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Contents contributed and discussions participated by martinelligi

martinelligi

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, dead at 99 - CNN - 0 views

  • Prince Philip, the lifelong companion of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, has died, Buckingham Palace announced Friday. He was 99.
  • Philip, also known by his official title of the Duke of Edinburgh, was the longest-serving British consort. He married the then Princess Elizabeth in 1947 after a courtship that charmed a country still reeling from the ravages of World War II.
martinelligi

Something unusual is happening in Derek Chauvin's trial - CNN - 0 views

  • Some of the most damaging testimony against the police officer on trial over the death of George Floyd is coming from fellow cops.
  • The defense will argue that a combination of Floyd's health conditions that Chauvin could not have known about means there is reasonable doubt about whether he ultimately caused Floyd's death. But a succession of police officers have said Chauvin's actions were unnecessary, as prosecutors try to convince the jury that he acted with malice.
  • The second week of evidence against Derek Chauvin, who is charged with murdering Floyd, has moved on from wrenching eyewitness accounts of the Minnesota man's death, which sparked a worldwide racial reckoning. Prosecutors are now narrowing in on Chauvin's conduct in subduing Floyd, making a case that he acted outside reasonable police procedure.
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  • In either case, it is highly unusual to see a parade of US police officers testify so uniformly against one of their own. More often, they close ranks.
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March Saw Most Ever Children Stopped At U.S.-Mexico Border In A Month : NPR - 0 views

  • The number of migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border in March was the most in at least 15 years, as agents for U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended nearly 172,000 people, according to Biden administration officials.
  • The administration has been struggling to handle the influx of children, who are not being turned away at the border. Facilities run by CBP are not designed to house children and teens. In March, there was progress, officials said. By the end of the month, an average of 507 children a day were being transferred out of CBP facilities, up from 276 per day a month earlier.
martinelligi

What is the Senate filibuster, and what would it take to eliminate it? - 1 views

  • st weeks into Joe Biden’s presidency, it is clear that he faces considerable obstacles in pursuing his agenda in Congress. The Senate cloture rule—which requires 60 votes to cut off debate on most measures—is probably the highest hurdle. Democrats’ Senate majority rests on the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, and even the process of organizing the Senate’s committees got bogged down by a debate over whether Democrats would attempt to eliminate the legislative filibuster in the opening weeks of the 117th Congress.
  • Rather, its emergence was made possible in 1806 when the Senate—at the advice of Vice President Aaron Burr—removed from its rules a provision (formally known as the previous question motion) allowing a simple majority to force a vote on the underlying question being debated.
  • Filibusters then became a regular feature of Senate activity, both in the run-up to and aftermath of the Civil War. Senate leaders from both parties sought, but failed, to ban the filibuster throughout the 19th century. Opponents would simply filibuster the motion to ban the filibuster.
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  • re’s no perfect way to measure the frequency with which the filibuster has been used over time. Senators are not required to formally register their objection to ending debate until a cloture motion actually comes up for a vote. If Senate leaders know that at least 41 senators plan to oppose a cloture motion on a given measure or motion, they often choose not to schedule it for floor consideration.
  • Senators have two options when they seek to vote on a measure or motion. Most often, the majority leader (or another senator) seeks “unanimous consent,” asking if any of the 100 senators objects to ending debate and moving to a vote. If no objection is heard, the Senate proceeds to a vote. If the majority leader can’t secure the consent of all 100 senators, the leader (or another senator) typically files a cloture motion, which then requires 60 votes to adopt. If fewer than 60 senators—a supermajority of the chamber—support cloture, that’s when we often say that a measure has been filibustered
  • The most straightforward way to eliminate the filibuster would be to formally change the text of Senate Rule 22, the cloture rule that requires 60 votes to end debate on legislation. Here’s the catch: Ending debate on a resolution to change the Senate’s standing rules requires the support of two-thirds of the members present and voting. Absent a large, bipartisan Senate majority that favors curtailing the right to debate, a formal change in Rule 22 is extremely unlikely
  • Importantly, this approach to curtailing the filibuster—colloquially known as the “nuclear option” and more formally as “reform by ruling”—can, in certain circumstances, be employed with support from only a simple majority of senators.
martinelligi

