text: PSR: December 7, 2018 This week in Peace & Security, brought to you every Friday | unsub | December 1 – December 7 This week in: Africa | Americas | East Asia | Europe & Central Asia | Middle East | South Asia Featured Publication The Global Terrorism Index 2018 was written, researched, and produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace. This annual report, now on its sixth edition, provides a comprehensive analysis of the major global statistics, economic trends, and key patterns in terrorism over the last 20 years. This week in Sub-Saharan Africa MALAWI: New law prohibits candidates from buying support On Saturday, the Political Parties Act officially came into effect in Malawi, banning politicians from "using cash payments and other incentives to buy support" ahead of key elections scheduled for May 21, 2019. Those who break the new law will face fines of MWK 10 million, USD 13,600, or up to five years in prison. In the past, it was common practice among politicians at all levels to use cash payments and gifts to guarantee support at the polls. Comment: University of Malawi political scientist Henry Chingaipe states that the "new law will help clean up politics," as Malawians can now "vote out of conscience" instead of being bought with political handouts. The May 2019 elections will feature incumbent President Peter Mutharika of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, former President Joyce Banda of the People's Party, and Vice President Saulos Chilima of the United Transformation Movement. (Nyasa Times, Africa News, Times Live) NIGERIA: President states he is alive, denies reports of being an imposter On Sunday, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari denied allegations that he had "died and been replaced by a Sudanese imposter." Buhari was being treated in Britain for an undisclosed illness last year for five months, seriously calling his health into question. His prolonged absence and lack of public appearances prompted widespread belief in an unsubstantiated viral theory that Buhari had died and been replaced by a Sudanese lookalike named Jubril. In a speech to Nigerians in Poland, Buhari stated, "It's real me, I assure you. I will soon celebrate my 76th birthday and I will still go strong." Comment: Buhari, 75, is seeking reelection in February 2019, but critics continue to argue that he is not in good enough health to adequately lead Nigeria, and his credibility has taken a hit due to prolonged absences. In addition to questioning his health, opponents point to Buhari's failure in defeating Boko Haram, which was a point of emphasis during his 2015 campaign. The Islamic extremists continue to carry out attacks in Nigeria's northeast and the Lake Chad region, killing 39 soldiers in November alone. (African Arguments, Daily Post, Vanguard, BBC, Reuters) SUDAN: Lawmakers support amendment to extend president's rule On Tuesday, 294 lawmakers, a majority of the 581-seat parliament, voiced their support for a constitutional amendment to extend presidential term limits, thus allowing President Omar al-Bashir to run for a third term. Bashir, in power since 1989, would have had to step down at the end of his term in 2020, but if this constitutional amendment passes, it would allow him to seek reelection. The ruling National Congress Party, which holds the overwhelming majority of seats in parliament, previously stated its intention to nominate Bashir in the coming 2020 elections. Comment: Opposition figures fear that this is the first step to Bashir becoming president for life, while proponents of this bill believe that it is in Sudan's best interest for Bashir to remain president in order to maintain much-needed stability. Sudan's longtime ruler is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes pertaining to his role in the "killings and persecution in Sudan's Darfur province between 2003 and 2008." (Sudan Tribune, Daily Nation, The Star, Reuters) Researched/Written by Matan Ayash This week in the Americas & Caribbean BRAZIL: Bolsonaro considers making indigenous affairs responsibility of agriculture ministry On Monday, the future chief of staff for right-wing Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro stated that Bolsonaro is considering putting indigenous affairs under the ministry of agriculture. While the plan has not officially been decided upon, some Brazilians are concerned that this proposal would give farmers the upper hand in land disputes. In 2017 alone, 71 activists and indigenous people were killed in farming or logging related land conflicts in Brazil, six of whom were members of indigenous tribes protecting land in the Amazon rainforest region. Currently, indigenous affairs are the responsibility of the National Foundation for the Indigenous People (FUNAI). Comment: Indigenous reservations make up about 12.5 percent of Brazil's territory, and 517,000 natives (two-thirds of Brazil's indigenous population) live on a reservation. Reservations are also important for environmental purposes, as they cover much of Brazil's Amazon rainforest and biodiversity. The proposal is in line with Bolsonaro's campaign statements – he has said no new reservations will be created during his tenure, that indigenous reservations should be opened to commercial use, and that indigenous people should integrate themselves. (Telesur, Reuters, VOA) CUBA: Mobile internet rolls out, at a cost On Thursday, Cubans were able to begin subscribing for 3G mobile internet for the first time through state-run telecoms company ETECSA. Though almost half the country's citizens have cell phones, the price packages for 3G access will likely put the service out of reach for many: with the average state wage at just USD 30 per month, mobile internet service ranges from USD 7 (for 600MB) to USD 30 (for 4GB) per month. Some are concerned with the reliability of the service, as an earlier 24-hour test resulted in the disruption of SMS messaging across the island. Until 2013, internet access was limited to tourist hotels on the island. Since then, hotspots were extended to internet cafes and public plazas, and in 2017 home access was allowed but the service's price is similarly prohibitive for many. Comment: Cuba is considered one of the least connected countries in the Western Hemisphere, and has one of the world's lowest rates of internet use. Since President Obama and Raul Castro began cooling tensions in 2014, internet use in Cuba has been expanding rapidly. Proposed revisions to Cuba's new draft constitution include one article on the 'democratization of cyberspace' and another condemning use of the internet for 'subversion'. (Havana Times, Reuters, Al Jazeera, BBC, Local 10) VENEZUELA: UN urges U.S. and EU aid to refugees On Tuesday, the United Nations predicted an escalation of the Venezuelan refugee crisis and said it would seek USD 738 million from the U.S. and the European Union to assist neighboring countries in coping. The UN assessed that the South American countries taking in refugees have exhausted their own resources, and in taking in more refugees, may face increasing violence. The UN appeals for humanitarian aid from donors annually, with this year's appeal totaling USD 21.9 billion, not including appeals for Syria. It was the first time Venezuela has been listed as a humanitarian crisis and included in the appeal. Comment: Venezuela has been facing a socio-economic crisis for the past several years, and today suffers from severe hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, and a repressive government. Over three million people have fled, mostly since 2015. Colombia alone has taken in a million refugees, while Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador have accepted hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. (El Tiempo, Estadao, Reuters) Researched/Written by Tabitha Niemann This week in East Asia & Pacific AUSTRALIA: Controversial encryption bill one step closer to law On Tuesday, Labor and Coalition, the two major political parties in Australia, reached an 'in-principle' agreement on a pending bill that would grant Australian police the authority to order companies and websites to build backdoors into their devices and platforms in order to help law enforcement decrypt communication. The Assistance and Access Bill will likely pass later this week as the in-principle agreement between Labor and Coalition contained concessions from each side, including Labor retreating from its demand to limit the number of agencies granted access to the new powers and Coalition allowing Labor to include a provision specifically defining "backdoors." Australian law enforcement and intelligence officials have applauded the Assistance and Access Bill, saying it would help them apprehend terrorists and sex offenders, 95 percent of whom utilize encrypted messaging platforms. The numerous opponents of the bill, who range from politicians to members of the technical community, condemn it as a dangerous expansion of law enforcement power that will make it easier for hackers to exploit devices. Comment: The "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance between the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand has long called for increased access to encrypted communications. Earlier this year, the coalition declared its willingness to force companies to create backdoors if they refused to build them for their governments. (News, The Guardian 1, 2, Tech Crunch) CHINA: Belt and Road Initiative agreement reached with Portugal On Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa signed a memorandum of understanding bringing China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure projects to Portugal. The agreement includes China developing the southwestern port of Sines, improving network connections, and investing in electric transportation. President Xi lauded Portugal as a strategically located country that "links the Silk Road and the maritime Silk Road" as it is the closest European destination for Asian ships sailing through the Panama Canal. Another agreement signed during President Xi's visit to Lisbon entailed Portugal's use of Huawei technology in its 5G network rollout, which other nations have avoided due to espionage concerns. Comment: Portugal's BRI deal comes on the heels of several EU nations agreed upon a framework regulating foreign investment last week. Prime Minister Antonio Costa decried the regulations as "protectionism," and the head of Portugal's trade agency declared that having signed the BRI agreement, Portugal will now seek investment in its automobile and agriculture industries. (South China Morning Post, AP, Reuters) INDONESIA: Separatist attack on construction workers kills 31 On Sunday, the West Papau National Liberation Army (TPN), an armed separatist group seeking Papuan independence from Indonesia, attacked construction workers in central Papua, killing 31. TPN fighters were holding a ceremony to celebrate the 57th anniversary of Papua's independence from Dutch colonial rule when they noticed construction workers snapping photographs of them, which angered the fighters and provoked the violence. The construction workers were building bridges for a trans-Papua road, an infrastructure project spanning 278 kilometers of roads and bridges meant to connect remote villages to the rest of Papua. The TPN disputes that the victims were civilians, claiming the workers were in fact Indonesian military personnel. A joint operation by Indonesian military and police has been initiated to track down the TPN perpetrators. Comment: The TPN attack comes at the end of a weekend rife with protest across West Papau, as the December 1 Independence Day anniversary of freedom from Dutch colonial rule now rallies sentiment for independence from Indonesian control. 