🇺🇲The Two Cubas🇺🇲
Im sure everyone knows about the "Second" Cuba, which was discovered and named by Christopher Columbus in 1492. The territory of modern day Cuba was inhabited by the Ciboney Taíno people from the 4th millennium BC until Spanish colonization in the 15th century..

1) But....do you know about the "First" Cuba??

In the small district of Alentejo, Portugal, there is a small town known as Cuba.

This town has quite a historic claim to history...

2) In this small village there stands a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus. Around the base of the statue are plaques that tell a remarkable.. yet unprovable story.

3) The story is that Christopher Columbus was originally from Portugal, NOT Italy, as written in the Washington Irving biography of Christopher Columbus which claims Genoa, Italy as Christopher Columbus birth city.

4) I will not dispute one way or the other, but will let you decide for yourself. So, in 1492, Columbus sails the ocean blue...and he finally hits land and names it "Cuba"...why not Genoa?
🤔🤔🤔

CCHP’s Executive Director, Mei Kwong, kicks off today’s webinar with an introduction to @CCHPCA and @TheNCTRC! #MedicaidTelehealthCCHP

Sheri Gaskins from @CMSGov provides a great overview of telehealth in Medicaid! "Telehealth is not a service - it is a delivery mechanism." #MedicaidTelehealthCCHP

A telehealth toolkit has been developed by @CMSGov and provides an up-to-date view of telehealth in Medicaid! #MedicaidTelehealthCCHP

Q&A with Sheri Gaskins from @CMSgov: "In general, states have a great deal of flexibility of what can be furnished by Telehealth in FQHCs/RHCs." #MedicaidTelehealthCCHP

Check out the Medicaid & CHIP Telehealth Toolkit Checklist for states from @CMSGov! #MedicaidTelehealthCCHP

Thread About my city
On this day last year, the Assad gangs and Russia took control of the city of Maarat al-Numan after it was destroyed with all kinds of internationally prohibited weapons, and unfortunately the world was watching this silently. 1\1

We are always looking for ways to make things better, more intuitive, & more helpful at Nextstrain! Some of you may have already noticed that we recently added a bunch of great new features - but in case you didn't, let's explore them!

1/11

First, if you're a regular user you'll remember the fun of extra-long legends even when zoomed in...

Now, the legend will only show what's visible on the map, making it much more useful!

(Works with colourings like genotype, too!)

2/11

When using Nextstrain we often want to examine 2 things at once - until now that was sometimes difficult!

Now it's a little easier - you can change the tip-labels from the default 'strain', so that you can combine colouring & tip labels to show different things!

3/11

With the recent type-to-filter function it's easier than ever to narrow down to just the sequences you want - but you're often still very far away!

A new 'Zoom to Selected' button will take you right in close to exactly what you're interested in looking at!

4/11

If you commonly download trees from Nextstrain you'll be happy to learn we've improved how this works!

Downloaded trees now reflect the subtree visible & you can now download annotated Nexus format that works in FigTree! (Note the view is 'upside down' between the 2 pics!)

5/11

THREAD on the Palestinian territories & the vaccine: The Israeli government is facing criticism from human rights groups & international organisations for not extending the vaccination programme currently underway in Israel to the millions of Palestinians in the WB and Gaza 1/

Let’s just deal in some facts. The Israeli government is embarking on an unprecedented drive to become one of the first countries to vaccinate its entire population, including Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians in East Jerusalem and in Israeli prisons. 2/

#Israel is receiving supplies from #Pfizer. In return, Israel has agreed to share its #vaccination data with the pharmaceutical company to help it ascertain how successful its COVID-19 vaccine will be in a real world environment. 3/

The argument from critics that Israel is carrying out “medical apartheid” is based upon Israel’s perceived international law obligations as an “occupying power” to vaccinate the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza. 4/

However, the Oslo Accords, signed in the 1990s by Israel & the Palestinians, moved the relationship between them beyond the default occupier/occupied legal paradigm by creating the Palestinian Authority (PA) and giving it a range of autonomous powers. 5/

Bad things tourists have done in Bali that I witnessed because I lived in Bali for three years and will be back soon~ A Thread.

1. There’s this tourist couple. The guy kissed the girl’s ass at a sacred place then took a picture and basically say they think the idea of the place being ‘sacred’ is stupid. They apologized but I don’t think they meant it, I think they said sorry because they got caught

2. A ‘feminist’ tourist made a controversy by saying that it is very sexist because women who are having their period can’t go inside the sacred places. She said it was such a sexist and stupid thing to do when we have. We have our beliefs, some tourists don’t want to respect it.

3. My own group of friends who are foreigners are talking in the front of me with their own language and one of them who’s not asshole translated ‘they are saying that they have to say it in our language for you to not understand. But they are saying Indonesian people are slow’

4. Some tourists even told clubs that they feel unsecured if there are local people. WE ARE IN BALI, HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?

