#Drennn.

NEW DELHI: Instant messaging app WhatApp on Monday said it has addressed two bugs that existed on its outdated software and that it had no reason to believe that "these vulnerabilities were ever abused". The official statement came in the wake of a recent advisory issued by the CERT-In which cautioned WhatsApp users about certain vulnerabilities in the app (application) that could lead to breach of sensitive information. "We regularly work with security researchers to improve the numerous ways WhatsApp protects people's messages." "As is typical of software products, we have addressed two bugs that existed on outdated software, and we have no reason to believe that they were ever abused," a WhatsApp spokesperson told PTI in a statement. The spokesperson added that WhatsApp "remains safe and secure, and end-to-end encryption continues to work as intended to protect people's messages." A "high" severity rating advisory issued by the CERT-In, or the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, on Saturday had said that the vulnerability has been detected in the software that has "WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business for Android prior to v2.21.4.18 and WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business for iOS prior to v2.21.32." "Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in WhatsApp applications which could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code or access sensitive information on a targeted system," the advisory had said. The CERT-In is the federal technology arm to combat cyber attacks and guarding the Indian cyber space. The advisory had recommended users to update their devices with the latest version of WhatsApp from Google Play store or iOS App Store to counter the vulnerability threat.

By making the AI Hardware Composer accessible to students, researchers, academic institutions and commercial partners, IBM’s goal is to accelerate the process of discovering and creating new hardware systems that support AI’s ever-increasing software energy demands. Operating from IBM Research’s open source analog libraries on the cloud, the tool is designed to help anyone from coding novice to experienced developer experiment with creating their own neural networks and tune analog devices to produce accurate models. This launch coincides with the two-year anniversary of IBM’s AI Hardware Center, which opened in February 2019 to advance research in AI chips and hardware systems. The AI Hardware Centre works with more than 16 organisational partners to accelerate AI performance scaling and build hardware systems from the ground up – even to the cloud.

The Persona series is full of unique mechanics, refreshing settings, fast combat, and great tunes, all of which make it better than many other JRPGs. The Persona series has left a mark on the JRPG genre, particularly with its latest mainline games, Persona 4 and 5. Through a combination of polished genre mainstays and stylish twists on age-old conventions, Persona does things differently than other JRPGs, and its games are some of the best the genre has to offer. Now known for its social simulator elements and modern-day setting, the Persona series began as an offshoot of the Shin Megami Tensei series, but it has since shed its spinoff status and come into its own. Rather than the philosophical debates of SMT, Persona focuses on aspects of Jungian psychology and interpersonal relationships. This forms the bedrock of what makes the series special. Eschewing the low-tech fantasy and magically medieval settings of other po[CENSORED]r JRPGs in favor of a modern-day high school, each Persona game takes place in a semi-fictionalized town in Japan. Staying within the current time period lets the series focus on topics that hit a bit closer to home, like mental health and sexuality. While other JRPGs do tackle similar issues, they do so through a fantastical setting that has the possibility to obfuscate the message. The issues Persona deals with feel very real due to the setting's proximity to reality. What Makes Persona Different (& Better) Than Other JRPGs Combat in the franchise also makes JRPG systems more approachable. Persona 5 took traditionally slow turn-based combat and made it blazingly fast. Menuing is quick, due to each action being mapped to a face button; summoning Personas, the games' otherworldly companion monsters, is just one triangle press away; and, if players want things to go even faster, they can turn on auto battling with the click of a trigger. Distilling the turn-based experience down to its fastest form turns the tactical aspects of combat into the center of attention. Persona's Weakness and One More systems incentivize attacking enemies intelligently, as attacking weak points lets players take multiple back-to-back turns. Combat and a realistic setting are only a few of the elements that set Persona apart from its genre contemporaries. Whether it's adding extra style through Persona's colorful soundtracks and bold UI designs or bringing to light some of humanity's common struggles through Social Links - which gamify building relationships with the protagonists' classmates - the series takes the genre in an exciting direction.

Presque cinq mois après son terrible accident à Bahreïn, Romain Grosjean termine 10e de son premier Grand Prix d’Indycar. Au lendemain de son 35e anniversaire, Romain Grosjean a débuté sa première saison en tant que rookie en Indycar. Le pilote franco-suisse a fait bonne impression, finissant 10e du Grand Prix d’Alabama, ce dimanche 18 avril. Alex Palou a remporté la course devant Will Power et Scott Dixon. Près de cinq mois après son accident à Bahreïn le 29 novembre dernier, marquant la fin de sa carrière en Formule 1, Romain Grosjean a retrouvé les sensations de la course automobile sur le circuit de Barber. Pour l’occasion, il étrennait le casque dessiné par ses enfants, qu’il aurait dû porter lors de la dernière course de F1 à Abou Dhabi. Passé entre les gouttes d'un accident dès le départ Sa septième position au départ et son deuxième chrono au warm-up laissaient présager une belle première course. Passée l’appréhension du départ, le premier depuis son accident, le pilote Dale Coyne Racing a réussi à éviter un crash en tout début de course. Dès le premier tour, Josef Newgarden partait en tête à queue en milieu de piste, provoquant des dégâts sur quatre voitures. Rétrogradé en milieu de peloton après un arrêt aux stands, Grosjean est parvenu à remonter en 10e place, tenant le rythme des meilleurs, entre Rossi et Harvey. Le pilote franco-suisse a néanmoins perdu du temps et des places sur un deuxième arrêt au stand un peu long, mais il est parvenu à regagner sa position. Au terme d’une course prudente pour son retour, il prend la 10e place sous le drapeau à damier. Du côté des autres Français, Sébastien Boudais a terminé 5e et Simon Pagenaud 12e. L'apprentissage de l'Indycar se poursuivra à St-Petersburg, en Floride, dès le week-end prochain pour Romain Grosjean.

