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Sunday, January 10, 2010

Chinese officials have said that their country’s exports surged last December to edge out Germany as the world’s biggest exporter.

The official Xinhua news agency reported today that figures from the General Administration for Customs showed that exports jumped 17.7% in December from a year earlier. Over the whole of 2009 total Chinese exports reached US$1.2 trillion, above Germany’s forecast $1.17 trillion.

Huang Guohua, a statistics official with the customs administration, said the December exports rebound was an important turning point for China’s export sector. He commented that the jump was an indication that exporters have emerged from their downslide.

“We can say that China’s export enterprises have completely emerged from their all-time low in exports,” he said.

However, although China overtook Germany in exports, China’s total foreign trade — both exports and imports — fell 13.9% last year.

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

On Monday, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified in a hearing organised by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) of the European Parliament, aiming to inform the parliament on challenges from social media algorithms and to provide input to the proposed Digital Services Act. Ms. Haugen was invited by MEPs of the committee in October, after she leaked internal Facebook documents (commonly known as the Facebook Files). She has already testified at the US Congress and the UK Parliament.

In the opening remarks, chairs of several other committees acknowledged the impacts of social media algorithms. Raphaël Glucksmann, Chair of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference, claimed social media of being used by foreign powers for interference operations. Drago? Tudorache, who chairs the AI Committee, stressed the importance of developing AI ‘on the basis of rules that protect human rights and interests’.

Ms. Haugen raised concerns on engagement-based ranking algorithms, describing Facebook as ‘a system that amplifies division, extremism and polarisation’. She noted discrepancies in Facebook’s existing content moderation systems, pointing to ethnic tensions in Myanmar and Ethiopia as consequences of such systems failing to cater to languages other than English, particularly minority ones. She said content-focussed solutions are not scalable, expressing support for a ‘content-neutral approach’, and for issues to be resolved through making social media more ‘human-scale’.

Haugen proposed the so-called ‘1-2-3’ risk-assessment model, in which companies evaluate themselves, provide information to the community for input, and ‘articulate’ strategies to auditory bodies. This model would be ‘dynamic’ as community concerns change. On the issue of trade secrets, she said that they ‘can and should not be an excuse for companies to refuse access to data’. She said Facebook is ‘substantially’ less transparent than other major platforms, pointing to Google, Twitter and Yelp as examples. She said Facebook should regularly publish aggregated data for civic society to analyse.

On enforcement, Haugen emphasised the importance of having competent personnel, noting a lack of experts. In response to Alexandra Geese’s question on whether enforcement should be delegated to the member states, she said doing so would not enable a ‘critical mass’. She also suggested requiring names on algorithmic changes as a means toward stronger accountability.

Haugen critised Facebook’s rename to Meta, and expressed privacy concerns regarding the Metaverse. However, she is optimistic on the Metaverse being more ‘human-scale’. Monika Bickert, Meta’s vice president of content policy dismissed the notion of profits and user safety being mutually exclusive. In a blog post, she said the platform is ‘on track to spend more than $5 billion this year alone on safety and security’, with ‘over 40,000 people’ for the job. She reiterated their commitment to improve AI moderation systems, and denied allegations of algorithmic polarisation, citing lack of academic consensus.

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Friday, October 11, 2013

On Tuesday the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a 34 member international economic organization founded in 1961 that traces its origins back to the World War II-era Marshall Plan, published results on the state of adult skills in 24 countries, most of them European. Australia had mixed rankings for literacy and numeracy amongst adults, finishing amongst the top for literacy and in the middle for numeracy.

