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Paper Monitor

A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

The electronic Daily Telegraph is now behind a paywall. Paper Monitor has effected an old-school breach of that wall - buying a copy of the actual paper.

It's almost like going undercover. Reading an actual paper edition of a newspaper.

Page two has the gratifying news that Carol Vorderman's nose is better. She fell down and broke it. She did not have a nose job. That was speculation.

Page six reveals that cheats in school games are copying footballers. For clarity, in Telegraphland a common equation is footballers=bad.

But you have to wait until page 11 for the really serious news.

"Here's to you, Mrs Robinson. Why more 40-somethings are dating younger men".

That's the headline. And there's a massive picture of Helen McCrory. Massive.

The anchor on the same page is Catherine Deneuve saying flat shoes are sexier than "twisted" and impossible high heels.

Further on there's a leader. It quotes the Song of Solomon.

Oh, to wear one's erudition so lightly.




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Paper Monitor

A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

There's crime stories. And then there's quirky crime stories.

The Daily Telegraph headline gives you a clue that this is a nice, light story about how crime doesn't pay.

"Happiness is... a burglar wasting three days for pouch of tobacco."

The ne'er-do-well spent three nights chiselling away at the wall of Medway Motorcycles in Rochester to make a hole big enough to squeeze into. Finally he breached the 2ft-thick wall. The high performance bikes were to be his. And then he realised he'd forgotten about the alarm.

"One false move towards the bikes would have sent the alarm ringing," the paper reports. "So the thief crept up to the first floor instead, looking for items to steal."

In the end he left with just a packet of rolling tobacco worth £3.

"When I got here the next morning the place was in a right state but all I can see he has nicked is my Golden Virginia," the owner says.

The proprietor's surname is Eastwood. If only he'd caught the burglar in the act.

Imagine the scene, burglar holding the Golden Virginia, Eastwood - first name Jez but we'll gloss over that - reaching for his pretend, concealed .44 Magnum: "You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"

It took Paper Monitor a while to work out the happiness allusion of the headline.

A clue - it depends how many TV ads you remember from the 1980s that used Bach's Air on a G string to conjure up plumes of sensuous tobacco smoke. Answers to the usual place.




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Paper Monitor

A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

Hair we go again. Sorry, Paper Monitor couldn't resist.

Yes, it's another hair story, and yes, there's a picture of Jennifer Aniston.

This time, however, the Daily Mail reports that the Friends star has finally fallen out of favour. At least, her hairstyle has anyway.

It says a survey on the best onscreen hairstyles reveals her locks are no longer the most influential.

"Sorry, Jen... Anne's top of the crops," is its headline, revealing that Anne Hathaway's crowning glory has outshone the competition.

The elfin cut was first sported in the 2011 adaptation of David Nicholls's hit novel One Day. But it was her Oscar-winning turn in Les Miserables, as Fantine, which saw her cut it off for an extended period.

The actress was said to be "inconsolable" after the chop so it's quite a turnaround.

For those interested in which other celebrities made the cut, Miss Aniston's long curly style in Along Came Polly was in second place. And Audrey Hepburn's "up do" from 1963 film Charade in third.




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Butler 2010 rewind: Bulldogs escape challenge by Murray State, 54-52

The Indianapolis Star is re-posting game stories from the 10-year anniversary of Butler's run to the 2010 NCAA championship game.

      




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Ex-Butler guard Rotnei Clarke makes dramatic escape from Italy's coronavirus pandemic

Rotnei Clarke and his wife packed for her and their three small children in less than three hours.

      




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Varvel: Shortridge resurrects one of the nation's oldest high school newspapers

School bucks the trend of a lack of money and student interest that has forced many high school newspapers to fold.

       




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Shortridge High School newspaper staff resurrects The Daily Echo

Shortridge High School's The Daily Echo newspaper staff talks about reviving the oldest school newspaper in the country.

       




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Off the Beaten Path: Cape Maclear

Cape Maclear (aka Chembe) is a small fishing village on Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) in Malawi. It has one dirt road leading into (and straight out of) town. Along this road, there are a few hostels, some dive shops, a handful of vendors selling curios and fruit and a few bars. The pace of life here is . . . very . . . slow.




