Category: <span>Science & Environment</span>

Science & Environment

Maduro declared winner in Venezuela’s presidential election as opposition…



CARACAS, Venezuela — Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner in Venezuela’s presidential election Sunday, even as his opponents were preparing to dispute the results, setting up a high-stakes showdown that will determine whether the South American nation transitions away from one-party rule.

Shortly after midnight, the National Electoral Council said Maduro secured 51% of the vote, overcoming opposition candidate Edmundo González, who garnered 44%. It said the results were based on a tally of 80% of voting stations, marking an irreversible trend.

But the electoral authority, which is controlled by Maduro loyalists, didn’t immediately release the official tallies from each of the 15,797 voting centers nationwide, hampering the opposition’s ability to challenge the results after claiming it had the voting acts for only 30% of the ballot boxes.

The delay in announcing results — six hours after polls were supposed to close — indicated a deep debate inside the government about how to proceed after Maduro’s opponents came out early in the evening all but claiming victory.

Opposition representatives said tallies they collected from campaign representatives at the polling stations showed Gonzalez trouncing Maduro.

Maduro, in seeking a third term, faced his toughest challenge yet from the unlikeliest of opponents in Gonzalez: a retired diplomat who was unknown to voters before being tapped in April as a last-minute stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado.

Opposition leaders were already celebrating, online and outside a few voting centers, what they assured was a landslide victory for González.

“I’m so happy,” said Merling Fernández, a 31-year-old bank employee, as a representative for the opposition campaign walked out of one voting center in a working class neighborhood of Caracas to announce results showing González more than doubled Maduro’s vote count. Dozens standing nearby erupted in an impromptu rendition of the national anthem.

“This is the path toward a new Venezuela,” added Fernández, holding back tears.

Earlier, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris offered her support. “The United States stands with the people of Venezuela who expressed their voice in today’s historic presidential election,” Harris wrote on the social media platform X. “The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected.”

Voters started lining up at some voting centers across the country before dawn Sunday, sharing water, coffee and snacks for several hours.

The election will have ripple effects throughout the Americas, with government opponents and supporters alike signaling their interest in joining the exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans who have already left their homes for opportunities abroad should Maduro win another six-year term.

Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Chávez, the revered leftist firebrand who died of cancer in 2013, leaving his Bolivarian revolution in the hands of Maduro. But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever among many voters who blame his policies for crushing wages, spurring hunger, crippling the oil industry and separating families due to migration.

The opposition managed to line up behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed their ambitions to topple the ruling party.

Machado was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years. A former lawmaker, she swept the opposition’s October primary with over 90% of the vote. After she was blocked from joining the presidential race, she chose a college professor as her substitute on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred her from registering. That’s when González, a political newcomer, was chosen.

Sunday’s ballot also featured eight other candidates challenging Maduro, but only González threatened Maduro’s rule.

After voting, Maduro said he would recognize the election result and urged all other candidates to publicly declare that they would do the same.

“No one is going to create chaos in Venezuela,” Maduro said. “I recognize and will recognize the electoral referee, the official announcements and I will make sure they are recognized.”

Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy. But it entered into a freefall after Maduro took the helm. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led first to social unrest and then mass emigration.

Economic sanctions from the U.S. seeking to force Maduro from power after his 2018 reelection — which the U.S. and dozens of other countries condemned as illegitimate — only deepened the crisis.

Maduro’s pitch to voters this election was one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and lower inflation rates. The International Monetary Fund forecasts the economy will grow 4% this year — one of the fastest in Latin America — after having shrunk 71% from 2012 to 2020.

But most Venezuelans have not seen any improvement in their quality of life. Many earn under $200 a month, which means families struggle to afford essential items. Some work second and third jobs. A basket of basic staples — sufficient to feed a family of four for a month — costs an estimated $385.

The opposition has tried to seize on the huge inequalities arising from the crisis, during which Venezuelans abandoned their country’s currency, the bolivar, for the U.S. dollar.

González and Machado focused much of their campaigning on Venezuela’s vast hinterland, where the economic activity seen in Caracas in recent years didn’t materialize. They promised a government that would create sufficient jobs to attract Venezuelans living abroad to return home and reunite with their families.

