior officials in the Trump administration – including chief of staff Mark Meadows and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin – intervened to send $700m in Covid-19 relief funds to a struggling trucking firm despite objections from the Department of Defence.
Meanwhile, the 6 January select committee is reportedly considering how to try and obtain testimony from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy after further leaked audio showed him discussing Mr Trump’s responsibility for the 6 January riot – and calling for extremist members of his caucus to be banned from Twitter.
New audio released last night included Mr McCarthy worrying aloud that some House Republicans were inciting violence, particularly singling out Florida’s Matt Gaetz, whom he said was “putting people in jeopardy”.
Mainstream Republican House members have so far declined to turn on their leader publicly, but Mr Gaetz has already come out swinging against Mr McCarthy, complaining that he and his deputy Steve Scalise “held views about President Trump and me that they shared on sniveling calls with Liz Cheney, not us.”
Report: Grand jury in Trump probe to be dissolved
Among the many legal probes into Donald Trump and his affairs, the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into fraud allegations is among the more troubled, with current officeholder Alvin Bragg apparently unconvinced of the case’s strength despite years of work.
Now, reports are saying that the grand jury empanelled to hear evidence in the case is to be dissolved. According to ABC News, it hasn’t even heard any evidence since January.
Read more below from John Bowden.
Andrew Naughtie28 April 2022 09:52
Elon Musk has a suggestion for Truth Social
Despite pleas from the right to Elon Musk to let Donald Trump back on Twitter, the ex-president has so far insisted he will remain on his own bespoke social network platform, Truth Social, despite its disastrous decline in engagement and the fact that he has only posted on it once.
Now, Mr Musk has a suggestion for a Truth Social rebrand: “Truth Social (terrible name) exists because Twitter censored free speech,” he tweeted. “Should be called Trumpet instead!”
The same name was also suggested by Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde in 2021 after Mr Trump was first kicked off Twitter.
Andrew Naughtie28 April 2022 09:19
Trump says he feared being attacked with ‘dangerous fruit’
Former president Donald Trump said he feared irate protesters would hit him with “very dangerous” fruits at his campaign rallies.
“I wanted to have people be ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit,” Mr Trump said in the October 2021 deposition, according to a transcript of the proceedings filed in the court on Tuesday.
The 45th US president said that “tomatoes are bad” and that “some fruit is a lot worse”, The Washington Post reported.
“But it’s very dangerous. … I remember that specific event, because everybody was on alert. They were going to hit — they were going to hit hard,” he said.
Mr Trump was testifying in a civil lawsuit filed by a group of protesters alleging they were assaulted by his security guards in 2015.
Andrew Naughtie28 April 2022 08:45
Here’s what Republican candidates spent currying favour at Trump’s properties
The Independent has compiled data from Federal Election Commission filings since the beginning of 2021 to the end of March 2022, which shows that Republican candidates spent $1.28m at Mr Trump’s properties in Florida, New York, California, Washington DC and Las Vegas.
One of the biggest sources of revenue was Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, where the former president has de-camped.
Since 2021, candidates have spent more than $700,000 at the Palm Beach club – some of them after receiving his endorsement, as was the case with Representative Ted Budd, who is running for Senate in North Carolina.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar28 April 2022 06:46
Piers Morgan Uncensored with Trump suffers 100,000-viewer drop-off
The second episode of Piers Morgan’s Uncensored TV series featuring former president Donald Trump was viewed by around 100,000 fewer people than the debut.
The special, which aired on 26 April on the newly launched talkTV channel, featured the concluding part of Morgan’s interview with Mr Trump.
According to Deadline, the episode was viewed by an average of 200,000 people across the hour. This was still more than the viewing figures for BBC News and Sky News, but substantially less than Monday’s premiere, which averaged 317,000 viewers.
In a one-star review of the first episode of Uncensored, The Independent’s Nick Hilton described it as “a truly tortured piece of broadcasting”.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar28 April 2022 06:10
McCarthy assures colleagues he never asked Trump to resign
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, defending his private conversations, has assured his colleagues that he never asked former president Donald Trump to resign over the 6 January Capitol riots.
It was Mr McCarthy’s first face-to-face meeting with House Republicans amid the fallout from his criticisms of the former president and the party’s most far-right members.
One Republican in the room said the meeting was “cathartic” for lawmakers, while another voiced confidence that McCarthy would be the “next speaker”, according to the Associated Press.