Container Ship Stuck In Suez Canal Is Partially Freed : NPR - 0 views

  • Six days after a massive cargo ship ran aground in the Suez Canal and drove traffic to a standstill in one of the world's most important waterways, authorities reported the vessel was partially afloat.
  • If crews can pry the Ever Given from its spot on the Suez Canal, global supply chains could avoid further stress and loss of money. A prolonged delay could increase the cost of shipping, complicate manufacturing and ultimately drive up prices, logistics experts previously told NPR.
  • The ship's owner, Japan-based Shoei Kisen Kaisha, Ltd., cautioned the Ever Given was not yet free. A company representative told NPR the tugs have managed to change the boat's direction, but it is not yet afloat.
martinelligi

Misleading Facts Evade Social Media Moderation, Fuel Covid Misinformation : NPR - 0 views

  • The odds of dying after getting a Covid-19 vaccine are virtually non-existent. According to recent data from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, you're three times more likely to get struck by lightning.
  • A new NPR analysis finds that articles connecting vaccines and death have been among the most highly-engaged-with content online this year, going viral in a way that could hinder people's ability to judge the true risk in getting a shot.
  • Experts say these storylines are much harder for companies to moderate, though they can have the same net effect of creating a distorted and false view of the world.
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  • Whether they have a vaccine or not, roughly 8,000 people die in the U.S. every day. And as more people get vaccinated, more vaccinated people will continue to die from unrelated causes, which the pharmaceutical company Pfizer alluded to in a statement earlier this year.
  • This is not because many more people died during these periods; rather it's the result of multiple news outlets writing articles about the same small number of deaths and reaching a larger audience.
  • For someone to correctly calculate the real risk involved in getting a shot, she says, they need to consider the hundreds of thousands of people who have died because they were not vaccinated against Covid-19, not just a random headline. "We rarely get the contextual information we need," Bostrom says. "And it's really hard to judge the importance of something without that information."
martinelligi

Stutthof Camp: Holocaust guard Harry S found unfit to stand trial at 96 - BBC News - 0 views

  • A court in Germany has declared a 96-year-old former Nazi camp guard unfit to stand trial but ruled that he should pay his own legal fees.
  • Bruno Dey, 93, was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence last July after being found guilty of complicity in the murder of more than 5,000 prisoners.
  • Stutthof also had gas chambers and was notorious for the atrocious conditions in which some 100,000 inmates were kept. Many died of disease and starvation, while others were gassed, shot or given lethal injections.
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  • The west German court said in a statement on Wednesday that "due to his physical condition," Harry S "was no longer able to reasonably represent his interest in and outside of the trial"
  • Germany has been pursuing former Nazi camp workers since a landmark ruling in 2011 that convicted a former guard, John Demjanjuk, as an accessory to mass murder. He died pending an appeal, but the verdict set a legal precedent.
martinelligi

Myanmar coup: 'We were told to shoot protesters', say police who fled - BBC News - 0 views

  • Police officers from Myanmar have told the BBC they fled across the border into India after refusing to carry out the orders of the military which seized power in a coup last month. In some of the first such interviews, more than a dozen defectors told us they escaped, fearing they'd be forced to kill or harm civilians.
  • The military is edgy. They are becoming more and more brutal." As we speak, Naing pulls out his phone to show me photos of the family he left behind - a wife, and two daughters aged just five and six months.
  • ey say they're part of a growing number of officials who are joining the pro-democracy, civil disobedience movement (CDM) in the country.
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  • Authorities in Myanmar have asked India to return any defectors, to "uphold friendly relations".
  • Htut, who is 22, says he and other police were paired with members of the military as they patrolled the streets. Protesters who were peacefully banging utensils in support of the pro-democracy movement were threatened with arrest.
  • n 2017, Myanmar's army responded to attacks on police by Rohingya militants with a deadly crackdown, driving more than half a million Rohingya Muslims across the border into Bangladesh in what the UN later called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing"
martinelligi

Covid relief bill: Congress sends $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package to Biden's desk... - 0 views