Hardcore bodybuilders and elite athletes inspired the birth of the original sports nutrition category, which was anchored by a handful of “legacy” brands that met those heavy-duty needs early on. These days, fitness nutrition attracts people from all walks of life and a wide range of physical and mental performance parameters. This transformation—coupled with advances in mobile technology and social media marketing—has challenged many legacy brands to keep up with how active lifestyle consumers want to access information and buy products. Joshua Schall, president of J. Schall Consulting, defined a “legacy brand” admittedly a bit differently than the conventional CPG community. “Since the sports nutrition industry is still relatively young, I use the year 2008 as the demarcation variable that determines if a brand is considered legacy,” he explained. “Facebook started to allow nonpersonal pages at that time, which severely lowered marketing/communication barriers of entry that could be coupled with e-commerce that lowered distribution barriers of entry.” Besides that initial qualifier, he added, a legacy brand can still be created today if a company utilizes legacy business mindsets that position customers as a passive commodity. “A lifestyle brand recognizes the fact that for most of us, life seems dull,” Schall stated. “Although we generally enjoy our lives, we often aspire to achieve certain changes in ourselves. Because of that, lifestyle brands focus on wants over needs.” Schall elaborated that lifestyle sports brands develop marketing models and strategies that seek to inspire, guide and motivate people, with the goal of their products contributing to the definition of the consumer’s way of life. If a consumer is emotionally connected, it allows the brand more latitude to expand outside of its original product and create a portfolio of associated lifestyle products. An example of a successful brand in the space is GHOST Lifestyle, Schall noted. Its co-founder Daniel Lourenco asserted, “GHOST launched in 2016 and was absolutely the first to openly brand ourselves as a lifestyle brand, especially to the extent of including lifestyle as a suffix in all of our public-facing touch points (ghostlifestyle.com, @ghostlifestyle, etc.).” Whether “lifestyle” is in the branding or marketing, Limelight Marketing suggested companies that tap into and influence consumers’ “emotions, aspirations and ideologies” fit the bill. Similarly, the American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a lifestyle brand as “a company that markets its products or services to embody the interests, attitudes and opinions of a group or a culture. Lifestyle brands seek to inspire, guide and motivate people, with the goal of their products contributing to the definition of the consumer’s way of life.” According to Schall, many legacy sports nutrition brands have resisted making the necessary adjustments to accommodate consumer demand toward a broader active nutrition lifestyle. As such, he stated, “This will cause many of those same legacy sports nutrition brands to perish based on self-imposed dated beliefs of the industry.” To read this article in its entirety—along with other coverage on the niche—check out the “Expanding demographics in sports nutrition” digital magazine. Lisa Schofield is a veteran writer and editor who got her start interviewing rock stars for national music magazines. She now writes and edits content for B2B media and suppliers in the natural health product industry. She has served as editor for Vitamin Retailer and Nutrition Industry Executive, and prior to that as associate editor for Whole Foods.

AMMAN, Monday, April 19, 2021 (WAFA) - The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has launched a new centralized digital education platform designed to improve education access for more than 540,000 refugee students in 711 schools across the Middle East, according to an UNRWA press release. In emergency situations -- such as the COVID-19 pandemic or periods of armed conflict -- Palestine refugee children are often unable to physically access their regular schools, risking interruption of their education. In order to ensure learning continuity, the Digital Learning Platform (DLP) was developed to provide UNRWA students (and their parents) with access to age-appropriate, relevant, and safe self-learning material that is in line with UN values and humanitarian principles. UNRWA is committed to providing quality, inclusive and equitable education to all its students, both in times of relative stability and in emergencies, said the press release. The DLP is the newest component of the routine systems UNRWA has in place to quickly operationalize programs and resources during crises. A first of its kind for the Agency, the platform provides a safe, accessible, and centrally monitored system for teachers and administrators to upload and host instructional materials customized across grade, subject and host country. Moreover, it will ensure Agency-wide coherence and alignment with education objectives and UN values of neutrality, human rights, tolerance, equality and non-discrimination with regard to race, gender, language and religion. Acting UNRWA Director of Education, Moritz Bilagher, said, “The new UNRWA digital platform for distance learning is crucial for the continuation of learning in times of crisis, including the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and associated school closures. This system prioritizes giving students a comprehensive, consistent educational experience during this turbulent period – and given the realities of providing education in one of the most volatile regions of the world – it will become a regularly maintained and monitored part of our educational program going forward. While the DLP is a big step forward toward streamlining educational accessibility for students, it is only the first step. Thousands of UNRWA students still face unequal access to the tools and infrastructure, particularly reliable internet, which is essential to succeeding in the 21st century.” For the past 70 years, UNRWA has been the main UN body responsible for delivering assistance, education and protection to Palestine refugees across the Middle East. Over 20,000 staff – the majority of whom are refugees themselves – teach students. In addition, technical vocational training and higher education are provided at eight vocational training centers for approximately 7,700 Palestine refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and Gaza, and for about 1,600 students in two educational science faculties. The new mobile-friendly UNRWA education platform hosts a wide range of materials, including PDFs, quizzes and educational games, providing students with a comprehensive, consistent educational experience. In addition, parents are given access to resources that can help them support their children’s learning. The content management system includes a process for rigorous neutrality review of all content prior to release. To this end, the platform helps the Agency ensure that the UNRWA educational program is of the highest caliber and that all UNRWA learning materials align with and advance UN principles and values. The material on the platform will be constantly monitored and updated as needed. M.K.

A good way to find out what a cell is doing—whether it is growing out of control as in cancers, or is under the control of an invading virus, or is simply going about the routine business of a healthy cell—is to look at its gene expression. Though a vast majority of cells in an organism all contain the same genes, how those genes are expressed is what gives rise to different cell types—the difference between a muscle cell and a neuron, for example. In the last decade, technologies to measure gene expression in individual cells have revolutionized biology. No longer do biologists need to average out gene expression over many cells within tissues; now they can detect which genes are active in each cell at any time. Computational power has struggled to keep up with this explosion of data, however. For example, a single experiment can look at 100,000 cells and measure information from hundreds of thousands of transcripts (fragments of RNA produced when a gene is active), resulting in tens of billions of sequenced fragments. Genomic data from single-cell sequencing can take up terabytes of space and take hours or days to process on large computing servers. Now, a new software tool enables the processing of large sets of genomic data in about 30 minutes, using the computing power of an average laptop. Like a Swiss Army knife, the tool can be used in myriad ways for different biological needs, and will help ensure the reproducibility of scientific studies. The tool, which is available online and open for anyone to use, now is being adapted by another research team to study the SARS-CoV-2 virus in samples collected from screening tests. The research was conducted as a collaboration between the laboratory of Lior Pachter (BS ’94), Bren Professor of Computational Biology and Computing and Mathematical Sciences, and Páll Melsted, professor of computer science at the University of Iceland. Melsted is a co-first author along with graduate student Sina Booeshaghi (MS ’19). A paper describing the research appears in the journal Nature Biotechnology on April 1, 2021. “There are many examples of different groups using different technologies to study the same tissues, for example, the brain,” says Booeshaghi. “Processing all of this data with the same engine—our technique—facilitates integrating the data. Our tool is fast, efficient, and allows for easy reprocessing, which is very important for consistency and reproducibility in science.” Developing this complex software tool “in-house” was important for it to actually address potential users’ concerns, because the potential users were right there in the lab. “The interdisciplinarity of our team was crucial to conceiving of and executing this project,” says Pachter. “There are people in the lab who are computer scientists, biologists, engineers. Sina is in the mechanical engineering department and brings the perspective of his design background and engineering; Páll has a strong background in theoretical computer science and software engineering.” The ease-of-use, low cost, and modularity of these tools will enable consistent and reproducible preprocessing of genomic data for large consortiums such as the Human Cell Atlas and the Brain Initiative Cell Census Network. Reference: “Modular, efficient and constant-memory single-cell RNA-seq preprocessing” by Páll Melsted, A. Sina Booeshaghi, Lauren Liu, Fan Gao, Lambda Lu, Kyung Hoi (Joseph) Min, Eduardo da Veiga Beltrame, Kristján Eldjárn Hjörleifsson, Jase Gehring and Lior Pachter, 1 April 2021, Nature Biotechnology. DOI: 10.1038/s41587-021-00870-2 The paper is titled “Modular, fast, and constant-memory pre-processing of single-cell RNA-seq data.” In addition to Melsted, Booeshaghi, and Pachter, additional co-authors are undergraduate Lauren Liu, bioinformatics director Fan Gao, graduate student Lambda Lu, former undergraduate Joseph Min (BS ’20), graduate student Eduardo da Veiga Beltrame, former graduate student Kristján Eldjárn Hjörleifsson, and postdoctoral scholar Jase Gehring. Funding was provided by the Beckman Institute Caltech Bioinformatics Resource Center and the National Institutes of Health.

