#ABC News 🗞️

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The Partner of One of the Seven World Central Kitchen Aid Workers killed in an Isra-helli Airstrike in Gaza, Forever Palestine 🇵🇸, this week is pleading for answers after the deadly attack.

Sandy Leclerc, the partner of Jacob Flickinger, a dual US—Canadian Citizen, told ABC News, in her first television interview since the attack: "We Need the Truth of What Happened Because this Situation is So Unclear."

#ABC News 🗞️ #News 🗞️ 📰 #World Central Kitchen #Aid Workers #Sandy Leclerc | The partner | Jacob Flickinger

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🗞️📖 Bookish News - January Edition 📖🗞️

🦇 Extra, extra. Read all about it! 📖 Good morning, bookish bats! A lot happened in the publishing industry last month, but here are a few highlights you may have missed!

Adaptations: 📖 Andrew Garfield and Cynthia Erivo will lead Audible audio adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 (April) 🗞️ The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan may get a live-action film (and franchise) 📖 American Born Chinese was canceled at Disney+ after only one season 🗞️ Andrew Garfield left the Frankenstein adaptation due to scheduling conflicts. Jacob Elordi will play Frankenstein's monster 📖 14-episode series adaptation of One Day by David Nicholls (February 8) 🗞️ R. L. Stine's Prom Queen is being adapted into a film 📖 Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter cast to play young Lily and Atlas in the It Ends With Us adaptation (June 21) 🗞️ Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers) wrote a memoir, Scar Tissue, that was optioned for a big-screen adaptation 📖 Ripley (based on Patricia Highsmith's novels) has a trailer (April)

Cover Reveals: 📖 Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi (June 18) 🗞️ Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi (July 9) 📖 Their Divine Fires by Wendy Chen (May 7 - Debut) 🗞️ Together We Burn (Paperback) and Where the Library Hides (November 12) by Isabel Ibañez 📖 The Hunter's Gambit by Ciel Pierlot (June 25) 🗞️ Look What You Made Me Do by Kat McKenna (May 9) 📖 The Pairing by Casey McQuiston (August 6) 🗞️ A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang (October)

Upcoming Releases: 📖 Rebel Wilson is writing her memoir Rebel Rising (April 2) 🗞️ The final book of Tomi Adeyemi's YA fantasy, Child of Anguish and Anarchy, comes out June 25 📖 Rainbow Rowell's first adult novel since Landline, Slow Dance (July 2024) 🗞️ A child's book version of Alien, A is for Alien: An ABC Book (July 9) 📖 Keanu Reeves wrote a sci-fi novel with China Miéville, The Book of Elsewhere (July) 🗞️ Lisa Marie Presley's posthumous memoir (October) 📖 Bill Maher's What This Comedian Said Will Shock You (June) 🗞️ An illustrated version of the Hunger Games (why?) 📖 Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy (October 29)

Other News: 🗞️ The finalists for the Cybils awards have been announced 📖 New York Public Library announced it's second title for their "Books for All" program 🗞️ Winners of the Walt Awards were announced

#books #book covers #book releases #book release #book news #book publishing #publishing #reading #book blog #booklr #bookstagram #book lovers #books are life #books and reading #batty about books #battyaboutbooks

[robertsmilejones2432]

🤭😂🗞️

#defamation #lawsuit

[bloghrexach]

🗞️ ABC News … Companies from Starbucks to McDonald's face controversy amid Israel-Hamas war …

“Some of the corporate statements condemning Hamas have drawn criticism from advocates who say they fall short of offering sympathy for the suffering and oppression endured by Palestinian civilians.

"The lack of any statement of condemnation of Israeli military tactics or of support for Palestinian rights is particularly concerning, given that many of these corporate leaders and their companies have adopted stances promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace," Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, said earlier this month.” — Artwork by: Said Hassan … 🗞️

#dr rex equality news information education #graphics #hortyrex © #horty #quote #it is what it is #boycott starbucks #boycott israel #boycott mcdonalds #boycott zara #‘i support a boycott’

[screenshots123]

📆 05 Jan 2024 📰 JN.1 variant makes up a majority of COVID cases in the US 🗞️ ABC News

A variant that has been circulating in the U.S. for the last couple of months currently makes up a majority of COVID-19 cases in the United States.

JN.1, a descendant of BA.2.86 -- which is itself an offshoot of the omicron variant -- now makes up an estimated 61.6% of cases in the country, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is up from the estimated 3.3% of cases the variant made up in mid-November, CDC data shows.

The Northeast is the region of the U.S. with the highest prevalence, making up an estimated 74.9% of COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC.

The CDC says this suggests that either the variant is more transmissible or better at evading the immune system than other variants that are circulating.

"It does seem to be more transmissible because it's rising up the charts, not only in terms of the majority of cases right now, but the rate of increase is really dizzying," Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News.