  • The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to approve the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan, paving the way for President Joe Biden to sign his top legislative priority into law later this week and deliver aid to most American households amid the pandemic.
  • Passage of the bill marks the first major legislative achievement of the new administration and a Congress that is now under full Democratic control, with narrow majorities in the House and Senate.
  • No Republicans voted in favor.
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  • Key features of the plan include up to $1,400-per-person stimulus payments that will send money to about 90% of households, a $300 federal boost to weekly jobless benefits, an expansion of the child tax credit of up to $3,600 per child and $350 billion in state and local aid, as well as billions of dollars for K-12 schools to help students return to the classroom, to assist small businesses hard-hit by the pandemic and for vaccine research, development and distribution.
  • But the Senate kept the income thresholds the same for who gets the full payments: individuals earning less than $75,000 a year and married couples earning less than $150,000 will receive $1,400 per person, including children.
  • An estimated 11.4 million workers will lose their unemployment benefits between mid-March and mid-April unless Congress passes its next coronavirus relief package quickly, a recent study by The Century Foundation found.
  • The vote on the motion to adjourn failed by a tally of 149 to 235 with a significant number of Republicans voting in opposition, the largest number of Republicans to vote against Greene's motion to adjourn since the Georgia freshman started pulling the move.
martinelligi

Crowded N.Y.C. Jails Stoke Covid Fears: 'It's a Ticking Time Bomb' - The New York Times - 0 views

  • New York City’s jails were under such threat from the coronavirus last spring that city officials moved swiftly to let hundreds of people out of the crowded, airless old buildings. The effort shrank the jail population to its lowest point in more than half a century.
  • There are now more than 5,500 people in the city’s jails, slightly more than were detained last March. About three-quarters of the people being held have not been convicted. Many are awaiting trial much longer than usual, as the court system continues to operate at a near standstill during the pandemic.
  • Those behind bars are at high risk for contracting and spreading the virus, and correctional facilities have been home to some of the largest outbreaks nationally. Often, those outbreaks have spread into the community at large, as people shuttle in and out of detention. Few of those being detained in New York have been offered vaccines.
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  • Data kept by Correctional Health Services, which oversees care in jails, shows that infections and exposures in the jails crept up during January and February to their highest levels since last spring. A Department of Correction spokesman, in a statement, noted that the average test positivity rate in the jails was lower than in the city at large, though experts warn that the virus’s prevalence in jails can be hard to track.
  • The Department of Correction said that there were not widespread or systemic shortages of soap or other sanitary materials, and that staff members are subject to discipline for not wearing masks. The department also pointed to the ruling in a lawsuit filed by E.E. Keenan, a lawyer representing current and recent detainees at Rikers, in which a judge declined to order city jails to improve their hygiene regimens.
  • In the earliest months of the pandemic, public defenders and local officials, led by Mayor Bill de Blasio, pushed for city prosecutors and state courts to release the most vulnerable populations from behind bars and introduced an early release program for people being held on a jail sentence of one year or less.
  • But none of the measures that the city took to release people were implemented on a continuing basis and the jails population began to grow anew in the summer.
martinelligi

Postal Service Is Pushed To Get More Electric Vehicles : NPR - 0 views

  • In one of his first actions in January, President Biden announced an ambitious plan that he said would create jobs and reduce the federal government's greenhouse gas emissions.
  • So Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's announcement last month of a new contract to replace many of those aging, gas-guzzling vehicles was welcomed by groups urging the government do more to reduce carbon emissions.
  • "They don't travel far distances in any given day. They sit idle overnight when they can charge," she tells NPR. "And they travel through neighborhoods exposing people to air pollution. So shifting to a 100% electric USPS fleet should really be a no brainer."
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  • While the Postal Service moves lowly toward adopting electric vehicles, Robert Puentes of the Eno Center for Transportation, a transportation think tank, says Biden is on the right track in pushing for EVs.
  • "Transportation is the No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases, and the U.S. lags far behind," he says. "And so for the president to try to put the government purchasing power in play and to try to convert those vehicles certainly makes sense."
martinelligi

Arkansas Passes Near-Total Abortion Ban : NPR - 0 views

  • Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday signed into law one of the country's most restrictive abortion bans, a measure supporters hope will force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its 1973 decision sanctioning the procedure.
  • Under Senate Bill 6, abortion would only be allowed in cases where it's necessary to save the life or preserve the health of the fetus or mother. The law does not allow any exceptions in situations of rape or incest — a line that anti-abortion rights activists and lawmakers have supported in the past.
  • The measure's supporters expect the law to be challenged by abortion rights activists. It's future is uncertain, as similar attempts to restrict access to abortion services in Ohio, Georgia, and Alabama in the last two years have failed after federal courts struck down local laws.
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  • Republican lawmakers across the country have been emboldened by last year's confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Lawmakers in Texas and Tennessee have also pushed new abortion restrictions believing a conservative majority at the nation's highest court will strike down the landmark abortion decision, Roe v. Wade.
martinelligi