Internationally, Australia ranks fourth amongst surveyed countries for literacy proficiency amongst adults. At the highest proficiency level, level 5, Australia ranks as the second highest percentage of surveyed nations at 1.3%. It is tied with the Netherlands. Only Finland is higher at 2.2%. Readers at this level synthesize text, compare and contrasts ideas and points of view, and process information across multiple sources. Australia, at 9.4%, has one of the smallest percentages of their population at reading proficiency level 1. This means adults have a basic understanding of what they read, can fill out forms and can understanding the meaning of sentences. Overall, Australia’s mean reading proficiency score puts them on par with Norway and Sweden. When scores are adjusted for non-response, Australia is on par with Estonia. Amongst young adults aged 16 to 24 years, Australia ranks seventh amongst surveyed countries, with a mean score comparable to the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the Flanders region of Belgium.

The Australian data said adult literacy skills did not strongly impact on social inequality, and literacy is not a barrier to social mobility. This contrasts to some other countries like the United States where literacy skills correlate to social mobility. Further, it shows an adult’s socio-economic background is not tied very strongly to skills proficiency.

Australia ranks thirteenth amongst all surveyed countries in numeracy proficiency amongst adults aged 16 to 65 years. The country’s mean score is comparable to Canada. Australia’s relative high international performance in literacy and low performance in numeracy buck international trends. When only 16 to 24 year-olds are looked at, Australia’s numeracy ranking falls one position and puts their performance comparable to Canada, Denmark, Norway, Poland, and Cyprus.

Individual performance on numeracy and literacy correlates highlighly in Australia at 0.889.

In proficiency at problem solving, Australia finishes sixth amongst surveyed nations. Adults were allowed to opt out of using computers for this test, and Australia had the sixth largest percentage at 13.7% opting to do so. In a technology-rich problem solving environment, Australia finished two nations below the international average, just behind Austria.

The percentage of adults who have completed university in Australia is close to the global average. Australia is slightly higher on the global average in terms of the percentage of the population who have not finished high school for people aged 25 to 34, and significantly higher for people aged 55 to 65 years.

Australia’s percentage of foreign-born residents rose from around 23% in 1995 to about 27% in 2009.Australia, more than most surveyed nations, has employers who require reading skills at work.

The survey says e-commerce grew by more than a factor of eight by 2008 from the levels that existed in 2001. By 2010, over 60% of Australians had access to the Internet.

The report suggests the relatively similar scores amongst the different age groups is a result of standardized testing in Australia having changed little since the 1970s.

The results are based on a survey of 166,000 adults from Australia, Austria, Flanders, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, England, Northern Ireland, the United States, Cyprus, and Russia. They survey was conducted from August 2011 to March 2012, with the exceptions of Canada where data was collected from November 2011 to June 2012, and France from September to November 2012.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Thousands of Romanian public sector workers gathered outside government headquarters in Bucharest on Wednesday to rally against the planned downsizing of the public sector. They protested planned pay cuts and growing job insecurity, as well as the so-called single wage bill, which will in effect freeze pay in the sector for an indefinite period.

Threatening further protests, union leaders called on voters to boycott the November 22nd presidential elections. The government, meanwhile, faces a no-confidence vote next week.

Bogdan Hossu, leader of Cartel Alfa Union, recalled that President Traian B?sescu had told reporters he would not seek a second term if the number of unemployed reaches one million people.

As many as 15,000 people from all over Romania joined Wednesday’s demonstration. It followed a one-day strike Monday, when up to 800,000 teachers, doctors, nurses, policemen, clerks and other public sector employees took to the streets in what has been described as Romania’s largest protest in the last 80 years.

The catalyst was adoption of reform measures aimed at cutting the swollen budget deficit and meeting commitments spelled out in an IMF-led financial rescue package worth nearly 20 billion euros.

“We need these measures to be taken now. If not, it could lead to a prolonged recession,” the AFP quoted Nicolae Chidesciuc, senior economist at ING Romania, as saying Wednesday.

But the government’s recent move to reform the public pay scale — ending intricate bonus programmes and effectively reducing the wages of most employees in the public sector — caused an uproar.

Chanting “thieves! thieves!”, the participants in Wednesday’s rally demanded that the government to resign. “You promised us, then you forgot us,” they shouted.