600 protesters were arrested over the weekend in West Papau and Indonesia, many for performing the illegal act of raising the West Papaun national Morning Star flag. (The Asean Post, The Jakarta Post, Radio NZ, The Guardian) REGIONAL: Singapore accuses Malaysia of territorial encroachment On Tuesday, Singapore publicly accused Malaysia of encroaching upon its maritime border with a planned expansion of the Johor Bahru port, which it claims crosses into Singaporean waters. Singapore's Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan Khaw also claimed that Malaysian ships have been regularly intruding in Singapore's territorial waters off the coast of Tuas. Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke issued a rebuttal to Singapore's allegations, stating that the proposed new limits of the Johor Bahru port are well within Malaysian maritime limits, and charged Singapore with violating Malaysian territorial sovereignty via its instruction to civilian vessels to ignore the new Johor Bahru port boundaries. While both sides agree that they want to seek a resolution "amicably," Minister Khaw stated that Singapore is prepared to take action to defend its territorial integrity. Comment: Singapore's separation from Malaysia in 1965 sparked airspace and maritime border disputes that continue to this day. Malaysia claims that its port expansion stays within its territory as delineated in a 1979 map created to mark borders between Malaysia and its new neighbor; Singapore never accepted the map and therefore rejects the validity of the border. (Nikkei, South China Morning Post, Reuters) Researched/Written by Christian Vickland Creative Learning News Applications are open for Spring 2019 Creative Learning International Programs Internships! If you're a graduate student in the DC-metro area visit our website for more information. This week in Europe & Central Asia GEORGIA: Thousands protest presidential election results On Sunday, about 25,000 protestors demonstrated in Tbilisi against the results of the November 28 presidential election runoff, claiming the vote was unfair. Salome Zurabishvili, backed by the ruling party, won with 59.5 percent of the vote and will be Georgia's first female head of state; however, Grigol Vashadze, the opposition candidate, stated that he will fight the results of this election and push for a snap parliamentary election. While international observers expressed concerns that the ruling party mixed party and government funds during the campaign, they said that the election itself was competitive. Comment: Former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who lives in the Netherlands and was convicted in absentia of crimes while in office, supports Vashadze's efforts to oppose the election results. The outcome is unlikely to generate significant unrest. (Georgian Journal, Al Jazeera, Radio Free Europe, Reuters) KOSOVO: Members of parliament refuse to leave government building in tax protest On Sunday, nine lawmakers from the Lista Srpska party, who represent Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority, spent the night in their offices in the parliament building as a protest against the high tariffs placed on Serbia. Kosovo initially levied a 10 percent tax on goods from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in early November but raised it to 100 percent on November 21 in response to what it called an "aggressive campaign" against Kosovo internationally. The day before, Kosovo failed its third bid to join Interpol. Kosovar leaders promised to remove the tariff if Serbia and Bosnia recognize Kosovo's independence, while the EU and the U.S. have both opposed the tariff as a barrier to regional stability. Comment: Last week, four mayors of majority ethnically Serbian towns in northern Kosovo resigned over this same tariff, some citing concerns over lack of food due to the limited imports. The EU requires Serbia and Kosovo to resolve their differences before being eligible to apply for EU membership. (Balkan Insight, BBC, Radio Free Europe 1, 2) SLOVAKIA: Prosecutor orders detained activists freed On Tuesday, general prosecutor Jaromir Ciznar ordered the release of 12 Greenpeace activists being held for scaling a coal mine's tower on November 28 to display a sign calling for an end to the use of coal. This action overruled a district court's ruling from Sunday that the protestors would be held until their trial, which was intended to prevent them from causing more harm in the interim. Prosecutors have not dropped charges, which currently include threatening the "operation of a facility of public interest" and could result in one to five years in jail. The mining company claims the protest endangered the lives of 342 miners since it forced the shutdown of an important elevator and disrupted operations for five hours. Comment: Ciznar also pointed out that the charges could still be changed or dropped before prosecution. Environmental activists staged a similar protest in Poland leading into UN climate talks on Sunday. (Spectator, Yle, Reuters, Greenpeace) Researched/Written by Lars Spjut This week in the Middle East & North Africa IRAN: New stealth warship launched On Saturday, Iran unveiled its newest naval destroyer, the Sahand. The radar evading ship can stay at sea for up to five months at a time. Iran started building its own ships in 2010 because of international sanctions connected to its nuclear program and support for Hezbollah and other groups in the region. Most of Iran's naval ships are actually U.S. built and date prior to 1979, when the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran was toppled. Comment: Senior Iranian officials said that if Iran is not allowed to export its oil, other countries will not be allowed to export their oil through the Strait of Hormuz either. In August, Iran unveiled a domestically built fighter jet, as it builds up its own arms industry. The Supreme Leader of Iran has said that Iran must be ready to ward off any enemies through military capabilities. (Al Jazeera, New Arab, RFERL, Reuters) SAUDI ARABIA/QATAR: Intellectual property dispute at the WTO On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia told the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it could not settle the dispute with Qatar because of national security issues. Qatar launched the dispute with the WTO, which has a dispute settlement mechanism for these types of claims, in October over Saudi Arabia blocking its broadcasting outlet beIN and for not doing enough to tackle piracy issues. The piracy problem between the two countries escalated during the last FIFA World Cup, where a program called BeoutQ, transmitted out of Saudi Arabia, stole signals from beIN and illegally broadcast the games all over the Middle East. Comment: In 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt formed a blockade against Qatar because of its supposed support of terrorism and destabilizing actions in the region. At the WTO, the U.S., UAE and Egypt supported the Saudi stance while the European Union and Turkey defended Qatar on the matter. (Al Jazeera, New York Times, Your Middle East) YEMEN: Prisoner swap deal struck On Tuesday, the Yemeni government and Houthis agreed to a large prisoner swap in hopes of building confidence between the two warring parties. The deal will see up to 2,000 pro-government and 1,500 Houthi prisoners returned to their respective groups. The UN backed peace talks were held in Stockholm on Wednesday, where the UN hoped to start confidence-building measures including; a ceasefire in Hodeidah, the Saudi-United Arab Emirates coalition halting airstrikes and the Houthis stopping drone and rocket fire. Comment: This progress comes at a time of dire warnings for the future of Yemen. According to the United Nations Humanitarian office, they will need to provide food for twelve million people in the region in 2019. (Al Jazeera, Independent, Middle East Eye) Researched/Written by Tyler Spyrison This week in South Asia INDIA: New Delhi fined over toxic smog On Monday, the National Green Tribunal, India's environmental watchdog, fined the New Delhi government USD 3.5 million for failing to enforce anti-smog rules and reduce pollution. The Tribunal blamed the city administration's lack of oversight after it was revealed that some polluting industries were burning harmful waste in the open. The penalty comes after the Tribunal conducted hearings with testimony from city residents who claimed that factories were not following laws on trash fires. Though New Delhi has shut down power plants and banned heavy trucks from the city in a bid to curb smog, the city administration has accused the governments in nearby Punjab and Haryana for crop fires that frequently burn and send smoke eastward to New Delhi. Comment: New Delhi was ranked first on the World Health Organization (WHO) list of 20 most polluted cities in the world in 2018, 14 of which are in India. The haze in New Delhi has levels of airborne pollutants that routinely eclipse safe limits by more than 30 times. An estimated 1.1 million Indians die prematurely from air pollution every year. (NDTV, Straits Times, South China Morning Post, Channel News Asia) PAKISTAN: TLP leaders face terrorism and sedition charges On Saturday, Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said at a press conference that the government decided to take legal action against TLP leadership, bringing terrorism and sedition charges to Khadim Hussain Rizvi and three other senior leaders. Rizvi, an influential cleric and leader of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) party, led violent protests in early November after the Supreme Court overturned the death penalty for Asia Bibi in October, which paralyzed major cities for multiple days and resulted in the arrests of over 3,000 protesters. Rizvi urged TLP supporters to kill the Supreme Court judges who acquitted Asia Bibi as well as overthrow the government and the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Chaudry announced that the TLP leaders charged with sedition and terrorism charges could face life imprisonment if convicted. Comment: After the first large scale protests in early November, the government signed an agreement with TLP leaders to bring a quick end to the violence; however, they launched a crackdown weeks later when the TLP threatened to launch another protest. On November 24, Rizvi was detained by authorities in order to "maintain law and order," but more protests by the TLP followed, causing police to launch another crackdown on hundreds in the Punjab province and the port city of Karachi. (Straits Times, South China Morning Post, Al Jazeera, Reuters) SRI LANKA: Court bars Rajapaksa government from taking power On Monday, the Court of Appeals temporarily barred disputed prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his cabinet from taking power, citing "irreparable damage to the country." Rajapaksa and President Sirisena have refused to back down despite losing two no confidence votes in parliament last month. The Court of Appeals will sit again on December 12 to deliver a verdict on this case. In a statement, Rajapaksa declared he did not agree with the court's decision and planned to file an appeal with the Supreme Court this week. Comment: Sri Lanka has been in a political crisis since October 26 when President Sirisena fired prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Rajapaksa, the former leader accused of corruption and human rights abuses. After Sirisena and Rajapaksa did not receive a majority in parliament, Sirisena dissolved the 225-member parliament and called for snap elections, both moves which were temporarily blocked by the Supreme Court and is expected to deliver a verdict on the case on December 7. (Straits Times, South China Morning Post, Al Jazeera, Reuters) Researched/Written by Sloane Katleman CameronC2019-01-02T18:19:32+00:00 Share This Story, Choose Your Platform! FacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditPinterest


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In this video, beauty and makeup guru Michelle Phan shows us how to achieve a gorgeous Gothic Lolita look inspired by a range of things, from anime to dolls. You, too, can get the same doll-eyed look by following along with this video.
