It is estimated that each year there are 4,400 new cases of someone sustaining a spinal cord injury (SCI). For these people, it is crucial they receive specialist treatment not only when they are first injured, but also as they embark on their journey living with such complex disabilities.

Careful monitoring

Why SCI are such complex injuries is they involve damage to the spinal cord or nerves. This can often result in life-changing issues with a loss of sensory and motor function below their injury causing problems such as paralysis, breathing issues, and loss of bowel/bladder control.

This means such patients need careful monitoring from one of the 12 Spinal Cord Injuries Centres (SCIC) based across the country. These centres of excellence monitor SCI patients and can be accessed whenever there is a problem.

This is part of the NHS National Strategy for Spinal Cord Injuries:

The service provides care to people who have sustained an injury to the spinal cord as a result of injury or disease. It encompasses acute care following the injury, surgical or non-surgical stabilisation of the spine, rehabilitation and reintegration into the community, life-long follow-up of people living with spinal cord injury, and further admission if necessary for medical or surgical management. Ventilation is provided to people with higher level injuries.

The service provides a wide range of services to meet the special needs of people with spinal cord injury, including urology, respiratory, psychology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, sexual and fertility advice, reintegration planning, and the management of spasticity, pressure ulcers and other complications.

‘Keep it together’

But this National Strategy is under threat, as the current plan is to move away from a national approach to local Integrated Care Boards (ICB) in 2027.

Such a move could lead to concerns about a postcode lottery and the loss of both specialist staff and centres. It is why, on Friday 15 May 2026, which is Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day, the message was:

keep it together.

Cross-party MPs have also warned that these proposals by NHS England to move spinal cord injury services from national to local commissioning risks taking care “in the wrong direction”, directly contradicting recommendations from a major parliamentary inquiry.

Building a National SCI Strategy

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Spinal Cord Injury raised the alarm in a meeting with Public Health Minister Sharon Hodgson MP, following publication of its report, From Fragmented to Coordinated: Building a National Spinal Cord Injury Strategy.

The report calls for greater national coordination, consistent standards, and long-term system reform. This is in direct contrast to the NHS proposals that would shift responsibility to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs).

The Spinal Injuries Association (SIA) have also sent an open letter signed by nearly 100 signatures, including 6 Spinal Cord Injury Centres to the (now former) Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, urging the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and Parliament to ensure that spinal cord injury services remain within national specialised commissioning.

The immediate concern of moving from a national service to community services is patients are at risk of a ‘postcode lottery’. This is because those patients who already live in an area that has strong local services will fare much better than those living in more remote areas or where services have been depleted due to the harsh austerity years.

Kayles’ story

Kayles is one of those patients where her geographical area means there were no local specialist services available to her when she sustained her SCI due to a slipped disc. She lives in Tavistock, so attended her local hospital, where her pain was dismissed by doctors.

Fighting to get the right diagnosis of SCI took Kayles six long months with a further 16 months waiting to get referred to the SCIC in Salisbury.

Kayles said:

The fact is we don’t have that many hospitals down here that can deal with any spinal cord injured patients. This is the area we live in. We have cobblestones, no dentist, and after they shut half the hospitals, the hospitals are overwhelmed.

There is also concern about losing specialist doctors and nurses.

Shirley’s story

Shirley has been receiving specialist care through her nearest SCIC for degenerative cervical myelopathy. Shirley has valid concerns regarding the move from specialist care from the SCIC to being community based.

She said:

My worry is, if you bring it to a more community-based thing, you’re diluting knowledge. When you’ve got people in centres of excellence, they’ve got access to a huge multidisciplinary team. They’re geared up for anything that comes through the door.

Shirley thinks this level of collaboration will be lost if there’s a move to the community and that will be to the detriment of patients.

She said:

That’s why you need to hang on to the centres of excellence because you need them to actually set the standards for care that everyone in the NHS or Health & Social Care professions or private sector should all be following.

Shirley also argued that the lack of district nurses has had a knock-on impact on the quality of everyday nurses in the community. Such staff are more likely to be health care assistants or carers in the social care sector.

But if these plans go ahead, it will need specialist nurses who can look after patients with SCI otherwise there’s a danger they can ‘do more harm than good.’

Doing more harm than good

That phrase doing more harm than good will resonant with many of those who have SCI. Patients with a SCI who had been an in-patient of a local hospital, an environment not equipped for them, found the lack of knowledge left them exposed to poor care.

In the community, it can be very scary when specialist treatment is required but the carers have sparse knowledge about SCI and how to carry out this care.