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Plastic shields, capes: How salons, gyms plan to re-open after coronavirus closures

"This may become the new normal." The fitness and beauty industries may look much different after Indiana's coronavirus stay-at-home order is lifted.

       




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The Great Escape: Month 95 + 96 + 97 Roundup

Where we’re at: I’ve wrapped up blogging the second quarter of 2019, of which this is a huge roundup. I realize for some this is a difficult time to read about travel. I am writing often about our current global crisis — the impact it’s having on me personally, on the world of travel, and on the […]
 




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V-E Day: Indiana Newspapers announce end of war in Europe

PEACE and VICTORY were the headlines as the U.S. defeated Germany.

       




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Briggs: Our meat problem is worse than the toilet paper shortage

Meatpacking plants have been ravaged by the coronavirus.

       




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Abbco Tower: Fire engulfs skyscraper in UAE city of Sharjah

Twelve people were injured by the blaze in a 49-storey residential building in Sharjah.




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Family safely escapes house fire that causes $200K in damage

A family of four was able to safely get out of their house after a fire caused $200,000 of damage.




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China to restrict US journalists from three major newspapers

The three affected newspapers deplored what they said was an unprecedented attack on press freedom.




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Some landscapes show resistance to ash dieback

Certain habitats can help dampen the spread of ash dieback, which threatens ash trees.




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Timeline: Cape Verde

A chronology of key events




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Country profile: Cape Verde

Key facts, figures and dates




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Why Keri Russell leaped at the chance to join J.J. Abrams’s ‘Rise of Skywalker’

The "Americans" actress dived into the change of place to play "hidden" spice smuggler Zorii Bliss.




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Newspaper comics hardly ever feature black women as artists. But two new voices have arrived.

Steenz and Bianca Xunise have entered a field that has long overlooked the voices of African American women.




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‘Paper Beast’: A truly great PlayStation VR game

Don’t be surprised to see the visionary "Paper Beast" on the year’s best list.




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The Grim Reaper shows up often in pandemic cartoons — whether to provoke or provide dark humor

Some cartoonists try to deliver a political shock. Others want to deliver levity in this trying time.




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The wild NFC East will largely shape crowded conference playoff race

Here’s what we know for sure about the NFC playoff picture: the Saints, Rams and Bears can make postseason plans. The rest is up for grabs.




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Octoshape and INVISO Partner Up to Offer Internet-Based TV Contribution Services Across Latin America

Octoshape announced a partnership with INVISO to deliver Internet TV contribution services throughout Latin America.

"At INVISO, we seek the most innovative and high quality products to serve our customers through the brands we represent,” said Jose Luis Reyes, Vice President for Sales and Operations, INVISO. “In the case of Octoshape, we found a company and a product that bring these qualities to our supply chain, sales and service.”

Octoshape offers an innovative cloud-based solution that provides instant infrastructure for the distribution of both linear and video on demand content. The Octoshape Infinite Uplink service provides point-to-point distribution of TV signals over the Internet for source signal acquisition to traditional IPTV and cable headends as an alternative to traditional methods like satellite and video fiber.



  • Internet TV;Service Providers/South America IPTV

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Earned Attention: More than a stack of paper

As an industry I think we’re getting weary of all the various “rich content” experiments and products floating around these days. I have to admit that most make me want to yawn and move on to the next item in …




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strataconf: Moving to the open healthcare graph http:// http://t.co/YYTUDN3Vzn Achieving the triple aim in healthcare: better, cheaper, safer #stratarx

strataconf: Moving to the open healthcare graph http:// http://t.co/YYTUDN3Vzn Achieving the triple aim in healthcare: better, cheaper, safer #stratarx




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Achieving Paperless Operations and Document Automation with AI and ML

Paper is an essential commodity for office operations. Most conventional offices rely on paper for completing the simplest tasks. Even after digitization, the dream of a completely paperless office is far from reality. Humans are used to a standard form of note-taking and documentation. Here is how to achieve paperless operations and document automation with […]

The post Achieving Paperless Operations and Document Automation with AI and ML appeared first on ReadWrite.