Want to master Microsoft Excel and take your work-from-home job prospects to the next level? Jump-start your career with our Premium A-to-Z Microsoft Excel Training Bundle from the new Gadget Hacks Shop and get lifetime access to more than 40 hours of Basic to Advanced instruction on functions, formula, tools, and more.

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Miss North's Maths Group
I would like you to do the Lesson 1 on the White Rose Maths website in the Home learning section. This lesson is called Lesson 1 - Equivalent Fractions. This continues our work from before the Easter holidays.
As always, there is a video to show you what to do, a worksheet to help you practice, and then get someone to mark it for you using the answers.
As always, you have TT Rockstars to play on, try and spend around 20 minutes on this per day. I downloaded the app on my phone, so I like to practise as soon as I wake up in the morning.


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A number of women are having to undergo hysterectomies to remove a sterilisation device used on the NHS, the Victoria Derbyshire show has found.
The Essure implant is used to permanently sterilise women, but can cause side effects and complications.
One woman – who later had her uterus removed – said she was left suicidal due to the "unbearable" pain, and felt she was a burden to her family.
The manufacturer says Essure is safe and the benefits outweigh the risks.
The sale of the implants in the EU was temporarily suspended this month.
Manufacturer Bayer has asked hospitals in the UK not to use the device during this time.
'Painful to move'
Laura Linkson, who was fitted with the Essure device in 2013, said the pain left her suicidal.
"The device was sold to me as a simple and easy procedure. I was told that I'd be in and out of the doctor's office in 10 minutes and that there'd be no recovery time.
"I went from being a mum who was doing everything with her children, to a mum that was stuck in bed unable to move without pain, at some points being suicidal.
"I felt like I was a burden on everyone around me," she added.
The small coil implants, which are made of nickel and polyester (PET) fibres, are used as a sterilisation device to stop eggs reaching the womb.
They are inserted into the fallopian tubes where they trigger inflammation, causing scar tissue to build up and eventually block the tubes, known as a hysteroscopic sterilisation.
They can cause intense pain, and some women are thought to react badly to the nickel and plastic.
Because of the way the coils attach to the fallopian tubes, the only way to take them out is to remove a woman's fallopian tubes and often her uterus.
In other cases the device has been found to perforate a fallopian tube and fallen out, embedding itself elsewhere in the body.
Victoria Dethier was implanted with Essure in 2012 and for three years could not work out why she felt so unwell.
"There were moments where I couldn't get out of bed I was in so much pain. It felt like I was dying, like something was killing me from the inside," she said.
She thinks her body was reacting to the PET fibres designed to cause inflammation.
She had a hysterectomy to remove the device in 2015.
"Straight away there was a difference, I'd experienced a horrible taste in my mouth and that had gone," she explained.
"I'd lost a lot of hair and that came back within 12 months, it was incredible."
'We need acknowledgement'
The medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency (MHRA) has been criticised for not responding to the increasing evidence regarding the device.
In 2015, a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) suggested that women who had a hysteroscopic sterilisation were 10 times more likely to need follow-up surgery than those who had a traditional sterilisation – 2.4% of those surveyed, as opposed to 0.2% amongst those having a standard sterilisation.
In the US more than 15,000 women have reported problems to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including pain, allergic reactions and "migration of device".
Carl Heneghan, from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University, has criticised the regulator's failure to act on such findings.
"How much evidence do you need to say let's withdraw this from the market?" he asked.
Victoria Dethier is angry that she and so many other women feel they have been ignored.
"No-one is listening to us," she said.
"There are many women coming forward… we need to be acknowledged."
'No long-term evidence'
The full extent of the problem in the UK is not known.
The MHRA rejected the Victoria Derbyshire programme's Freedom of Information request asking how many women have reported problems.
The NHS does not have figures for the total number of women who have been fitted with Essure, or who have had it removed.
However, the clinical trial that led to the device being approved has been criticised for not considering the long-term effects of the implants.
"The trial… only followed up women for one year, so nobody has a real understanding of what happens with this device after two years, three years, five years," Mr Heneghan explained.