“He’s got the support of the conference and then some,” Rep Dan Meuser said as he left the private session at GOP headquarters.“You guys obsess over 6 January. Nobody cares,” Rep Glenn Grothman told reporters, adding that “it is history”.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar28 April 2022 05:39
Republicans fear a Trump return to an Elon Musk-owned Twitter
While some Republicans took to publicly cheering Elon Musk’s $44bn purchase of Twitter as a major victory for free speech, there were some who viewed it with trepidation, according to reports.
For a series of top GOP insiders told Politico Playbook of their grave concerns about the new Musk-led Twitter becoming a haven to welcome back previously banned accounts, namely Donald Trump.
“If I’m a Democrat, I’d pray that Elon Musk puts Trump right back on Twitter,” an anonymous House GOP leadership aide told Politico, who asked to remain unidentified in order to speak freely.
Justin Vallejo28 April 2022 05:00
Whistleblower in Deutsche Bank and Donald Trump case found dead
A whitsleblower who reportedly worked with authorities to investigate the activities of Deutsche Bank and its ties with former president Donald Trump was found dead at a Los Angeles high school.
Valentin Broeksmit, 46, was found dead on Monday at about 7am local time, more than a year after he went missing, Los Angeles County coroner’s office said. He was last seen on 6 April 2021 driving a red Mini Cooper in Griffith Park.
Broeksmit had offered hundreds of bank documents to the federal investigators and journalists looking into ties between the bank and Mr Trump, ABC10News reported.
Journalist Scott Stedman said he doesn’t suspect foul play in his friend’s death as he struggled with drugs on and off.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar28 April 2022 04:53
Republicans cheer as GOP candidate says Fauci should be executed by firing squad
John Bennett, who is also running for Congress, said Dr Fauci should be tried and executed without offering any explanation what for at a campaign stop ahead of his June primary.
Dr Fauci has been subjected to repeated death threats and harassment since becoming the public face of the White House’s Covid pandemic fight, and in 2020 revealed he and his family needed a permanent security detail.
Justin Vallejo28 April 2022 04:00
New York says it’s wrapping up probe into Trump’s ‘Russian nesting doll’ finances
The New York State Attorney General’s Office is close to unravelling the Trump Organization’s “Russian nesting doll” finances, according to reports.
Attorneys said they still waiting to search two cell phones belonging to Donald Trump, plus the laptop of a long time executive assistant, after they were pressed on why the three-year investigation was taking so long.
“The process is near the end,” Kevin Wallace, senior enforcement counsel at the New York State Attorney General’s Office, told a judge, according to CNN.
Justin Vallejo28 April 2022 03:00
Michelle Williams on sex, sins and the ‘Wrath’ of Tina Knowles
Forgive her father for she has sinned.
Alongside former Destiny’s Child bandmates Beyoncé Knowles and Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams has sung about being a “Survivor,” but in “Wrath: A Seven Deadly Sins Story” the 42-year-old must fight to survive when a jilted ex-lover is out for her blood.
In the Lifetime film from executive producers T.D. Jakes, Derrick Williams and Shaun Robinson, Williams stars as single lawyer Chastity Jeffries focused on her career and becoming partner in her law firm until she meets someone who, at first, seems like the perfect guy.
Xavier Collins, played by 44-year-old Canadian actor Antonio Cupo, is handsome, sexy and hard to resist. After a quick seduction and a steamy shower scene, Chastity is hooked. But what starts as a passionate spark turns into a dangerous blaze.
Based on the series of books by Victoria Christopher Murray, “Wrath: A Seven Deadly Sins Story” also stars Williams’ lifelong friend, Tina Knowles, 68, who plays Chastity’s mother Sarah. Meanwhile, “Growing up Hip Hop’” alum Romeo Miller, 32, (known to many as former teen heartthrob rapper Lil’ Romeo) takes on the spicy role of Chastity’s childhood boyfriend, Roger Thompkins.
The Post caught up with the singer and actress about her newest film, which debuts Saturday, April 16 at 8 p.m. EST, working alongside Mama Knowles and the possible long-awaited reunion of Destiny’s Child.
Your character is a professional woman who’s very successful and focused on her career. Did you relate to Chastity and notice any parallels between your life and hers?
Absolutely. I’m officially single. I found myself resonating with her in a lot of ways. You hit the nail on the head about looking for love [and] wanting love. Maybe you don’t make the right choices in love, but you’re making the right career moves. And how many women can possibly relate. You’re killing it in career, but the love thing ain’t quite balancing out.
