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Trump threatens to take US out of WHO entirely and stop all funding:
In a letter to WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Trump alleged that "the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world" and that the WHO must "demonstrate independence from China."
"[I]f the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization," Trump wrote. "I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America's interests."
Trump posted the letter on Twitter, writing, "It is self-explanatory!"
Trump has repeatedly denied any responsibility for COVID-19 spreading in America and said on April 14 that the US would temporarily halt funding the WHO until his administration completed a review of the group's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump's letter yesterday said that "review has confirmed many of the serious concerns I raised last month and identified others that the World Health Organization should have addressed, especially the World Health Organization's alarming lack of independence from the People's Republic of China."
[...] Trump's letter then lists a series of claims, the first being that the WHO "consistently ignored credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in early December 2019 or even earlier, including reports from the Lancet medical journal."
The Lancet quickly issued a response explaining that Trump is wrong. "This statement is factually incorrect," The Lancet said. "The Lancet published no report in December, 2019, referring to a virus or outbreak in Wuhan or anywhere else in China." The Lancet's first reports on the topic were published on January 24, 2020 the statement said.
[...] Trump's letter yesterday said, "Throughout this crisis, the World Health Organization has been curiously insistent on praising China for its alleged 'transparency.'" Trump's letter did not mention that Trump himself praised China for its "transparency" on January 24 or that Trump repeatedly praised China for its coronavirus response throughout February.
[...] Health experts say Trump's travel ban had little effect on the pandemic's spread. Trump continued to downplay the virus's severity by comparing it to the flu as late as March 24, nearly two months after the WHO declared a global health emergency. Trump has also fought state governors over their cautious approaches to reopening the economy.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Thursday May 21 2020, @04:25PM (5 children)
The IP hashes change frequently for some people - sometimes for each internet session. They are useful for tying 2 comments made by an AC together over a short period of time. There is no way that I can get the IP from the hash and simply changing the proxy or vpn that is in use defeats even linking comments together.
But so many of our community have very distinctive writing styles, identifiable political views, or specific interests and expertise, and other natural traits so, for some, any post that they make that contains a reasonable amount of content gives enough information to make a guess at their identity with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @05:41PM (3 children)
You mean people using VPNs or TOR. For everyone else you get a nice reliable hash that doesn't change. You may not store the hashed IP for each comment for more than 2 weeks(?) but that hash doesn't change. So if someone's ISP doesn't change their IP in a year then you can identify that IP if you recognize or copy down the hash.
Basically editors and admins can tie messages to a specific IP, and if users aren't on VPNs or TOR then admins/eds can track them. I do love how every time this stuff comes up you and TMB try to minimize the tracking advantages you have over users. The way you attempt to describe the IP hasing makes it sound a lot more anonymous than it actually is.
All that said, yes writing style and repeated arguments are also a thing so I doubt you had to check Azuma's IP hash even though it is sitting right in front of you. No need to dig or anything :P
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday May 21 2020, @07:07PM (2 children)
No - read what I said. I cannot convert the hash to an IP. I have no access to any IP addresses. Whether they change or not - I CANNOT SEE IP ADDRESSES EVER. I do NOT have direct access to the database. I do NOT have access to server logs. I do NOT have access to any personally identifiable information that you might have provided, unless you have put your email on a submission for the whole world to see. That is something that far exceeds the privileges granted to an editor. There may be sysadmins who can see more than that, but as an Editor I cannot.
Currently you are AC "e546c182ae" - but that could change at any time you choose to change it. I haven't got Azuma's IP, nor your IP nor anyone else's IP. Nor do I want it. All I need to be able to do is help maintain the site's operation - and I don't need IP addresses to do that task. I do need to be able to identify site abuse, but that doesn't require me to have anyone's IP address. Now, smart-ass, rather than come here and start stirring the pot over something which is entirely off-topic, you show me a way of converting that hash into your IP.
Put up or shut up time.
Simple - I haven't got them and I'll bet that the majority of people working on this site haven't got them either. And of those that might have them no-one has ever given any information to me. Now, tell me again about the 'advantages' that I have...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2020, @03:46AM (1 child)
Sheesh, I never once said you could see the actual IP, just that the hash remains the same. I guess you got lost when I said "tracking", which actually just meant you can tell if any set of comments come from the same person. Well, the likely same person, people using IP anonymizing services could occasionally post from the same IP.
I just like to remind people around here what a certain privileged segment of the users around here are privy to ;)
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday May 22 2020, @06:07AM
Read the very first quote of your statement in my previous comment. You DID say IP. You also said that we do tracking - NO we don't. Perhaps you should choose your words more carefully.
You know very well that every server you contact has to know your IP address in order to return the data you have requested. However, we immediately hash it and work entirely with the hash. Very few people on this site have access to the IP address. We protect it. If you think that every server in the world is actually tracking you then perhaps you should always stay behind a VPN/proxy or simply avoid using the internet at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @07:55PM
This is indubitably untrue! ACs are all known to the admins, and the eds. SN is a trap!
#Freearistarchus!!!!