This lack of knowledge across the whole of the UK, with the need for services to remain nationally coordinated, is one of the reasons why the National Strategy of 2013 needs updating. The Spinal Injuries Association produced a National Strategy 2030 to give guidance to policy leaders in both the government and NHS. It can be read here.

But such a national strategy is at risk of being ignored if the move to ICB happens. The NHS argument is that transferring from national commissioning to local and regional ICBs in April 2027 is intended to support a better integration of NHS services within an area.

The SIA said:

We have serious concerns that transferring commissioning responsibility to ICBs could place Specialist Spinal Cord Injury Centres at further risk of underfunding if highly specialised SCI service deprioritised within local commissioning systems.

This concern from SIA about the underinvestment in the current specialist spinal centres is borne out from what patients have reported, such as a ‘slippage’ in standards, a lack of capacity, resulting in delays, and the decline in the general upkeep of these centres.

A backward step

It will be such a backward step to lose these centres of excellence and the national oversight of both the care of patients and patients themselves.

With concerns about a possible postcode lottery, losing specialist staff, and the underinvestment and demise of these spinal units, the major concern is what becomes of the care for these complex patients if the plans happen.

For patients now, they feel there is a system that ‘has their back’ to help them achieve what they want to achieve, safe in the knowledge they have this support, not just from their nearest SCIC, but a national strategy that underpins their care.

Losing this for such complex patients will put them at risk.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ruth Hunt

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On May 14th, Jerusalem Day, which marks the reunification of the city under Israeli rule in the 1967 Six-Day War, local Israeli media reported, like the Times of Israel and +972 Magazine, chanted slogans of “death to Arabs” and “may your villages burn” during the nationalist Flag March.

Thousands marched through Jerusalem today for the annual Flag Day, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir among them. The march was marked by participants chanting anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian slogans.

: Oren Ziv, Charlotte Ritz-Jack, and Standing Together pic.twitter.com/Yo2KMlHeQG

— +972 Magazine (@972mag) May 14, 2026

An Israeli journalist posted footage of his phone being covered by the right-wing mob at the march as they sang “death to Arabs.”

Before the official Jerusalem Day Flag March, religious Zionist youth chant “death to Arabs,” try to cover up my phone camera lens.

The Old City is largely empty aside from extremist youth and reporters. Palestinian residents have locked themselves inside their homes pic.twitter.com/LyNYBcG9uA

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— charlie summers (@cbsu03) May 14, 2026

Another Israeli journalist complained about being trapped by mobs during the march.

Israel, after all, does have a penchant for disdain for journalists

2024 and 2025 were the deadliest years for journalists worldwide since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began documenting these cases in 1992. In both years, Israel was responsible for 70% of the recorded deaths, according to the organization. In addition to the 264 journalists who were killed, 174 were wounded and 106 imprisoned since the start of the war in Gaza.

The annual assertion of Jewish control over Palestinian East Jerusalem has grown more extreme in recent years, the Guardian reported.

Jerusalem Day brings out Zionist monsters Gvir and Smotrich

Israeli politicians were also marking the day with their usual genocidal tactics.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir stormed the Al-Aqsa compound under heavy military protection during the day to wave the Israeli flag.

Meanwhile, finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called to annex the entirety of the West Bank during a speech at a Jerusalem Day rally on Thursday night.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls to annex all of the West Bank, citing the approval of 60,000 new housing units and plans to erase Areas A, B, and C, at a Jerusalem Day address. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir calls to settle Lebanon.https://t.co/zVVdaMFcNy

— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) May 15, 2026

.

These genocidal slogans and actions continue unabated, with full backing and encouragement from Western governments

Featured image via X/Quds News Network

By The Canary

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Luke Humphries arrived in Birmingham with his Premier League campaign wobbling. Five weeks earlier he sat seventh and staring at elimination.

By the end of Night 15 he had not only won his first weekly title of the season but also clinched a place at Finals Night in London with a week to spare. The turnaround was emphatic. Humphries beat Stephen Bunting, Luke Littler and Gerwyn Price in succession. As a result, he sealed qualification and momentum.

The numbers don’t lie

Humphries didn’t scrape through, he dominated. Across the quarter-final, semi-final and final he posted averages of 107.36, 110.98 and 100.16 respectively. This sequence underlined a late-season peak in scoring and finishing. Those three ton-plus nights in a row are the kind of form that turns a nervous title defence into a genuine threat.

There’s a difference between form and timing. Humphries’ run reads like a player who has deliberately dialled his game back in and is peaking at the right moment. After changing equipment and tweaking his routine mid-season, he has produced the kind of composed, clinical performances that make the O2 final look reachable again. The comeback from seventh to the top four wasn’t accidental. Instead, it was a sustained response under pressure.