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Promessa mancata della Cina: niente stop alla carne di animali selvatici
La sospensione decisa a febbraio nel clou della pandemia avrebbe dovuto tradursi in legge: ma l'Assemblea nazionale prende tempo. La paura che si risolva in un nulla di fatto come accaduto con la Sars nel 2003
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Airbus unveils designs for zero-emissions jet powered by hydrogen fuel
AIRBUS has revealed plans for the world's first zero-emission commercial aircraft. The European plane-maker said the hydrogen-fuelled aircraft could enter service by 2035. It showcased three different designs. The ZEROe designs represent three different approaches to how technology and aerodynamics could lead to zero-emission commercial flights. Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury said: "This is a...nypost.com
Tommy DeVito, original Four Seasons member, dead at 92 from COVID-19
He cranked out a decade of chart-topping hits like "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)," "Walk Like a Man," "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Sherry."nypost.com
Vanessa Bryant sues L.A. County sheriff, alleging 'cover-up' of Kobe Bryant crash photos
Vanessa Bryant's lawsuit alleges that deputies took photos of the helicopter crash site, and that Sheriff Alex Villanueva failed to investigate.latimes.com
Vanessa Bryant sues LA County Sheriff's department over crash site photos: report
Just a week after calling out Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva over leaked photos of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Byrant, his daughter Gianna and seven others in January, Vanessa Bryant has filed a lawsuit claiming severe emotional distress, reports say.foxnews.com
Kal Penn talks new voting show, how comedy brings people together
Kal Penn is marrying his two passions: democracy and comedy.foxnews.com
Indians vs. White Sox prediction: Shane Bieber as sure a bet as any
Happy Autumn, New Anarchist City! … Can you think of anyone happier than Eli Manning two games into the NFL season? Maybe Jamal Adams, maybe? Biggest surprise of this MLB season, well other than that there actually was a season? The Chicago White Sox. The 34-win Sox are going to the postseason and have a...nypost.com
'Attack on Titan' Season 4 Is Still Coming to Funimation in 2020 Will Stream Later This Year
Funimation will stream subtitled episodes the same day they release in Japan.newsweek.com
Why So Many Americans Grew Numb to COVID-19 Deaths
Sometime this week, alone on a hospital bed, an American died. The coronavirus had invaded her lungs, soaking them in fluid and blocking the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide that makes up our every breath. Her immune system's struggle to fight back might have sparked an overreaction called a cytokine storm, which shreds even healthy tissue. The doctors tried everything, but they couldn't save her, and she became the 200,000th American taken by COVID-19—at least according to official counts.In reality, the COVID-19 death toll probably passed 200,000 some time ago. And yet "the photos of body bags have not had the same effect in the pandemic" as after other mass-casualty events such as Hurricane Katrina, says Lori Peek, a sociologist at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies disasters. "Is our national empathy—our care and love and concern for one another—at such a low level that we are not truly feeling, in our bones, in our hearts, and in our souls, the magnitude of the loss?"It's hard for anyone to comprehend the sheer horror of mass death. As I wrote in April, "compassion fade" sets in when victims are no longer individuals but statistics, and few Americans have witnessed something of this scale before. But there's an additional explanation for this empathy deficit: Part of the reason this majority-white, majority-non-elderly country has been so blasé about COVID-19 deaths is that mostly Black people and old people are dying. Eight out of 10 American COVID-19 deaths have been among people older than 65; the rest of the dead are disproportionately Black. White people's brains psychologically sort minorities as "out-groups" that stir less empathy. Segregated neighborhoods have also helped insulate white Americans from the horror Black Americans face, because the ambulance sirens and the packed hospital wards are typically far from their own zip codes. "We literally don't see those deaths in the same way we might if we didn't experience segregation," says Nour Kteily, a management professor at Northwestern University who studies hierarchies.Ageism reduces human beings' capacity for caring too. Globally, people don't value elderly lives as much as they do young people's, research shows. When it comes to deciding who lives or dies, there's a disregard for the elderly, even among the elderly.Discrimination against the old is perplexing, because age will ultimately catch us all. Though no white person will ever be a Black person, every person, if all goes well, will get old. But several studies that forced people to imagine life-and-death decisions hint at how little society values the elderly.One major insight into this phenomenon comes from a 2018 study called the "Moral Machine experiment," which invites participants to determine how to program a self-driving car. People who play the Moral Machine game are shown two images, each of which depicts an out-of-control car driving into a different group of people (or, in some of the images, a cat or a dog.) For example, the game might tell the player that if you let the car plow ahead, the car will kill three little girls and two adult men. But if you swerve to the right, the car will instead kill two elderly men, two elderly women, and another, non-elderly woman. Would you swerve, or stay straight? Who would you kill?After it launched in 2016, the Moral Machine experiment went viral a few times, which meant that millions of people in 233 countries and territories ultimately played it. Through the game, its authors were able to glean country-specific preferences for sparing or sacrificing different types of lives.The strongest signals that came out of all those sessions were that people preferred to spare a greater number of lives, to spare human lives, and yes—to spare young lives. The most likely lives to be saved in these simulated car accidents were those of babies, children, pregnant women, and male and female doctors. Male or female homeless people and overweight men, meanwhile, were likely to be sacrificed.Overall, older men and women were some of the least likely to be spared, ranking just above dogs, human criminals, and cats—disturbingly, in that order. ("People like dogs," says Azim Shariff, a social psychologist at the University of British Columbia and one of the authors of the study. This could explain why the large number of coronavirus cases in prisons has also provoked a collective yawn from policy makers.)Interestingly, people of all ages and backgrounds generally agreed on who to kill. Older players were less likely to sacrifice the older pedestrians than younger players were, but they still did it. As Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, himself a septuagenarian, has said, "As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that America loves for its children and grandchildren? And if that is the exchange, I'm all in.""All things being equal, people were willing to place a priority on sparing a younger person to sacrifice an older person," Shariff says.This preference for sacrificing the old to save the young was found in every country. The only places where people showed a weaker preference for killing the old—though they still preferred it to sacrificing the young—were in East Asian countries, such as Japan and Taiwan, and in majority-Muslim countries, such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.The two countries where people most preferred to sacrifice the elderly, meanwhile, were France and Italy. At the peak of the pandemic, this question became real for Italians, and doctors in the most affected regions of Italy used 80, or even 65, as their "cutoff age" for access to scarce ventilators.Shariff and his team didn't ask people why they preferred to kill the old, but judging by anecdotal reports, such as YouTubers playing the game for their viewers, people seemed to rationalize that the elderly had fewer years left to live.Indeed, doctors follow a similar logic. In a May paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, a group of doctors from different countries suggested that hospitals consider prioritizing younger patients if they are forced to ration ventilators. "Maximizing benefits requires consideration of prognosis—how long the patient is likely to live if treated—which may mean giving priority to younger patients and those with fewer coexisting conditions," they wrote. Perhaps, on a global scale, we've internalized the idea that the young matter more than the old.The Moral Machine is not without its criticisms. Some psychologists say that the trolley problem, a similar and more widely known moral dilemma, is too silly and unrealistic to say anything about our true ethics. In a response to the Moral Machine experiment, another group of researchers conducted a comparable study and found that people actually prefer to treat everyone equally, if given the option to do so. In other words, people didn't want to kill the elderly; they just opted to do so over killing young people, when pressed. (In that experiment, though, people still would kill the criminals.) Shariff says these findings simply show that people don't like dilemmas. Given the option, anyone would rather say "treat everybody equally," just so they don't have to decide.Bolstering that view, in another recent paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, people preferred giving a younger hypothetical COVID-19 patient an in-demand ventilator rather than an older one. They did this even when they were told to imagine themselves as potentially being the older patient who would therefore be sacrificed. The participants were hidden behind a so-called veil of ignorance—told they had a "50 percent chance of being a 65-year-old who gets to live another 15 years, and a 50 percent chance of dying at age 25." That prompt made the participants favor the young patient even more. When told to look at the situation objectively, saving young lives seemed even better.To Shariff, his study and others support what many already suspect to be true—that certain deaths bother us more than others do. "If it was attractive, 15-year-old, blond, soccer-playing children who are dying, then we would have more of a concern," he says.At 74 years old, President Donald Trump falls smack in the COVID-19-death demographic. Yet he has also minimized the threat of the virus repeatedly. This makes sense: The elderly themselves don't care much about protecting the elderly because they typically don't think of themselves as such, says Susan Fiske, a Princeton psychologist who has studied ageism and other prejudices. The "old" are always just a little bit older than ourselves.For the rest of us, there might be a more sinister impulse behind ageism. Most of us know someone who is elderly, be they an aging parent or grandparent, and those ties make us subconsciously crave control over how the elderly behave, Fiske says.Younger people subconsciously want to be sure that the elderly don't hog a disproportionate amount of time and resources. "Older people are expected to step aside," she told me.The only American cultures that have consistently positive views of the elderly are African Americans and Native Americans, Fiske has found in surveys. She's not sure why, but speculates that the adversity these communities have faced has made them prize older people's wisdom and experience.Likewise, some experts have pushed back against the assumption that young COVID-19 patients are more worth saving than the old. Fifty-year-olds, for example, might be more useful for the economy because they have skills and experience that 20-year-olds don't have.Utilitarians would argue that policy makers should simply maximize the total number of years people have left to live; the young certainly have more. But the fact that mostly older people are dying has helped justify something that isn't justifiable. It's helped public officials look away when they should be taking action.theatlantic.com
Why Is Kodak Black Suing the Federal Bureau of Prisons?