Science & Environment

Evans says Man United job cuts ‘difficult to see’


  • Rob Dawson, CorrespondentJul 28, 2024, 05:00 AM ET

LOS ANGELES, California — Jonny Evans said it has been “hard” to see Manchester United staff lose their jobs as part of the INEOS-led cuts.

Co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is set to make 250 redundancies at Old Trafford in a bid to reduce costs.

A number of staff were told their jobs are at risk in the days leading up to the club’s preseason tour of the United States and Evans, who has been connected to United since the age of nine, has said its been a difficult period.

“A lot of people have lost their jobs their last couple of weeks, it’s been hard and difficult to see,” Evans said

“The new owners feel that’s the direction that they want to go. But, you know, it’s not been easy for everyone at the same time.

“There’s people you’ve known for 20 years and I think the timing of it happened when we came away on tour pretty much. So we were all a bit in the dark and I’m sure everything will be sorted out, things will be a bit more clear when we get back.”

Evans is in his second spell at United after coming through the academy and making his first-team debut as a 19-year-old in 2007.

His brother, Corry, played for United and his wife, Helen, works for the club’s in-house television channel, MUTV.

His dad, Jackie, also worked as an academy coach.

“It’s been a difficult thing to see,” said Evans.

“People I’ve known for a long, long time. One thing about working in a club like Man United, you’re all in and everyone’s always been all in, it’s a big massive staff. But I think that’s just been the culture of the club.

“It is for such, for a club, is such a huge size and the staff turn over, you have family members working there. My wife has been working at the club, my brother has been at the club, my dad’s been at the club.

“So it’s always had that feeling of people, they give everything they have for the club and it’s such a huge credit to them. That’s just because they love the place so much.”

The redundancy process is set to be finalised next month.

Players and first-team staff have not been affected, but Evans said the cuts have still been a topic in the dressing room while the team has been in America.

“Yeah, of course,” he said.

“Certain staff members being here, they’re friends, people that they’ve worked with, colleagues for a long time and I’m sure they’ll be feeling in that, there’s no doubt about that.”

Science & Environment

How Pakistanis woke up to dalgona coffee, once again | The…


Blowing up on social media feeds during the peak of COVID-19, the iced beverage is not yet forgotten


KARACHI:

Glass skin and suave, gallant fictional men may be South Korea’s leading cultural resets but once upon a pandemic, there was dalgona coffee. The frothy beverage that ruled social media during COVID-19 is named after the eponymous South Korean honeycomb toffee. However, beyond mimicking its crunchy, caramel-like flavour, the drink has little to do with the street snack.

“I don’t think it’s that different from a normal hand-beaten or whipped coffee,” Maham Wajahat, 24, tells The Express Tribune. A product consultant who requires a steady caffeine fix to go about her day, she recalls spending most evenings during lockdown beating the mixture to wispy peaks with her cousin.

“I was already familiar with it but Instagram and Facebook reels made me really get into it,” Maham explains. “It just got traction during COVID.”

The idea of whipping instant coffee into a velvety, cloud-like foam has lurked around long enough under different labels. Here at home, the traditional hand-beaten coffee was for the longest time perhaps the only sweet coffee known to Pakistanis. Even today, I can vividly recall standing by the kitchen door, observing my cousin’s wife expertly beat the coffee mixture. She would then ingeniously blend it with ice cream, turning the refreshing cold drink into a hallmark of hot summer days.

In 2019, shortly after its popularity spiked, Bettina Makalintal explored dalgona’s contentious origins for Vice. One plausible home for the viral brew seems to be Macau. More specifically, Hon Kee Café.

‘Troublesome’

The unassuming shipyard café appeared in the 90s, courtesy of former shipbuilder Leong Kam Hon, who ventured into dining business after nearly losing an arm in an accident. Leong learned to make the intensely-stirred coffee from a couple attending Macau Grand Prix and promptly declared it too “troublesome” to try again.

Hon Kee Café would go on to become the incubator for dalgona coffee, though not without some identity crises. Changing the café’s fortunes, in 2004 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Chow Yun-Fat walked through its doors and gave Leong a reason to serve his back-breaking brew. ‘Chow Yun-Fat coffee’ would soon catapult his humble establishment into the spotlight.