Opinion | The G.O.P. Isn't Going to Split Apart Anytime Soon - The New York Times - 0 views

  • The Federalists collapsed because they failed to expand their demographic appeal; the Whigs because of internal incoherence over what they stood for in the nation’s most crucial debate. Among the more striking dynamics of the Trump-era Republican Party is the extent to which it is afflicted by both of these failings.
  • There are ways in which I think this comparison works. Like the Federalists then, the Republican Party now is struggling to reorient itself to a new era of mass politics, its reinvention held back by its aging white base. Rather than broaden their appeal, many Republicans are fighting to suppress the vote out of fear of the electorate itself. And just as the Whigs struggled internally and failed to forge a cross-sectional compromise over slavery, the Republican Party does risk fracturing over its commitment to democracy itself.
  • The Republican Party does not have that structural disadvantage. Just the opposite: Its rural and exurban character gives it a powerful asset in an electoral system in which the geography of partisanship plays a huge part in the party makeup of Congress. Republicans can win total control of Washington without ever winning a majority of votes, an advantage that the Federalists, for example, would have killed for
martinelligi

China Xinjiang: First independent report into Uyghur genocide allegations claims eviden... - 0 views

  • Hong Kong (CNN)The Chinese government's alleged actions in Xinjiang have violated every single provision in the United Nations' Genocide Convention, according to an independent report by more than 50 global experts in human rights, war crimes and international law
  • Up to 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are believed to have been placed in a sprawling network of detention centers across the region, according to the US State Department, where former detainees allege they were subjected to indoctrination, sexually abused and even forcibly sterilized. China denies allegations of human rights abuses, saying the centers are necessary to prevent religious extremism and terrorism.
  • Speaking at a press conference on March 7, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said allegations of a genocide in Xinjiang "couldn't be more preposterous."
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  • The four-page UN Genocide Convention was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948 and has a clear definition of what constitutes "genocide." China is a signatory to the convention, along with 151 other countries.
  • However any establishment of an International Criminal Tribunal would require the approval of the UN Security Council, of which China is a permanent member with veto power, making any hearing on the allegations of genocide in Xinjiang unlikely.
  • According to the report, between 1 million and 2 million people have allegedly been detained in as many as 1,400 extrajudicial internment facilities across Xinjiang by the Chinese government since 2014, when it launched a campaign ostensibly targeting Islamic extremism.Beijing has claimed the crackdown was necessary after a series of deadly attacks across Xinjiang and other parts of China, which China has categorized as terrorism.
  • The report also attributed a dramatic drop in the Uyghur birth rate across the region -- down about 33% between 2017 and 2018 -- to the alleged implementation of an official Chinese government program of sterilizations, abortions and birth control, which in some cases was forced upon the women without their consent.
  • "The genocide allegation is the lie of the century, concocted by extremely anti-China forces. It is a preposterous farce aiming to smear and vilify China," Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a news conference on February 4.
martinelligi

South Dakota Governor Says She Will Sign Bill Restricting Trans Kids' Rights : NPR - 0 views

  • Monday, the South Dakota state Senate passed a bill that restricts transgender women athletes from competing on high school and college girls' and women's teams. The measure now goes to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem who has said she is excited to sign the bill into law.
  • The legislation requires that schools and athletic associations collect written waivers documenting every student athlete's "reproductive biology." There are roughly 40,000 students who compete in sports in the state and critics say the bill violates Title 7 and Title 9 of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating based on sex.
  • South Dakota is one of more than 20 states this year that has considered legislative measures along these lines, including Mississippi where lawmakers have already passed an identical bill banning transgender women from participating in girls' and women's sports teams.
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House Poised To Pass Biden's $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Bill This Week : NPR - 0 views

  • House Democrats are expected to pass the final version of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on Tuesday or Wednesday, thus delivering on Democrats' campaign promises and cementing a major legislative victory for the Biden administration.
  • "Democrats are delivering on our promise to take action to defeat this virus and provide the assistance the American people need until our economy can reopen safely and fully," the Maryland Democrat added.
martinelligi