What was your experience working with Tina Knowles, who plays your mom, Sarah, in the film?
It was beautiful to work with Miss Tina because she’s been like a mother, a nurturer and a protector of me for 22 years. And so when we got on set, we just looked each other in the eye, and it was just kind of natural for us to do what we do. I mean, there were moments in my life where Miss Tina has had to console me like a mother would. She’s had to give me advice like a mother would. So actually, when they mentioned her name, when I got the phone call about doing the movie, she’s the reason why I said yes. We knew with the mention of each other’s names that this is going to be great to do.
Did you talk with Beyoncé while filming with her mom Tina?
Myself, Beyoncé and Kelly have our group chats and I was texting the girls like, “Yo, mom is killing it!” So it was just really a joy to still have a sisterhood [and] relationship all of these years.
The chemistry between you, Kelly and Beyoncé is undeniable. Why do you think the chemistry and sisterhood has survived for so many years after Destiny’s Child ended?
I would say true love. Those are my soulmates to the point where, you know, I saw Beyoncé the other day and I walked in and we have on the same shoes, the same jeans, the same colored top. And a friend of hers was like, “Are y’all about to go perform or do something?” It happens all the time. Go back to her “Lion King” premiere a couple of years ago. We didn’t plan to be kind of dressed in the same color schemes, it’s just that we are forever connected.
Is there a chance that Destiny’s Child will reunite?
I wonder if it’s on our mind, but it never comes out of our mouths. As naturally as we talk about so many other things, when the time is right, it will naturally come up in conversation somehow. We have fun together when we do decide to work with each other in that capacity. I don’t think either of us is opposed to it. It’s just, what’s the right opportunity? But I will say we haven’t had an official album out together in 17 years and for the questions to be asked now is really kind of awesome. It makes me reflective of the obvious impact that we must have been made on the world.
Your character Chastity is a fighter. Did you learn karate for the film and have you ever had to kick some butt in real life?
Listen, I definitely had to learn some karate. There were definitely professionals around us to make sure that we could do what we needed to do. I’ve only been in one fight in my life. I mean aside from the occasional spats that I’ve had with my blood sister — not me and Kelly, my singing sisters have had no fights, ever. But I remember growing up I was at Vacation Bible School fighting. What kind of heathens were we to be fighting at church? That’s the only fight I’ve ever been in. But I stay out of trouble, if not there is security that’s paid to do what they got to do. But thank God, even security has never had to rough nobody up.
At the end of “Wrath” Chastity says “only six more deadly sins to conquer.” What deadly sin does Michelle Williams still need to conquer?
I would say pride, because pride seeps in when you least expect it. Pride is beyond, “Oh, I’m proud of myself.” Pride is even how you say something. What seat are you sitting in when you say something? Are you saying it to look down on somebody because you have more experience and you think your way is better? I actually found myself apologizing to someone some weeks ago saying, “I’m so sorry. I believe I let some pride slip in the cracks.” And I think as I get older, I’m able to recognize and apologize quicker for certain things or how you say something is not what you say. Sometimes it’s just how you say it or the seat in which you say it from. Pride really is the beginning. It comes before the fall, so I really, really have to check pride.
Speaking of falls, one of the most infamous moments in your career was when you tripped during a “106 and Park” performance. Did you expect that moment to become such a powerful meme/GIF of female empowerment and perseverance?
That was 18 years ago. You fall and you get back up. No one is perfect. You’re going to have some slip ups. Some slip down but make it synonymous with the times you may have failed in a relationship, you failed in a career, you failed in an opportunity, but you found a way to learn from it and you made some corrections and you got back up and you killed it.
Your co-star in the film is rapper Romeo. Did you know Romeo before this movie and how was it working with him?
It was amazing to work with Romeo. He’s not Lil’ Romeo no more. [laughs]. So I had to definitely get that out of my head. He’s grown. He’s over 18. He was a jewel to work with. He’s so solid in who he is and even in his faith. So it made it so much fun for us to work together.
What is the lesson that you think audiences can take away from “Wrath”?
Pay attention and be reflective. Listen to your gut, whether you call it spirit or intuition. How many red flags presented themselves in that relationship, but Chastity was probably blinded by love or his man parts. How many of us have been blinded because of that and how those red flags start looking like Six Flags when you’re lusting! OK! Or you ignore the red flags because you feel like that’s not who they are because they were just having a bad day, but no, this is a pattern. This is the core of who they are and get out if you can. But my heart goes out to so many people who didn’t make it out because of love or what they thought to be love.