Moments that swung the night

The semi-final against Luke Littler was the pivotal moment. Littler had two darts at double 10 to lead 4-0 and effectively put Humphries on the ropes. He missed, and Humphries rattled off six legs in a row to flip the match. That swing, from near-defeat to control, is the hallmark of a player who can handle Finals Night intensity. The final against Gerwyn Price was tighter, but Humphries closed it out 6-4. Therefore, the Birmingham run wasn’t a flash in the pan.

With the top four now confirmed. Luke Littler, Jonny Clayton, Gerwyn Price and Luke Humphries. The only remaining question is seeding and who avoids whom in the semis. Humphries’ late surge gives him two advantages: form and psychological edge. He arrives in London battle-hardened and confident. As a result, opponents must now plan for a Humphries who has rediscovered his scoring rhythm and finishing touch.

Short, sharp verdict

Is he timing his title defence to perfection? The record speaks for itself. Humphries has engineered a peak when it counts, converting pressure into performance. He has turned a season that looked in jeopardy into a genuine title defence. If he carries this Birmingham form to the O2, he won’t just be defending, he’ll be hunting.

Humphries’ Night 15 was more than a win, it was a statement. Timing, momentum and a late-season scoring surge have shifted the balance. As a result, the Premier League title race just got a lot more interesting.

Featured image via the Canary

By Faz Ali

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Thugs in uniform in Copenhagen, Denmark, have viciously attacked peaceful protestors at the offices of criminal shipping giant Maersk. In a video posted on the Arbejderen Instagram account on 14 May, heavily armoured goons can be seen smashing their batons into people lying in the foetal position.

The cowards also rely on dogs to terrorise the anti-genocide campaigners who clearly pose no threat. The legal aid group Ulydig Retshjælp (Disobedient Legal Aid) said:

There are reports of several broken bones and huge bruises after being manhandled by the Danish police officers who quickly arrived at the scene both in uniform and in plain clothes.

The protest formed part of the Mask Off Maersk campaign. Their target is the genocide-enabling Danish shipping and logistics company which, as Mask Off Maersk writes on its website, is:

involved in all aspects of the supply chain of genocide — bringing military cargo to arms companies for assembly and shipping cargo to Israel from the US.

Maersk: a key facilitator of genocide

The company is heavily involved in the supply chain for:

…the Namer Armored Personnel Carrier (APC-MT883), which has been used extensively in the ongoing aggression against Gaza. Another supply chain is that of the Oshkosh Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, with Maersk helping fulfill part of the supply chain related to a $159 million foreign military sale to Israel from the U.S. Department of Defense.

It also has a key role in shipping parts for the F-35 warplane that has been the backbone of the Zionist entity’s mass murder across West Asia. Disobedient Legal Aid say Maersk is:

…single-handedly responsible for the greatest number of weapons shipment to the Israeli apartheid state.

The protestors in Copenhagen were attempting to block the front doors to the company headquarters. Activists had previously staged a spectacular action in 2025, in which up to 1000 people burst through security lines to take over the premises. On this occasion, it seems a much smaller group was present, but that didn’t stop massive police over-reaction. From Arbejderen:

One might almost believe that the police were put on this earth to defend capital interests; it was impressively fast how they managed to summon up to 100 officers to remove the peaceful activists who had reached the entrance and the square, while others stood on the pavement.

It is the defence of capital that police were created for, and that remains their purpose today. If they actually cared about upholding the law, they’d have entered the Maersk offices a long time ago and hauled all their executives off to the cells for their participation in war crimes. Instead, such criminals remain unmolested, while those fighting to uphold the Genocide Convention their own government signed are beaten senseless.

It isn’t far-fetched for corporate reprobates to be dragged into the dock, if the political will exists. The Spanish government has been better than most in their stance towards the ‘Israel’ land theft project, and put steel executives before a judge for trading with the Tel Aviv terrorists.

Law group says cops’ “extreme violence” was illegal

Arbejderen continued:

The officers didn’t hold back. Even Arbejderen – a journalist with a visible press pass – first felt the baton and later tasted the tarmac while I attempted to cover how 20 activists were zip-tied and lined up before being driven to the station.

Denmark is doing its bit to break down the facade of Scandinavian countries being upholders of human rights. As Jacobin reported in June 2025:

When asked whether Denmark would assist in evacuating any of the 4,500 Gazan children in urgent need of medical treatment, the Danish government refused — citing an assessment by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), which deemed medical evacuations of children from Gaza a potential security risk. To date, this assessment remains unpublished and unexplained.