OTTAWA COUNTY, MI -- Police took six people into custody following a high-speed pursuit that ended in an eastern Ottawa County field and may be linked to a break-in at a Holland area hardware. The pursuit happened about 3 a.m. Saturday, April 17 along eastbound Adams Street from I-196. Some 30 minutes earlier, Allegan County sheriff’s deputies were investigating a break-in at Graafschap Hardware, 4578 60th St., where the front door was smashed out. It wasn’t clear if anything was taken. Allegan County sheriff’s deputies initially began pursuing a car that eventually ended up in Ottawa County. Ottawa County sheriff’s deputies assisted in the pursuit, which ended up in a field north of Adams Street and between 24th and 28th avenues. People fled the car when it became disabled, but police set up a perimeter. They took six people, believed to be all of the occupants, into custody.

If you're a gamer who loves to play Super Mario Galaxy then you might also find pleasure playing Planet Alpha and the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane trilogy Super Mario Galaxy is often considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. Taking the po[CENSORED]r Nintendo character and launching him into space as Mario attempts to rescue Princess Peach while also saving the universe in the process. The platform game has a wide variety of settings with different planets, providing contrasting styles and challenges. The po[CENSORED]r game did go on to gain a sequel, which was kept to just similar levels of quality, but outside of that, what other games have similarities that fans would enjoy? Whether it's the story, the action, or the fantastic characters, these 10 games are all perfect for fans of Super Mario Galaxy. Of course, anybody who enjoys Super Mario Galaxy is likely to find a lot of enjoyment within Super Mario 3D World as well, with this platformer being fun for the entire family to play. The game takes the classic idea of navigating Mario to the end pole to finish a level but doing so within a 3D world, making it even more exciting to play. The brilliance within this game was the fact that there are different characters to play, who all have their own abilities and powers. This is another game that is set in space, with this taking place on a planet that sees gamers having to use the environment itself to survive and thrive. Because gamers must use different powers, which they can harness from the night and day, it is a game that does change throughout its play. This is something that is familiar with Super Mario Galaxy, as every planet Mario visits brings different tests, constantly keeping gamers on the edge of their seat. The graphics within this one are also absolutely breathtaking and will leave audiences stunned. Although the overall target audience for Super Mario Galaxy was younger audiences, that doesn't mean older gamers haven't found it enjoyable. Nor does it mean that they wouldn't find this product great either. Like Mario, SpongeBob is a perfect lead character, who has a lot of charisma and is easy to play with. This game is a true adventure, taking place inside Bikini Bottom where SpongeBob gets to explore around (just as Mario does on different planets). It's relatively simple, with easy controls that make the game accessible to people of all skill levels (just as Super Mario Galaxy did). Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy (2017) Crash Bandicoot is another vibrant and po[CENSORED]r character, who brings a lot of personality into these games. This trio of remastered games brings the classic game to life once again, with characters taking Crash around Woompa Island, collecting gems in order to defeat Dr. Neo Cortex. There are many similarities between the two games. Colorful worlds and changing settings help to make every level feel different within this game, much like with Super Mario Galaxy. Plus, this game is simple enough to play through for younger gamers, yet complex enough for older viewers, with every collectible and target being a difficult task to complete. A Hat In Time (2017) This is another engaging platform game that follows the character Hat Kid as she must try to return home. When her spaceship is destroyed, gamers must look for missing Time Pieces to do that, taking place over various locations, with enemies coming up along the way. Much like Super Mario Galaxy, it has brilliant graphics and a fantastic environment to be explored. The game was well-received overall by the public, getting strong reviews, with an 8/10 score in IGN and a 76% rating on Metacritic. One of the most exciting elements of Super Mario Galaxy is the action that it provides. With different enemies to take on and great boss fights, there are many different ways to defeat them, which makes the game very much enjoyable to play. That is why Super Smash Bros. Brawl is an option for fans of the game, as this brings many of Nintendo's biggest characters together, with the focus being on fighting to see who comes out on top. Gamers will enjoy the creativity behind this, working out the strengths and weaknesses of each character. And with such a varied roster, it's one that will have people hooked for a long time. Super Mario Sunshine is one of Mario's first 3D adventures, and it's one that still holds up to this day. As is always the case with Mario's adventures, the world that this takes place in is inviting, with the story of Shadow Mario causing havoc with graffiti, ultimately setting up Mario. Gamers will then have to fix the mess themselves in a big to clear Mario's name. It's a terrific adventure with a lot of exploration being allowed, which is something that is fun for anybody who plays. With simple controls that are easy to learn, people can jump straight into the action with this one, without having to waste too much time becoming frustrated in the learning process. The Ratchet and Clank franchise is another massively po[CENSORED]r one, bringing two great characters together that have fantastic chemistry, who provide lots of humor and emotion to the games. This game is actually a remake of the original, but with changes to the story and the graphics getting boosted for modern standards. With plenty of action around every corner as well as puzzles, there's something for everyone within the game. Plus, much like Super Mario Galaxy's different suits, there's a lot of different powers and weapons for gamers to build up as the game goes on. The Legend Of Zelda series has provided some amazing games over the years, and all of them are perfect for Super Mario Galaxy fans. With a huge area to explore, items to be collected, and lots of enemies to be slayed, this one is ideal for everyone While Super Mario Galaxy proved to be po[CENSORED]r at the time, Super Mario Odyssey really took the franchise to a whole new level. The game proved to be po[CENSORED]r and is one that fans would enjoy, with this being another exciting story about Nintendo's greatest character. With stunning graphics and fun new additions bringing a different dynamic to this in comparison to other Mario games, there are enough fresh ideas to make this stand out. The story is exciting, with Mario having to save Princess Peach in an open world environment (which allows gamers to take their time, find hidden details and really just enjoy the experience).