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News24.com | Lockdown: Western Cape ANC calls on province to consider going back to Level 5

As the Western Cape ramps up its screenings and testing for Covid-19 as confirmed cases rise, the ANC in the province is calling for the return to Level 5 lockdown to be considered.




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News24.com | Covid-19: SA's biggest one-day spike hits 663, as Western Cape records over 500 new cases

Seventeen more Covid-19-related deaths have been recorded in the country, bringing the number to 178, while the biggest one-day spike in new cases hit 663.




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News24.com | Coca-Cola and Cape Town’s sweetheart Day Zero deal

An investigation over several months has revealed how Coca-Cola ignored the water-saving regulations and how the City of Cape Town failed to take any action.




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Channel24.co.za | WATCH NOW: She’s a Joburg princess who moves to Cape Town and must now plan her wedding!

This episode of Tali's Wedding Diary is proudly shared with you by Channel24 and Showmax.




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News24.com | LIVE | Covid-19: Ramaphosa to visit epicentre Western Cape, Global death toll passes 275 000

Stay up to date with the latest news, views and analysis as the number of coronavirus cases in SA increases.




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News24.com | Cosatu's Western Cape branch concerned with rate of Covid-19 infections in province

Cosatu in the Western Cape says that it is deeply concerned over the "alarming rate on increase" in Covid-19 infections in the province.




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AT#64 - Travel to Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa




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AT#460 - Cruising Around Cape Horn in South America

Hear about cruising from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Valparaiso, Chile around Cape Horn in South America as the Amateur Traveler relates stories of a recent Holland America cruise on the Zaandam. 




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AT#539 - Travel to Cape Town, South Africa

Hear about travel to Cape Town, South Africa as the Amateur Traveler talks to Annika Ziehen from Midnight Blue Elephant about her former hometown




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AT#607 - Travel to Budapest, Hungary

Hear about travel to Budapest, Hungary as the Amateur Traveler talks to Jennifer Dombrowski from luxeadventuretraveler.com about her trips to the city.




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AT#632 - Travel to Central Europe (Prague, Krakow, Budapest)

Hear about travel to Central Europe (Prague, Krakow, Budapest) as the Amateur Traveler talks to 4 people who joined me on this year's Amateur Traveler trip: Darrell, Derrick, Loraine and Holly.




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He Spent 45 Years in Prison for Crime He Didn’t Commit, Turned to Art as His Escape

In 1971, a man named Gregory Harris was murdered. Richard Phillips, an autoworker, was convicted of the crime and spent the next 45 years in prison. The problem? Phillips was innocent. Instead, it was the star witness during the trial who framed Phillips, and it took his alleged partner-in-crime, Richard Polombo, decades to admit that…

The post He Spent 45 Years in Prison for Crime He Didn’t Commit, Turned to Art as His Escape appeared first on The Western Journal.




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Sport24.co.za | Haiti football federation boss probed for alleged rape of girls

Police in Haiti are investigating allegations that the president of the national football federation raped teenage girls.




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Instapaper 4: Deciding to Read

Introducing Instapaper 4.0 for iPad and iPhone

The lede here is that my pal, Marco, has just released the stellar new 4.0 version of his Instapaper suite.

This is fantastic news, and–as if you needed one more of Marco’s beta testers to say so–I do sincerely hope you’ll mark the occasion (and support his hard work) by purchasing the Instapaper iOS app(s). I promise you’ll be treating yourself to a massive update to an already excellent product.

Now, it’s fortunate and appropriate that you’ll be hearing this advice at length from a lot of people this week. Because, if it’s not already obvious, Marco’s little app (and its associated services) enjoys a rabid fanbase of sundry paragraph cultists who are as eager as I am to spread the word; and, yes, we do want you to join the Reading Nerd cult.

But, I also want to mark the occasion by adding a few thoughts on exactly what Instapaper has done, and continues to do, for me. (As you may already know, I’m a big Marco fan.)

Thing is, I want to tell you how Marco has made a magical machine for people who have decided to read.