The country has not yet recognised Palestine, lagging even behind Britain, with the latter’s appalling record on assisting genocide.

You wouldn’t need to be an expert in law to know it, but Disobedient Legal Aid say the:

…acts of extreme violence committed by the police, such as the use of batons, and severely stressed out dogs against the demonstrators, is clearly illegal.

They are encouraging anyone involved to document injuries and report them to the organisation for potential legal action against the brutes in uniform doing ‘Israel’s’ bidding. The Mask Off Maersk campaign encourages email campaigns, phone jams and leafleting to pile pressure on this key cog in the machinery of genocide.

Featured image via the Canary

By Robert Freeman

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Reports by Greyhound Action Ireland (GAI) have revealed the shocking level of death generated by the murderous greyhound racing industry in Ireland. The campaigners show that:

3,300 (57%) of the racing greyhounds born in 2021 remaining on the island of Ireland and no longer racing are dead.

The oldest of those dogs would be five and a half, the youngest four and a half.

For those born in the following year, the figures are even more disgraceful:

2,660 (74%) of the racing greyhounds born in 2022 remaining on the island of Ireland and no longer racing are dead.

The oldest of those dogs would be four and a half, the youngest three and a half.

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Greyhounds typically have a life expectancy of around 14 years. The report follows questions GAI submitted to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, enquiring about the status of non-coursing greyhounds for each year.

Quoted by fellow campaigners Ban Blood Sports, GAI spokesperson Nuala Donlon said:

The Irish state is essentially sponsoring the killing of dogs on an industrial scale. This would not be tolerated were it happening to any other breed of dog. It should not be tolerated in the case of greyhounds.

Greyhounds facing cruelty

The sponsoring Donlon refers to is the over €386 million robbed from Irish taxpayers since 2001 to pay for this barbarism. GAI report how the supposed economic benefits of this scrounging have been greatly exaggerated by dodgy accounting by the sport’s administrator Rásaíocht Con Éireann (Greyhound Racing Ireland).

The murderers claimed their killing spree dressed up as a ‘sport’ is:

…worth [€]132 million annually to the Irish economy, and sustains 4,500 full-time and part-time jobs.

However, Preferred Results Consultancy Company saw through this shit, and determined that there were “serious flaws” in Greyhound Racing Ireland’s (GRI) claims. Their analysis showed that GRI:

…exaggerated the value of the industry to the economy by €68 million (238%).

Dogs in the Six Counties (outside GRI jurisdiction) were included, along with those already exported outside Ireland.

GRI’s fuckery with figures extends to their traceability system, introduced by GRI to track dogs following an RTÉ documentary in 2019 that revealed:

…as many as 6,000 dogs were being culled each year for not being fast enough.

As the Irish Examiner points out, this system was:

…meant to bring transparency to the entire industry but campaigners now say the statistics are potentially meaningless.

GRI did not dispute the enormous death toll figures, however.

The Irish Examiner report revealed an enormous discrepancy of 1,613 for 2021 between its own race management system and its Rásaíocht Con Éireann’s Traceability System (RCETS). This is for numbers of greyhounds raced or trialled throughout the calendar year.

Dodgy tracking system keeps murky business opaque

The two systems are not integrated, and GRI did not respond to the Examiner’s questions on why this was the case. RCETS also relies on greyhound owners self-reporting on the current status of their dog(s). Together, this picture looks like something designed to maintain opacity around the horrific so-called sport, concealing the cruelty inherent to it.

GAI’s Donlon said:

The decision not to use that data [from the race management system] to update or validate RCETS was not a technical limitation, it was a design choice.

869 dogs have lost their lives during races in the last six years. Then there’s the figures for what the industry grotesquely refers to as ‘wastage’. The RTÉ documentary used a report that showed:

5,987 greyhounds which were available to race were culled each year. The reasons for the cull were broken down as follows – “those who failed to produce qualifying times”(2,673); “failure to produce desired entry level times” (1,989) and an “unacceptable decline in performance” (1,326).

Dogs have been found in mass graves, having been shot in the head or mutilated. Other horror stories exist, such as the case of:

…a pregnant greyhound, who had been at the point of giving birth, [that] was brutally killed and dumped in a cemetery in Clonmel. The Irish Mirror reported that a woman visiting her mother’s grave at St Patrick’s cemetery in the town was shocked to discover the animal “beaten to death”.

The massive death figures revealed by Greyhound Action Ireland show the continued murderous nature of an industry that claims to have cleaned up its act. As Nuala Donlon says, the recent stats show the opposite is true:

The industry’s own figures prove beyond doubt that nothing has changed in Irish greyhound racing – thousands of young dogs are still being killed every year!