Are there more acting projects in your future?
I would love to. I’m a Broadway girl but film and television, I would love to do more.
Sun’s Wrath to Touch Earth in the Form of a Geomagnetic Storm on April 14; Radio Signals May Take a Hit | The Weather Channel – Articles from The Weather Channel
Representative Image.
(NASA/SDO)
The Sun has been flaring up more and more as it approaches its Solar Maxima — the period of greatest solar activity during the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle — ejecting Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) quite frequently for the past few months. While most of them managed to avoid the Earth, a few of them erupted in our direction, causing geomagnetic storms.
On Thursday, April 14, yet another powerful geomagnetic solar storm is set to slam the Earth, resulting in possible damage on our planet, as per space agencies. Experts fear that this geomagnetic storm might be particularly impactful given how the Sun has been pretty active lately.
The magnetic activity on the corona — the outermost portion of the Sun’s atmosphere — causes it to burst regularly, launching plasma and magnetic fields into space and resulting in a CME. And when a CME hits the Earth, the solar ejecta collides with the Earth’s magnetic field, causing a geomagnetic storm on our planet.
US agencies NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been monitoring the Sun’s CME emissions, and forecast that the storm will impact our world on April 14. Due to the extremely rapid solar wind stream, the storm may intensify after it strikes the Earth, NASA has predicted.
In a tweet, the Centre of Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI) said: “Our model fit indicates a very high probability of Earth impact on April 14, 2022, with speeds ranging between 429-575 km/s. Low to Moderate geomagnetic perturbations are expected. Currently, solar wind and near-Earth space environmental conditions are returning to nominal levels.”
Solar storms are commonplace in space weather, especially when the Sun becomes more active. CMEs and solar winds that affect the Earth’s magnetic field end up triggering spectacular polar lights or aurora polaris, and occasionally disrupt satellite communications.
A geomagnetic storm of this scale is likely to cause issues with electrical grids and other resources on Earth. Regions on higher altitudes will experience G-2 level moderate storms, and may therefore experience power outages and radio signal disruption. As for the mid-latitude regions, these areas may not be as severely affected, but some power outages are still to be expected.
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Japanese athletes face Chinese nationalists’ wrath after beating China at Olympics
As of Friday afternoon in Japan, China and the hosts occupied the top two places in the medal table, with a number of events pitting Chinese athletes directly against their longtime rivals for places on the podium. And that’s raised temperatures on social media.
On Wednesday, Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto won gold in the men’s all-around gymnastics final, edging out China’s Xiao Ruoteng by 0.4 points. At just 19 years old, Hashimoto is the youngest gymnast to ever win the event.
As Japan celebrates his victory, some in China questioned the fairness of the result and accused the judges of favoritism toward the hosts by allegedly inflating Hashimoto’s score on the vault.
The anger, first set off on Chinese social media, soon spilled over to platforms typically censored in China. Chinese nationalist trolls circumvented the Great Firewall and descended on Hashimoto’s Instagram account, inundating his feed with angry comments and tagging him in insulting posts.
Many called Hashimoto Japan’s “national humiliation,” while others accused him of stealing China’s gold medal. Some even tagged him in photos of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Some of the accounts attacking Hashimoto appeared to be created specially for this purpose, with their entire feeds filled with posts targeting the Japanese gymnast.
Hashimoto later changed the privacy settings on Instagram, so he could no longer be tagged on the platform — but angry comments have kept pouring in under his posts.
The attacks and harassment are emblematic of the rising tide of ultranationalism sweeping through social media in China, which has silenced many of the country’s more liberal and moderate voices online. The nationalist sentiment against Japan has often flared, due to deep-rooted rancor against Japan’s invasion of China in World War II.
Other Chinese netizens criticized the online abuse and called for an end to it, but they were also attacked.
In recent years, Chinese nationalists have launched massive online trolling campaigns against those they regard as Beijing’s political foes, including Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters. They also lashed out at Australian Olympic swimmer Mack Horton at the 2016 Rio Games, after he called China’s Sun Yang a “drug cheat.”
Following the latest controversy, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) issued a statement Thursday expounding on Hashimoto’s score, including a detailed list of the imperfections.
“The FIG can assess that the 14.7 score obtained by Hashimoto on this apparatus is correct in regards to the Code of Points, and so is the final ranking,” the statement concluded.