The 23-year-old rapper is claiming that he's been subjected to physical and mental abuse, as well as religious suppression, while serving time in a federal prison.newsweek.com
Tel Aviv set to become first city with electric roads that charge public transportation
The city of Tel Aviv is working on creating wireless electric roads to charge and power public transportation in the city.edition.cnn.com
Want to vote in person? Here's how to judge the risk
CNN's Abby Phillip explains how states have made in-person voting safer and explores the issues voters should keep in mind when it comes to mail-in voting.edition.cnn.com
Late-night TV hosts object to Trump's move to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Jimmy Fallon, Trevor Noah and Seth Meyers dedicated parts of their late-night shows to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and encouraged Americans to vote.latimes.com
Toomey supports moving ahead with filling Supreme Court seat vacated by Ginsburg
Toomey, a swing-state senator, was one of the last potential GOP defectors to come out in support of processing Trump's eventual nominee ahead of the electionfoxnews.com
Vanessa Bryant sues Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department over alleged photos deputies took at crash site
Vanessa Bryant is suing L.A. County, the sheriff's department and LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva over alleged photos sheriff's deputies took.usatoday.com
Jacob Elordi congratulates rumored ex Zendaya on Emmys 2020 win
"Congratulations captain @Zendaya," he wrote to his "Euphoria" co-star.nypost.com
Instagram model who poses as Catwoman jailed for masked robberies
An Australian Instagram model with sticky fingers and a penchant for posing as Catwoman has been jailed after being arrested for the second time this year for a series of crimes including masked robberies and shoplifting, according to a report. Monique Agostino, 25, was warned by Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge last year that her life was...nypost.com
New body cam video shows officer shoot boy with Asperger's
Salt Lake City Police released body camera footage of an officer involved shooting that left a 13-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome with multiple injuries.edition.cnn.com
Bed Bath & Beyond coupons: What shoppers need to know about the 20% discount amid a new round of store closings
Will Bed Bath & Beyond change its popular 20 percent coupons amid a new round of store closings? What stores are closing? What about gift cards?usatoday.com
Five States Where Coronavirus Cases Are Falling Fastest
South Carolina, Louisiana, Hawaii, Michigan and Delaware have each reported a drop in new infections in recent weeks.newsweek.com
Court-packing, Democrats' nuclear option for the Supreme Court, explained
The justices of the Supreme Court for the 1937-38 term. Sitting, from left to right, Justices Sutherland and McReynolds, Chief Justice Hughes, Justices Brandeis and Butler. Standing, left to right, Justices Cardozo, Stone, Roberts, and Black. | Bettmann/Getty Images Why an FDR plan from the 1930s is suddenly popular again. When news broke on Friday night that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the longest-serving liberal justice on the Supreme Court, had died, it became clear almost immediately that President Trump would try to replace her with a conservative justice before the presidential election on November 3. It also became clear that Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader who famously blocked President Obama's Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year in the name of letting the people choose, would work with Trump to push through the nominee ASAP. The brazenness of the move, along with the prospect of a Supreme Court with six conservative justices, almost immediately sparked a liberal response in the form of calls for court-packing. "Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year," Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) tweeted. "If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court." House Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) sounded a similar threat if the confirmation happens during a "lame duck" period, tweeting, "If Sen. McConnell and @SenateGOP were to force through a nominee during the lame duck session—before a new Senate and President can take office—then the incoming Senate should immediately move to expand the Supreme Court." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has already signaled his openness to court-packing if he becomes majority leader, telling his caucus in a conference call, "Let me be clear: If Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans move forward with this, then nothing is off the table for next year. Nothing is off the table." On the lobbying/advocacy side, the organization Demand Justice, run by veteran Democratic strategist Brian Fallon, is pushing hard for additional Supreme Court seats and term limits. (For his part, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has stuck to his institutionalist instincts, holding off on endorsing such drastic moves.) The calls for court-packing, though louder than ever, are not entirely new. Almost as soon as Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the Supreme Court this in June 2018 calls started pouring in from liberals and leftists for court-packing. There is nothing in the Constitution mandating that the Supreme Court have nine members, and a simple act of Congress could increase that number to 11, or 15, or even more. That effectively creates a way for a political party in control of the House, Senate, and presidency to add a large number of ideologically sympathetic justices to the Court, all at once. To many leftists and left-liberals, such drastic action is needed if any progressive legislation in the future is to survive — and if precedents on abortion rights and LGBT equality are to avoid reversal. Back in 2018, the Supreme Court effectively gutted public sector unions under the guise of the First Amendment. In 2012, there were four votes on the Supreme Court (including Anthony Kennedy) for striking down the Affordable Care Act in full. And there's an emerging movement of judicial conservatives, championed prominently by Donald Trump's appellate appointee Don Willett, which wants the courts to become much more aggressive in blocking economic regulation. If that kind of judicial conservatism comes to dominate the Supreme Court, then even winning back the White House and Congress won't be enough for programs like a $15 minimum wage, or Medicare-for-all, or a free college plan, to be passed and secured. The Supreme Court would stand ready to rule them unconstitutional nearly as soon as they are passed. In such a scenario, court-packing starts to look like a reasonable defensive measure. The prospect of a Court slapping down progressive economic measures brings to mind the last time court-packing was seriously considered. In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt was facing off with a hostile Supreme Court that routinely ruled aspects of the New Deal unconstitutional on the same grounds. During that era, the Court interpreted the due process clauses of the Fifth and 14th Amendments as sharply limiting economic regulation and ruling out things like federal bans on child labor, minimum wage laws, and legislation limiting work weeks to 60 (!) hours. Roosevelt's plan to increase the court's size — which would've allowed him as many as six new justices, for a 9-6 majority for the New Deal on a 15-member court — ultimately failed in the Senate, but not before successfully pressuring Justice Owen Roberts to switch his alignment from the Court's conservatives to the liberals and rule for the constitutionality of minimum wage laws and the National Labor Relations Act. If calls for court-packing grow loud enough, you could see something similar happen on the current court, if some of the Republican-appointed justices like John Roberts or Brett Kavanaugh start moderating their decisions to prevent the radical disruption of the Court by Democrats who fear being locked out of policy influence for a generation. Alternately, a successful court-packing effort from Democrats could spur retaliation in turn from Republicans, and this process itself could undermine the Court's authority. In some ways this might be desirable, and take decisions on important policy matters away from the court and in the hands of democratically elected legislatures. But it could also undermine faith in the rule of law itself, and increase the threat of democratic backsliding. The case for court-packing One of the most extensive arguments for court-packing comes from David Faris, a political scientist at Roosevelt University, whose book It's Time To Fight Dirty argues for court-packing as part of a larger set of strategies to amplify Democrats' political power, including statehood for DC and Puerto Rico, breaking California into multiple states, and expanding the House of Representatives. The Republican Senate's refusal to even consider Merrick Garland for Antonin Scalia's seat, Faris writes, violated "a norm that presidents should get to nominate whoever they like, within reason." He continues: "Because of this unspoken agreement between the two parties, both sides regarded Supreme Court openings as what they are — lotteries to be won by lucky presidents, or lost by those unfortunate enough not to preside over an opening. The GOP's treatment of Merrick Garland means that this informal agreement is trashed." That, to Faris, makes extraordinary measures like court-packing suddenly viable. And the threat of a conservative court undoing just about any legislative accomplishments of the next unified Democratic government makes it necessary: "A Court that strikes down a Medicare For All insurance system, or legislation establishing equal funding for public education, or that chips away at abortion rights, gay rights, and other issues that are now supported clearly by a majority of the public will create a profound crisis in American society of the likes that we haven't seen since the Great Depression." To lower the stakes of confirmation battles, Faris favors eliminating lifetime tenure for judges and adopting the nonpartisan group Fix The Court's plan of nonrenewable 18-year term limits. But unless nominees voluntarily pledge to step down after 18 years (which would effectively be a form of unilateral disarmament if only one party's nominees take that pledge), term limits would require a constitutional amendment to enact. Court-packing, by contrast, only requires an act of Congress and could pressure Republicans to accept term limits as a compromise. "If the reactionary right is unwilling to go along with this idea, as they almost certainly won't be due to short-term political calculations, Democrats must use the power granted to them by the Constitution to pack the Supreme Court, protect the legislation demanded by a majority of Americans and, hopefully, to convince their opponents that the current structure of the court system cries out for a bipartisan solution," Faris concludes. In the aftermath of Kennedy's retirement, a number of leftist/liberal writers echoed Faris's arguments. Attorney and writer Mark Pickett argued in the Outline, "increasing the size of the Court is an entirely proportional response the GOP's abuse of process. Gorsuch's appointment alone justifies it. In shifting the Court from a potential 5 to 4 liberal majority to a 5 to 4 conservative majority, the Republicans effectively stole two votes. Increasing the Court's size to 11 justices would