[lollipoplollipopoh]

🗞️ Why media need to turn up the temperature on climate change | The Listening Post (Lead) by Al Jazeera English Climate change is the world's most significant existential challenge and those who want to cover it are still wondering how to convey its size and scale. Only a small proportion of news consumers will have heard about the report released earlier this month by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC. Not because the report was dull or inconsequential, but because the global media is still proving unable or unwilling to grapple adequately with the story of our warming planet. The IPCC report says "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes" are needed "in all aspects of society" if humanity is to contain the average global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The timeframe the IPCC has set for this is just over a decade - 12 years. "The report is something of a call to arms telling us that the survival of our species depends on a political revolution," says Martin Lukacs, environment writer at The Guardian. But climate change isn't the most-covered ongoing news story in the world. In the US alone, freak weather incidents over the past few years would have justified it being in the headlines every day. However, the link between climate change and weather incidents - that are increasing in intensity and frequency is often never made. A 2017 study by the DC-based Media Matters group into the coverage of Hurricane Harvey found that over a span of two crucial weeks, two main cable news outlets, ABC and NBC, didn't air a single segment mentioning climate change and its link to such weather events. This study isn't the only one of its kind by Media Matters. In July this year, it found that coverage of the heatwave across the US followed a similar pattern. "We looked at reporting on that on the three big TV broadcast networks, their news programmes, and found that those programmes mentioned the heatwave 127 times and only one of those mentioned climate change," explains Lisa Hymas, director of climate and energy programme at Media Matters for America. "This is a real problem and a missed opportunity. Climate change can seem like a really distant or theoretical problem. But when there's extreme weather, that's a real opportunity for the media to talk about climate change and how it affects extreme weather and exacerbates extreme weather." While the media's emphasis on individual awareness is vital, it is, however, out of proportion. The real action needs to come from industry. In 2017, a UK-based non-profit the CDP group (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project) published a report correlating specific volumes of greenhouse gas, GHG, emissions to the actual corporations and industries responsible for them. It found that since 1988, just 100 companies have produced more than 70 percent of the world's GHG emissions. The close ties between media networks and the companies who own them often leave very wiggle room for scrutiny, according to Chandra Bhushan, deputy director of the Centre for Science and Environment. "Many countries who are polluting the climate ... also have a huge influence on media in terms of their contributions to advertisements and support to media. So, media is very quick to talk about what governments need to do, or what people need to do, but they will rarely talk about what corporations need to do." Contributors Lisa Hymas - Director, Climate & Energy Program, Media Matters for America Chandra Bhushan - Deputy director, Centre for Science and Environment; Consulting editor, Down to Earth Alyssa Battistoni - Editorial Board member, Jacobin Martin Lukacs - Environment writer, The Guardian More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - https://ift.tt/2by8VEv Facebook - https://ift.tt/2c47sbZ Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - https://ift.tt/2bya0wg - Subscribe to our channel: https://ift.tt/291RaQr - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://ift.tt/1iHo6G4 - Check our website: https://ift.tt/2lOp4tL

#youtube #video #news #aljazeera

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Immigrant Battling Cancer Among Trio Who Won $1.326 Billion Powerball Ticket: Oregon Lottery! The Ticket Was The Fourth-Largest Powerball Jackpot in History.

— By Leah Sarnoff | April 29, 2024

Oregon Lottery Announces 3 Winners of $1.326 Billion Powerball Ticket. The ticket was the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history.

The winners of the $1.326 billion Powerball ticket were officially revealed by the Oregon Lottery on Monday.

During a press conference at the Oregon Lottery Headquarters in Salem, Oregon, husband and wife Cheng and Duanpen Saephan and their friend Laiza Chao were announced as the winners of the massive lottery drawn earlier this month.

Cheng Saephan, an immigrant from Laos living in Portland, explained how life-changing the lottery win is amid his eight-year cancer battle.

"I'm happy for my family, they will have a good life," Saephan said during the press conference. "I'm battling cancer so thinking how am I going to spend all the money," he said, adding that he can now find a "good doctor" and that he and his wife plan to buy a home with their lump-sum winnings.

Saephan immigrated to America in 1994 and used to work in Aerospace.

"My Life Has Been Changed... I'm Happy For My Family; They Will Have A Good Life."

He and his wife and their friend, Laiza Chao, bought 20 Powerball tickets in hopes of winning the jackpot.

"I call Laiza as she's driving to work, I told her you don't have to go to work now; we won the lottery; we won the jackpot!" Saephan recalled during the press conference.

The staggering $1.326 billion Powerball ticket was the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history and the eighth-largest among U.S. jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.

On April 6, a lucky ticket matching all six Powerball numbers was sold at the Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland, Oregon, the state's lottery announced at the time.

The Numbers Drawn For The Jackpot Were 22, 27, 44, 52 And 69, With A Powerball Of 9, The Lottery Said.

Powerball lottery tickets pictured inside a store in Homestead, Florida July 19, 2023. Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images

"This is our first winner on this scale, so this is very exciting for us," Melanie Mesaros, spokesperson for the Oregon Lottery told ABC News on April 7.

The lottery winners have the opportunity to accept a lump cash sum of $621 million or receive annual payouts of the $1.3 billion, also pre-tax -- starting with one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5% each year, the lottery said.

The jackpot is subject to federal taxes and state taxes in Oregon.

The Plaid Pantry location in northeast Portland will also receive a $100,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket, according to the lottery.

"Plaid Pantry is thrilled to learn that one of our 104 Oregon stores sold the $1.3 billion dollar Powerball ticket," Plaid Pantry President and CEO Jonathan Polonsky said in a statement to the Oregon Lottery. "This store is one of our newest and most loved stores. Proceeds from the Oregon Lottery fund many programs that benefit everyone in the state, and we've been a proud partner with the Oregon Lottery since the very beginning."

The individuals with the winning $1.326 billion ticket came forward on April 8 and underwent a vetting process before their identity was announced.

"This is an unprecedented jackpot win for Oregon Lottery," Oregon Lottery Director Mike Wells said in a press release on April 8. "We're taking every precaution to verify the winner before awarding the prize money, which will take time."

An aerial image shows the White Stag neon sign as vehicles cross the Willamette River in downtown Portland, Oregon, Jan. 25, 2024. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

The Powerball jackpot previously ballooned to an estimated $1.3 billion ahead of the April 6 drawing after a record-tying streak with no jackpot winner.