Long-Time Fan

For years, Instapaper has been one of the best made, most used, and most beloved apps in my iOS ecosystem. It’s always lived on my iPhone’s home page, and, as you can surmise, that’s because I use Instapaper a lot. Like, a lot a lot. Specifically, I use Instapaper a lot because it helps me do four things extremely well. Four things that work together to make my life a little better.

In that typically annoying mixed order I can’t seem to stop doing, here goes.

2. Deciding WHEN to read

Second, and most obviously, I use Instapaper maybe five to ten times a day to catch up on my reading. Which is great. This is what Instapaper is actually for, right? You read stuff.

Long articles, smaller features, short books, big piles of documentation, and really just anything that I would like to read…later. More saliently, these are things that I have decided to read. This decision part’s important, but more on that in a couple minutes.

But, how does all this “stuff” I’ve decided to read get in to Instapaper?

1. Deciding WHAT to read

See, this is the really important first part. Because as much as I use Instapaper for all manner of reading, its use as an ephemeral destination for mostly ephemeral content wouldn’t be nearly so useful if I didn’t have so many ways to collect all that stuff. So, that flexibility in collecting material is where I end up using some form of Instapaper dozens of times each day.

Examples?

I have a bookmarklet for adding items to Instapaper in 4 browsers on 7 devices. I have (and use the hell out of) the “Send to Instapaper” services that are built in to everything from Google Reader to Reeder to Flipboard to Instacast to Tweetbot to Zite to you name it. I can automate in or out of Instapaper with If This Then That, I can email items directly to Instapaper–hell, I can even just copy a URL from iOS Safari, and paste it directly into the motherscratching Instapaper app.

Suffice it to say, there are many ways to get “stuff” into Instapaper. E.g.:

But, that banner dump only tells part of the story.

Yes, a big part of this is about ubiquity and ease-of-use. But, the practical result is that all those little entrees to Instapaper are available to me everywhere I might need them, and they each represent a single little click that silently adds an item of “stuff” to my Instapaper pile.

Each button is one more simple opportunity for me to decide to read.

3. Deciding WHERE to read

Now, the third part of this magic is less immediately obvious, not least because the reading experience of the Instapaper iOS apps is, for my own purposes, perfect. But, there’s more.

Because, all that support for getting stuff into Instapaper is mirrored by an endless number of ways to get stuff back out. To, in fact, read. That thing I decided to read is now everywhere.

However I ended up deciding to read something, seconds after that *click*, the real magic starts happening, and–through whatever inscrutable black art and transmogrification is happening inside the fearsome celestial engine Marco has made–that decision to read is expressed in the most elegant of results and in a startlingly broad variety of convenient places.

It’s readable on a website; it’s readable on an iPhone, and 2 iPads; it’s readable on a Kindle 3; it’s readable on the crazy number of apps and services that display Instapaper items. And, it’s even preserved for posterity in my private Pinboard archive.

So, for practical purposes, this stuff that I’ve decided to read can now go whooshing through a network of customized tubes, and gently land practically anywhere that well-formed bits may reside.

4. Just…Deciding to Read

I know most of you know these things. I know you’re familiar with the many “Features and Benefits” of Instapaper. And, I even know that most of you reading this are probably already using Instapaper–perhaps even to read this very article.

So, the point here is not simply that Instapaper is flexible, idiot-proof, and sanity-savingly redundant. Although it is all those things and many more.

The point is that my life always gets better when I decide to read things–and then actually read those things I decided to read. This is not a trivial point.

We’re all busy, and we’re all bombarded with 10,000 potential calls on our attention every day. Some days, we handle that better than others. Some days, we don’t handle it all.

All I know, is that, throughout my life, deciding to read has made that life better.

It made my life better at 7 with Henry Huggins. It made my life better at 16 with Slaughterhouse-Five. It made my life better at 20 with Absalom, Absalom!. And, it made my life way better at 25 with A Confederacy of Dunces (cf.).