Dimanche débutera la nouvelle saison d'IndyCar avec le pilote français rescapé de Formue 1, Romain Grosjean aux côtés des plus expérimentés Simon Pagenaud et Sébastien Bourdais. La France compte plusieurs pilotes en IndyCar, ce qui en fait la deuxième nation de la compétition. Ses trois pilotes, Simon Pagenaud, Sébastien Bourdais et le "rookie" Romain Grosjean font leurs débuts dimanche. Grosjean, le petit nouveau Quelques mois après le tragique accident dont il a été victime au Grand Prix de Formule 1 du Bahreïn, Romain Grosjean reprend le volant en IndyCar dimanche. Le Français devrait se contenter uniquement des circuits routiers et urbains et disputer 13 des 17 épreuves dont l'ouverture de la saison au Barber Motorsport Park avec l'écurie Dale Coyne Racing. En espérant que ses débuts se déroulent mieux que ses essais effectués fin février sur le même circuit où il était sortie de piste. «C’était une expérience instructive, après je ne l’ai plus refait et c’était mieux», a-t-il ensuite dit, soulignant la meilleure adhérence mécanique et la plus faible puissance d’une monoplace Indy par rapport à une Formule 1. L'objectif principal du "petit nouveau" sera de remporte une course, chose qui n'est jamais arrivé en Formule 1 où il s'était contenté de 10 podiums. Une saison 2020 à oublier pour Pagenaud Avec un palmarès respectable (champion d'IndyCar en 2016 et vainqueur des 500 Miles d'Indianapolis en 2019), Simon Pagenaud a vécu une année 2020 compliquée. Il se montre particulièrement revanchard au moment d'aborder cette 10e saison avec pour objectif, un second sacre à Indianapolis. "Les premiers essais ont été très satisfaisants. Pendant l’hiver, le développement fut très axé sur Indianapolis", a-t-il déclaré récemment. Derrière il voudrait remporter une nouvelle fois le championnat en misant sur les circuits routiers. "La saison sera longue et il faudra être régulièrement dans le top 5 pour être en mesure de se battre. Nous sortons d’une bonne préparation et avons tout fait pour être compétitifs", a-t-il assuré. Bourdais veut continuer de briller à 42 ans Après une saison compliquée où il n'a pas été conservé par la Dale Coyne Racing, Sébastien Bourdais s'épanouit désormais avec AJ Foyt. Fort d'un palmarès étoffé avec quatre titre de Champ Car (20024-2007), il a également remporté six courses entre 2014 et 2018. A 42 ans, il rêve de s'imposer encore. D'ailleurs, il a réalisé le meilleur chrono des premiers essais des 500 Miles d'Indianapolis (30 mai) de quoi faire le plein de confiance avant d'aborder la première course de la saison. "On a les moyens de faire notre part, il y aura sûrement des opportunités à saisir. Chez AJ Foyt, la dernière victoire remonte à assez loin (Takuma Sato à Long Beach en 2013). Tout le monde en rêve. Le boss pense qu’une place dans le top 10 serait déjà bien", a-t-il exposé à Ouest France.

As per a new study, unhealthy lifestyles mediated a small proportion of the socioeconomic inequity in health in both US and UK adults and so healthy lifestyle promotion, although essential, alone might not substantially reduce the socioeconomic inequity in health Unhealthy lifestyle only explains small part of socioeconomic health inequity(Shutterstock) HEALTH Unhealthy lifestyle only explains a small part of socioeconomic health inequity As per a new study, unhealthy lifestyles mediated a small proportion of the socioeconomic inequity in health in both US and UK adults and so healthy lifestyle promotion, although essential, alone might not substantially reduce the socioeconomic inequity in health ANI | UPDATED ON APR 18, 2021 10:01 AM IST A recent study on UK and US adults states that unhealthy lifestyles alone only explain a small proportion of the socioeconomic inequity in health. This is the suggestion of a large study published in the BMJ. The findings show that the poorest individuals with the least healthy lifestyle are 2.7 to 3.5 times more at risk of death than the most affluent people with the healthiest lifestyle. While healthy lifestyles play an important role in reducing disease burden, the researchers warn that healthy lifestyle promotion alone "might not substantially reduce the socioeconomic inequity in health, and other measures tackling social determinants of health are warranted." It is well known that disadvantaged socioeconomic status (the measure of a person's social and economic standing) and unhealthy lifestyles are linked to poor health. Lifestyle factors are commonly viewed as mediators between socioeconomic status and health, but it's not clear to what extent healthy lifestyles might alleviate the socioeconomic inequities in health.

RAMALLAH, Palestine Palestine on Saturday called on the international community and signatories of the Geneva Conventions to assume their responsibilities towards protecting Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. This came in a statement issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates on the occasion of the Prisoner’s Day, which is celebrated by Palestinians on April 17 of every year. It was approved by the Palestinian National Council during its regular session on April 17, 1974. The statement called for holding the Israeli occupation authorities accountable over “the racist colonial system” against Palestinians by “expelling and displacing them from their lands” and carrying out arbitrary detentions against them. The statement described Israeli courts as “colonial military courts” that do not meet “the minimum standards of the due legal process and a fair trial”, reiterating its call on the international community to work for the immediate release of prisoners. The Geneva Conventions, which regulate warfare and armed conflict laws, entered into force on Oct. 21, 1950, and have far been ratified by 194 states. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Geneva Conventions protect people who do not take part in active hostilities such as civilians, health workers, and aid workers, and those who have ceased to participate in them including the wounded, sick, shipwrecked soldiers, and prisoners of war. "The silence of the international community enabled the occupation authorities to continue the policy of arbitrary detention and its systematic violations against Palestinian prisoners, their families, and their rights," the statement said. The ministry pledged to continue working on the legal, political and diplomatic levels to ensure the protection of prisoners. An estimated 4,500 Palestinians are believed to be held in Israeli prisons, including 41 women, 140 minors, and 440 administrative detainees, according to data compiled by organizations on the rights of prisoners. *Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar

April 16, 2021, by Nadja Skopljak Van Oord is using Ansys software to speed up the design of wind turbine foundations for the offshore wind industry. Van Oord’s engineers are using Ansys Cloud and Ansys Mechanical to optimize new product design, minimize project risk, streamline supplier negotiations and slash product development timelines. The aim is to help engineers in their development of wind turbine foundations, as well as aid with the increase of product quality and delivery of new innovations to market faster. According to Ansys, leveraging Mechanical and Ansys Cloud empowers Van Oord to rapidly run 5x more design iterations on Cloud to predict the performance of advanced foundations and enhance the fabrication processes while reducing project risks and speeding supply chain negotiations. As a result, simulations that required a week to run on multiple costly workstations now run overnight, delivering a 7x improvement in time savings, while greatly decreasing risk of production delay. “Van Oord engineers employ Ansys Cloud to spur new product innovation and solve the ever-growing number of Mechanical models, which may feature over 5.5 million degrees of freedom, 1.8 million nodes and 550,000 elements,” said Ralph Luiken, Engineering Specialist at Van Oord. “Historically, these massive models each required 150 hours to run, however, with Ansys Cloud, our team has reduced run times to less than 24 hours per simulation. This has substantially sped up product development, enabled us to expedite our negotiations with foundation steel suppliers and expedited delivery to our global customers.”