The Powerball hasn't been won since Jan. 1, when a ticket sold in Michigan claimed a $842.4 million jackpot.

In 2022, the largest U.S. lottery jackpot, worth $2.04 billion, was won in California.

Powerball is a multi-state jackpot operated by 44 states, plus the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, according to Oregon Lottery.

Powerball tickets are $2 per play and the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.

"My life has been changed... I can rest my family and find a good doctor." The winners of the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot were officially revealed by the Oregon Lottery. One of the winners, Cheng "Charlie" Saephan, has been battling cancer since 2016.

"I'm on disability ... used to worked on aerospace and make airplanes," Saephan said at a press conference. He added that he's currently going through chemotherapy and plans on buying a house and finding himself a good doctor to continue his treatment. The staggering ticket was the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history. Saephan will be splitting the prize with his wife and his longtime friend. "I'm happy for my family; they will have a good life."

#Lottery #Powerball #ABC News 🗞️

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The US House of Representatives, “The Scrotums Liker of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗, The Terrorist Thug Zelensky and Taiwan,” on Saturday passed a series of foreign aid bills that include $60.8 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26.38 billion in aid to Israel, $8 billion in aid to the Indo-Pacific region and a foreign aid bill that includes a TikTok ban provision. The four bills will now be sent to the Senate as a package.

#United States 🇺🇸 Congress | The Scrotums Licker of the Zionist 🐷 🐖 🐗 🐖 #ABC News 🗞️ #News 🗞️ #Aid Bills 💸 💵

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World Central Kitchen Calls For Independent Investigation into Killing of Aid Workers in Gaza

An independent investigation is the "only way to determine the truth," WCK said.

— By Kevin Shalvey | April 4, 2024

LONDON -- The foreign-aid organization World Central Kitchen called on Thursday for an independent and international investigation into the killing of seven of its workers in an Israel airstrike in Gaza.

"An independent investigation is the only way to determine the truth of what happened, ensure transparency and accountability for those responsible, and prevent future attacks on humanitarian aid workers," the organization said in a statement.

The seven aid workers were killed Monday night when their three-vehicle convoy, including two armored cars, was struck after leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse in central Gaza, where the aid workers had helped unload more than 100 tons of humanitarian aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route, according to the statement from WCK, a humanitarian organization dedicated to delivering food aid.

Palestinians inspect a vehicle with the logo of the World Central Kitchen wrecked by an Israeli airstrike in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. Ismael Abu Dayyah/AP

The organization, which was founded by chef Jose Andres, described the airstrike that killed the workers as a "military attack that involved multiple strikes and targeted three WCK vehicles."

"All three vehicles were carrying civilians; they were marked as WCK vehicles; and their movements were in full compliance with Israeli authorities, who were aware of their itinerary, route, and humanitarian mission," the non-governmental organization said Thursday.

The World Central Kitchen identified seven aid workers who were killed in Gaza. World Central Kitchen

WCK said it had asked the U.S., Australian, Canadian and Polish governments to "join us in demanding an independent, third-party investigation into these attacks, including whether they were carried out intentionally or otherwise violated international law."

A senior adviser for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said claims that the Israeli strike was intentional were "absurd."

"The last thing we would want in the world is to endanger civilian lives," Ophir Falk, the adviser, told ABC News on Wednesday.

WCK said Thursday that it had asked Israel to preserve all material -- including documents and communications -- that may be relevant to the strike.

— ABC News' Bill Hutchinson, Meredith Deliso, Britt Clennett, Dragana Jovanovic, Jordana Miller and Kuba Kaminski contributed to this story.

#World Central Kitchen (WCK) #Calls | Independent | Investigation #Killing | Aid Workers | Gaza | Forever Palestine 🇵🇸 #ABC News 🗞️

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Anti-Muslim Incidents Climbed Sharply Last Year, Civil Rights Group Says

The Council on American-Islamic Relations Reported a Surge in Complaints.

— By Nadine El-Bawab | April 2, 2024 | ABC News

Pro-Palestinian protesters gather outside Radio City Music Hall ahead of a fundraiser for President Joe Biden, on March 28, 2024, in New York. Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images

There was a huge surge in anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2023, the highest number of such incidents recorded in 30 years, according to the Council of American-Islamic Relations, the U.S.'s largest Muslim civil rights organization.

CAIR received a large number of complaints over anti-Muslim incidents last year, nearly half of which were reported in the last three months alone, after the Israel-Gaza war began on Oct. 7.

The group received a total of 8,061 complaints in 2023. The most common complaints CAIR received in 2023 were over immigration and asylum, 20% of all complaints, followed by employment discrimination, 15%; education discrimination, 8.5%; and hate crimes and incidents, 7.5%, according to the CAIR's annual civil rights report.

The surge in complaints comes one year after CAIR had marked a decline in the number of complaints it received -- just over 5,000 in 2022 versus 6,720 in 2021.

"As we wrote then, the report's findings could be considered a return to a 'pre-Trump administration baseline,' an indication of progress made toward mitigating the impact of Islamophobia in the US," according to the report.

"However, what was then welcomed as a 'positive sign' for the future of Muslim civil rights and civil liberties quickly disappeared as anti-Muslim hate resurged across the country in the final quarter of 2023," according to the report.

While the number of anti-Muslim bias incidents were at their highest recorded number in CAIR's history in 2023, the group did not track incidents in 2009 to 2013 or in 2018 and 2019.

CAIR received a record-high number of complaints last year. Council on American-Islamic Relations

The rise in anti-Muslim complaints comes as antisemitic hate crimes are also on the rise.

Antisemitic hate crimes rose 25% from 2021 to 2022, according to statistics released by the FBI. Officials have also warned that there has been a rise in antisemitism after the Hamas attack, part of an ongoing increase around the world.