And, now, for the past few years–following over a decade during which I read way more href tags than actual prose paragraphs–my life has gotten better, in part, due to Instapaper. I’ve finally gotten my hands around this “too much stuff” issue, at least insofar as it relates to words of theoretical interest. Now, I know where it goes. It goes into Instapaper.

Because, now? Yeah. Twenty-some years after a college career sucking down over 1,000 pages a week, I am finally returning to reading a lot more. Because, I am deciding to read a lot more. Instapaper means there’s no excuse for not reading a lot more. Period.

How about you?

What Are YOU Deciding?

When you’re in line at the ATM or the professional sporting event, what do you do?

If you’re like a lot of people, you hit your mobile device like a pigeon on a goddamned pellet. Then, you decide what happens.

You can decide to throw birds at pigs. You can decide to check in on which strangers are pretending to like you today. You may even decide to see what you would look like if you were really fat.

Thing is, you could also decide to read. Just for a couple minutes. Maybe more. Maybe less. Who knows. It’s your decision.

A Nudge Towards “Better”

But, if you have followed the circuitous skeins of yarn comprising this little sweater you’ve been reading, it comes down to this:

If you’ve decided that you want to read, Marco’s app will really help you. He’s removed any phony barriers you’ve built about “not having time” or “not having it with you” or “not knowing where to put it.” There are no excuses, apart from the superficial animated ones you’ve constructed out of cartoon birds.

As for me? In the last week alone, I decided to read a lot of things in Instapaper. A small sampling:

I decided to read about an American family’s educational experiment in Russia.

I decided to read about what Heidegger means by Being-in-the-World.

I decided to read about why toasters are so bad.

I decided to read about responsive web design.

I decided to read about why Charlie Kaufman wrote Being John Malkovich.

I decided to read about how Open Data could make San Francisco Public Transportation better.

I decided to read about how John Siracusa remembers Steve Jobs.

I decided, and then I read. I read, and I read.


So, thanks, Marco. You’ve made my life better by making it easier to decide to read. Then, you made it way easier to do the actual reading.

And, to you–the kind readers-of-prose-paragraphs who were inexplicably patient enough to decide to read this long article–please consider supporting Marco’s work.

Please get an account at Instapaper and, if you have an iOS dingus, please do buy the Instapaper app.

In addition to having exquisite taste in app icons and a lovely speaking voice, Marco’s just a very good human. And, good humans more than deserve our support.


Buy Instapaper 4.0 by Marco Arment.

Instapaper 4: Deciding to Read” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 17, 2011. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"




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Legal landscape murky for B.C. workers and employers during pandemic

Labour laws haven’t changed in our province, but legal experts are already urging B.C. employers to be flexible and reasonable — while warning employees they may not be legally protected if they refuse work during the pandemic.




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Heterotrimeric Gq proteins as therapeutic targets? [Molecular Bases of Disease]

Heterotrimeric G proteins are the core upstream elements that transduce and amplify the cellular signals from G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) to intracellular effectors. GPCRs are the largest family of membrane proteins encoded in the human genome and are the targets of about one-third of prescription medicines. However, to date, no single therapeutic agent exerts its effects via perturbing heterotrimeric G protein function, despite a plethora of evidence linking G protein malfunction to human disease. Several recent studies have brought to light that the Gq family–specific inhibitor FR900359 (FR) is unexpectedly efficacious in silencing the signaling of Gq oncoproteins, mutant Gq variants that mostly exist in the active state. These data not only raise the hope that researchers working in drug discovery may be able to potentially strike Gq oncoproteins from the list of undruggable targets, but also raise questions as to how FR achieves its therapeutic effect. Here, we place emphasis on these recent studies and explain why they expand our pharmacological armamentarium for targeting Gq protein oncogenes as well as broaden our mechanistic understanding of Gq protein oncogene function. We also highlight how this novel insight impacts the significance and utility of using G(q) proteins as targets in drug discovery efforts.




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How Will New Technologies Shape the Future of Economic Growth in the US and Europe?

Invitation Only Research Event

12 October 2017 - 8:00am to 9:15am

Chatham House London, UK

Event participants

Diane Coyle, Professor, University of Manchester; Founder and Managing Director, Enlightenment Economics

Diane Coyle will join us for a discussion on the impact that new technologies will have on transatlantic economic transformations in the future.