How can packets on commodity hardware be processed at multi-hundred-gigabit per second rates? In collaboration with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Ericsson Research sought to optimize the performance of network functions running on commodity hardware, enabling them to run at multi-hundred-Gbps. Read their findings here. The need for flexibility, faster time to market, and lower deployment costs are factors driving the trend towards Network Function Virtualization (NFV), as well as realizing network functions on commodity hardware as opposed to specialized and proprietary hardware. Benefits of NFV also include easier prototyping and better scaling/migration. However, commodity hardware was not explicitly designed for packet processing. This can cause performance issues with NFV, particularly at high rates (such as 100/200/400 Gbps), where new packets are received every few nanoseconds. The challenge is escalated by the fact that processor performance is no longer increasing at its previous rate. Through joint research between Ericsson and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, we looked for new ways to achieve high performance on top of commodity hardware and at really high rates. We concluded that optimizing both the software stack and the underlying hardware is necessary for realizing high performance network functions. Our research results show that for the first time, software-based network functions deployed on top of commodity hardware can process packets at more than 100 Gbps while only using one core. More specifically, we have analyzed the impact of the following factors on the performance of high-speed network functions: efficient hardware I/O management holistic software optimizations The former, I/O management, focuses on optimizing the available functionalities in the current hardware, which is a necessary step before focusing on software optimizations. At the same time that it benefits from efficient hardware I/O management, the latter performs whole-stack optimization of network functions to use the underlying hardware more Optimized cache management for I/O intensive applications In a previous blog post, we showed how to squeeze the maximum performance out of Commercially Available off-the-shelf (COTS)-based hardware with careful memory management. Aligned with that, we further evaluated the impact of the processor’s cache management on the performance of I/O intensive applications when evolving towards multi-hundred-Gbps rates. We systematically studied the impact of data transfers between I/O devices and the processor’s cache, aka Direct Cache Access (DCA), when processing packets at high rates. Direct Cache Access DCA is a technique that enables I/O devices to send their data directly to the processor’s cache rather than main memory. The latest implementation of DCA in Intel processors is Data Direct I/O technology (DDIO), illustrated in the figure below. Using DDIO avoids expensive memory accesses and therefore improves performance. Fig 1. Data Direct I/O Technology (DDIO) sends I/O data directly to the processor cache. We identified and demonstrated that moving toward faster link rates makes DDIO less efficient. The reason is that DDIO can only use a limited portion of the processors’ cache – it needs to share the cache with other applications – so at higher speeds, DDIO cannot accommodate all I/O transfers in the cache. To find a solution, it’s necessary to fully understand the interaction of applications with DDIO. We deeply investigated this issue and compiled a set of guidelines that enable application developers to fine-tune DDIO for their application and achieve suitable performance at multi-hundred-Gbps link rates as a result. For instance, our investigation reveals that when an application is I/O intensive, meaning when communication overhead is higher than computation overhead, it is necessary to carefully size the DDIO capacity to achieve low latency at high rates. Additionally, we argue that it is essential to bypass the cache, either via disabling the DDIO or by Fig 2. Showing the impact of the guidelines when processing packets in different scenarios . The total achieved throughput is written on the bars. The baseline indicates that no optimization is applied to the system. Scenario I shows the results for a carefully sized DDIO, while scenario II and III show the impact of bypassing cache via two different methods. Additionally, our results show that carefully tuned I/O transfers could reduce the packet processing latency by up to 30 percent when receiving traffic at 100 Gbps. For full details, please refer to our ATC’20 paper, Reexamining Direct Cache Access to Optimize I/O Intensive Applications for Multi-hundred-gigabit Networks. Whole-stack optimizations for software packet processing Most network functions can be realized via general purpose packet processing frameworks to provide simplicity and flexibility. These frameworks use the same codebase when building different network functions by simply adapting the software dynamically at runtime. However, this way of realizing network functions comes at the cost of lower performance than specialized software. Moreover, these frameworks fail to take full advantage of the underlying commodity hardware, as the code/binary executable is not specialized for a given network function and therefore contain lots of software inefficiencies. We have proposed a new system, called PacketMill, to optimize general purpose packet processing frameworks to achieve (near) optimal performance while maintaining simplicity and flexibility. PacketMill’s objective is to produce an optimized binary executable while maintaining high-level modularity and flexibility of general purpose packet processing frameworks. To do so, PacketMill grinds the whole packet processing stack, from the high-level network function configuration file to the low-level user space network drivers, to mitigate inefficiencies and produce a customized binary for a given network function. More specifically, PacketMill performs the following optimizations: Introduces a new way to facilitate the delivery of packets to network functions from the driver. Modifies the source code of the packet processing framework for a given network function. Exploits modern modular compiler toolchains to perform link-time optimizations and reorder the important data structures used in packet processing frameworks. Using these three optimizations, PacketMill can use the underlying hardware more efficiently, enabling per-core 100-Gbps networking. Moreover, it achieves a better performance than other packet processing frameworks such as FastClick, BESS, and VPP. Fig 3. Performance improvements achieved by PacketMill when applying whole-stack optimizations to software packet processing Full details can be found in our ASPLOS’21 paper PacketMill: Toward Per-Core 100-Gbps Networking.

New Pokémon Snap proves there's a chance some old Pokémon spin-offs can make a return. Here are four Pokémon games that deserve to make a comeback. It has been 22 years since the original Pokémon Snap released on the Nintendo 64. The announcement of New Pokémon Snap came as nothing short of a surprise, delighting fans of the original that never got to play a sequel. The photography game encapsulates the diversity of possibilities for games within the Pokémon franchise. The mainline Pokémon titles and their remakes always seem to dominate the fanbase's attention, but there have been many unique and interesting spin-off games over the years. From strategy games to puzzlers and virtual arcade games, The Pokémon Company has tried to break into many different genres with its beloved monsters. Some Pokémon spin-offs like Mystery Dungeon manage to get follow-up games, turning into a legitimate series in its own right. Many others flounder after one or two entries, and are seemingly forgotten by game developers, even though there might be potential for innovative sequels. Some Pokémon spin-offs were genuinely innovative for their time, and others simply didn't quite hit the mark. With the global po[CENSORED]rity of Pokémon, almost any game carrying the brand will have some sort of audience. However, some spin-offs never really got the treatment they deserve. Here are four Pokémon games that deserve to see a revival like Pokémon Snap. Pokémon Games That Need A Revival – Hey You, Pikachu! Hey You, Pikachu! was the only game to release in North America that used the Nintendo 64's Voice Recognition Unit. The VRU was an N64 peripheral that plugged into the fourth controller slot and had a microphone that clipped onto the controller. A sort of precursor to games like Nintendogs, Hey You, Pikachu! required the player to speak with a Pikachu in order to train it commands and subsequently do various tasks. Although the Nintendo Switch doesn't have a built in microphone, a modern version of Hey You, Pikachu! could potentially work very well on Android and iOS. Many Pokémon fans would jump at the opportunity to have a Pokémon friend in their pocket that could be trained and used in mini-games. Pokémon Games That Need A Revival – Pokémon Conquest Pokémon Conquest was an unlikely crossover with the tactical RPG series Nobunaga's Ambition. In an attempt to unify the Ransei Region, players would enter isometric, turn-based battle with multiple Pokémon at their disposal. The game only received one title for the Nintendo DS in 2012, but the concept of a tactical RPG Pokémon game deserves another look. The Pokémon series' Type system would offer a unique aspect to battles involving multiple creatures, differing terrain, and special abilities. The connection to Nobunaga's Ambition wouldn't even be necessary for a new game, since Nintendo could just supply players with some narrative justification for trainers using entire teams at once and build unique arenas. Pokémon Games That Need A Revival – Pokémon Dash Released as a launch title for the Nintendo DS, Pokémon Dash utilized the stylus for a top-down racing game. Players swiped the stylus in the direction they wanted their Pokémon to run, and checkpoints were completed in a set order. The game would need to go through some changes since the 3DS has since been discontinued, but a racing game set in the Pokémon universe could be very interesting if the battle system is involved. This could be a racing game like Mario Kart, but instead of power-ups or items, a trainer has a handful of Pokémon at their disposal to boost their kart performance or knock opponents out of the way. A game like this could be right at home on the Nintendo Switch. Pokémon Games That Need A Revival – Pokémon Pinball Unlike the other games on this list, Pokémon Pinball actually got a sequel. The original came out for the Game Boy Color in 1999, and the second game, Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire, came to the Game Boy Advance in 2003. The pinball started out as a Poké Ball, and advanced through Great, Ultra, and Master Ball as the player's score accumulated. There were also a plethora of mini-games, such as a brick breaker style game with Digletts and Dugtrios. It's surprising the series hasn't been made into a mobile game, since smart phone screens are the correct orientation for a pinball machine, but a Switch version could offer split-screen play as well. While the mainline Pokémon games remain largely the same, the IP itself has plenty of room for creativity. The beloved monsters can be made to fit into just about any genre, and there are some great games that were tried once, and then seemingly abandoned. With any luck, The Pokémon Company will bring back some of the old spin-offs that deserve another chance, just like Pokémon Snap.