Almost 16 years later at the outset of COVID-19, Korean actor Jung Il Woo was caught sipping the same coffee at Hon Kee Café. The sweet punch, reminiscent of dalgona, rebranded the coffee and set the stage for its viral resurgence.

Since then declared a fad, dalgona coffee is not quite a hashtag of yesteryear for those who jumped on the bandwagon. The labour-intensive whipped coffee transports many, by its name alone, back in a time torn asunder by precarity and privilege — Pakistani coffee drinkers being no exception.

Sara Zafar, whose introduction to the viral beverage can be credited solely to Instagram reels, cannot separate dalgona from recollections of COVID-19. “It brings me the memories of staying home and experimenting with different things to pass time by. I think it connected many people virtually during a difficult phase,” Sara tells The Express Tribune.

Even the worst of history is not immune to nostalgia. Virtual classes, tight-fitting promises of N95s, the astringent draught of sanitiser – the pandemic was quick to institute a host of memorabilia in its new normal. However, few were able to absorb its paradoxes as dalgona coffee did.

For the lucky ones, time dilated into an unexpected expanse of leisure. Hobbies, from tending to bonsais to taking on the laborious task of hand-beating coffee, surged naturally to occupy newfound brackets of free time. Unless what came for you was not just the lockdown but the pandemic itself, a grievous collapse of body atop decrepit infrastructure.

Zarlish Kazmi recalls entering this two-pronged reality. Describing herself as “a regular 23-year-old, caffeine-dependant software developer,” Zarlish shelves the dalgona craze as one of the many other food trends (such as artisanal bread) that people turned to as an escape. “I think these trends were supposed to simulate a sort of idyllic calm while the world was crumbling and failing to cope with the pandemic.”

Lasting intimacies

As of May 26, World Health Organisation estimates a staggering 7 million deaths from COVID-19 worldwide. For many like Zarlish, grasping at silver linings was not without a level of moral culpability. “It is reprehensible that I was privileged enough to take this time as a vacation, to indulge in silly trends and activities that brought me comfort whilst the world was facing a dearth of medical supplies or general wellbeing.”

Search for new intimacies typically had to swallow the unease of a damned present and an uncertain future. In retrospect, perhaps, there are some modes of being that can only be attributed to the pandemic. Virtual date nights and Netflix parties between friends, for one, are yet to turn obsolete. Dalgona coffee has not had that luck.

At the core of its virality, it was undeniably afflicted by futility. If for some, it is the impossible task of seeking comfort without guilt, for others, the Macau-based drink was hopeless to begin with. “I associate dalgona with COVID-19 only since it was just aesthetic, did not offer any improved taste, and was much sweeter than regular coffee,” says Momin Imran, 31.

Dalgona coffee is a beverage of excess — of time, money and ingredients. One cup typically requires two tablespoons each of instant coffee, sugar and hot water that are whisked endlessly to bring out a thick, creamy foam. This airy mixture is then spooned over a glass of iced milk.

A business executive by profession, Momin’s perception of the once-trending beverage is strictly determined by his general predilection for coffee. “I made it just once for all family members. Considering it pretty much consumed an entire small jar of coffee for just one round, I never made it again ever.”

Even Maliha Zafar, a 23-year-old linguistics graduate, who willfully tries not to bracket her brief tryst with dalgona and the “dark and depressing time” of COVID, concedes to the drink’s profligacy. “Lockdown, staying at home and having all the time that you need at your hands — I kind of associate it with that.”

“I’d say that the process of making dalgona coffee felt romantic, spending all those extra minutes to bring that perfect consistency. At one point, I was so obsessed with it that I would look for fancy glassware just to serve dalgona coffee,” she adds.

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Science & Environment

Man from India arrested in Texas for allegedly selling…


A man was arrested in Houston, Texas, on allegations he sold and shipped counterfeit cancer drugs worth tens of thousands of dollars to people in the U.S.

Sanjay Kumar, 43, of Bihar, India, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday.

He was arrested on Friday in Houston while he was in the U.S. to negotiate additional deals to expand his illicit business of selling fake oncology pharmaceuticals in the U.S., according to the U.S. Justice Department.