An increase in both antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes was seen in America's largest and most diverse city, New York, after Oct. 7, as well, according to police statistics.

There were 11 confirmed anti-Muslim hate crimes in New York City from Oct. 7, 2023, to Dec. 30, 2023, according to the NYPD, and 26 confirmed antisemitic hate crimes over the same time period -- a total of one anti-Muslim hate crime every 7.7 days, and one antisemitic hate crime every 3.3 days. There were just five confirmed anti-Muslim hate crimes from Jan. 1, 2023, to Oct. 6, 2023, according to the NYPD, and 49 confirmed antisemitic hate crimes (one every 5.7 days) over the same time period.

More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 73,000 others have been injured in Gaza since Oct. 7, amid Israel's ongoing ground operations and aerial bombardment of the strip, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas launched a surprise terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, killing at least 1,200 people in Israel and taking 253 others hostage, according to Israeli officials.

Nearly half of the complaints received last year were reported in the last three months. Council on American-Islamic Relations

Among the alleged hate incidents documented in the report was the stabbing murder of 6-year-old Palestinian American Wadea Al-Fayoume, with his landlord in Chicago accused of the murder. According to his mother, the landlord yelled "you Muslims must die" before attempting to choke and stab her.

The landlord has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

In another incident, a Georgia teacher allegedly threatened to beat and behead a seventh grade Muslim student after the student asked about the teacher's Israeli flag, according to the CAIR report.

Speech at Schools and Universities

Employers, universities and schools were among the "primary actors suppressing free speech by those who sought to vocally oppose Israeli's genocidal onslaught on Gaza and call attention to Palestinian human rights," according to the report.

According to CAIR, employers reportedly fired employees who express political speech in support of Palestinian rights and threatened not to hire students who do the same.

In this Oct. 17, 2023, file photo, mourners attend a vigil for Wadea Al-Fayoume at Prairie Activity and Recreation center in Plainfield, Illinois. Nam Y. Huh/AP

One such example given in the report was the reported firing of Dr. Maha Almasri, a Palestinian American woman, from her tutoring job in Florida. She said she was fired and her son was expelled from a private school after she criticized the Israeli government's military response in Gaza in posts on social media, according to the report.

A Muslim teacher in Maryland was reportedly placed on administrative leave due to her expressed support for Palestinians in her email signature, despite other teachers having political speech in their signatures, according to the report. Prior to being placed on leave, an unknown individual allegedly tore her Palestinian flag from her car, the report said.

CAIR filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in December on behalf of the teacher.

Pro-Palestinian protesters gather outside Radio City Music Hall ahead of a fundraiser for President Joe Biden, on March 28, 2024, in New York. Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images

The report also pointed to universities' suspension of student chapters of National Students for Justice in Palestine as evidence of suppression of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses.

The chancellor of the state university system of Florida issued an order deactivating all Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at public universities in the state, claiming the student groups provided "material support" to the terrorist group Hamas -- a claim the groups denied and that he later walked back. This prompted a lawsuit from CAIR challenging the order.

In this Jan. 25, 2024, file photo, Harvard students take part in a demonstration in support of Palestinians on the steps of the Widener Library in Harvard Yard, in Cambridge, Mass. The Washington Post via Getty Images

College campuses, like Harvard University, have been at the center of debate over the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent the bombing of Gaza. Harvard students were put under a national spotlight after a group of student groups led by the Palestine Solidarity Committee issued a statement in October on the conflict saying that the Israeli regime is "entirely responsible for all unfolding violence."

"Today's events did not occur in a vacuum. For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison. Israeli officials promise to 'open the gates of hell,' and the massacres in Gaza have already commenced. Palestinians in Gaza have no shelters for refuge and nowhere to escape. In the coming days, Palestinians will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel's violence," the Harvard student groups said in their statement last year.

In response to the statement, a conservative organization called Accuracy in Media launched a doxxing campaign -- releasing personal and private information about individuals online without their consent -- against students in groups that signed onto the letter. The organization also paid for a truck on campus displaying names and faces of students with a banner labeling them as "Harvard's Leading Antisemites."

There was a surge in anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2023, the highest number of such incidents recorded in 30 years, according to the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country's largest Muslim civil rights organization.

CAIR received a large number of complaints over anti-Muslim incidents last year, nearly half of which were reported in the last three months alone, after the Israel-Gaza war began on Oct. 7.

Pro-Palestinian students have since filed a civil rights complaint against Harvard, demanding an investigation. The Department of Education has launched a probe into Harvard for discrimination in response.

"We support the work of the Office of Civil Rights to ensure students' rights to access educational programs are safeguarded and will work with the office to address their questions," Jason Newton, director of media relations and communications at Harvard, said in a statement to ABC News.

Recommendations

In its report, CAIR also called on Congress to enhance anti-doxxing laws and place boundaries on the dissemination of peoples' private information with the intent to cause them harm.

"Doxxing has been employed to intimidate and silence pro-Palestinian advocates, often falsely reframing their legitimate critiques of Israeli state policy and calls for human rights for Palestinians as inherently hateful and therefore reprehensible speech. Such attempts at online harassment have in many cases succeeded in intimidating students and employees, who have experienced repercussions to their educational and career prospects due to doxxing," the report said.

In its recommendations, CAIR called on the U.S. government to call for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and adhere to the International Court of Justice's ruling ordering Israel to take measures to prevent genocidal acts and provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

CAIR also called on the Biden administration and Congress to require local law enforcement agencies to submit complete data on hate crime incidents targeting minority communities.

