Thread: Brazil is ranked number two in the world lists of Covid fatalities, behind the USA. But that is almost certainly wrong. Mexico is almost surely number two. And in this story, we explain why. https://t.co/xeKgkMU1kJ via @WSJ

Mexico is failing to accurately record the majority of those who die from Covid. How do we know? Because the surge of excess deaths in 2020 in Mexico was roughly 2.4 times the official Covid toll. On Dec 12, excess deaths were 274,486 compared to Covid toll of 113,704.

Some of the additional deaths, of course, may not be Covid but from people who put off treatment for chronic disease, for instance. But health experts say the majority of those were likely killed by Covid. Other countries have a far smaller gap between excess deaths and Covid.

In Brazil, excess deaths for last year were 200,270 by Nov 21. The Covid toll by that date was 168,989, a far smaller gap than Mexico. That means Brazil is likely doing a far better job accurately counting its Covid dead.

A big difference is testing. Mexico carries out fewest tests in the Americas. It has only done 3.6 million tests during the entire pandemic. Brazil has done nearly 29 million. Mexico's coronavirus czar @HLGatell says widespread testing is a waste of time and resources.

Quick thoughts and thread on the recent barrage of articles seeking to push the view that all of Israel, and the West Bank, and Jerusalem and Gaza are “apartheid”...implications of this is to roll it out on eve of Biden admin to try to shift narrative (again)

First of all the whole “Zionism is racism” and “Israel is apartheid” has been a talking point for decades pushed first by the “anti-imperialist” crowd and then later in the 1990s after end of Cold War and end of actual apartheid in S. Africa.

Second this argument has shifted from seeking to encourage Israel to leave the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” which means Gaza and West Bank and East Jerusalem; to arguing all of Israel is “apartheid”

Essentially this seeks to re-write the partition plan that the colonial power and UN put in place in 1940s and the resulting armistice lines of 1948; shoehorning Israel and the Palestinians into One State, which neither communities actually want.

The goal of this paradigm is to move from trying to encourage Israel to withdraw, making it IMPOSSIBLE for Israel to withdraw because even if Israel does...the next goal will be to dismantle the rest of Israel as an “apartheid” state inside the Green Line

Thread on how PDM failed:

1) No sight of common man + families in Jalsas; mostly party workers which explained that public is not with them

2) BBC interview by Bilawal where he asked Nawaz Sharif to produce evidence before accusing army chief

#PakistanRejectsPDM

3) Maryam back tracking and being open to discussion with Army (again on BBC interview), even the people who got fooled by revolution, understood that Maryam is wrong number

4) Work from home (woh bhi abroad wala home) revolution of Nawaz Sharif rejected

#PakistanRejectsPDM

5) Serious defeat of both PPP & PMLN against PTI in Gilgit Baltistan elections showed that Pakistanis trust PM Imran Khan

6) Epic Failure of Lahore Jalsa (this hurled them more than anything because monumental hope was from that Minar e Pakistan event

#PakistanRejectsPDM

7) Maryam’s frustration after Lahore Jalsa failure where she talked about Saza / Jaza

8) Maryam’s trust in Bilawal for “Aar ya Par” resignations decision, Zardari Kafi Bhari broke their hearts, not more than PM’s playing with dogs picture during Lahore Jalsa

#PakistanRejectsPDM

9) Maulana’s complaint about Maryam’s selfish politics to Nawaz showed that they have trust issues. PPP practically left at that point too

10) Maryam’s Israel tweet mistake and several other twitter mistakes (photoshopped images) showing desperation

#PakistanRejectsPDM

In today's final session, we are discussing the "Geopolitics of Europe and European Defence" with @Isabelle_kumar (@euronews), the French Minister of State for European Affairs @CBeaune, and experts from the TEPSA network

Here are the best bits⤵️

/THREAD

"It feels like Europe is at a watershed moment, when we look at all the crises we face. I will ask each of our speakers asking where we think Europe is today"

- @Isabelle_kumar, from @euronews

/2

French Minister of State for European Affairs @CBeaune is the first to speak, clarifying the French perspective of European Security: "Our aim is not to go out of the existing frameworks, the idea is to get the tools to act - ultimately - when we need to act"

/3

"It is clear that in the next years we will have to recognise that the US itself goes beyond President Trump. It is prudent to have frameworks for action which are independent of the White House"

- @CBeaune, French Minister of State for European Affairs @francediplo

/4

"We need to start with common budgetary tools at the EU level. Already we have funds to co-finance research in this area"

- @CBeaune, French Minister of State for European Affairs @francediplo

/5

THREAD: Why do Kenyans view anti-BBI sentiment as an endorsement of Ruto? Githeri media journalists are projecting our refusal to adopt a misguided constitutional review, as part of a mock cock-fight between political rivals.