Featured image via the Canary

By Robert Freeman

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On Wednesday, May 13, singer Nancy Sinatra joined the growing list of celebrities urging mask-wearing to prevent the spread of airborne pathogens.

Her post on X, formerly Twitter, read:

Unsolicited advice:
Wear a mask in public places.#maskup

— Nancy Sinatra (@NancySinatra) May 13, 2026

Sinatra’s post follows other recent examples of celebrities wearing masks or publicly speaking about the reasons they continue to take COVID precautions.

Tom Hanks

In October 2025, actor Tom Hanks was photographed wearing a high-filtration mask on the New York subway.

Hanks, along with his wife, actor and singer Rita Wilson, were among the first major celebrities to publicly disclose a COVID-19 diagnosis in March 2020.

He later addressed the mask during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, describing the choice as a health precaution.

I’m doing a play right now so I cannot get sick… I’ve had COVID enough in my life, I don’t need to do that again. So I’m wearing this for health reasons.

Serj Tankian

In April, Serj Tankian, the lead vocalist of System of a Down, was photographed wearing a KN95 mask while signing autographs at his Kavat Coffee venue.

The photo was shared by the World Health Network and covered by Nu Metal Agenda. The magazine noted that, six months earlier, Tankian was photographed wearing a mask while signing autographs.

Sarah Michelle Gellar

In September 2025, actor Sarah Michelle Gellar, best known for starring in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, shared a behind-the-scenes Instagram carousel from the set of the planned Buffy reboot. One image showed her wearing a high-filtration respirator mask.

The photo followed Gellar’s 2022 public account of a serious course of COVID.

She wrote on her Instagram Story:

After two and a half years COVID finally got me. Thankfully I’m vaccinated and boosted. But to those out there that say ‘it’s just a cold’ … maybe for some lucky people it is. But for this (relatively) young fit person, who has struggled with asthma and lung issues her entire life, that is not my experience.

Gellar continued:

Even with therapeutics and all my protocols it’s been tough. I know I’m on the road to recovery, but it’s certainly not been an easy road … To quote a friend of mine – ‘I will wear a mask in my shower if that means I don’t get this again.

Morgan Fairchild

There are also celebrities who have consistently supported mask wearing and COVID awareness.

Morgan Fairchild, the veteran television actor known for Flamingo Road, Falcon Crest, Friends, and General Hospital, has been a vocal advocate of mask wearing.

After the death of her longtime partner Mark Seiler in 2023, Fairchild wrote that Seiler had Parkinson’s disease, but that Long COVID, after a third infection, seemed to have taken his life:

Hold your loved ones close and please consider wearing a mask.

Matt McGorry

Matt McGorry, the actor and activist known for Orange Is the New Black and How to Get Away with Murder, has spoken publicly about living with Long COVID after two COVID infections.

He has described debilitating fatigue, dysautonomia, depression, Raynaud’s disease and brain fog, while urging people to wear masks in shared essential spaces. He has also warned that Long COVID can affect multiple organ systems and that avoiding or reducing repeat infections is central to prevention.

Wil Wheaton

Actor and writer Wil Wheaton, best known for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Stand by Me, has also been public about mask wearing. In 2023, Wheaton wrote that he continued to mask in crowds and indoor spaces because, since making that choice, he had avoided colds, flu, and COVID.

That changed in 2025, when he said he caught COVID after Rose City Comic Con.

Hey friends, bad news. I am extremely disappointed that I am not able to sit down with @debbiegibson tonight to talk about her memoir. I’ve been looking forward to this for months, but I’m in no condition to be on stage or in public, because after being so careful for so long, I let my guard down at Rose city comic con last weekend, and I caught Covid for the first time.

Wheaton continued:

Wow Covid sucks. It sucks so much. Do whatever you can to prevent yourself from catching it.

I’m so annoyed, because it was so avoidable, and I’m extra pissed at myself for allowing the people who never stopped complaining about my choice to continue masking to influence my decisions about my health and my family’s health. Never again.

To everyone who was looking forward to seeing us chat tonight, I’m so sorry that I can’t be there. Knowing Debbie like I do, though, I know that she’s going to give you a magical show.

Stay healthy everyone.

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Andes hantavirus

The visibility around celebrity mask-wearing is occurring during the Andes hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged cruise ship. The outbreak was first reported on May 2, after severe respiratory illness cases were identified aboard the ship. The vessel had 147 people on board, including 88 passengers and 59 crew members, and had departed Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that, as of May 13, the outbreak had reached 11 reported cases among passengers, including three deaths. WHO’s latest formal count listed eight laboratory-confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case still undergoing testing. All confirmed cases were Andes virus infections.