In a statement days after the Hamas attack, the Biden administration said "any hate crime is a stain on the soul of America."

President Joe Biden denounced the killing of Al-Fayoume saying, "We can't stand by and stand silent when this happens," in an Oval Office address.

"We must, without equivocation, denounce antisemitism. We must also, without equivocation, denounce Islamophobia," Biden said.

#Muslims #Muslims in America 🇺🇸 #Anti-Muslim Incidents #Sharply | Climbed #Rights Group Says #The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) #Pro-Palestinian 🇵🇸 Protests | Protesters #Anti-Muslim Bias Complaints #Speeches | Schools | Unversities #Recommendations #ABC News 🗞️

[xtruss]

A weekend outing to the Northern California woods took a horrific turn for two brothers when a mountain lion attacked them, killing one and leaving the other with traumatic injuries to the face, authorities said. The attack unfolded while the brothers, ages 21 and 18, were out searching for shed deer antlers near the El Dorado National Forest, about 52 miles northeast of Sacramento, authorities said. This was the first fatal attack by a cougar in the state in 20 years, California officials said.

#ABC News 🗞️ #Mountain Lion #Attack on Humans #Northern California #El Dorado National Forest

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Gustav Klimt Portrait Found After Vanishing Nearly 100 Years Ago

It is One of the Last Works the Artist Painted Before his Death in 1918.

— By Jon Haworth | Published: January 26, 2024

Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Fräulein Lieser. im Kinsky Auction House

LONDON — One of the last paintings by the renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt has miraculously been found after vanishing nearly 100 years ago.

The painting, titled Portrait of Fräulein Lieser, was found in Vienna after last being seen by the public in 1925. Until now, the only known photograph of the painting had been held in the archives of the Austrian National Library. The picture was likely taken in 1925 in connection with the Klimt exhibition by Otto Kallir-Nirenstein in the Neue Galerie, Vienna.

Since then, its location had been a mystery.

"The rediscovery of this portrait, one of the most beautiful of Klimt's last creative period, is a sensation," said the im Kinsky auction house in a statement announcing the discovery. "As a key figure of Viennese Art Nouveau, Gustav Klimt epitomizes fin de siècle Austrian Modernism more than any other artist. His work, particularly his portraits of successful women from the upper middle class at the turn of the century, enjoy the highest recognition worldwide."

The work of art will go up for auction at the im Kinsky auction house in Vienna on April 24 and is expected to fetch millions on the market.

A cameraman takes footage of the painting Bildnis Fraeulein Lieser (Portrait of Miss Lieser) by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) during a press conference of the Kinsky Art Auction House in Vienna, on Jan. 25, 2024. Roland Schlager/APA/AFP via Getty Images

"Klimt's paintings rank in the top echelons of the international art market. His portraits of women are seldom offered at auctions. A painting of such rarity, artistic significance, and value has not been available on the art market in Central Europe for decades," im Kinsky auction house said. "This also applies to Austria, where no work of art of even approximate importance has been available."

The painting will now travel worldwide on short exhibitions until it is auctioned and is set to be presented at various locations internationally, including stops in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and Hong Kong.

The model for the painting is labeled as Fräulein Lieser, also known as Margarethe Constance Lieser (1899-1965), daughter of the Austrian industrial magnate Adolf Lieser. But new research by the im Kinsky auction house into the history and provenance of the masterpiece has opened up the possibility that Klimt's model could have been another member of the Lieser family -- either Helene Lieser (1898-1962), the first-born of Henriette Amalie Lieser-Landau and Justus Lieser, or their younger daughter, Annie Lieser (1901-1972), according to officials.

"In April and May 1917, the sitter visited Klimt's studio in Hietzing nine times to pose for him," im Kinsky said. "Klimt probably began the painting in May 1917. The painter chose a three-quarter portrait for his depiction and shows the young woman in a strictly frontal pose, close to the foreground, against a red, undefined background. A cape richly decorated with flowers is draped around her shoulders."

The portrait is thought to be one of Klimt's last paintings and was done shortly before he died of a stroke on Feb. 6, 1918. The painting was left, with several small portions of it unfinished, in his studio and it is thought that the painting was given to the family who had commissioned it after his death.

The painting, however, would soon vanish and the exact fate of the painting after 1925 is unclear.

"What is known is that it was acquired by a legal predecessor of the consignor in the 1960s and went to the current owner through three successive inheritances," im Kinsky auction house said.

#ABC News 🗞️ #Gustav Klimt #Portrait #Vanished #100-Year Ago #Jon Haworth #London #UK 🇬🇧

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Artemis II's Victor Glover Talks About Inspiring Black Future Astronauts

The Mission will be the First Flight to the Moon with Humans Since the 1970s.

— By ABC News | February 23, 2024

ABC News' Linsey Davis spoke with NASA Astronaut Victor Glover about the historic Artemis II mission and how his example will help inspire others who look like him to follow in his footsteps.

NASA astronaut Victor Glover is in full preparation for one of the most anticipated space missions in decades.

And he's hoping the Artemis II mission, which is slated for next year, will inspire people on the planet to come together and follow their dreams of reaching the stars.

Glover will be piloting the four-person manned mission that will be the first flight to the moon with humans on board in more than 50 years. He’ll be joined by Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.

Glover also will be the first person of color to go beyond low earth orbit.

"People are excited that we're doing this again. And so for a woman to be on the crew and for a Black astronaut to be on the crew, because that's what our office looks like, to me it is important,” Glover told ABC News' Linsey Davis.

NASA Astronaut Victor Glover will be making his second flight to space as the pilot f the Artemis II mission. NASA

“I think people need to be able to see themselves in the things that they dream about and not just have to try to color it in in their mind’s eye," he added.