“The authorities forced us to the streets again; we did not want this to happen today, on the World Day for Decent Work, as we are now celebrating indecent work,” said Aurel Cornea, vice-president of the Teachers’ Union, one of the four trade unions that organised the rally.

The list of demands they submitted Wednesday called for the minimum wage to be increased from its current level of around 145 euros to 176 euros per month in 2010 and to 310 euros per month in 2014, and for an improvement of the salary scales under the unitary pay law for the public sector. They also urged authorities to scrap provisions introducing a mandatory unpaid leave of ten days a year.

According to Romanian media reports, the unions are also pressing the government to increase economic investment, support economic agencies, create jobs, protect workers and ensure decent pensions.

Romania has been hit badly by the global economic turmoil. According to IMF estimates for 2009, the country’s budget deficit is expected to top 7.3% of GDP and the economy will shrink by 8.5% this year.

Prime Minister Emil Boc, whose government faces a no-confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday, has urged the unionists to halt their protests until after next month’s presidential elections.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

In a new setback to the Thai government’s efforts to ease mounting political tensions, protest leaders escaped from their hotel Friday after security forces arrived to arrest them.

One, Arisman Pongruangrong, climbed down three floors using a rope, and was rushed away by supporters thronging the building. The police say Arisman led recent rallies at the national parliament, the election commission, and satellite transmission bases.

Officials earlier Friday said the government is preparing to arrest people linked to violent clashes with security forces last Saturday.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, Thai security chief, announced the raid on the hotel as it was unfolding, saying that a Special Forces unit had closed in around a downtown Bangkok hotel.

“As I am speaking, the government’s special team is surrounding the SC Park Hotel, where we have learned that there are terrorists and some of their leaders hiding,” Suthep said.

A spokesman for the governing Democrat Party, Baranuj Smuthararaks, says arrest warrants have been issued for those suspected of being involved in the violence. Some of the suspects have been identified from photos taken during the clashes.

“Right now the government’s focusing on issuing warrants for acts of terrorism by the people who fortunately have been captured in action [in photos] by both the local and international media,” he said.

According to the New York Times, as many as five protest leaders had been staying at the same hotel as Pongruangrong. Those leaders later appeared together at a protest rally in Bangkok.

“I would like to thank all of the people who saved me,” Arisman said. “You have saved democracy.”The government says armed men infiltrated protester ranks Saturday and fired on troops trying to disperse a rally. Five soldiers and 19 protesters died during the clashes.

Thailand is facing its most severe political crisis in almost 20 years. The anti-government movement, led by the United Democratic Front against Dictatorship or UDD, demands that the government step down and call fresh elections.

UDD supporters, known as red shirts, have held protests in Bangkok for more than a month.

The UDD largely supports former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and remains overseas to avoid a jail sentence for corruption. Mr. Thaksin has strong support among the rural and urban poor, as well among some sections of the army and police.

Some parties in the governing coalition want to set a clear time frame for elections to ease tensions. But the government says it will only call elections once the political situation has cooled.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The rescue of the Chilean miners trapped in the San José Mine in Copiapó, codenamed Operación San Lorenzo (San Lorenzo Operation), began on Tuesday night, at around 20:00 local time (23:00 UTC).

Florencio Ávalos was the first miner to be rescued, at 00:12 local time (03:12 UTC) on Wednesday. He was wearing a shirt signed by all his fellow miners. “The first miner is already with us. We saw it all, him hugging his wife Monica and his son Byron,” said President Piñera shortly after the first rescue. “We still have a long journey.”

“This will be recorded on every single Chilean heart forever,” Piñera added. “I hope the miners’ hope stay with us, just like the [February] earthquake victims’ [hope] and what the earthquake took off. We know that the disasters unite us all.”