L’ancienne Fiat Panda du youtubeur et rappeur Mister V est à vendre aux enchères sur Ebay pour un montant totalement délirant. Si vous consultez régulièrement les sites spécialisés dans l’automobile, et notamment Auto-Moto, vous n’êtes pas sans savoir qu’il est courant de découvrir des véhicules proposés à la vente pour des montants totalement fous. Cela arrive souvent lorsque la voiture en question a des caractéristiques originales, mais surtout lorsqu’elle a appartenu à une personnalité, le prix variant alors en fonction du niveau de célébrité. En l’occurence, il s’agit cette fois-ci de Mister V, de son vrai nom Yvick Letexier, youtubeur, humoriste et rappeur, notamment connu pour faire partie de la première génération d’humoristes français sur le web, aux côtés de Norman et Cyprien, entre autres. Egalement derrière deux albums de rap, sortis en 2017 et 2020, le jeune homme de 27 ans rassemble aujourd’hui plus de 5,72 millions d’abonnés sur les réseaux sociaux. Autant dire qu’il possède une belle notoriété, qui explique sans aucun doute le montant totalement fou affiché pour son ancienne voiture. Et pour cause, il est possible de se procurer la vieille Fiat Panda du youtubeur, actuellement proposée à la vente sur Ebay, sous forme d’enchères. Et le moins que l’on puisse dire, c’est que c’est loin d’être une affaire, alors que l’auto est affichée à 75 350 €, pour un prix de départ fixé à 1 000 € seulement. Pourtant, la citadine italienne de 2001 n’est plus vraiment de la première jeunesse, alors qu’elle affiche pas moins de 105 000 kilomètres au compteur. Si le vendeur précise que la carrosserie et l’intérieur ont intégralement été refaits, le contrôle technique est quant à lui beaucoup moins flatteur. Parmi les défauts de l’auto, citons en effet la mauvaise orientation des feux et les témoins de feux de route et de brouillard arrière défaillants. Mais le pire est à venir, puisqu’il faudra également revoir la fixation de l’essieu arrière, tandis que la corrosion du châssis est telle qu’elle affecte la rigidité de l’assemblage. Le vendeur précise d’ailleurs que l’auto est vendue en l’état, il ne sera donc pas possible de se retourner contre lui en cas de problème. Un cadeau insolite Mais comment l’ancienne voiture de Mister V a t-elle donc pu se retrouver sur Ebay ? Pour le savoir, il faut remonter quelques mois en arrière, alors que l’artiste lançait un concours permettant à l’un de ses abonnés de remporter ladite auto. Une opération qui s’inscrivant alors dans le cadre de la promotion de la réédition de son deuxième album, baptisé MVP et sorti l’an dernier.. Dans une vidéo postée le 21 février dernier et parodiant la célèbre émission Pimp my Ride, le rappeur mettait alors en scène la remise des clés de la voiture à l’heureux gagnant, visiblement heureux. Sur le ton de la plaisanterie, l’artiste espérait alors que la Panda ne finirait pas « sur Leboncoin dans quatre jours », provoquant l’hilarité de ses amis. Visionnaire, Mister V ? Sans doute, puisque la voiture a donc atterri sur Ebay, moins de deux mois après la vidéo. Si vous êtes prêts à dépenser une petite fortune pour vous offrir cette Fiat Panda, sachez qu’il ne vous reste plus que quelques jours pour enchérir, alors que la vente se termine le 18 avril prochain. D’ici là, il y a fort à parier pour que le montant augmente encore, mais jusqu’où ?

The US Department of Justice has sued Roger Stone, saying the close ally of former president Donald Trump owes about $2m in unpaid federal income taxes, according to a court document. The civil lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida on Friday, alleged that Stone and his wife, Nydia, used a commercial entity to “shield their personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle despite owing nearly $2m in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties”. Stone did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Roger Stone: five things to know about Trump's controversial ally Read more Stone, 68, is a long-time Republican political operative, known for his high-end wardrobe, outspoken comments and tattoo on his back of former president Richard Nixon. The self-styled “dirty trickster” faced fresh scrutiny after the attack on the US Capitol for his links with far-right groups, though he was not part of the insurrection. Stone advised Trump when the wealthy real estate developer toyed with running for president in 2000 and briefly worked on Trump’s successful 2016 campaign. He was indicted by Robert Mueller, the former special counsel tasked with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mueller’s investigation, which Trump called a “witch hunt”, led to criminal charges against dozens of people, including Trump associates such as political strategist Paul Manafort and former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. A federal jury in Washington convicted Stone on seven counts of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. At trial, prosecutors said Stone told five different lies to lawmakers on the US House intelligence committee about his contacts with the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. Trump granted Stone a presidential pardon in December, wiping away the criminal conviction. Trump had previously commuted Stone’s sentence, which was condemned by Robert Mueller, allowing him to avoid a prison sentence.

RAMALLAH, Sunday, April 16, 2021 (WAFA) – Minister of Health Mai Alkaila announced today that 1774 new coronavirus infections, 19 deaths and 2276 recoveries were registered in Palestine during the past 24 hours. In her daily report on the coronavirus pandemic, she said seven corona-related deaths were registered in the West Bank, eleven deaths in the Gaza Strip, and one death in occupied Jerusalem. Of the total infections registered, 590 were in the West Bank, 1138 others in the Gaza Strip, and 46 in occupied Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the West Bank had 974 recoveries, the Gaza Strip had 1205 cases, while occupied Jerusalem registered 97 recoveries. The health minister said 172 patients of coronavirus remain under intensive care, while 54 are on ventilators. In addition, 514 patients are receiving treatment for COVID-19 at hospitals and Covid dispensaries. Alkaila pointed out that the recovery rate in Palestine has so far stood at 88.6 percent, while active cases slightly declined to 10.4 percent. Deaths stood at one percent of total infections. In the meantime, the health minister said over 159,000 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, of whom 23,113 received the second dose of the vaccine.