Economic growth rates in the US and Europe have been decelerating over the last decades, and the growth that has materialised has not been equally shared by all.

While technological advancements have contributed to widening inequality of income and wealth, at the same time, technological change is a driving force in improving living standards.

Looking ahead, what role will new technologies play in economic transformations and disruptions?

How can leaders in government and business on both sides of the Atlantic best harvest the potential and respond to the challenges of technological change and its impact on the economy?

This event is part of the US and Americas Programme ongoing series on Transatlantic Perspectives on Common Economic Challenges.

This series examines some of the principal global challenges that we face today and potentially differing perspectives from across Europe and the US.

Attendance at this event is by invitation only.

Event attributes

Chatham House Rule

Courtney Rice

Senior Programme Manager, US and the Americas Programme
(0)20 7389 3298




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The Shifting Economic and Political Landscape in the US and Europe - What Factors Matter?

Invitation Only Research Event

2 November 2017 - 8:15am to 9:15am

Chatham House, London

Event participants

Megan Greene, Managing Director and Chief Economist, Manulife Asset Management 

Megan Greene will join us for a discussion on the prospect of future economic and political uncertainty on both sides of the Atlantic.

The first year of Donald Trump’s presidency and the ongoing saga of Brexit negotiations underscore the amount of uncertainty about the economic future on both sides of the Atlantic.

Despite that, business and consumer confidence in the US and continental Europe have soared. Are we still stuck in secular stagnation, or are we breaking out of the low growth, low inflation, low rate environment we’ve been in for years?

What opportunities and risks are posed by this year’s elections in France and Germany, the upcoming elections in Italy, and the mid-term elections in the US?

This event is part of the US and Americas Programme ongoing series on Transatlantic Perspectives on Common Economic Challenges. This series examines some of the principal global challenges that we face today and potentially differing perspectives from across Europe and the US.

Attendance at this event is by invitation only.

Event attributes

Chatham House Rule

Courtney Rice

Senior Programme Manager, US and the Americas Programme
(0)20 7389 3298




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America's Coronavirus Response Is Shaped By Its Federal Structure

16 March 2020

Dr Leslie Vinjamuri

Dean, Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs; Director, US and the Americas Programme
The apparent capacity of centralized state authority to respond effectively and rapidly is making headlines. In the United States, the opposite has been true.

2020-03-16-Coronavirus-America.jpg

Harvard asked its students to move out of their dorms due to the coronavirus risk, with all classes moving online. Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images.

As coronavirus spreads across the globe, states grapple to find the ideal strategy for coping with the global pandemic. And, in China, Singapore, South Korea, the US, the UK, and Europe, divergent policies are a product of state capacity and legal authority, but they also reveal competing views about the optimal role of centralized state authority, federalism, and the private sector.

Although it is too soon to know the longer-term effects, the apparent capacity of centralized state authority in China, South Korea and Singapore to respond effectively and rapidly is making headlines. In the United States, the opposite has been true. 

America’s response is being shaped by its federal structure, a dynamic private sector, and a culture of civic engagement. In the three weeks since the first US case of coronavirus was confirmed, state leaders, public health institutions, corporations, universities and churches have been at the vanguard of the nation’s effort to mitigate its spread.

Images of safety workers in hazmat suits disinfecting offices of multinational corporations and university campuses populate American Facebook pages. The contrast to the White House effort to manage the message, downplay, then rapidly escalate its estimation of the crisis is stark.

Bewildering response

For European onlookers, the absence of a clear and focused response from the White House is bewildering. By the time President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, several state emergencies had already been called, universities had shifted to online learning, and churches had begun to close.

By contrast, in Italy, France, Spain and Germany, the state has led national efforts to shutter borders and schools. In the UK, schools are largely remaining open as Prime Minister Boris Johnson has declared a strategy defined by herd immunity, which hinges on exposing resilient populations to the virus.