All the 33 miners were rescued. The last miner, Luis Urzúa, was rescued at 21:55 Chile time (00:55 UTC). “It is a pleasure to be Chilean, [I’m] proud,” said Luis Urzúa to President Piñera. “In honour of the miners, their families, the rescuers […] let’s sing our national anthem. Viva Chile Mierda!,” said Piñera. Urzúa thanked Mining Minister Golborne and the First Lady Cecilia Morel for “fighting for their lives.” “I’m proud of my fellow miners,” Urzúa added.

Six rescuers, including a miner and a paramedic, descended to the miners’ shelter using the Fénix 3 capsule which was specially constructed for the rescue. They performed check-ups and talk with the miners before taking them back to the surface. The rescuers still don’t leave the mine.

The Fénix 3 capsules are 3.95 metres in height and weigh about 460 kilograms. They have an armour, an oxygen tube and a microphone. The occupants helmets contain an intercom to keep them in contact with the rescue team on the surface.

President of Chile Piñera assisted to the rescue. Bolivian President Evo Morales could not attend Carlos Mamani’s rescue. Mamani is the only Bolivian miner in the group.

A mass for the miners was conducted at 18:00 local time (21:00 UTC). The rescue takes between 15 and 20 minutes for each miner.

On Tuesday, Mayor of Copiapó Maglio Cicardini announced that the municipal schools in the city will have no classes this Wednesday “to transform the rescue of the Atacama’s 33 in a familiar meeting,” Radio Cooperativa reported.

“The miners will be taken to the Copiapó Regional Hospital for medical checkup, where they will have to stay for 48 hours,” Health Minister Mañalich said to Televisión Nacional de Chile.

Celebrations are taking place in several Chilean cities. In Santiago de Chile, people gathered in one of the most important points of the city, Plaza Italia. In Pichilemu, tens of cars are passing over its most important streets. In Copiapó, people gathered in its main square to assist a massive concert.

On August 5, 33 miners were trapped more than 700 meters (2,300 ft) underground, in the San José copper–gold mine, located about 40 kilometers north of Copiapó, Chile.

The youngest trapped miner is 19 years old, and the oldest is 63. There were several rescue attempts before reaching the miners’ shelter on August 22. The National Emergencies Office of Chile (ONEMI) released a list of the trapped miners on August 6, which included Franklin Lobos Ramírez, a retired footballer.

Chile is the worlds top producer of copper, according to The Economist. The San José Mine is owned by the San Esteban Mining Company (Empresa Minera San Esteban). The mine was closed down in 2007, after relatives of a miner who had died sued the company executives, but the mine was re–opened in 2008.

It was originally estimated that “it would take three to four months to complete the rescue of the trapped miners”. There were three plans to reach the miners: “Plan A” using a Strata 950 drill, “Plan B” using a Schramm T130XD drill, and “Plan C” using a RIG-422 drill. The first to reach the miners was “Plan B”, early on Saturday 9.

The last step of their rescue, announced by Health Minister Jaime Mañalich, was originally due to begin on Tuesday. Laurence Golborne, Minery Minister said “If it is possible, and the cement sets before and we don’t have any impediments to doing it, it would be wonderful,” in a press conference on Monday. The men will be extracted in a steel rescue capsule 54 cm (21 inches) in diameter.

On September 4, Chilean filmmaker Rodrigo Ortúzar announced plans to film a movie about the accident, called “Los 33” (“The 33”). The film will be released in 2011.

One miner is Bolivian, and the other 32 are Chilean.

Raúl Bustos, 40 years old, is an hydraulics engineer. He left his job in Talcahuano after the February 27 earthquake to work in the mine.

Daniel Herrera, 27 years old, is a lorry driver. He has acted as paramedic assistant in the mine. He said to La Tercera “the miners were unhappy with the psychologist in the rescue team.”

Claudio Acuña, miner, is fan of the Colo-Colo football club. The BBC reports he is aged 56, but El Comercio says he is 44.