Several passengers have required hospital care. Four patients were hospitalized as of May 8: one in intensive care in Johannesburg, South Africa; two in the Netherlands; and one in Zurich, Switzerland. A French passenger is critically ill in Paris and receiving life support, while a Spanish passenger who tested positive was quarantined at Gómez Ulla Central Defence Hospital in Madrid.

In the United States, the CDC has reported that: 18 passengers from the cruise were being monitored at US medical facilities; 16 at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; and two in Atlanta, including one person experiencing symptoms. A total of 41 people in the United States are being monitored for possible exposure.

Andes virus is an RNA orthohantavirus driven by infection of the endothelium, the lining of the blood vessels, especially in the lung microvasculature. The WHO reports that case fatality for hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome in the Americas can reach 40% to 50%. Andes virus is the only hantavirus known to spread person to person.

Airborne transmission occurs through respiratory secretions, especially in the early, or prodromal phase, before the onset of cardiopulmonary symptoms, when patients may still be interacting with others. Andes virus infects the cells lining the respiratory tract. Those infected cells then release the virus back into the airway, so it is incorporated into the fluid particles people generate when they breathe, talk, cough or exhale.

This is supported by the weight of research. A 2022 systematic review of 22 studies found evidence for person-to-person transmission of Andes hantavirus. A Chilean pathology study found Andes virus in alveolar epithelial cells, airway macrophages and salivary glands, concluding that these findings support respiratory person-to-person transmission. Argentine sequencing studies documented person-to-person transmission, including a 2014 cluster confirmed by viral sequencing, concluding that spread likely occurred around the early/prodromal period.

Like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, Andes virus is an endothelial infection spread through airborne transmission. For this reason, celebrities like Nancy Sinatra calling for mask wearing during the Andes virus outbreak shows why airborne infection precautions remains essential. When public health communication about infectious disease remains contested, celebrity mask wearing helps normalize prevention.

Featured image via X

By Protect the Heart of the Arts

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Liverpool’s title defence under Arne Slot has collapsed into a season of frustration: boos at Anfield, creativity drained, and a squad riddled with injuries and set-piece failures. The supporters are restless, and they have many reasons to be.

Arne Slot didn’t duck the reaction after the Chelsea draw; he admitted he heard the boos and insisted he knows what needs changing. “I know what we need to get that done,” he said, adding he’s “100 per cent convinced we will be a different team next season” if the summer goes to plan.

That’s a start, accountability matters but words only buy time. Slot must translate intent into visible, immediate action on three fronts: defend set pieces, restore attacking identity, and get the recruitment right.

Arne Slot overseeing slump

Liverpool have been punished repeatedly from set plays this season, 18 goals conceded from set pieces is a glaring structural failure. That’s not a one-off; it’s a recurring pattern that undermines confidence and invites pressure. Fixing it requires a forensic coaching reset: dedicated set-piece drills, clearer marking responsibilities, and a defensive leadership voice on the pitch.

If Slot wants to silence the crowd quickly, he needs to make Anfield a fortress again. Especially on dead-ball situations. Clean sheets buy patience.

Fans are bored because the team is predictable and low on chances. Liverpool’s expected-goals rank is the worst in a decade. And, the problem isn’t just finishing, it’s creating. Slot’s forwards have been starved of quality service and movement; the new attacking signings have barely had time together, with Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz, and Alexander Isak combining for only 119 minutes this season. That lack of cohesion has to be addressed tactically and practically.

If there is a short-term solution, it will be, free up the front line with clearer patterns, quicker transitions, and more aggressive positional rotations. Long-term solutions will be assessed at the end of the season, but as a minimum a preseason that builds chemistry, not just fitness.

Targeted changes

Last summer’s spending was huge, but injuries and mismatches have left gaps. Jamie Carragher’s blunt prescription, a right winger, a right back and a central midfielder, is a useful shopping list: targeted, not wholesale. Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes must prioritise quality over quantity and buy players who fit the system and the Premier League’s physical demands.

Crucially, they can’t do a complete rebuild and alter the entire identity. Keep the best of what won the title and plug the holes that made the team “easy to play against,” as pundits have put it.

Fans want to see momentum. That means clear, measurable steps: improved set-piece record in pre-season friendlies, a visible tactical tweak in the first competitive game, and early transfer moves that signal intent. Champions League qualification is non-negotiable, it funds the rebuild and calms nerves. Slot must make the first two matches after the break feel like a reset, not a continuation of decline.