But America has never shared Europe’s conviction that the state must lead. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute and a US federal agency, has attempted to set a benchmark for assessing the crisis and advising the nation. But in this instance, its response has been slowed due to faults in the initial tests it attempted to rollout. The Federal Reserve has moved early to cut interest rates and cut them again even further this week.

But states were the real first movers in America’s response and have been using their authority to declare a state of emergency independent of the declaration of a national emergency. This has allowed states to mobilize critical resources, and to pressure cities into action. After several days delay and intense public pressure, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo forced New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to close the city’s schools.

Declarations of state emergencies by individual states have given corporations, universities and churches the freedom and legitimacy to move rapidly, and ahead of the federal government, to halt the spread in their communities.

Washington state was the first to declare a state of emergency. Amazon, one of the state’s leading employers, quickly announced a halt to all international travel and, alongside Microsoft, donated $1million to a rapid-response Seattle-based emergency funds. States have nudged their corporations to be first movers in the sector’s coronavirus response. But corporations have willingly taken up the challenge, often getting ahead of state as well as federal action.

Google moved rapidly to announce a move allowing employees to work from home after California declared a state of emergency. Facebook soon followed with an even more stringent policy, insisting employees work from home. Both companies have also met with World Health Organization (WHO) officials to talk about responses, and provided early funding for WHO’s Solidarity Response Fund set up in partnership with the UN Foundation and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation.

America’s leading research universities, uniquely positioned with in-house public health and legal expertise, have also been driving preventive efforts. Just days after Washington declared a state of emergency, the University of Washington became the first to announce an end to classroom teaching and move courses online. A similar pattern followed at Stanford, Harvard, Princeton and Columbia - each also following the declaration of a state of emergency.

In addition, the decision by the Church of the Latter Day Saints to cancel its services worldwide followed Utah’s declaration of a state of emergency.

The gaping hole in the US response has been the national government. President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency came late, and his decision to ban travel from Europe but - at least initially - exclude the UK, created uncertainty and concern that the White House response is as much driven by politics as evidence.

This may soon change, as the House of Representatives has passed a COVID-19 response bill that the Senate will consider. These moves are vital to supporting state and private efforts to mobilize an effective response to a national and global crisis.

Need for public oversight

In the absence of greater coordination and leadership from the centre, the US response will pale in comparison to China’s dramatic moves to halt the spread. The chaos across America’s airports shows the need for public oversight. As New York State Governor Cuomo pleaded for federal government support to build new hospitals, he said: ‘I can’t do it. You can’t leave it to the states.'

When it comes to global pandemics, we may be discovering that authoritarian states can have a short-term advantage, but already Iran’s response demonstrates that this is not universally the case. Over time, the record across authoritarian states as they tackle the coronavirus will become more apparent, and it is likely to be mixed.

Open societies remain essential. Prevention requires innovation, creativity, open sharing of information, and the ability to inspire and mobilize international cooperation. The state is certainly necessary, but it is not sufficient alone.




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Webinar: Coronavirus Crisis – Implications for an Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape

Corporate Members Event Webinar

7 May 2020 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm

Event participants

Neil Walsh, Chief, Cybercrime and Anti-Money Laundering Department, UN Office of Drugs and Crime

Lisa Quest, Head, Public Sector, UK & Ireland, Oliver Wyman

Chair: Joyce Hakmeh, Senior Research Fellow, International Security Programme; Co-Editor, Journal of Cyber Policy, Chatham House

Further speakers to be announced.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound impact on the cybersecurity landscape - both amplifying already-existing cyber threats and creating new vulnerabilities for state and non-state actors. The crisis has highlighted the importance of protecting key national and international infrastructures, with the World Health Organization, US Department of Health and Human Services and hospitals across Europe suffering cyber-attacks, undermining their ability to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. Changing patterns of work resulting from widespread lockdowns are also creating new vulnerabilities for organizations with many employees now working from home and using personal devices to work remotely.

In light of these developments, the panellists will discuss the evolving cyber threats resulting from the pandemic. How are they impacting ongoing conversations around cybersecurity? How can governments, private sector and civil society organizations work together to effectively mitigate and respond to them? And what could the implications of such cooperation be beyond the crisis? 