SINALOA CARTEL CO-FOUNDER ‘EL MAYO’ TAKEN INTO US CUSTODY

Prisoner behind the jail cell bars

A man was arrested in Houston, Texas, on allegations he sold and shipped counterfeit cancer drugs worth tens of thousands of dollars to people in the U.S. (iStock)

Kumar and his co-conspirators are accused of orchestrating the sale and shipment of counterfeit versions of Keytruda and other oncology pharmaceuticals to unsuspecting people in the U.S.

The DOJ said genuine Keytruda is a cancer immunotherapy that is approved in the U.S. for 19 different indications, including for treatment of lung cancer, head and neck cancer, gastric cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma and melanoma.

MEDICAL EXAMINER IDENTIFIES REMAINS FOUND IN UTAH CANYON AS MISSING TEXAS WOMAN

Prisoner in the jail cell

Sanjay Kumar was arrested on Friday in Houston while he was in the U.S. to negotiate additional deals to expand his illicit business. (iStock)

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Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC has the exclusive right to manufacture and distribute Keytruda in the U.S., according to the DOJ.

Kumar is charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit drugs and four counts of trafficking in counterfeit drugs. If convicted, he could face as many as 20 years in prison on each count.

Science & Environment

Stock market today: BSE Sensex hits lifetime high; Nifty50…



Stock market today: BSE Sensex and Nifty50, the Indian equity benchmark indices, hit lifetime highs in trade on Monday. While BSE Sensex touched the 81,749.34 mark, Nifty50 also hit 24,980.45, just shy of 25,000. At 9:20 AM, BSE Sensex was trading at 81,658.01, up 325 points or 0.40%. Nifty50 was at 24,928.15, up 93 points or 0.38%.
The Indian stock market is experiencing a strong bull run, with consistent gains over the past eight weeks, despite challenges such as volatility and profit booking.Moving forward, analysts believe that the first quarter earnings reports from major companies will be a significant factor in determining the market’s direction, according to an ET report.
Technical analysis by Nagaraj Shetti of HDFC Securities indicates that the positive chart pattern of higher tops and bottoms is intact on the daily chart, and the Nifty appears to have confirmed a new higher bottom formation recently.
Global markets also showed signs of recovery, with U.S. stocks climbing on Friday as equities stabilized after a sharp selloff, and economic data showed an improving inflation landscape.
Asian shares rose on Monday, ahead of key central bank decisions in Japan, the U.S., and the U.K., as well as significant tech earnings releases. Oil prices increased on Monday, paring last week’s loss, due to concerns about a potential escalation in the Middle East conflict following a rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Foreign portfolio investors turned net buyers, purchasing shares worth Rs 2,546 crore on Friday, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 2,774 crore.
The net long position of FIIs increased from Rs 62,416 crore on Thursday to Rs 1.32 lakh crore on Friday. Several companies, including Adani Total Gas, HPCL, Adani Wilmar, and ACC, are set to announce their first quarter results on Monday.



Science & Environment

All of the celebrities seen watching Simone Biles


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Louise Thomas

The US women’s gymnastics team, led by Simone Biles, drew a who’s-who of famous fans to the 2024 Olympics in Paris on Sunday.

Biles competed in the Women’s Qualification on Sunday July 28 through an injury, and still set the highest scores on the floor and vault that are unlikely to be beaten throughout the remainder of qualifying.

Some notable faces in the audience included Tom Cruise as fans ran up to him in the arena to take selfies and provide a few hand shakes.

Tom Cruise poses for a selfie with fans

Tom Cruise poses for a selfie with fans (Getty Images)

Actor and producer Jessica Chastain sat right in front of Vogue’s Anna Wintour, who was with Elvis director Baz Luhrmann.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour and film director Baz Luhrmann, with actor and producer Jessica Chastain in fron

Vogue editor Anna Wintour and film director Baz Luhrmann, with actor and producer Jessica Chastain in fron (Getty Images)
Anna Wintour and Baz Luhrmann cheer together

Anna Wintour and Baz Luhrmann cheer together (Getty Images)

Lady Gaga was also in attendance after her performance during the opening ceremony.

Lady Gaga attends the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Qualification

Lady Gaga attends the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Qualification (Getty Images)

She posted a video of Biles on Instagram while on the beam with text on the screen reading, “She nailed it, what an honor to be so close!”