Pedro Cortez is aged 24. He joined the mine with his friend Carlos Bugueño. Cortez is an electrician, and lost a finger in the mine a year ago.

File:Juan Aguilar with President Piñera.jpg

A native of Los Lagos, Juan Aguilar is 49 years old. Aguilar is married to Cristy Coronado, according to El Comercio. Aguilar works as a supervisor.

Mario Sepúlveda is a 39 years old electrician native of Parral; he is married. He has been the spokesman of the most of the miners’ videos. Mario Sepúlveda was the second miner to be rescued, on Wednesday at 01:10 local time (04:10 UTC).

Víctor Zamora is a 33 years old auto mechanic. Zamora is married to Jéssica Cortez, who confirmed she was pregnant while he was in the mine.

Osman Araya is 30 years old, and married. He began working as miner four months before the accident.

Florencio Ávalos is 31 years old. He is the brother of Renán Ávalos, who is also trapped in the mine. He worked as driver in San José. Ávalos filmed videos, sent later to his relatives.

Ávalos was the first miner to be rescued, on Wednesday at 00:10 local time (03:10 UTC).

Jorge Galleguillos, 56 years old, has worked all his life in the mine. He said in one video he was feeling unwell; he takes medication for hypertension.

Carlos Barrios is a 27 years old miner. His father, Antenor Barrios, told Agence France-Presse: “I find he’s very strong and has enthusiasm. He spoke loud and clear. I was excited.”

Franklin Lobos Ramírez is a 53 years old retired footballer. He played for Cobresal, Deportes Antofagasta, Club de Deportes Santiago Wanderers and Unión La Calera, and briefly for the Chile national football team. Lobos had worked as a truck driver in the mine.

Yonni Barrios, called “The Doctor”, is a 50 years old electrician. He has knowledge of first aid, and was given responsibility for monitoring the health of his colleagues. “I felt I was in hell,” Barrios said in a letter to his wife.

Carlos Bugueño, 27 years old, joined the mine with Pedro Cortez. Previously, he worked as a watchman.

Alex Vega Salazar is a 31 years old heavy machinery mechanic. He is married to Jessica Salgado, and celebrated his birthday in the mine on September 22.

Ariel Ticona is a 29 years old miner. His wife, Margarita gave birth to his daughter on September 14. She was named Esperanza (Hope), at Ticona’s request.

Richard Villarroel is a 27 years old mechanic from Coyhaique.

Edison Peña is a 34 years old miner. “I want to go out soon,” he said on his first contact with his relatives. “I want to be free, I want to see the sun,” he added. He is a fan of Elvis Presley.

Claudio Yáñez is 34 years old, and works as drill operator.

José Ojeda, 46 years old, is the master driller. Ojeda is widowed and diabetic.

Luis Urzúa is a 54 year old topographer. He is the shift-leader, and was the first miner to talk with authorities. He is known as Don Lucho among the miners. He draw plans of the area of the mine where they are trapped.

Urzúa will be the last miner to leave the mine.

José Henríquez is a 54 years old drill master. He is also an evangelical preacher, and has worked in mines for 33 years.

Víctor Segovia is a 48 years old electrician. He is in charge of writing down everything that happens in the mine.

Pablo Rojas is a 45 years old explosives loader. Married, he had been working less than six months in the mine.

Juan Illanes is a 51 year old miner. He was a sergeant in the Beagle border conflict between Chile and Argentina in 1978, the incident which almost provoked a war between the countries.

Illanes was rescued on Wednesday, at 02:07 local time (05:07 UTC).

Jimmy Sánchez, 19, is the youngest miner. He had been working in the mine for five months before the accident. His role is to check the temperature and humidity in the mine.

Samuel Ávalos is a 43 years miner. His wife Ruth said “he was addicted to the cocaine.” His role in the rescue is to check air quality in the area the miners are living. According to the BBC, “Ávalos has worked in the mine for five months.”