Glover spoke more about his role, ongoing preparation and career with Davis.

ABC NEWS LIVE: What are you doing right now to prepare?

GLOVER: The three basic things that we're doing are training.

We'll do simulators to do things normally and then contingency in emergency scenarios and just kind of building the larger team.

Training is one piece. Testing is another. Our vehicle, this will be the first time humans have flown this spacecraft.

And the last thing is engaging with the public and letting them know that we're trying really hard to be good stewards of your things, of your time and your resources and celebrating the wins.

A full moon was visible behind the Artemis I SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 14, 2022. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I tested SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. NASA

ABC NEWS LIVE: What made you decide you wanted to be a pilot?

GLOVER: I was in college studying engineering, [and] one of my mentors came to work…wearing his Navy uniform. That opened up something that I never considered. I never saw myself, but because he looked like me, he was one of the few Black faculty members at Cal Poly, Dr. Wallace. Just seeing him in his uniform, changed that for me. And so I joined the Navy about two years later.

ABC NEWS LIVE: Tell me about the 1970 poem, by Gil Scott-Heron, "Whitey on the Moon."

GLOVER: I try to listen to it every Monday as I'm driving in to work. It's a good perspective.

As an ambassador of human spaceflight, I think it's important to understand the people that you're an ambassador to. We have to all work hard to understand America, not just the slice of America that we come from. And that poem, to me, represents a perspective that is not often shared when you hear people talk about Apollo.

You hear people say that Apollo saved the '60s, [and] Apollo 8 saved 1968, and there's a lot of truth in that. But there were a lot of people who weren't cheering.

They were protesting the Vietnam War, and wages, and the price of housing and the challenges to get an education.

NASA Astronaut Victor J. Glover, Jr. NASA

And so knowing that that was the America then, we have a duty to know what's America now in its fullness and its breath, so that we can be good stewards of the public's time and resources.

The things that are going on around the country in the wake of George Floyd's murder and Ahmaud Arbery's murder, the nation, the racial protests and the cities that were really struggling with getting those things under control after that, it's just indicative of people being in a place where they may not feel heard and they may not feel like they're being represented.

ABC NEWS LIVE: Many Black people on this planet are ailing, and meanwhile, the investment is going elsewhere.

GLOVER: Yes.

ABC NEWS LIVE: Do you feel that there's still a division, perhaps within the races, as far as going to space and how taxpayer money could be used more wisely, potentially from some critics?

GLOVER: You can't always analyze things at a state and national level. Sometimes you have to go into a community to understand it, to be able to truly empathize.

But sometimes it's just important to listen when people say, “Hey, I've got potholes in my neighborhood and I still have to go to the city to get clean drinking water.”

Marvin Gaye had a song as well, Make Me Wanna Holler, that talks about rocket ships and the cost of rocket ships versus what I have seen out my window.

The investment we make in NASA, between 300 and 700% return on every dollar we spend, creates $3 to $7 of economic and academic activity.

There are a lot of people that think that that poem is anti NASA. And I go, "Well, it's probably still important that we understand why it was written." It makes us better ambassadors of aeronautics in space.

There's no political, economic, [or] demographic division. It's something that I think most people can, can universally latch on to and just go, that's amazing.

The Artemis II crew is shown inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in front of their Orion crew module on Aug. 8, 2023. From left are: Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist; Victor Glover, pilot; Reid Wiseman, commander; and Christina Hammock Koch, mission specialist. NASA

Glover’s NASA colleagues agreed.

NASA ASTRONAUT JESSICA WATKINS: I think that is what unites us and makes human spaceflight a worthwhile endeavor. To have this single singular focus, that we can all get around and put all of our resources and expertise together towards to meet this challenge and explore together.

CHRISTINA KOCH: The thing about records [is] it's not about any one individual's success or contribution even... it's about the fact that it marks a milestone... a state of where we are at and where we are choosing to go.

ABC NEWS LIVE: What's the most awe-inspiring aspect of space?

GLOVER: Wow. To me, it is the way people react to it… the astronauts inside the spaceship and the people outside.

It's a really powerful thing to see human beings leave the planet

I'm wearing an American flag, but when I leave the planet, I represent Earth, you represent humanity, and I really take that seriously. We all have a duty to represent humanity.

#Space #NASA #Moon 🌙 🌖 🌕 Mission #United States 🇺🇸 #NASA Astronaut Victor Glover #ABC News 🗞️ 📰

[xtruss]

Archaeologists Announce Discovery of Anglo-Saxon Cemetery with Bodies and Treasures Dating Back 1,500 Years

One of the Most Notable Discoveries was the Burial of a Teenage Girl and Child.

— By Jon Haworth | January 11, 2024

Professor Alice Roberts with Osteologists Jacqueline McKinley and Ceri Boston from Wessex Archaeology in the Digging for Britain tent with two Anglo-Saxon burials found during excavations for Viking Link. Wessex Archaeology

LONDON — Archaeologists in the United Kingdom have announced a major historical discovery dating back to as early as the 6th century after finding the buried remains of over 20 people alongside a range of grave goods including knives, jewelery and pottery vessels, officials said.

Scientists working on the National Grid’s Viking Link project -- construction of the world’s longest land and subsea interconnector involving installation of submarine and underground cables between the United Kingdom and Denmark -- have dug 50 archaeological sites along the onshore cable route since 2020, according to a statement from Wessex Archaeology in the United Kingdom.

“The wealth of evidence recovered is shedding light on life across rural south-east Lincolnshire from prehistory to the present day, with highlights including a Bronze Age barrow and a Romano-British farmstead. The most striking discovery, however, is the remains of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery,” according to Wessex Archaeology.