Another famous singer, Snoop Dogg was sitting in the front row as he is currently working at the Paris Olympics as a special correspondent for NBC Sports.

Snoop Dogg (R) attends the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Qualification

Snoop Dogg (R) attends the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Qualification (Getty Images)

Wicked co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo sat next to each other, along with The Chi creator Lena Waithe and Anna Wintour.

Frankie Grande, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Lena Waithe pose for a selfie

Frankie Grande, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Lena Waithe pose for a selfie (Getty Images)
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo watch Simone Biles and the rest of Team USA defying gravity

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo watch Simone Biles and the rest of Team USA defying gravity (Getty Images)

Musicians were out in force with Nick Jonas and John Legend, alongside his wife Chrissy Teigen, chatting together

Nick Jonas (L) speaks with John Legend and Chrissy Teigen

Nick Jonas (L) speaks with John Legend and Chrissy Teigen (Getty Images)

While Barbie director Greta Gerwig sat front in front of Tom Cruis

om Cruise (R), David Zaslav (2nd-R) and Greta Gerwig (2nd row, R)

om Cruise (R), David Zaslav (2nd-R) and Greta Gerwig (2nd row, R) (Getty Images)

Former US snowboarder and skateboarder Shaun White was in the audience as well alongside his girlfriend and The Vampire Diaries alum, Nina Dobrev.

Nina Dobrev (L) and Shaun White (C) attend the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Qualification

Nina Dobrev (L) and Shaun White (C) attend the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Qualification (Getty Images)

Biles competed in the team’s qualifying alongside US teammates Jordan Chiles, Hezly Rivera, Sunisa Lee and Jade Carey. It was her first competitive appearance in Paris, where she will try to add to her already impressive tally of seven Olympic medals. The Olympian has already begun to set milestones as she is both the fourth American woman to compete in a third Olympic games and, at the age of 27, she is the oldest American gymnast to compete at the Olympics in 72 years, while also currently being tied with Shannon Miller for the most Olympic medals earned by a US gymnast.

Her return to the games comes after she previously competed in both the 2016 Rio games and the 2020 games in Tokyo. However, she needed to withdraw from most of the 2020 competitions due to a case of the “twisties,” which is a temporary loss of air awareness while performing twisting elements.

“The brain no longer communicates with the body, they change the move, lose their place,” US women’s coach Landi explained in part one of Biles’ recent Netflix documentary, titled Simone Biles: Rising. “Most of the time it’s unrelated to gymnastics.”

“I knew from that one moment,” Biles confessed, reflecting on her Tokyo performance. “To me it felt silent. I felt like I was in jail in my own brain and body.”

This year, the Olympian competed with a calf injury after being seen limping on her left ankle. Although US coach Cecile Landi explained at the time that the injury had only been bothering Biles for a couple of weeks and was considered minor. Landi added that there were no plans to have her sitting on the sidelines.

“I can’t express it,” Landi said. “I’m really proud of her and what she’s been through and what she’s showing the world what she’s capable of doing.”

Biles posted an all-around total score of 59.566 and the Americans scored a 172.296.

All Olympic events are available to watch via cable on NBC, USA Network, or E! The Olympics are also available to stream on Peacock.



Science & Environment

Javed Akhtar’s X account hacked, clarifies misinformation | The…


Renowned Bollywood scriptwriter, poet, and lyricist Javed Akhtar’s official X (formerly Twitter) account was hacked, according to Indian media reports.

Hackers took control of Akhtar’s account on the social media platform and issued a post regarding the Indian contingent participating in the 2024 Olympics.

The 79-year-old, who actively uses the microblogging site to express his views on various topics, shared the update on his page on Sunday night.

Upon regaining access to his account, Javed Akhtar released a statement clarifying the situation. “My X ID is hacked. There is a message ostensibly from my account about our Indian team for Olympics. It is totally harmless but not sent by me,” he stated.

PHOTO: X/@Javedakhtarjadu

PHOTO: X/@Javedakhtarjadu

Akhtar did not specify when he discovered the alleged breach of security, nor did he detail the contents of the post that was sent out from his verified page.

The industry veteran also informed his 4.6 million followers on X that “we are in the process of complaining” to the concerned authorities at the social media platform.

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