Mario Gómez, aged 63, is the oldest of the miners. He has worked 51 years as miner. His father was also a miner, and is nicknamed “El Navegao” (“The Sailed One”). He was thinking of retiring in November.

Gómez also wrote the message “Estamos bien en el refugio los 33” (“We are fine in the shelter the 33 [of us]”).

Segovia is 48 years old. He is married to Jessica Chille, who said “To hear his voice was a confort to my heart,” after talking with him for the first time in 24 days. His sister María, was nicknamed “La Alcaldesa” (“The Mayoress”) for her leading role at Campamento Esperanza. His father, Darío Senior, was trapped in a mine for a week, and suffered serious injuries after two other mining accidents, according to the BBC.

Carlos Mamani is a 23 years old heavy equipment operator. He is also the only non-Chilean miner; Mamani is Bolivian. He began working in the mine just five days before the accident.

He was rescued at 03:11 local time (06:11 UTC) on Wednesday.

Renán Ávalos is a 29 years old miner, single, who had been working for five months in the mine before the accident. Florencio Ávalos is his brother.

Omar Reygadas is a 56 year old electrician. He began working in the mine shortly before the accident.

Esteban Rojas is a 44 years old miner. Rojas is married to Jessica Yáñez.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

A team of eight transplant surgeons in Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA, led by reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow, age 58, have successfully performed the first almost total face transplant in the US, and the fourth globally, on a woman so horribly disfigured due to trauma, that cost her an eye. Two weeks ago Dr. Siemionow, in a 23-hour marathon surgery, replaced 80 percent of her face, by transplanting or grafting bone, nerve, blood vessels, muscles and skin harvested from a female donor’s cadaver.

The Clinic surgeons, in Wednesday’s news conference, described the details of the transplant but upon request, the team did not publish her name, age and cause of injury nor the donor’s identity. The patient’s family desired the reason for her transplant to remain confidential. The Los Angeles Times reported that the patient “had no upper jaw, nose, cheeks or lower eyelids and was unable to eat, talk, smile, smell or breathe on her own.” The clinic’s dermatology and plastic surgery chair, Francis Papay, described the nine hours phase of the procedure: “We transferred the skin, all the facial muscles in the upper face and mid-face, the upper lip, all of the nose, most of the sinuses around the nose, the upper jaw including the teeth, the facial nerve.” Thereafter, another team spent three hours sewing the woman’s blood vessels to that of the donor’s face to restore blood circulation, making the graft a success.

The New York Times reported that “three partial face transplants have been performed since 2005, two in France and one in China, all using facial tissue from a dead donor with permission from their families.” “Only the forehead, upper eyelids, lower lip, lower teeth and jaw are hers, the rest of her face comes from a cadaver; she could not eat on her own or breathe without a hole in her windpipe. About 77 square inches of tissue were transplanted from the donor,” it further described the details of the medical marvel. The patient, however, must take lifetime immunosuppressive drugs, also called antirejection drugs, which do not guarantee success. The transplant team said that in case of failure, it would replace the part with a skin graft taken from her own body.

Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a Brigham and Women’s Hospital surgeon praised the recent medical development. “There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this. It’s great that it happened,” he said.

Leading bioethicist Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania withheld judgment on the Cleveland transplant amid grave concerns on the post-operation results. “The biggest ethical problem is dealing with failure — if your face rejects. It would be a living hell. If your face is falling off and you can’t eat and you can’t breathe and you’re suffering in a terrible manner that can’t be reversed, you need to put on the table assistance in dying. There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this. It’s great that it happened,” he said.

Dr Alex Clarke, of the Royal Free Hospital had praised the Clinic for its contribution to medicine. “It is a real step forward for people who have severe disfigurement and this operation has been done by a team who have really prepared and worked towards this for a number of years. These transplants have proven that the technical difficulties can be overcome and psychologically the patients are doing well. They have all have reacted positively and have begun to do things they were not able to before. All the things people thought were barriers to this kind of operations have been overcome,” she said.