Uphill battle

The reality is, the boo’s are a symptom, not the disease. Slot’s words, that he knows what’s wrong and how to fix it, are necessary but not sufficient.

It’s okay to talk the talk, his team has far from walked the walk this season.

To win fans back he needs rapid, tangible improvements in defence, creativity and recruitment, plus a summer that turns stop-gap fixes into a coherent plan. If he delivers that, the noise will fade. If he doesn’t, patience is already wearing thin. He won’t be coaching Liverpool FC if this continues.

Featured image via the Canary

By Faz Ali

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Georgia Democrats are worried their front-runner will fumble a “once in a generation” chance to win the governor’s mansion this year.

Keisha Lance Bottoms has what should be an enviable résumé: former judge, city council member, mayor of Atlanta and senior White House adviser. She’s dominating public polling in the primary, bolstered by high name recognition in the Atlanta metro area.

But a third of the Democratic electorate remains undecided, and her most high-profile endorsement is from former President Joe Biden, who left office deeply unpopular among Americans.

The wariness from Georgia Democrats stems from a simmering concern about Bottoms’ ability to win a general election, conversations with more than a half-dozen strategists and officials revealed. They warn that the crown jewel of Bottoms’ work experience — leading the state’s biggest city — will be a major drag to her campaign. Her tenure was marked by turmoil as Atlanta, like other major cities at the time, grappled with the onset of the pandemic, social unrest and spikes in crime.

Now, they worry, Bottoms could upend their best opportunity to flip the governorship for the first time in two decades.

“Keisha, because she’s so strongly identified with the city of Atlanta, obviously faces a very high hurdle,” said Howard Franklin, a Georgia-based Democratic strategist who is unaffiliated in the primary, but briefly worked for one of Bottoms’ competitors in 2013. “I don’t think there’s anybody who’s paying attention to this race who thinks that Republicans are anything less than prepared to criticize and to pile on to the criticism of the four years that she was in office.”

The Democrats interviewed, some of whom were granted anonymity to speak openly about the primary, fear her record will be easily caricatured by Republicans in the general election, leaving her vulnerable to attacks on issues like public safety.

“The Republicans will eat her for lunch. The Republicans are begging us to nominate her,” said one longtime Democratic strategist unaffiliated in the race. “If she’s at the top of the ticket, the whole ticket loses. If she’s not … we can sweep it. The stakes are that high.”

TaNisha Cameron, a spokesperson for Bottoms’ campaign, dismissed the concerns as political hand-wringing and said the Democrat is focused on “standing up to Donald Trump’s candidate for governor.”

“Political insiders have underestimated Keisha Lance Bottoms her entire career, and she has constantly proven them wrong by winning elections and beating their hand-picked candidates. Keisha is leading in the polls in both the primary and general election because voters like her vision for Georgia’s future and her record of delivering for the people of Atlanta,” Cameron said in a statement, going on to highlight how Bottoms attracted nine Fortune 500 companies to Atlanta while in office and left the city with a $180 million budget surplus.

Central to Bottoms’ pitch to voters is a pledge to expand Medicaid in Georgia and guarantee universal pre-K statewide. In mid-May, just a few weeks after the Supreme Court significantly limited the power of the Voting Rights Act, Bottoms released a comprehensive plan to protect access to the ballot in Georgia.

This could be the Democratic Party’s last shot in a generation to grasp all the levers of political power in Georgia. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is set to redraw the state’s congressional and state legislative districts ahead of 2028. And as President Donald Trump revives personal grievances about the 2020 election, the leading GOP gubernatorial candidates are vocal election deniers who continue to sow doubt about Georgia’s voting systems in a state that will be central to the 2028 presidential race.

Each of Bottoms’ Democratic primary opponents is running in their own loosely defined lanes: former DeKalb County executive Michael Thurmond as the steady hand with experience in statewide office, former state Sen. Jason Esteves as the progressive next-generation leader, and Republican-turned-Democrat Geoff Duncan as a moderate trying to appeal to voters in the center.

But those three contenders for runner-up have found themselves in a near statistical tie for second place for months. So far, they’re collectively holding Bottoms below the 50 percent threshold that she would need to win the race outright and advance to the general election.

“It’s unfortunate right now, but in the state of Georgia versus what we saw in 2018 with Stacey Abrams, or what we saw with Warnock — we’re missing the light,” said Cobb County Democratic Chair Essence Johnson, who’s staying neutral in the primary. “We don’t have a true, strong light, because there’s so many differences. It’s great, because that shows what democracy is. But again, there’s a lot of candidates.”

Some Democrats don’t see a major issue with Bottoms’ potential nomination — especially with the GOP in a tougher position, staring down Trump’s cratering approval ratings and struggling to message on voters’ cost of living concerns and an unpopular war in Iran.