This event is part of a fortnightly series of 'Business in Focus' webinars reflecting on the impact of COVID-19 on areas of particular professional interest for our corporate members and giving circles.

Not a corporate member? Find out more.




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Heterotrimeric Gq proteins as therapeutic targets? [Molecular Bases of Disease]

Heterotrimeric G proteins are the core upstream elements that transduce and amplify the cellular signals from G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) to intracellular effectors. GPCRs are the largest family of membrane proteins encoded in the human genome and are the targets of about one-third of prescription medicines. However, to date, no single therapeutic agent exerts its effects via perturbing heterotrimeric G protein function, despite a plethora of evidence linking G protein malfunction to human disease. Several recent studies have brought to light that the Gq family–specific inhibitor FR900359 (FR) is unexpectedly efficacious in silencing the signaling of Gq oncoproteins, mutant Gq variants that mostly exist in the active state. These data not only raise the hope that researchers working in drug discovery may be able to potentially strike Gq oncoproteins from the list of undruggable targets, but also raise questions as to how FR achieves its therapeutic effect. Here, we place emphasis on these recent studies and explain why they expand our pharmacological armamentarium for targeting Gq protein oncogenes as well as broaden our mechanistic understanding of Gq protein oncogene function. We also highlight how this novel insight impacts the significance and utility of using G(q) proteins as targets in drug discovery efforts.




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Webinar: Coronavirus Crisis – Implications for an Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape

Corporate Members Event Webinar

7 May 2020 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm

Event participants

Neil Walsh, Chief, Cybercrime and Anti-Money Laundering Department, UN Office of Drugs and Crime

Lisa Quest, Head, Public Sector, UK & Ireland, Oliver Wyman

Chair: Joyce Hakmeh, Senior Research Fellow, International Security Programme; Co-Editor, Journal of Cyber Policy, Chatham House

Further speakers to be announced.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound impact on the cybersecurity landscape - both amplifying already-existing cyber threats and creating new vulnerabilities for state and non-state actors. The crisis has highlighted the importance of protecting key national and international infrastructures, with the World Health Organization, US Department of Health and Human Services and hospitals across Europe suffering cyber-attacks, undermining their ability to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. Changing patterns of work resulting from widespread lockdowns are also creating new vulnerabilities for organizations with many employees now working from home and using personal devices to work remotely.

In light of these developments, the panellists will discuss the evolving cyber threats resulting from the pandemic. How are they impacting ongoing conversations around cybersecurity? How can governments, private sector and civil society organizations work together to effectively mitigate and respond to them? And what could the implications of such cooperation be beyond the crisis? 

This event is part of a fortnightly series of 'Business in Focus' webinars reflecting on the impact of COVID-19 on areas of particular professional interest for our corporate members and giving circles.

Not a corporate member? Find out more.




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Soundscapes of war: the audio-visual performance of war by Shi'a militias in Iraq and Syria

7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3

Helle Malmvig

This article sets out to bring sound and music to the field of visual studies in International Relations. It argues that IR largely has approached the visual field as if it was without sound; neglecting how audial landscapes frame and direct our interpretation of moving imagery. Sound and music contribute to making imagery intelligible to us, we ‘hear the pictures’ often without noticing. The audial can for instance articulate a visual absence, or blast visual signs, bring out certain emotional stages or subjects’ inner life. Audial frames steer us in distinct directions, they can mute the cries of the wounded in war, or amplify the sounds of joy of soldiers shooting in the air. To bring the audial and the visual analytically and empirically together, the article therefore proposes four key analytical themes: 1) the audial–visual frame, 2) point of view/point of audition, 3) modes of audio-visual synchronization and 4) aesthetics moods. These are applied to a study of ‘war music videos’ in Iraq and Syria made and circulated by Shi'a militias currently fighting there. Such war music videos, it is suggested, are not just artefacts of popular culture, but have become integral parts of how warfare is practiced today, and one that is shared by soldiers in the US and Europe. War music videos are performing war, just as they shape how war is known by spectators and participants alike.