merely rebalance what was taken." Todd Tucker, a political scientist and fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, argued more explicitly on the basis of policy outcomes in Jacobin. "With union density near an all-time low and climate catastrophe on the horizon, future lawmakers will need tools even more robust than what FDR was able to get through — think a Green [National Industrial Recovery Act] on steroids," Tucker writes. "A handful of justices pulled from Federalist Society debating clubs can't and shouldn't get in the way of a more democratic and sustainable economy." The existence of historical precedents for court-packing beyond FDR further bolsters the argument for it. In a 1968 article for the Baylor Law Review, political scientist JR Saylor detailed "seven occasions Congress has enlarged or diminished the size of the Supreme Court by one or two judges." Each of these seven times, the changes were made either to "purge the Court of … justices making decisions objectionable to an incumbent of the White House or to a dominant party majority in Congress" or to "'pack' the Court in order that the policies of the government in power would be upheld as constitutional." Those seven times were: In 1801, before the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson, the outgoing Federalist Party passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, shrinking the court from six to five members by providing that the next member to die or resign would not be replaced. Saylor describes this as "undoubtedly an attempt made by the Federalists to keep the Court wholly Federalist." In 1802, Jefferson's Democratic-Republican party repealed the 1801 law and returned the court to six members. In 1807, the Jeffersonian-dominated Congress expanded the Court to even members, to accommodate a new judicial circuit covering Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, then new additions to the union. In 1837, two new circuits were created and the Court's size increased to nine; Saylor credits this to the geographic pressures of America's westward expansion, but notes that Andrew Jackson quickly took advantage and appointed two new justices the day before he left office. In 1863, Congress increased the Supreme Court's size to 10 members in the midst of the Civil War. Saylor explains, "There was a widespread suspicion that Lincoln wanted another man on the Court on whom he could depend lest the body invalidate some of the crucial and doubtful wartime legislation which was coming before it at that time." In 1866, as pro-Reconstruction Republicans in Congress did battle with President Andrew Johnson, Congress passed a law barring Johnson from filling vacancies until the Court shrank to eight members, which occurred the following year. In 1869, with pro-Reconstruction President Ulysses S. Grant in office, Congress increased the court's size to nine, where it's stayed ever since. That history is not one of politically disinterested policymakers negotiating impartially as to the Court's size. It's a history of political manipulation with an eye toward partisan advantage, and some of the most heroic figures in American history — Lincoln, Radical Republicans in Congress like Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, Grant — engaged in the practice. The arguments against court-packing Court-packing was unpopular with the public when proposed by Roosevelt, and there's a reason that many constitutional scholars and political scientists continue to decry it to this day. In How Democracies Die, Harvard comparative politics scholars Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt characterize 1937 as one of America's close calls with democratic backsliding. "Democratic institutions depend crucially on the willingness of governing parties to defend them — even against their own leaders," Levitsky and Ziblatt write. "The failure of Roosevelt's court-packing scheme and the fall of Nixon were made possible when key members of the president's own party … decided to stand up and oppose him." In their 2017 paper "How to Lose a Constitutional Democracy," University of Chicago law professors Aziz Huq and Tom Ginsburg concur, writing, "The presidential effort to pack the Supreme Court represents a low point for the rule of law in the United States, and is a technique that has been followed by modern-day illiberal democrats." It's not hard to see why political scientists taking a more international view would see court-packing as, on its face, a threat to democratic institutions. As Huq and Ginsburg note, court-packing is a frequently used tool in the toolkit of would-be authoritarians. To give a few examples: In 1946-47, Argentina's populist president and former military coup conspirator Juan Perón successfully impeached four out of the country's five Supreme Court justices in a bid to consolidate power. In 1989, Argentine President Carlos Menem, fearing Supreme Court opposition to his privatization schemes, expanded the court from five to nine members and packed it with sympathetic judges. In 2004, Hugo Chavez's allies in the National Assembly of Venezuela expanded the Supreme Court from 20 members to 32 and packed it with Chavez loyalists. Among many other attempts to weaken the judiciary, Turkey's authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then the prime minister, in 2010 pushed through a referendum increasing the Constitutional Court's size from 11 to 17 and enabling him and his loyalists to fill the new vacancies. In 2012, Juan Orlando Hernandez, then the president of Honduras's National Congress and today the increasingly dictatorial country's right-wing president, conspired to sack four of the five Supreme Court justices and replace them with his allies. As part of Viktor Orban's rise to power as Hungary's dictator, in 2010 he and his Fidesz party amended the rules of Supreme Court appointment so that the opposition no longer had to assent to nominees; in 2011 they expanded the number of judges from 11 to 15; in 2012 and 2013 they expanded terms on the bench from nine to 12 years and eliminated the 70-year age limit previously in place. These moves, together, resulted in 11 out of 15 judges being Fidesz loyalists. Poland's authoritarian nationalist Law and Justice party in 2017 seized control over the Supreme Court by pushing legislation that gives the ruling party the ability to appoint new judges and the power to dismiss judges below a certain retirement age (which happens to disproportionately enable the dismissal of judges critical of the Law and Justice party). In the wake of massive public opposition, the president vetoed the legislation, only to accept a very similar bill months later. All this followed the party's 2015 decision to not swear in judges appointed by their predecessors and to force a supermajority requirement on the court, effectively weakening it. The pattern is clear: Court-packing is what autocrats do as they begin to consolidate their power. And it's been a particularly popular method in the past couple decades. It's not a thing of the past, and is currently used by the authoritarian backsliders (Orban, the Law and Justice party, Erdoğan) that people who worry about Trump's anti-democratic tendencies compare him to. A norm-busting tool to preserve democracy? Supporters of court-packing could argue that just because the same method is used doesn't mean that court-packing itself is anti-democratic. To give an analogy: When Italy abandoned proportional representation in 1923 by adopting the Acerbo Law, it did so to try to engineer landslide victories for Benito Mussolini's fascists; but it doesn't follow that any country that doesn't use proportional representation (like the US or the UK or Canada) automatically is an autocracy. Court-packing is a tool: it can be used for authoritarian ends, or for democratic ones. To which critics would reply: not so fast. Even a well-intentioned court-packing scheme (like FDR's arguably was) can set off a cycle of mutual escalation that winds up discrediting and weakening the institution being battled over. The Supreme Court has no army. Its authority rests on the thin reed of public acceptance and political forbearance. If it were to be weaponized in a court-packing scheme, its rulings might suddenly stop being obeyed. Let's say that President Joe Biden packs the court in 2021, and the Court subsequently overrules Milliken v. Bradley and forces white suburbs across the country to bus their kids into inner-city public schools, and to accept (disproportionately black and Latin) students from poor neighborhoods bussed into their own schools. This would be the correct result, in my opinion. Milliken v. Bradley was a disastrous decision that drastically undermined the cause of school desegregation. But if such a ruling followed a court-packing effort, how much do you want to bet that the rich suburbs of Chicago's North Shore would actually start bussing their kids to Englewood? Or that Beverly Hills would let students in from Compton? Or would they view the ruling as illegitimate and simply not obey? You could imagine the same for any number of issues: Alabama refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses and disregarding any Supreme Court rulings forcing it to obey Obergefell v. Hodges; South Dakota banning all abortions save when the life of the mother is at risk, and ignoring Supreme Court rulings striking the law down. Ifthis all sounds far-fetched, let me quote my colleague Ian Millhiser, who is broadly sympathetic to court-packing as a last-ditch effort to prevent the Supreme Court from entrenching economic inequality permanently: "packing the Court would effectively destroy the legitimacy of the federal judiciary and potentially embolden right states … to ignore decisions they don't like. No more Roe. No more Obergefell. No more Fourth Amendment." Now maybe, ultimately, weakening the Supreme Court is a good thing. Plenty of legal scholars on both sides of the aisle have, for years, argued that the US goes too far in embracing judicial review; few other countries give their highest courts the power we give ours to strike down laws passed by democratically elected legislators. Even in Canada, the parliament and the provinces retain the power to reverse Supreme Court decisions with supermajority votes. Perhaps court-packing would set off a spiral that results in a dramatically weakened Court, and power returned to the states and Congress to settle contentious issues like abortion and desegregation and LGBT rights through democratic processes. I'm extremely sympathetic to that argument. But it's also possible that's not what happens, that court-packing merely leads to more games of constitutional hardball and enables a future president to push through legislation that makes him and his allies basically impossible to dislodge from power, with a packed Supreme Court that is unwilling and unable to stop him. That, roughly, is what has happened in Poland, Hungary, Honduras, Venezuela, and Turkey. It could happen here too.vox.com
China calls allegations of NYPD cop acting as a spy 'pure fabrication'
China is pushing back Tuesday on allegations from U.S. prosecutors that a New York City police officer has been working as a spy for their government, calling the charges filed against him "pure fabrication".foxnews.com
NBA commissioner: 'Best guess' is next season won't start until 2021
Even though the NBA hasn't set an official start date for the 2020-21 season, commissioner Adam Silver says his "best guess" is the season will begin in January at the earliest.edition.cnn.com
Katie Holmes pairs a blazer with sweatpants while out with Emilio Vitolo Jr.