1⃣
New information revealed about the case of Assadollah Assadi, Iran’s incarcerated diplomat-terrorist, suggests the mullahs’ network of espionage and terrorism is much wider in Europe than it appears. Thus, European officials should immediately act.#ShutDownIranTerrorEmbassies

2⃣
Assadi was arrested in July 2018 after delivering a bomb to a terrorist couple,Nasimeh Na’ami &Amir Saadouni, in Luxembourg and tasking them to plant the bomb in the “Free Iran” gathering of the Iranian opposition in Villepinte, north of Paris,France.
#NoImpunity4Mullahs

3⃣
Germany’s police arrested Assadi on July 1 before he could enter Austria,where he served as D 3rd secretary of #Iran’s embassy.The German authorities found a notebook in Assadi’s car with important information about D 2018 bombing plot&money he had given to different Iranians.

4⃣
According to the Deutsche Welle Farsi, the German Federal Criminal Court (BKA) is investigating Assadi’s activities on a mission from the German Attorney General.
#ShutDownIranTerrorEmbassies #NoImpunity4Mullahs
@eu_eeas @JosepBorrellF @GermanyDiplo @BelgiumMFA

5⃣
The question is: Has Assadi commanded a large network of people tasked with different missions, including collecting news and espionage, in several European countries?
#ShutDownIranTerrorEmbassies #NoImpunity4Mullahs
@eu_eeas @JosepBorrellF @GermanyDiplo @BelgiumMFA

BREAKING: 100+ China experts and human rights activists slam “naïve” EU-China deal for “entrenching Europe’s strategic dependency on China”

Maik Baumgaertner and Ann-Katrin Mueller report about open letter for @SPIEGEL_English

🔸What follows is the text of the open letter in full 🔸

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the China-European Union Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) and call on the European Union to withdraw from this agreement

The signal sent by both the timing and the substance of CAI is that European leaders are set on pursuing access to Chinese markets, even if this is at the expense of the bloc’s values and national security.

The deal is not only poorly timed but is also based on a naïve set of assumptions about the character of the Chinese Communist Party. It further entrenches Europe’s existing strategic dependency on China and runs counter to Europe’s core values.

The outcome of seven years of negotiations, the agreement and the hopes attached to it are products of a bygone era. The Chairmanship of Xi Jinping has been marked by a steep deterioration in the human rights situation everywhere from Hong Kong to Xinjiang. 5/32

1 \ BREAKING: Saudi Arabia, Qatar & other Gulf states to sign tomorrow an agreement towards ending the Gulf rift. Jared Kushner who mediated between the parties traveled to Saudi Arabia to participate in the signing veremony which will take place during the Gulf leaders’ summit

2 \ BREAKING: Kuwaiti Foreign Minister announced Saudi Arabia and Qatar will open their land, air and sea borders starting tonight ahead of the signing of the agreement tomorrow

3 \ Why it matters: Saudi Arabia and Qatar were under pressure by the Trump administration to sign the deal. Both countries see the signing of the agreement as a gesture to Trump & also as part of their effort to “clean the table” and prepare for the incoming Biden administration

4 \ The state of play: Kushner traveled to the Gulf Cooperation Council summit which will take place in Al Ula. White House envoy Avi Berkowitz and adviser Brian Hook who helped negotiate the agreement joined Kushner on his trip

5 \ The summit tomorrow will be the first time the Emir of Qatar Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani visits Saudi Arabia since the crisis erupted in 2017. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait are going to attend

Good day my fellow Nigerians. This what happened this morning on our way going to Lekki (Along Anthony Ikeja) we are heading towards Ikorodu road when these rogue men in uniform stopped us again. They started searching our car uncontrollably. they checked our paper and everything

Was Completed. they told us to come down from the car which we did.the next thing d other man said we should go and meet their oga. that's where I started shouting what is our offense why would we meet your oga. bcos I already sense that all their effort trying to find anything

Incriminating was futile so they want to forcefully extort us. We reluctantly meet the oga. I asked the oga pls what is our offense, oga said we used the "wrong u-turn" which is a lie, bcos about 4 to 5 motors made a u-turn there, our car was the only one they stopped bcos they

Sense maybe we were Yahoo boys so that they can exhort us as usual. That's when I brought out my phone to start recording dem. One guy said "call the anti-robbery Squad I was saying to myself which offense did we commit. However, SARS is the Only Anti-robbery squad I know and

They had banished dem so whc SARS again are we talking about here. I nvm I continue my video, in the course of it one of dem even slapped me but I continue. To cut the long story short: one of us called a fellow Police officer that speaks to dem b4 they let's go

Noticing this map going around showing the long term impact of Communism on the former East Germany (noticing also there were underground churches in the former DDR as well as an official church in which Angela Merkel's father was a pastor). In the West, the pre-war continues.

THREAD.

Former Australian Prime Minister @MrKRudd interviewing China's Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi for @AsiaSociety.

Rudd is making opening remarks in Mandarin.

Rudd (returning to English): It gives me no pleasure that the current state of the US-China relationship is 'probably the worst that we've seen in the nearly half a century.'