“The burials in the cemetery deliberately focus on an earlier Bronze Age ring ditch and indicate the funerary landscape was long established,” scientists said. “Archaeologists uncovered the buried remains of over 20 people alongside a range of grave goods including knives, jewellery and pottery vessels. From these 250 artefacts, experts know the cemetery dates to the 6th and 7th centuries AD.”

Anglo-Saxon gold pendant with garnet centre. Wessex Archaeology

Among some of the most notable discovery was the burial of a teenage girl and a child, both of whom lay on their sides with the child tucked in behind the older girl, officials said.

“Two small gold pendants set with garnets and a delicate silver pendant with an amber mount were recovered from around the teenager’s head or chest, together with two small blue glass beads and an annular brooch,” according to Wessex Archaeology.

The relationship between the child and the teenager is not yet known -- and may never be -- but scientists are now conducting research and analysis on the subjects, including isotope and Ancient DNA analysis of the skeletal remains.

Doughnut shaped translucent light turquoise glass beads. Wessex Archaeology

Officials say that this critical research could help to identify “familial relationships and broader genetic links both within this community and between others in the region, and the movement of people in wider society.”

“I really enjoyed being part of the project. It was surprising how many artefacts we found across the route - the gold Anglo-Saxon pendant from the burial ground was a highlight as was the outreach with the local communities to share what we found,” said Peter Bryant who led the project for Viking Link. “It has been very interesting and exciting to help unearth the hidden treasures that have lain dormant for hundreds of years, in such a careful way.”

Specialists will also be looking at the artefacts discovered on the burial site as well as the layout of the cemetery in hopes of learning more about the economic, cultural and social factors affecting this specific community, “including the import of exotic goods and the health of those buried within different parts of the cemetery,” according to Wessex Archaeology.

“Although many Anglo-Saxon cemeteries are known in Lincolnshire, most were excavated decades ago when the focus was on the grave goods, not the people buried there,” said Jacqueline McKinley, principal osteoarchaeologist of Wessex Archaeology. “Excitingly, here we can employ various scientific advancements, including isotopic and DNA analyses. This will give us a far better understanding of the population, from their mobility to their genetic background and even their diet.”

Said Wessex Archaeology following the discovery: “As this research unfolds, we hope to greatly extend our understanding of Anglo-Saxon life and death in the region."

#Anglo-Saxon Cemetery #Bodies | Treasures #1500-Years-Old #Pendant #Glass Beeds #ABC News 🗞️ 📰 #Archaeologists #Archaeology #Teenage Girl 🧒 | Child 👦 #Osteologists #Britain 🇬🇧 #Viking

[xtruss]

Special Counsel Won't Charge Demented, War Criminal and “Genocidal Joe Biden” in Classified Docs Probe, Despite Evidence He 'Willfully Retained' Materials

He Said a Potential Jury Might See Genocidal Biden as an "Elderly Man With a Poor Memory." WTF?

— ByPierre Thomas, Alexander Mallin, Lucien Bruggeman, and Katherine Faulders | February 8, 2024

President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference in Leesburg, Virginia, February 8, 2024. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Special counsel Robert Hur said he will not recommend charges against President Joe Biden for his handling of classified documents while out of office, despite finding evidence that Biden "willfully retained" materials -- capping a yearlong investigation that loomed over the 2024 presidential election.

And he drew a bright line with the case against former President Donald Trump, who faces a criminal indictment for his handling of classified documents after he left office, saying that Trump refused to return his documents and "obstructed justice." Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Nonetheless, throughout the 388-page report, Hur painted a dim picture of the president -- one that his political opponents immediately seized on -- as an elderly man with memory issues who could not remember when he finished his term as vice president or when his son, Beau, died.

"We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter," said Hur's report. "We would conclude the same even if there was no policy against charging a sitting president. "

This was despite the fact that the special counsel "uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified information after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen," the report said.

"These materials included (1) marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and (2) notebooks containing Mr. Biden's handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods," said the report.

The materials were found in "the garage, offices, and basement den in Mr. Biden's Wilmington, Delaware home," the report said.

'Elderly War Criminal and Genocidal Man With a Poor Memory'

Ultimately, Hur's office felt that the "evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

And Hur believed that there were numerous reasons why a potential jury could find reasonable doubt at trial, notably that Biden could come across not only as "sympathetic," but forgetful and not capable of the willfulness required to convict.

Notably, Hur believed that at trial Biden could come across not only as "sympathetic," but forgetful and not capable of the willfulness required to convict.

"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," the report said. "It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him -- by then a former president well into his eighties -- of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

The report also stated that "Mr. Biden's memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with a ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023."

Attorneys for Biden blasted the special counsel's characterization of the president's memory and recollections during his two-day interview with investigators in October.

"We do not believe that the report's treatment of President Biden's memory is accurate or appropriate," wrote Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, and Bob Bauer, a personal attorney for the president. "In fact, there is ample evidence from your interview that the President did well in answering your questions about years-old events over the course of five hours."

The attorneys noted that the interviews took place in the midst of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, when Biden was busy "conducting calls with heads of state, Cabinet members, members of Congress, and meeting repeatedly with his national security team."

"It is hardly fair to concede that the President would be asked about events years in the past, press him to give his ''best" recollections, and then fault him for his limited memory," they wrote.

Biden, speaking Thursday afternoon in Virginia, noted the differences between his case and Trump's, and how the special counsel in his probe had decided not to press charges.

"This matter is now closed," Biden said.

Garage box and storage closet of President Joe Biden's garage taken on Dec. 21, 2022, in a photo released by the Department of Justice. Department of Justice.