Business up top, cozy on the bottom.nypost.com
The Pandemic Is Defeating Hollywood Blockbusters
Data gathered this weekend appeared to hold seismic news for Hollywood—specifically Disney. A report from Yahoo suggested that a shocking 9 million Disney+ users had streamed the studio's Mulan remake in its first 12 days of release, translating into a gross of $261 million. That's a staggering number for an on-demand rental and for an industry that's been struggling through pandemic-related cinema closures. If Disney can make that kind of money without American theaters, does it need American theaters at all?The only problem is, Mulan didn't actually make $261 million in 12 days. Yahoo had misinterpreted numbers from an analytics firm that estimated Mulan's viewership, and the firm's co-founder clarified that grosses were more likely $60 million to $90 million—well below the movie's reported budget of $200 million. Not only does it seem that Mulan made modest sums in the United States (though Disney has yet to release official numbers), but the movie also had a disappointing theatrical rollout in China. Another grand experiment by Hollywood in the COVID-19 era, another flop. As the end of 2020 draws near, studios still haven't figured out a sustainable way to bring their most expensive blockbusters to audiences.[Read: Hollywood's 'Tenet' experiment failed]As with Warner Bros.' release of Christopher Nolan's Tenet, which has had its own difficulties, Mulan's mediocre release had many complicating factors. Disney took two parallel swings domestically and globally, each approach laden with risk. In America, the studio decided to offer the film only to Disney+ subscribers for an extra $30. Mulan was also put in theaters abroad, given the lower COVID-19 rates in other countries; Disney's hope was that the film's story (rooted in Chinese myth) and its array of Chinese stars (Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Gong Li, Jet Li, and others) would help make it a box-office success in China.Neither bet really paid off. American viewers probably balked at the idea of paying $30 on top of a Disney+ subscription fee. The film may have also been affected by the revelation that parts were shot in Xinjiang, the region of China where Uighur Muslims have been imprisoned in internment camps, although Disney issued no official apology, which would have angered the Chinese government. Disney's CFO, Christine McCarthy, nonetheless acknowledged that controversy "generated a lot of issues for us." Another possible reason for the film's underwhelming performance in China? Lack of interest. China's movie industry already makes plenty of splendid medieval epics along the same lines as Mulan, and Disney's remake didn't offer anything especially new.Stateside, one could argue that Disney made the right gamble. Tenet is playing in mostly empty theaters and has grossed $36 million domestically; even the lower end of the estimates cited by Yahoo would suggest that Mulan made twice as much online. Because Disney released the film exclusively on its own platform, it gets to keep all of that money, as opposed to having to split it with cinemas or with companies such as Apple and Amazon. Even so, the film needs to make far more than $90 million to cover its budget, so the overseas release was crucial. But Mulan stumbled—its grosses dropped a disastrous 72 percent in its second weekend in China.[Read: The question that 'Mulan' doesn't ask]Tenet has had the opposite problem. While its theatrical play in America hasn't worked, its overseas numbers have been tremendous, making the film's global total roughly $250 million in the past month. That number could plausibly tick up above $400 million as the fall wears on, which would be a huge win for Warner Bros., given the circumstances. Still, neither the Mulan nor the Tenet approach has been entirely successful, and existential concerns about the health of America's cinemas persist as moviegoers remain skittish about returning to theaters in the middle of a public-health crisis.The simple fact is that no major studio has been nimble enough to get around the pandemic's biggest obstacles. This is partly due to Hollywood's increasing reliance on blockbusters. In decades past, Hollywood churned out plenty of cheaper movies that relied on word of mouth and could play for months on end, slowly racking up profits. But modern tentpole releases such as Mulan and Tenet are designed to have spectacular global rollouts, packing theaters and securing massive opening-weekend grosses. Think hundreds of millions of dollars rather than merely tens of millions.Hollywood knows how to function in only one way anymore, and that has made the industry devastatingly vulnerable this year. Funnily enough, the best-case scenario is probably something along the lines of Tenet or Mulan, films that simply break even. Until the U.S. returns to normal (which might not be until late 2021), cinema will have to take many more swings and misses. In the meantime, audiences get the worst of both worlds: They're being pressured by studios to return to theaters in droves and being charged big bucks to watch new movies at home, all while waiting for life to be good again.theatlantic.com
Surrogate caring for baby during COVID-19 as parents are stuck in China
An Idaho woman who served as a surrogate for a couple in China has now been caring for the baby girl for four months — as COVID-19 restrictions have kept her biological parents overseas, according to new reports. Emily Chrislip, 25, of the city of Nampa, gave birth on May 18 — and initially planned...nypost.com
Bellator rebooks Patricio Freire vs. Pedro Carvalho title fight for Nov. 12 in Connecticut
The Bellator featherweight grand prix is set to resume. Related StoriesBellator rebooks Patricio Freire vs. Pedro Carvalho title fight for Nov. 12 in Connecticut - EnclosurePatricio Freire acquires visa, anticipates overdue Bellator showdown with Pedro Carvalho in late 2020Patricio Freire acquires visa, anticipates overdue Bellator showdown with Pedro Carvalho in late 2020 - Enclosureusatoday.com
Feds Seize $196K in Cash at Border Crossing from Texas to Mexico
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Eagle Pass, Texas, seized nearly $200,000 in unreported currency being smuggled into Mexico. This adds to the increasing amount of cash being seized at ports of entry.breitbart.com
'There Is No Monopoly Here:' Tim Cook Welcomes Antitrust Investigation of Apple
Speaking at the Atlantic Festival recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed the antitrust issues that the tech giant is facing amongst a number of other topics.breitbart.com
Highway 1 reopens near Big Sur, but SoCal forests are still closed as fires persist
Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks remain shutlatimes.com
Car Chase Ends with South Texas Human Stash House Raid
On Sunday morning, the Roma Police Department received a call from a concerned citizen observing people reportedly being smuggled into a residence located at the 400 block of Allende Avenue in that south Texas border town.breitbart.com
Bobcat fire destroys at least 29 structures, continues to threaten Mt. Wilson
Fire officials say the number of damaged structures could rise as high as 85 as the blaze continues to grow.latimes.com
Nikola founder Trevor Milton keeps $2.5 billion in stock after departure
Nikola founder Trevor Milton has walked away from the electric-truck maker in the midst of a nasty feud with a short-seller with more than $2 billion in stock, records show. Milton — who stepped down as the Tesla challenger's chairman Monday amid a storm of fraud allegations — got to keep more than 91.6 million...nypost.com
Peyton Manning, Charles Barkley trade trash talk in ESPN2 Megacast
Peyton Manning and Charles Barkley were gold with their trash talk on ESPN2's Megacast during Monday Night Football.usatoday.com
NYPD cop accused of spying for China also exaggerated his military history
The NYPD cop accused of spying on behalf of the People's Republic of China apparently exaggerated his military service record to his brothers in blue, The Post has learned.nypost.com
UC fails to adequately prevent fraud in admissions, state audit says
The University of California's failure to rigorously oversee its admissions practices has allowed unqualified students to get in, state audit finds.latimes.com
28-year-old doctor dies from COVID-19, family says
Adeline Fagan was an OB/GYN starting her second year of residency in Texas when she began showing symptoms.cbsnews.com
Cotton: Biden Knows if He Revealed 'Radical Left-Wing' SCOTUS Nomination List 'He Would Lose the Election'
In a Tuesday interview with Fox News Channel's "America's Newsroom," Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) sounded off on why 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is yet to reveal his list of potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.breitbart.com
Is Facebook Leaving the EU? Don't Set an Away Status Just Yet
Currently over 410 million people use the social media platform, along with the photo sharing app, Instagramnewsweek.com


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The Hotel Wizzard system was born out of the industry's need for a "one stop shop", flexible enough to adapt to your changing business needs. Hotel Wizzard the complete hotel property management system has been designed to make the Front of House office and reservation system cost effective and user-friendly which is vital to smaller businesses and large hotel chains alike.
As Hotelier's with decades of hotel management experience we know, first-hand the limitations and challenges of the tourism industry's front office and reservations systems. We understand every facet of running an accommodation business and this extensive experience coupled with innovative technology have been built into the Hotel Wizzard system to make it the best value for money on the market today.
The Hotel Wizzard system has been researched, created and implemented to be used to progress the industry as a whole as we all want growth and viability across the sector. One of the principal benefits of our system is that it can be used across the entire tourism industry, not just the accommodation sector and not just as a Site Updater or Book & Pay facility. We are here to assist you with all your system needs and we offer free live technical support 365 days a year.