Far from it. Ruto is a thief and we know it.

We are currently paying high electricity prices because of Ruto. During his first term, he planted Kalenjin thieves in the energy sector, beginning with Chirchir and then Keter, who have cause nothing but misery and untold suffering on young Kenyans.

The “last mile” KPLC project consumed resources to electrify peasant households, yet the same energy could have been diverted to industries. Industries create jobs and wealth. Peasants and slum dwellers don’t.

The social carnage inflicted by KPLC’s arbitrary power hikes is astronomic. Job losses for young Kenyans, turning once enterprising folks into beggars. Salons, Kinyozi’s, DVD joints, Cyber Cafe’s, photocopy, car-wash, etc. over 5 million informal jobs lost because of Ruto.

Don’t forget that Ruto also panders to religious hypocrites. He endorsed Uhuru’s misguided war against “illicit” alcohol, a lie crafted by Githeri media. Essentially they only wanted to forcefully acquire Keroche & Humphrey Kariuki’s business empires.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN RUSSIA

My country lives in dictatorship, totalitarianism and poverty for at least 20 years. It is scary to talk or even think about it.
All TV, newspapers are controlled by government, who threatens everyone trying to go against them.
#23января

30 million people(20% of country) LIVE BELOW POVERTY LINE, meaning they earn less than 160USD a month.
We never had a choice to vote, our oppositon is SILENCED AND IMPRISONED.
Pluralism is non-existent and no other political views are tolerated. People are scared to speak up.

Our government tried to kill the leader of our opposition, Alexey Navalny, by poisoning. He was in coma and spent months on treatment in Germany.
Several days ago, he came back to Russia and was ILLIEGALLY arrested and put in prison. His lawyers were not allowed to be in.

We DEMAND freedom and justice for Navalny. He’s a prisoner of consciousness and was arrested just because he goes against thieves and corruption.

Our president is ONE OF THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
HIS NET WORTH IS ESTIMATED TO BE AROUND $200 BILLION (which makes him much richer than american billionaires like Bezos or Gates).
All of those money were gained by drowning our country in poverty.

Dear Canadian Hopefuls: Prince Edward Island Express Entry
Are you interested in PEI? Have you created a Federal Express Entry Profile? You don’t need a job offer to be selected.
Two Pathways using PEI; Firstly, PEI selects Express Entry candidates with skills matching current

labour needs for the province. A successful nomination through the Express Entry category increases the chances of receiving an ITA for Canadian PR. Secondly, PEI’s PNP functions on an Expression of Interest (EOI) system. This means that a candidate is required to have an active

profile in PEI’s EOI system.
Who is Eligible:
1. You must qualify for the federal economic immigration classes managed through the Express Entry system:(FSWC,FSTC,CEC)
2.Upon qualification & registration in the pool,candidate MUST create a profile in PEI’s EOI system. IT’S FREE.

Selection Criteria:
EOI profile is reviewed and assigned points based on six areas with or without a job offer: Age (Max.20pts;18-24=7,25-29=20,30-44=15,over 49=0,) Language(max,20pts; clb9&10=20,8=15,7=10,Below 7=0), Education(Max 15pts; Ph.D/Masters=15,BSC=12, Dip.=10,Sec.sch=0

Work Experience(max 20pts;6yrs/Above=20,4-6yrs=15,2-4yrs=10,1-2yrs=5) Employment(max 15pts), & Adaptability(Max15pts;spouse/common law, spouse or Education).Maximum of 100 points and minimum required for selection is 50.
Pls Note, PEI Office of Immigration affirms that evidence

Thread on something really important.
At the outset of the pandemic, @DrMikeRyan called on us to "break the chains of transmission".
We haven't. The chains now number over 100,000,000 people.
Why? A central measure is often overlooked: isolating those exposed to the virus.

The above graph by @Paul5cott compares policy measures around the world on isolation and quarantine.
A lot of focus has been on reducing the random seeding of new chains of transmission through travel.
That's important - but only one part of containing Covid-19 spread.