“The Republican Party is very underwater. I think the Republican Party is more underwater than Keisha Lance Bottoms is,” said John Jackson, the former DeKalb County Democratic Chair. “At the end of the day, she’s a competitive general election candidate.”

One early general election poll shows Bottoms leading the three top Republicans running for governor, but all within the survey’s margin of error.

A Bottoms win would be historic: She would be the first Black woman elected governor in the history of the country — and the first Black governor of the Peach State.

The increased attention toward Bottoms’ performance with public safety did not happen in a vacuum, as several Black women — including former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and D.C.’s Muriel Bowser — faced extra scrutiny from critics as they guided major American cities through the depths of the pandemic and nationwide protests.

Bottoms’ defenders are confident in her standing with voters.

“I have seen the kind of hand-wringing, and it is predominantly coming from very, very, insider politico Atlanta circles,” said Kristen Kiefer, Democratic chair in Houston County, which is located in central Georgia. Because of her party role, she cannot endorse a candidate.

“What we saw from here, far from Atlanta, was somebody that was willing to stand up to the governor over mask mandates,” she said. “What we saw during social unrest was the city of Atlanta was making space for peaceful protests, but then, too, we all remember the night that Keisha was on TV with Killer Mike and T.I. telling everyone to go home and being ready to shut it down when it got out of hand.”

Still, others remain worried that Bottoms could hurt their chances, even in a midterm year that favors their party.

“Most Democrats who are being honest are nervous about the campaign of Mayor Bottoms, who, to be clear, brings a lot of strengths to the race,” said Andrew Heaton, a Georgia-based Democratic strategist who is unaffiliated in the primary. “[Republicans] are going to have to find messages against the other candidates. They’ve already got the attack ads on Mayor Bottoms written.”

Bottoms touts her wins in city hall on the campaign trail. In interviews, she has highlighted her administration’s success in building more affordable housing in Atlanta and authorizing pay raises for the city’s law enforcement. Still, her abrupt decision not to seek a second term in 2021, following a period of unrest in Atlanta, continues to haunt her.

“She’s got to answer some questions. She’s got to be able to answer these questions well: Why didn’t you run for reelection as mayor of Atlanta? There’s a perception that she ran away from that job,” said Jackson, whose tenure as DeKalb County Democratic Chair overlapped with Bottoms’ time as mayor. (Atlanta extends from Fulton County into DeKalb.)

At the time, Bottoms said in a press conference that it was “time to pass the baton on to someone else,” but did not detail her reasons for giving up the opportunity for another four years in office.

Pressed about her decision in a recent interview with Atlanta News First, Bottoms emphasized that she completed her term and didn’t skip out early.

“I served the entirety of my first term as mayor,” she said. “I was asked to go to the Biden White House three times, and decided not to do it because I wanted to complete the term that I had been elected to serve.”

The decision had followed a pounding four years in office that was dominated by the pandemic, a sharp rise in violent crime and protests over the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta. Bottoms’ response to the city’s social unrest drew bipartisan praise — particularly her impassioned remarks at a press conference with law enforcement telling protesters to “go home.”

But Democrats and Republicans alike have already seized on her perceived biggest vulnerabilities ahead of Election Day: that a reminder of her tenure in office will evoke flashbacks of burning buildings and unrest.

Esteves, the former state senator, attacked Bottoms on the debate stage last month over the death of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner, who was shot and killed while riding in a car near protests at the site where Atlanta police fatally shot Rayshard Brooks.

“I did not allow gangs to take over blocks. We lived through 2020 together. It was the most trying time in recent history in our country,” Bottoms responded. “I made every decision that I thought was the best decision at that time. But you cannot have the death of a child — of any child — and not wonder what, if anything, you could have done differently.”

Republicans, who have otherwise been mired in their own competitive and rancorous primary, have found time to preview their general election attacks against Bottoms. In an April ad, billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson said the former mayor “abandoned” her city in a crucial moment.

“When the city needed her, she let Atlanta burn,” Jackson says over footage of protests in downtown Atlanta.

That early Republican effort to attack Bottoms’ record is exactly what has some Democrats worried about her strength in a general election.

“This is a strategic choice. Sometimes when we make these choices in voting, some of the choices can be emotional, some of them can be related to personal ties,” said state Rep. Michelle Au, who is backing Duncan in the gubernatorial primary.

“But really the most important thing — or even the only important thing — is: Can this Democrat win? Because we can get a Democrat out of the primary, and that’s all fine, but if they can’t win in November, it does not achieve my goal.”

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