Latest software release predicts vibration and airblast to protect sensitive structures and maximize blast outcomes ORICA, the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial explosives and innovative blasting systems, have today announced the global release of their new Advanced Vibration Management (AVM) software that links blast design, modelling and measurement to conserve sensitive structures near quarries and mines. Continuing their efforts to create safer, predictable and more productive blast outcomes, Orica have added AVM to their integrated BlastIQ digital blast optimization software suite. AVM accurately predicts blast vibration, allowing maximum productivity while minimizing risk to nearby critical structures. When used in conjunction with the BlastIQ suite, AVM allows customers to seamlessly link blast designs, drilled actuals and vibration measurements, and uses sophisticated modelling to accurately predict blasting outcomes. Building on the simpler tools historically housed within Orica’s SHOTPlus Premier design software, AVM is said to offer a step change in vibration and airblast management by using cloud computing architecture to deliver reliable and timely data across multiple measurement points throughout the operation. Orica’s vice-president of digital solutions, Raj Mathiravedu, said: ‘Vibration management is critical to many sites’ ongoing license to operate and can instantly stop the operation if not effectively controlled. ‘The release of AVM is driven by these needs and is the latest tool resulting from our continued investment in developing intelligent and autonomous modelling systems that enable our customers to make informed productivity improvement decisions.’ Vibration and airblast are common outcomes from blasting and can be dangerous and disruptive if not managed effectively; indeed, a site’s social license to operate often hinges on well-managed vibration limits. The most common route to resolving these issues is to blast at significantly reduced energies, which often comes at a cost to load and haul productivity and can negatively impact downstream production and throughput. Vibration management using accurate modelling, measurement and site seed-wave analysis is known to improve productivity but is often expensive, time-consuming and performed on a discrete basis. Orica say their AVM online application provides a simple yet insightful interface to capture and see the predicted and actual results of vibration monitoring, with the power of cloud architecture to drive the modelling from blast design through to execution. When structures sensitive to vibration and airblast are closely located to an operation, uncontrolled blasting operations can cause significant damage. However, through the use of an advanced prediction algorithm, customers can now access areas of their operations that may have previously been inaccessible or deemed too high risk to blast in, potentially extending the overall life of an operation.

The tender has finally dropped for the new all-of-government hardware contract with vendors encouraged to partner and to include services. Some changes have also been made to the so-called "gen three" contract since a strategy briefing to potential suppliers last month. Wi-Fi tablet devices are now incorporated into the mobile devices category instead of the supplementary hardware category. The "meeting room technologies" category has been renamed "meeting room equipment" and includes three product types -- large format interactive displays, interactive/digital whiteboards and projectors. Component installation and deployment has been merged into a single installation/deployment service type and redeployment has been added to the disposals/recycling service type. Partnering for range is encouraged within the services component of the tender, which participating agencies are strongly encouraged to use, but not required. A proposed specialist technologies category has, however, been scrapped for now with the option of including it later. The largest change since gen two is the inclusion of a commitment to delivering the government's "broader outcomes" goals alongside hardware delivery experience, product and services in the assessment criteria. "Given that the gen three contract seeks to implement broader outcomes initiatives as well as ensure that agencies get value for money, we have changed our assessment of respondents’ commercial propositions," the tender said. Therefore, where in the past respondents would be assessed on just their pricing, the new tender will be used to assess both that and their broader "commercial proposition". The gen three tender requires respondents to be able to supply all of the product types listed in the essential hardware category -- laptops, desktops and monitors. However, if a vendor cannot meet that requirement it encourages them to participate through partnering. Vendors and partners responding to the essential hardware category can also respond to secondary services categories. "If you respond to the essential hardware category, we encourage you to respond to the services categories as well, as agencies have highlighted the importance of leasing and additional services," the tender said. Participating agencies except schools are required to buy essential hardware from the contract but only "strongly encouraged to but from the secondary categories. To respond to any of the secondary categories, suppliers must only be able to supply any of the product types listed, not all of the product types. "For example, if you would like to respond to the computer peripherals category and can only supply mice, you would not be required to supply keyboards, webcams, or microphones, etc. as well to respond to that category," the tender said. Potential suppliers are encouraged you to supply as many of the product types within their nominated categories as possible because they will be assessed on how their product range meets the diverse needs of agencies. The contract will be in place for two years with the option of two two-year extensions.

A new trailer confirms the Guardian Games for Destiny 2 in 2021, revealing the event dates and provides some details for the event. Destiny 2 has a variety of competitive multiplayer events for players to enjoy and compete with their Guardians. Whether it's Destiny 2's Crucible or the Trials of Osiris, the game has been providing players different multiplayer experiences to engage with. Now another event is making its return to the game. A recent trailer from Bungie confirms the upcoming Guardians Games will be returning to Destiny 2 this April and continuing into May. The trailer tries to stoke the competitive spirit in players, showing several snippets of the competition players can expect. The trailer also provided some details about the activities and rewards featured in the Guardian Games. The trailer from Bungie is quite brief but it displays a cinematic experience for the Destiny 2 Guardian Games this year. Naturally, the trailer shows off the three different classes of Warlocks, Hunters, and Titans with some snapshots of their abilities. The video also showed that each player will be representing their respective class in weekly playlists during the Guardian Games. The trailer also revealed that players will be able to earn a specific weapon during this competition. The weapon is the Heir Apparent exotic machine gun and the Catalyst for it. The trailer even shows footage of the Heir Apparent in action, demonstrating its firepower. The trailer also revealed the start and end dates for the Guardian Games, beginning next Tuesday, April 20, and ending next month on Sunday, May 9. The trailer also provided a link to Bungie Rewards that allows Destiny 2 players to earn free digital rewards and unlock exclusive content to buy in the Bungie Store. Currently, the available rewards include a couple of emblems, two seals players can earn from playing Season of the Hunt, and one for playing Season of the Chosen. The last two rewards are an exclusive Hawkmoon Long-sleeve Shirt and a Europa Penguin figurine. The trailer even featured some brief bits of excitable commentary from notable Destiny characters, including the stoic Zavala, the proud Lord Shaxx, and the lively Saint-14. Zavala even got in some brief smack talk, in the beginning, saying, "The last time we did this, my Titans achieved what can only be described as a blowout." A direct reference to the Titans' victory in the previous 2020 Guardian Games. While plenty of the video's commenters were excited about the event, some pointed out the Stasis powers were absent from the video. This could mean Stasis won't be available in the event, but this remains unconfirmed at the time of writing. For now, players can look forward to the new Guardian Games in Destiny 2.