In an Instagram post on Thursday evening, Hashimoto expressed gratitude for the support he received, while acknowledging he had received abusive comments on social media.
“You may think the score of the Vault might be unfair, but FIG has given its verdict on the official scoring result…We have to accept the result as it is even it is very difficult to take in,” he wrote.
“The Tokyo Olympics is not over yet…I do hope there will be less smear comments and more praises for the athletes,” he added, sharing a photo of himself, Xiao and the Russian Olympic Committee’s Nikita Nagornyy posing together with medals.
A wider problem
The nationalist rage against Hashimoto followed attacks on Mima Ito and Jun Mizutani, the Japanese table tennis duo who narrowly defeated the Chinese team to win the first-ever gold medal in mixed doubles Monday.
On Wednesday, Mizutani said on Twitter that he had received a torrent of messages attacking him, without directly mentioning China.
“Got tons of DM from a country telling me to ‘Go to hell! P*ss off!’, but I’m totally OK as I’m used to such comments. I’m just happy that I got the whole word excited. All messages from Japanese are cheering me, thank you!” he wrote in the tweet, which was later deleted.
Ito, who has an account on Weibo, China’s heavily censored version of Twitter, had to shut down her feed due to an onslaught of hate comments. She was also attacked on Instagram, where fans have organized themselves to support her against the abuse, leaving encouraging comments and tagging her in positive posts to drown out hate messages.
The attacks have since drawn wide attention in Japan, making headlines and sparking anger on social media.
Speaking at a news conference Thursday, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said he was aware of the incidents, although not the details.
“We, as the government, believe any discrimination should not be allowed,” he said. “It is also against the Tokyo Olympics’ spirits. We ask everyone to let the athletes to concentrate on their matches so they can do their best.”
Elsewhere, other Olympic athletes have also faced social media trolling, including America’s Simone Biles.
Biles, one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, withdrew from the individual all-around competition this week to focus on her mental health. While the 24-year-old has received an outpouring of support for her decision, she has also been viciously attacked by trolls.
On Twitter, some Indian swimmers were trolled for failing to qualify for the semifinals.
Addressing the problem at a news conference Friday, International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesperson Mark Adams said he didn’t think the IOC could give advice to athletes individually, but he stressed that online abuse has “no place in sport.”
“Such trolling…or aggression is really, really not acceptable and we would completely go against that and support the athletes in every way,” he said.
CNN’s Kazumi Duncan contributed to reporting.
Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) – Snapchat Risks Apple’s Wrath With Attempts At Skirting New Privacy Rules: FT
Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) is risking the wrath of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) over exploring ways to skirt the iPhone maker’s new privacy rules that are expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks, the Financial Times reported Friday.
What Happened: Snap, the parent of messaging app Snapchat, explored ways to gather data from companies that analyze whether people have responded to ad campaigns, according to the FT report, which cited internal company documents.
Snap reportedly hoped to cross-reference the data with its own user database and then track the users, in a technique known as “probabilistic matching.”
While Snap acknowledged it had run a probabilistic matching program for several months to test the impact of Apple’s new policies, the company indicated it planned to discontinue the program after Apple introduced the changes, as per the report.
See Also: Snapchat Parent To Launch AR Glasses And A Drone, Furthering Hardware Push: Report
Why It Matters: Apple’s upcoming privacy changes will give users more privacy from mobile advertising but is unpopular with app developers, many of which are small businesses. The new feature will require apps to obtain permission from users before tracking them, according to Apple.
Snap is not the only company to reportedly explore skirting Apple’s new privacy rules so as to continue tracking users without their permission. It was reported last month that Apple warned Chinese app developers and tech companies not to circumvent the new privacy rules.
Five of China’s biggest tech companies, including Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), Tencent Holdings Ltd. (OTC: TCEHY) and ByteDance are said to be testing or implementing CAID, a system developed by the state-backed China Advertising Association, to identify and track users in the future. Other proposed workarounds reportedly use a process known as fingerprinting.
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) , the second-largest recipient of advertisement revenues after Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), had bitterly criticized Apple’s privacy rule changes for months, saying that the changes could impact targeted advertising on its platform. However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month that the rule changes could benefit his company if more businesses decide to sell goods directly through Facebook and Instagram.
Price Action: Snap shares closed 4.2% higher on Thursday at $54.49, while Apple shares closed 0.7% higher at $123.00.
Read Next: Microsoft Tightening Tentacles Around Pentagon With $22B AR Headset Deal, Says Analyst
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