Rudd: The key challenge for the future is what we will do for the extraordinary decade of the 2020s which lies ahead

1. Sees China work within the framework of rules-based order that we've been developing together.

Rudd:

2. World adjusts and becomes more accommodating of China's values and interests and Chinese leadership becomes more apparent.

Rudd:

3. International machinery works better to preserve open systems.

Rudd disagrees with 4th that we are destined for war.

A Young Kashmiri lad Iftikaar Bhatt, with shoulder length hair and wearing the traditional Kashmiri Pheran, approached the dreaded Hizbul Mujahideen in Shopian, Kashmir sometime during 2003.

When asked why he wanted to fight the Indian army, he threw the choicest expletives at the army in chaste kashmiri, whom he held responsible for his brother's death during a stone pelting incident.

When his story checked out, he was taken to Pakistan for further training.

Unlike other recruits this young lad displayed outstanding initiative and religious zeal and was promptly marked for further leadership and ideological training.

He was finally given a chance to cross the LOC and carry out an attack on an Indian army Outpost.

In an unprecedented move, he was deputed directly under Abu Sabjar and Abu Torara(war names), Commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen with decades of effective insurgency experience under their belt, for further grooming and leadership training.

2004. He convinced both that he can carry out an attack on the army outpost causing maximum damage. He took them to a vantage point and detailed his plan, impressing them both.

Abu Sabjar though had a doubt on how this young guy can plan a military attack so meticulously

Last October, Israelis were rightly horrified to hear that ~400 acres of forest burned down as a direct result of an IDF training exercise carried out in a nature reserve,despite warnings.
Now look at what happened when the IDF insisted on training in a Palestinian village today:

This is Jinba, a village in Firing Zone 918. Large-scale artillery forces arrived there this AM w/ armored vehicles. In response to @acri_online who reminded them of the damage caused last time, the IDF promised to avoid damaging residents' property. But somehow, this happened:

And this is what some of the agricultural lands looked like this morning, after the heavy armored vehicles flattened them. The residents depend on this land for their livelihood. Several months of hard work can be destroyed in a matter of minutes. (Video: Guy Botavia)

Destroying agricultural fields isn't new. Here's what a Nahal Brig soldier saw in 2004-05: "There was wheat that overflowed beyond the fields, so the instruction [...] that the platoon commander got, or at least what he said to us, [was] to trample."

Here's another picture from this morning, this time from fields belonging to residents of the neighboring Bir al-Eid:

I am glad that PM Muhyiddin Yassin explained himself promptly on the viral letter of a RM35 million allocation in his constituency yesterday. However, I would like to advise the PM to spend the amount, which is at his disposal, wisely to portray a better image of himself. 1/10

More importantly, the amount should be spent to create a larger impact on our economy or public health institution. 2/10

It was reported that China government finished building a 1,500-room hospital in 5 days for COVID-19 patients to fight a surge in of infections in that country. At the same time, we in M’sia were told that 3 community halls will be built in the PM’s constituency asap. 3/10

In Johor, the Hospital Enche’ Besar Hajjah Khalsom (HEBHK) in Kluang has serve as a COVID-19 hospital since last year. The hospital is new compared to many other hospitals in the country. However, the 10th floor of the block is vacant and is not equipped with hospital beds. 4/10

I was informed by the hospital previously that it is possible to install 38 beds with full equipment at the cost of RM 38 million. 5/10

Syria:

Just how unusual is last night's Israeli attack in the Al Zabadani area, close to the Syrian-Lebanese border?

The rural town of Al Zabadani is located close by to the Syrian-Lebanese border (approximately 8km from the border) (1/10)

is in the center of green valley surrounded by relatively tall mountains. Authorities did not bother updated the population number, as of 2004 the town had a population of some 26k residents, most are Sunni Muslims and the rest are Christian. (2/10)

Ever since the very beginning of the last decade the town (which is roughly 70km from the Israeli border) is used as a very important and comfortable weapons and munitions smuggling point. (3/10)

Those weapons and munitions are transfered from Iran to Syria which is used as the entry point to Lebanon. When the Syrian civil war broke in 2011 Hezbollah stood by Assad and fought alongside the Syrian army against the rebels. (4/10)

In 2015 Hezbollah successful took over Al Zabadani Hezbollah is still very active and present in the area to this day (5/10)

German electricity 2020 (public grid):
- Renewables at 50.5% (over 50% for the first time)
- Wind power produced more electricity than brown coal and hardcoal together

https://t.co/BrDwiWkD4w

German electricity, 2010-2020:
- Renewables sharply up, especially wind (light green)
- Coal (brown) down, accelerating
- Nuclear (red) down, nuclear exit in progress

Germany, renewable electricity, public grid, production in TWh:
- Up by a factor of 6, between 2002 and 2020
- Doubled in the period 2011-2020

German electricity, public grid, just solar and wind versus all fossil electricity:
- Solar and wind produced more than brown coal + hardcoal + gas, for the first time, in 2020

Capacity factors of German offshore wind farms, 2020:
- mostly between 35 and 45%
- highest: Sandbank, at 49.6%