It sounds simple: if everyone who currently has the virus right now could be kept separate from other people for about two weeks, infections would drop to zero. Pandemic over.
But individuals cannot achieve it alone. Isolation only works within a system of support and enforcement

Survey data shows that a very low percentage of people who are just 'told' to self-isolate actually do it.
A study of 32,000 people in the UK over three months last year found only 18% of them actually kept away from others. In the Netherlands, data indicates it's about 44%.

A large proportion of those who ventured out despite being warned they had been exposed to Covid-19 did so to go to work.
Others have to buy groceries, or medicines, or need something for their child.
It's not just people being dicks -- they need support.

Burma or Myanmar? What's the difference? Does it matter? A thread on political linguistics in Southeast Asia 👇

First, what's the difference between "Burma" and "Myanmar"? You might be surprised that these are basically the same word, borrowed into English twice from two different registers of the Burmese language. (A "register" describes the level of formality of a language)

Burma comes from "Bama." Myanmar comes from "Myanma." "Bama" (pronounced buh-mah) is a colloquial version of "Myanma", which incidentally has two syllables (myuh-ma), not three

How do you get "b" from "my"? Well, make a "b" sound and notice where your lips are. Then do the same with an "m" sound. Both of these are voiced bilabial consonants, and such sound changes are pretty common

For a rough analogue of Myanma/Bama, say the name of the country that is the six counties in the northern part of Ireland. Is it called "Northern Ireland"? Or is it "Norn Iron"?

If anyone in the US thinks France is doing any better with "expeditious vaccination," let me disabuse you of that conceit right now. Until recently, I've been fairly supportive of Macron's government. Tough job, tough people to govern.

After this? If I were a French citizen, I'd probably vote for the communists or the fascists (and those probably will be the options, at this rate). If the guys who're at least supposed to be competent technocrats can't manage a vaccination campaign--

--and offer idiotic excuses like, "Well, we're taking it slowly because, you know, France is full of lunatic anti-vaxxers and we don't want to frighten them"--I'm not making that up, folks, an aide to the health minister said exactly that, yesterday--

--why the hell would you put them back in office? If you want incompetent government, why not at least go for the gusto and get the incompetent ideologues your heart truly desires?

I do hope Macron realizes that if the non-insane French citizens don't get needles in their arms, fast--as in, "within a month, not within ten years," that's it for the Fifth Republic, because the French have had it. He was the Establishment's last chance.

According to reports #Iran's #IRGC have conducted an unannounced exercise including drones and ballistic missiles, surface to surface. The BM tests included Zolfaghar and Dezful, potentially more.

The "First Phase" of the 15th Prophet exercise was completed successfully.

I assume this means there is more to come...

New generations of missiles were used, a new Zolfaghar, Dezful, and Zelzal. They are reportedly now equipable with detachable warheads according to state media.

Initial footage of the 15th Great Prophet exercise, including missile launches from underground missile cities, mobile TEL's and RQ-170 drones.

Zolfaghar or Dezful missile?

The Man-Made Famine In #Yemen
By @DanielLarison

The war on #Yemen has done nothing to hurt #Iran in the slightest (not that it would be justified if it had), but it has driven a country of almost thirty million people into the abyss.

For five and a half years, our government has supported the wrecking and starvation of another country, and we have failed to bring that horror to an end. That will have to change in the new year, or countless more #Yemenis will die preventable deaths.

1/3

The litmus test for U.S. policy on #Yemen is simple: does it help end the conflict, or keep alive the millions of suffering #Yemenis? A terrorist designation of the #Houthis fails on both counts. Sadly, the #Trump administration knows this. In 2018,
1/4-1

it decided against designating the #Houthis because “it could complicate aid deliveries.” Yet despite worsening humanitarian indicators, President #Trump has now decided to push forward.

1/5

#Yemenis are being starved. That is the heart of it. And the statistics released last week are shocking. Amir [Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme] will speak to this.

It’s the war that’s pushing #Yemen towards famine. That’s how we got to this point.
1/5-2

So, MAGA want to succeed from the union? Fine. Let 'em go. We'll take our Blue states & as many progressives as we can out of Red states and form our own country. That includes Hawaii, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and (1)

all the Northeast.

We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and Washington D.C. We also get Costco and Boeing. (2)

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma, and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Branson, Missouri. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. (3)

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get (4)

a bunch of happy families.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. (5)

1/ Love under Israeli apartheid.