The first partial face transplant surgery on a living human was performed on Isabelle Dinoire on November 27 2005, when she was 38, by Professor Bernard Devauchelle, assisted by Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard in Amiens, France. Her Labrador dog mauled her in May 2005. A triangle of face tissue including the nose and mouth was taken from a brain-dead female donor and grafted onto the patient. Scientists elsewhere have performed scalp and ear transplants. However, the claim is the first for a mouth and nose transplant. Experts say the mouth and nose are the most difficult parts of the face to transplant.

In 2004, the same Cleveland Clinic, became the first institution to approve this surgery and test it on cadavers. In October 2006, surgeon Peter Butler at London‘s Royal Free Hospital in the UK was given permission by the NHS ethics board to carry out a full face transplant. His team will select four adult patients (children cannot be selected due to concerns over consent), with operations being carried out at six month intervals. In March 2008, the treatment of 30-year-old neurofibromatosis victim Pascal Coler of France ended after having received what his doctors call the worlds first successful full face transplant.

Ethical concerns, psychological impact, problems relating to immunosuppression and consequences of technical failure have prevented teams from performing face transplant operations in the past, even though it has been technically possible to carry out such procedures for years.

Mr Iain Hutchison, of Barts and the London Hospital, warned of several problems with face transplants, such as blood vessels in the donated tissue clotting and immunosuppressants failing or increasing the patient’s risk of cancer. He also pointed out ethical issues with the fact that the procedure requires a “beating heart donor”. The transplant is carried out while the donor is brain dead, but still alive by use of a ventilator.

According to Stephen Wigmore, chair of British Transplantation Society’s ethics committee, it is unknown to what extent facial expressions will function in the long term. He said that it is not certain whether a patient could be left worse off in the case of a face transplant failing.

Mr Michael Earley, a member of the Royal College of Surgeon‘s facial transplantation working party, commented that if successful, the transplant would be “a major breakthrough in facial reconstruction” and “a major step forward for the facially disfigured.”

In Wednesday’s conference, Siemionow said “we know that there are so many patients there in their homes where they are hiding from society because they are afraid to walk to the grocery stores, they are afraid to go the the street.” “Our patient was called names and was humiliated. We very much hope that for this very special group of patients there is a hope that someday they will be able to go comfortably from their houses and enjoy the things we take for granted,” she added.

In response to the medical breakthrough, a British medical group led by Royal Free Hospital’s lead surgeon Dr Peter Butler, said they will finish the world’s first full face transplant within a year. “We hope to make an announcement about a full-face operation in the next 12 months. This latest operation shows how facial transplantation can help a particular group of the most severely facially injured people. These are people who would otherwise live a terrible twilight life, shut away from public gaze,” he said.

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Violence broke out on Saturday when several thousand people rallied at Freedom Plaza in the US capital city of Washington, DC in support of US President Donald Trump to protest the results of the 2020 US Presidential Election, where former US Vice-President Joe Biden has been projected to have defeated the incumbent in both the popular vote and the electoral college. The demonstrations were initially peaceful, but clashes with counter-protesters broke out by the evening hours.

Video captured two factions pushing, punching, and throwing projectiles. A report alleged fireworks and flash bangs were used.  

As a result of Saturday’s unrest, according to a report citing the mayor’s office, twenty people were arrested, and two police officers were injured. President Trump lashed out at the capital city’s Democratic mayor Muriel Bowser on Twitter, accusing her of “not doing her job”. The president has blamed Democratic leadership for violence and unrest in various US cities throughout 2020.

The president has not yet conceded the election, and has claimed widespread voter fraud with mail-in ballots, and made various legal challenges. State and federal election officials have stated there is currently no evidence to support the President’s claims of widespread voter fraud.