Differences with the Trump Case (What a Bullshit? Crime is a Crime)

Trump has sought to link his circumstances to Biden's by trying to draw an equivalence between their conduct and calling his prosecution the result of a justice system improperly targeting Republicans.

But records subsequently released by the National Archives indicate that Biden's legal team cooperated with National Archives officials, whereas federal prosecutors have accused Trump of deliberately withholding records he knew to be classified from investigators with the National Archives and, later, the FBI.

Hur's report drew that distinction, saying, "Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite. According to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it."

"In contrast," the report said, "Mr. Biden turned in classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice, consented to the search of multiple locations including his homes, sat for a voluntary interview and in other ways cooperated with the investigation."

Documents Stretch Back Decades

Hur's report said investigators found documents marked classified from as far back as the 1970s, including a box labeled "International Travel 1973-1979" containing materials from Biden's trips to Asia and Europe that included "roughly a dozen marked classified documents that are currently classified at the Secret level."

According to the report, among the classified documents Biden retained were materials documenting his opposition to the troop surge in Afghanistan, including a classified handwritten memo he sent President Obama over the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday, which FBI agents recovered from Biden's Delaware home and its garage.

Asked in his interview with investigators about handwriting on a folder containing marked classified documents about Afghanistan, the report said Biden "identified the handwriting as his, but said he recalled nothing about how the folder or its contents got into his garage."

The report lays out that Biden, in writing his 2007 and 2017 memoirs, worked with a ghostwriter, and in a recorded conversation with the ghostwriter a month after he left office, referenced the 2009 memo -- saying that he had "just found all the classified stuff downstairs."

At that time, Biden was renting a home in Virginia, the report says, and met the ghostwriter there to work on second memoir. He moved out of the Virginia home in 2019 and consolidated his belongings in Delaware, where the report says FBI agents later found the documents marked classified about the Afghanistan troop surge in his garage.

As such, the report says "evidence supports the inference," that when Mr. Biden said the comment in 2017, he "was referring to the same marked classified documents about Afghanistan that FBI agents found in 2022 in his Delaware garage."

Biden 'Created' Classified Documents

The report also said that Biden "created" his own classified documents via his own handwritten notes in notebooks and notecards, some of which Biden brought home with him and stored in "unsecured locations that were not authorized to store classified information-- even though the notebooks."

The report said Biden used notebooks filled with sensitive materials to write his 2017 memoir, allegedly acknowledging to his ghostwriter that some of the documents he relied on might be classified.

"In writing 'Promise Me, Dad,' Mr. Biden relied extensively on the notebooks containing the notes he took during his vice presidency," said the report. The notebooks contained "notes of meetings Mr. Biden attended as well as entries about his other activities during this period. Many of the meetings related to foreign policy and classified information, including the President's Daily Brief, National Security Council meetings, and other briefings. Some of these entries remain classified up to the Secret level," said the report.

The report outlines that in 2017, Biden had expressed displeasure in a conversation with his ghostwriter that notes he had taken after meetings with President Obama had been turned over to the National Archives – telling the ghostwriter he had not wanted to turn the notecards in.

But investigators noted that many of the records found in Biden's home, at the Penn Biden Center, and at the University of Pennsylvania library "could plausibly have been brought to these locations by mistake."

"The evidence suggests that Mr. Biden did not willfully retain these documents," Hur wrote.

Blue folder labeled "Afghanistan" in a box in President Joe Biden's garage in a picture released by the Department of Justice. Department of Justice

Long-Anticipated Report

Hur's long-anticipated report was released Thursday, hours after the White House reviewed the document and announced that "in keeping with his commitment to cooperation and transparency," the president would not assert executive privilege over any portion of the report.

Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel's office, said in a statement that the president's legal team had completed a review of the report and that "in keeping with his commitment to cooperation and transparency," the president would not assert executive privilege over any portion of the report.

Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this week informed key lawmakers that Hur had concluded his investigation, which examined how approximately two dozen classified documents wound up at Biden's personal home and office.

Interior of President Joe Biden's garage storage closet containing Senate documents, Jan. 20, 2023, in a picture released by the Department of Justice. Department of Justice

The records in question date back to Biden's time as vice president, and at least some include "top secret" markings, the highest level of classification.

Garland appointed Hur as special counsel in January of 2023, after aides to the president discovered a batch of ten documents at the Penn-Biden Center in Washington, D.C., where Biden kept an office after his vice presidency.

A second discovery of additional records in the garage of Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home precipitated Garland's decision to assign Hur as special counsel, ABC News reported at the time.

The report stated that "Mr. Biden's memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023."

100 Interviews

Investigators interviewed as many as 100 current and former officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, and Hunter Biden, the president's son. In October, Hur's team spent two days interviewing Biden himself.

ABC News previously reported that sources who were present for some of the interviews, including witnesses, said that authorities had apparently uncovered instances of carelessness from Biden's vice presidency, but that -- based on what was said in the interviews -- the improper removal of classified documents from Biden's office when he left the White House in 2017 seemed to be more likely a mistake than a criminal act.

The White House had emphasized from the beginning that it would cooperate with investigators. Biden himself repeatedly denied any personal wrongdoing and said he was "surprised" to learn of the documents' existence.

The Hur investigation has played out quietly against the backdrop of special counsel Jack Smith's inquiry into former President Donald Trump's handling of classified records, which culminated last year in a 40-count indictment, to which Trump has pleaded not guilty.

#Genocidal Joe #War Criminal #Classified Documents 📃 Probe #Top Secret Material | Documents #Source: ABC News 📰 🗞️ #Clear Evidence #Donald J Trump | Double Standard