Israel segregates Palestinians across different legal statuses to divide & rule:

- Citz. of Israel
- Res. of Jerusalem
- West Bank / Gaza
- Refugee/diaspora (+ foreign passports)

The category you belong to impacts who you can be with.

2/ Israel does this to geographically separate Palestinians from one another, break social, cultural & political cohesion & undermine a collective Palestinian identity.

Localizing each community or "status" is meant to undermine a connected NATIONAL movement for liberation.

3/ The other reason is to limit the number of Palestinians in Palestine.

Israel doesn't allow Palestinian refugees/diaspora to visit their homeland, let alone live in Palestine with a partner.

But any Jewish person anywhere in the world can return and live as they please.

4/ Regulating who you love, have as a partner and whether you can be together is the crux of this tiered system of fragmentation.

Israel has made it almost impossible to change your legal status in order to be with someone if they are from another legal category.

5/ For each combination of categories, Israel has placed draconian measures to prevent people from sharing a life together.

Suffocation through bureaucracy, revoking residency, outlawing places to live, refusal to grant visas or just physical separation are some of those ways.

NOTE FOR (IN)HUMAN RIGHT GROUPS IN NIGERIA🇳🇬

I bring you good tidings (may be bad for you) @HURIWA_NIGERIA. I want to inform you that for the past eight years, the people of RAFI LOCAL GOVT, KAGARA, NIGER STATE have been batting with incessant attacks by bandits, cattle rustling

kidnapping for ransom and unprovoked arson.
These cases were duly reported to appropriate authorities.

What interest the good people of the area is that none of the #HumanRightsWatch either spoke for or sympathize with us, in any form or at any occasion.

@GovNiger @SSGNGSG

Many villages and communities that were attacked fled to Kagara, the headquarters of the LGA as refugees. As a result of this bandits took over most of these villages & converted them as their places of abode with some few villagers who have connived them as informants and allies

remaining in those villages.

Sadly, whenever any aerial raid or military operation takes place that's when we hear noise from this unfortunate human rights groups against any of the operations so conducted to dislodge these top notch killers & arsonists.

@humanrightslaw

So far the people of that area have lost, in momentary terms, cattles, houses, motorcycles, farm produce, looted provision stores, patent medicines stores etc worth more than three billion (N3b) aside of human lives killed as well as traumatized women that were raped.

@abusbello

Q&A With Ali Safavi on Iranian Regime’s Terrorism and the Case of Assadollah Assadi
#EUTime4FirmIranPolicy #ShutDownIranTerrorEmbassies
@eu_eeas @JosepBorrellF @GermanyDiplo @BelgiumMFA @francediplo_EN @DutchMFA @NorwayMFA @ItalyMFA @SwissMFA @SweMFA @MFA_Austria @FCDOGovUK

On February 4, a court in Belgium is expected to announce its verdict about Iran’s incarcerated diplomat-terrorist Assadollah Assadi who attempted to bomb the opposition rally in 2018 in France.
#EUTime4FirmIranPolicy #ShutDownIranTerrorEmbassies
@Ulkoministerio @CzechMFA

Q: One can argue that Iranian regime has been engaged in state terrorism for four decades. So why do you think this plot stands out? What aspects of the findings by the investigators you have found the most significant?
#EUTime4FirmIranPolicy

A: While it is true that terrorism has been part and parcel of the Iranian regime’s foreign policy, this plot stands out for three reasons.
1) it is the first time that an accredited senior regime so-called diplomat has been personally and directly involved in a terrorist scheme.

2) The Undeniable evidence, including seized documents make it abundantly clear that this was not a personal initiative of Assadi, but had been planned, approved, commissioned by the most senior regime officials all way up to the Supreme Leader, president, foreign minister.

How the 36 Nigerian states got their names. A thread 🧵

1. Abia

Abia is an acronym from the four main groups of people in the state as at the time it was formed in 1991: Aba Bende Isuikwuato Afikpo.

2. Adamawa

Adamawa was named after a warrior, Modibbo Adama Bin Ardo Hassan, that conquered the region in the beginning of the 19th century.

3. Akwa-Ibom

Akwa Ibom is named after the Qua Iboe (or Kwa Iboe) River.

4. Anambra

The state got its name from the corrupted version of Oma Mbala (Ànyịm Ọma Mbala), a popular river in the area.