Oh, Yeah, Now We Remember Why We Thought Andrew Cuomo Was a Jerk - POLITICO - 0 views

  • A year ago, as New York was an early pandemic hot spot, the national conversation shifted and everyone started a new file on Cuomo: Oh, my goodness, isn’t he charismatic? Empathetic, spontaneous, engaged, responsible, commanding. Just what the moment required, and just what was lacking from Donald Trump.
  • Far from being rough-edged but benevolent Uncle Andrew, he stands accused of sexually harassing much younger women who worked for him.
  • Some commentators have cried hypocrisy because there are not more immediate widespread calls for Cuomo to resign in the face of allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women. In fact, Cuomo is hanging on tenuously, at best. He spoke deferentially of the women who accused him, and few Democrats are defending him
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  • House
  • Right now didn’t last for long. It turned out Cuomo was not so much in control as he or others assumed — not of the pandemic, nor of the giddy peaks and sudden plummets of his own public image
martinelligi

Church And COVID-19: Bishops Express Moral Concerns Over Johnson & Johnson Shot : NPR - 0 views

  • The new Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine may offer the best prospect for protecting as many Americans as possible, as quickly as possible, but some U.S. faith leaders say they have moral concerns about its development.
  • Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was produced in part through the use of cell lines derived from an aborted human fetus. In a statement released this week, leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said that this feature of the vaccine raises questions about its permissibility.
  • "That does not mean, though," Moore tells NPR, "that people must shun medical treatments that can save lives because they were discovered through means of which we would not necessarily approve."
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  • "It is a safe vaccine," says the Rev. Kirtley Yearwood, the hospital's chief mission officer. "It has a wonderful record as far as being able to prevent serious illness and hospitalization. Those are very remote cell lines. It's not a primary concern when you have the greater issue of saving lives."
martinelligi

House Approves Major Election Reform And Voting Rights Bill : NPR - 0 views

  • Democrats reintroduced the bill in January, after passing it in 2019, banking on the party's narrow majority in the Senate to get it passed through both chambers this cycle.
  • The bill seeks to "to expand Americans' access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and implement other anti-corruption measures for the purpose of fortifying our democracy, and for other purposes."
  • The bill's language calls for a complete overhaul of the current system, which varies widely by state and which critics say promote unfair barriers to voting. Included in the act is mandatory automatic voter registration, restoring voting rights to people with completed felony sentences, and a reversal of state voter ID laws that would allow citizens to make a sworn statement affirming their identity if they are unable to produce an ID.
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  • In addition to revamping voting laws, the bill also takes aim at "dark money" in politics by requiring organizations to disclose large donors and creates a matching system for small donations.
  • "Our democracy is in a state of deep disrepair. During the 2020 election, Americans had to overcome rampant voter suppression, gerrymandering and a torrent of special interest dark money just to exercise their right to vote.
martinelligi

Volvo Plans to Sell Only Electric Cars by 2030 - The New York Times - 0 views

  • Volvo Cars one-upped larger rivals like General Motors and added momentum to the movement toward electric vehicles on Tuesday by saying it would convert its entire lineup to battery power by 2030, no longer selling cars with internal combustion engines.
  • The declaration by the Swedish carmaker is the latest attempt by a traditional auto company to break with its fossil fuels past. It is also one of the most ambitious proposals and ratchets up the pressure on others to follow suit.
  • BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, German carmakers that target the same affluent buyers as Volvo, have not yet set expiration dates for internal combustion models. They may be fearful of unsettling buyers of gasoline vehicles
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  • Volvo, owned by Geely Holding of China, has been ahead of larger rivals in converting to electric power. All the models it sells in Europe are either hybrids or run solely on batteries. But some of the Volvos are so-called mild hybrids, which have an electric motor that assists the gasoline engine but are not capable of running solely on battery power. Hybrids have better fuel economy than conventional vehicles, but they may not be much better for the climate or for urban air quality if drivers do not use the electric abilities
  • In another break from the practice of traditional carmakers, Volvo’s electric models will be sold exclusively online
  • The decision to go all electric is still a leap of faith for Volvo, which has only one battery-powered car on the market now, a version of its XC40 S.U.V.
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