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Being one of the finalists for the Best Cebu Blogs Awards 2018 was truly unexpected. The chances of winning an award as Best Cebu Photo
The Ranch Resort: Spending A Day In Toledo City's Beautiful Resort And Farm
After a week of backpacking around Northern Mindanao, I was happy to be back in Cebu to finally have a good rest. But, since I'm


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Home > HFHMEDJOURNAL > Vol. 18 > No. 3 (1970)
Henry Ford Hospital Medical Journal
Volume 18, Number 3 (1970)
Quantitative Determination of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) by Micro-Double Diffusion Technic
Hajime Hayashi, Gerald A. LoGrippo, and Mary Perry
Hypophyseal Growth Hormone II. Interaction with Other Hormones
M. Saeed-uz-Zafar, Raymond C. Mellinger, and Lewis B. Morrow
Percutaneous Absorption of Betamethasone-17-Benzoate
George R. Mikhail
Health Nurse Clinician: An Extended Role for the Professional Nurse
C. E. Rupe, Diana Downs, Diane L. Kerr, and William W. Hardy
Effect of Normal Menstrual Cycle on Platelet Adhesiveness
Janet Mak Yeung
Mixed Gonadal Stroma Cell Tumor of the Testicle: A Case Report
Gerald B. Farrow and Arthur J. Johnson
Assessing Attempted Suicide
Walter J. Cassidy
Spectacular Elevations of Serum Alkaline Phosphatase: Clinical and Pathological Correlation Roy B.
Roy B. Patton
A Decade of Heart Surgery and a Look Into the Future
Conrad R. Lam


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Jumeirah at Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi has been revealed as a movie shoot location for an upcoming gold heist thriller starring Hollywood A-lister and former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan.
The Misfits will be directed by action director veteran Renny Harlin, famed also for other works including Die Hard 2 and Skip Trace. His latest project, of which Brosnan has already been signed on to, will begin shooting later this month in Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi.
According to a statement, the flick is set mostly in the Middle East and follows the story of renowned criminal Richard Pace, who finds himself "caught up in an elaborate gold heist that promises to have far-reaching implications".
Jamie Chung and British actress Hermione Corfield will star.
The Misfits will be produced by Kia Jam and Dean Altit and executive produced by Prince Rami Al Husseini. Both confirmed on Tuesday at the European Film Market that shooting will begin shooting on 18 February 2019.
"After visiting and scouting Abu Dhabi, we were blown away," said Jam in a statement. "We all agreed in order to do the film justice, production would have to take place primarily on location in Abu Dhabi rather than L.A., and we set up our base at the spectacular Jumeirah at Etihad Towers."
The Middle East and the construction industry, in particualar, are no stranger to the silver screen.
As reported by Construction Week in June 2017, a Caterpilllar excavator joining the cast of robots in Transformers: The Last Knight, the fifth instalment of the live action Transformers movies directed by Michael Bay.
In May 2017, Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenent prominently featured a fleet of more than 20 JCB machines in the largest product placement in the UK manufacturer's long history of earnest self-promotion.


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A new film from Toronto director Brandon Cronenberg is getting serious attention and praise for a successful premiere and run at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Possessor is billed as a gruesome thriller set in a futuristic age of identify theft.
Some film critics seem overwhelmed by the level of violence and carnage in the film while others are in awe of Cronenberg's hyper-realism. Either way, it is clearly one of the most unique and singular works at the festival.
Cronenberg is, of course, the son of iconic Canadian director David Cronenberg. The younger Cronenberg's first feature film, Antiviral, which premiered at Cannes and won numerous awards, delved into a similar type of body horror that was present in much of his father's earlier work. But despite the similarities, Brandon has made a point of trodding his own path to the point where people are still surprised to learn David Cronenberg has a son in the family business.
Cronenberg grew up in the Republic of Rathnelly neighbourhood nestled between the Annex and Casa Loma in Toronto and spent plenty of time on his dad's film sets before attending Ryerson University.
Cronenberg also wrote the film and ended up crafting a storyline that seems a perfect vehicle for the body horror genre: "Tasya Vos is a corporate agent who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people's bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of the company."
"Bodies melt into liquid flesh; a thousand faces yell a single primal scream; the camera zooms through a tunnel of pink organs." @IndieWire review of DGC Ontario Director Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor from #Sundance2020 https://t.co/nSvSC4zbNj
— DGC Ontario (@OntarioDGC) January 27, 2020
It is easily one of the most talked-about films at this year's festival and has drummed up a lot of interest and positive reviews. Although there isn't quite unanimous praise, there is consensus that the film will leave its mark, viewers will be in for a wild ride and Cronenberg's unflinching vision is something to which film fans should be paying close attention.
For instance, Indiewire.com film critic David Ehrlich writes: "Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor is so drunk on its own sick potential that it doesn't have the time (or the balance) required to realize most of it. On the other hand, 90 minutes of Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott engaging in ultra-gory psychic warfare over control of the latter's body is more satisfying than what most of the current Best Picture nominees have to offer, so maybe it's wise not to look a gift horse in the mouth."
The film stars Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Rossif Sutherland, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean and Jennifer Jason Leigh — who also starred in David Cronenberg's 1999 film eXistenZ. Just saying.
POSSESSOR: The feel-bad film of #Sundance, exactly as a Cronenberg would want. Unflinching brutal visuals, well-thought-through premise, plenty to say. Great lead performances from Andrea Riseborough & esp Christopher Abbott. Will never watch again! #Sundance #Possessor pic.twitter.com/ZakXs2vkEY
— Ed Travis @ Sundance (@Ed_Travis) January 26, 2020
Possessor has one screening left at Sundance on Jan. 31. We eagerly await word of a Canadian release date.


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Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford,[13] a free school chartered in 1553,[14] about a quarter-mile from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but grammar school curricula were largely similar, the basic Latin text was standardised by royal decree,[15] and the school would have provided an intensive education in grammar based upon Latin classical authors.[16]
John Shakespeare's house, believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace, in Stratford-upon-Avon.
At the age of 18, Shakespeare married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage.[17] The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste, since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times,[18] and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583.[19] Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585.[20] Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.[21]
After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the 'complaints bill' of a law case before the Queen's Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589.[22] Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years".[23] Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him.[24] Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London.[25] John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster.[26] Some 20th-century scholars have suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will.[27] Little evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.[28]
It is not known exactly when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592.[30] By then, he was sufficiently well known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit:
...there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.[31]
Scholars differ on the exact meaning of these words,[32] but most agree


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HQ ILvl Jugs
Forum » FFXI » Jobs » Beast Master » HQ iLvl jugs
HQ iLvl jugs
Should there be an HQ version of all iLvl jugs? I don't understand why this already isn't. For example, the tiger and the lizard should have HQ versions, but they don't. Recipes should be included in the game to create all iLvl jugs and have the possibility of HQ'ing.
Isn't there though? Monster jugs cap at Lv.99 themselves, but the monsters for the most part correlate with your iLvl. Also, the craftable Lv.99 jugs, are HQ-able for multiples. They release new jugs decently often though, so if you're not satisfied with what they currently have give it a few updates.
Necro Bump Detected! [33 days between previous and next post]
I'm pretty sure the ones you are talking about are the ones that are not craftable and only available from the npc in Upper Jeuno... Why would we need HQ versions of these when they are already 119 cap-able and dirt cheap from the vendor to boot?
Rather than worry about these ones, I'd prefer if they'd add new jugs to cover missing species :3
If you're not banned from the OF, someone post that we need more pets. A ruszor pet would be nice. Another hippogryph would be cool. What would be best would be the scorpion that actually won the new pet vote so long ago.
What kind of new pet would you like them to add?
Hecteyes with access to Death so we can use pet jobs to kill everything in the game.
On second thought, maybe they should give us HQ versions of the jugs from Theraisie so that we can have the option of forgoing Beast Affinity merits... or just bump them up to natural 119 caps.
I've been toying with Killer Instinct and having fun with it, but had to give up my Beast Healer merits since BA is mandatory to make our pets functional.
Scorpion would be awesome though. XD I think hecteyes might be too complicated for them to bother adding sadly.. While I would love to see one, I can also see the problems with "how to we set up Ready to cast spells?" and the possibility of being lower recasts than players. How about a sandworm? :3
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