Découvrez les motos pilotées en compétition par Fabio Quartararo, en lice pour un premier titre de champion du monde de MotoGP en 2021 avec Yamaha. Promu à la place du légendaire Valentino Rossi au sein de l’équipe d’usine Yamaha, Fabio Quartararo peut rêver d’un premier titre mondial en 2021. D’ailleurs, au guidon de sa nouvelle moto, le Niçois s’est imposé dès la deuxième course de la saison, le 4 avril dernier, lors du Grand Prix de Doha disputé sur le circuit de Losail au Qatar. Cette victoire, sa quatrième dans la catégorie reine, a été accompagnée de la présence sur la deuxième marche du podium de son compatriote Johann Zarco, donnant lieu à un doublé historique pour la France à ce niveau de la compétition. A la place de Valentino Rossi Né à Nice le 20 avril 1999, Fabio Quartararo se situe au-dessus de la moyenne du gabarit des pilotes moto, connus pour leur format de poche. En guise de clin d’œil, il est presque aussi grand que le pilote qu’il a remplacé au sein du Team Monster Energy Yamaha, l’Italien Valentino Rossi (1,82 m), en espérant que son futur palmarès le soit tout autant. En effet, le jeune Français mesure 1,77 m pour un poids de 66 kg, selon les données du site officiel de la discipline. Candidat à un premier sacre en MotoGP, le Niçois n’a pourtant jamais coiffé de couronne mondiale dans les catégories inférieures, malgré son gros potentiel, simplement des titres nationaux. A l’inverse, l’autre Français du plateau, Johann Zarco, a été sacré champion de Moto2 à deux reprises, mais est toujours en quête d’un premier succès en catégorie reine. Débuts mondiaux à 16 ans Talent précoce, Fabio Quartararo remporte le titre de champion d’Espagne de Moto3 à l’âge de 14 ans et le conserve l’année suivante en écrasant la concurrence, avec 9 victoires et 2 deuxièmes places en 11 courses. Dès lors, celui qui est surnommé « El Diablo » gravit les échelons à la limite de l’âge autorisé. Son arrivée sur la scène mondiale a lieu en 2015, en Moto3, alors qu’il n’est âgé que de 16 ans. Après s’être étalonné avec la Honda du Team Estrella Galicia puis la KTM du Team Leopard, il grimpe dans la catégorie supérieure, en Moto2, pour la saison 2017. Là aussi, Fabio Quartararo ne reste pas plus d’un an au sein de la même équipe, passant de la Kalex du Pons Racing à une Speed Up lui permettant de mieux figurer. A l’issue du Grand Prix de Catalogne 2018, il signe enfin sa première victoire mondiale et termine à la 10e place du championnat. Victoires en MotoGP et objectif de titre Sans avoir surpassé la concurrence en Moto2, « El Diablo » accède à la catégorie reine car les spécialistes voient en lui un grand potentiel. Ils ne se sont pas trompés, au regard de son statut de meilleur débutant lors la saison 2019, avec la 5e place finale du championnat, au sein de l’équipe privée Petronas Yamaha SRT. Crédité de nombreux podiums, souvent derrière le champion espagnol Marc Marquez, Fabio Quartararo décroche sa première victoire en MotoGP à l’entame de l’exercice suivant, le 19 juillet 2020, lors du Grand Prix d’Espagne disputé à Jerez. Las, une fin d’année difficile l’empêche de viser jusqu’au bout le titre, le faisant même reculer au 8e rang du classement général. Un objectif de sacre mondial qu’il compte bien remplir en 2021, au guidon de la Yamaha officielle, fort d’une cinquième place et d’une victoire lors des deux premières manches courues au Qatar. A cette occasion, le Niçois vient d’atteindre le seuil des 100 courses disputées en championnat du monde.

A cohort study of 27,271 participants with and without reduced kidney function identified a link between healthy lifestyle behaviors and reduced risk of mortality, heart disease, coronary events and strokes. “In epidemiologic studies, lifestyle behaviors that are generally regarded as healthy have been shown to strongly influence the risks of cardiovascular disease, independent of traditional risk factors and medications,” Sarah J. Schrauben, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues wrote. “However, many of these studies excluded groups at high risk for cardiovascular disease events, such as those with kidney disease.” Along with baseline characteristics of participants, Schrauben and colleagues examined five lifestyle behaviors associated with risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. These behaviors included smoking, BMI, physical activity, alcohol intake and diet. Lifestyle behaviors of participants were classified as recommended or not recommended utilizing the American Heart Association intermediate and ideal categories to define behaviors. Lifestyle behavior scores ranging from 0 (least healthy) to 5 (healthiest) were generated as a sum of recommended life behaviors. Schrauben and colleagues identified higher lifestyle behavior scores (3, 4 and 5) resulted in higher survival rates and a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease vs. participants with lower scores (0 to 2). The relative risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease related to healthy lifestyle was identified in patients with and those without kidney disease. “The finding that recommended lifestyle behaviors are associated with better outcomes across levels of kidney function may reflect favorable effects of healthy behaviors on traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as hypertension, obesity, insulin resistance and hyperlipidemia, which are common to people with and without kidney disease,” according to Schrauben and colleagues. “Our study supports the importance of lifestyle as a potentially modifiable risk factor for individuals with and without kidney disease,” wrote the researchers.

UK-Palestine relations have reached a “low point” following British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that the UK opposes a decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel for possible war crimes, the Palestinian Mission to the UK said Thursday. In a letter to the Conservative Friends of Israel lobby group in the UK, Johnson said his government had “respect for the independence” of the court but opposed this particular inquiry into Israel. “This investigation gives the impression of being a partial and prejudicial attack on a friend and ally of the UK’s,” he added in the letter. The Palestinian mission in a statement posted on its website condemned the announcement, which it described as “deeply regrettable.” This is a contradiction of international law and previous British policy, it said. “It is clear that the UK now believes Israel is above the law. There is no other interpretation of a statement that gives carte blanche to Israel,” the mission emphasized. The announcement marks a low point in diplomatic relations and undermines the UK’s credibility on the international stage, it added. The ICC launched a formal inquiry last month into alleged atrocities in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. It is expected to cover the 2014 Gaza war, 2018 Gaza border clashes and the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Hundreds of Israelis are placed at risk of prosecution due to the inquiry, including soldiers and senior political figures. Johnson said in his letter that the ICC has no jurisdiction to investigate because “Israel is not a party to the Statute of Rome, which established the court, and Palestine is not a sovereign state.” “If Mr. Johnson disputes this, he disputes the legitimacy of the court. Moreover, he contradicts stated British policy, which is clear that settlements are a violation of international law and therefore a war crime,” the Palestinian mission’s statement said. The statement added that if Israel is not held responsible for its actions, it has no incentive to comply with international law, and if “friends and allies” are exempt from international law, there is no foundation for the rules-based global order. The Palestine mission said the UK has an opportunity to be an important and positive mediator in efforts to secure a lasting peace in line with international law, and it has a historic responsibility for the Palestinian people, having been instrumental in creating the problem in the first place.