Warner Bros. Apologizes After ‘The Witches’ Sparks Backlash From People With Disabilities
Rebecca Rubin 

© HBO Max

Warner Bros. has apologized after being criticized by people with disabilities over the depiction of Anne Hathaway’s character in “The Witches.” In a statement, the studio said it “regretted any offense caused.”

In the recent Robert Zemeckis-directed adaptation, Hathaway’s villainous character, known as the Grand Witch, has missing fingers. Many people with disabilities pointed out that she appears to have Ectrodactyly, a limb abnormality that’s commonly referred to as “split hand.” Advocates fear that portraying villains with physical defects can perpetuate stereotypes that disabilities are abnormal or scary.

                                                            THE GROTESQUE IN HORROR FILM 

The Penalty (1920 film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org › wiki › The_Penalty_(1920_film)

The Penalty is an American crime film starring Lon Chaney and originally released in 1920 by Goldwyn Pictures. The movie was directed by Wallace Worsley, and written by Philip Lonergan and Charles Kenyon, based upon the pulp novel by Gouverneur Morris.

The Penalty (1920) A Silent Film Review – Movies Silently 

Apr 20, 2014 — Twenty-seven years pass and the boy has grown up to be Blizzard (Lon Chaney), lord and master of the criminal underworld. How bad is he?

The Penalty" (1920) starring Lon Chaney | Public Domain ...

An inexperienced doctor needlessly amputates a boy's legs after a traffic accident. The boy grows up to be a criminal mastermind, determined to revenge

Paralympic athlete Amy Marren said she was “disappointed” in Warner Bros. and questioned if there “was there much thought given as to how this representation of limb differences would effect the limb difference community.” The official Twitter account for the Paralympic Games echoed Marren’s senti himself ...ments, writing “Limb difference is not scary. Differences should be celebrated and disability has to be normalised.”

Marren explained that surgeons often try to build hands for children and adults with limb differences. “It’s upsetting to something that makes a person different being represented as something scary,” she said.

“Yes, I am fully aware that this is a film, and these are Witches. But Witches are essentially monsters,” she continued. “My fear is that children will watch this film, unaware that it massively exaggerates the Roald Dahl original and that limbs differences begin to be feared.”

RespectAbility, an organization that advocates for individuals with disabilities, said Hollywood’s tendency to disfigure evil characters, even unintentionally, can cause people to be afraid of those who don’t look like them.

“The decision to make this witch look scarier by having a limb difference — which was not an original part of the plot — has real life consequences,” said RespectAbility’s vice president of communications Lauren Appelbaum, an advocate for more authentic portrayals of disability on screen. “Unfortunately, this representation in ‘The Witches’ teaches kids that limb differences are hideous or something to be afraid of. What type of message does this send to children with limb differences?”

A spokesperson for Warner Bros. said the studio was “deeply saddened to learn that our depiction of the fictional characters in ‘The Witches’ could upset people with disabilities.'”

“In adapting the original story, we worked with designers and artists to come up with a new interpretation of the cat-like claws that are described in the book,” the statement reads. “It was never the intention for viewers to feel that the fantastical, non-human creatures were meant to represent them. This film is about the power of kindness and friendship. It is our hope that families and children can enjoy the film and embrace this empowering, love-filled theme.”

“The Witches,” which debuted on HBO Max in October, is the second film adaptation of Dahl’s popular children’s book. The story centers on young boy who stumbles upon a gathering of witches while staying with his grandmother at a hotel. After finding out their evil plan to turn the world’s children into mice, he works with his grandmother to thwart their wicked plot. Along with Hathaway, the cast includes newcomer Jahzir Kadeem Bruno, Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci, Chris Rock and Kristin Chenoweth.

Why police reform won't happen without public pressure on politicians
Temitope Oriola, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of Alberta 

Police accountability remains low in Canada despite incidents of civilian abuse and death. A recent CBC report found that only two officers were convicted in 461 cases of deaths of civilians between 2000 and 2018.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

 Thousands of people protest to defund the police in support of Black Lives Matter and all social injustice against racism in Toronto on June 19, 2020.

The lack of accountability in policing, particularly the reluctance to prosecute officers with records of civilian abuse, is intriguing given that no other occupation offers such a level of protection for any form of abuse. Even in cases where officers are charged, the legal outcomes tend to be more favourable to police officers than civilians charged with similar offences.

For example, James Forcillo, the police officer convicted of attempted murder in the death of Toronto teenager Sammy Yatim, received full parole after serving four years of a six-year sentence.

Such outcomes condone misconduct and create a toxic atmosphere for many hardworking police officers, who treat the public with dignity and respect.
No increase in oversight

Civilian oversight of police agencies and officers is increasingly the norm in democratic societies. However, at least six Canadian provinces and territories do not have any civilian oversight bodies and often depend on other police services to investigate officer misconduct.

Civilian oversight bodies in jurisdictions like Ontario, Québec and Alberta work at a glacial pace and often produce results that diminish public confidence.

Much remains unchanged since George Floyd’s death on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minn. Two days after Floyd’s death, Toronto woman Regis Korchinski-Paquet died from a fall shortly after police responded to her family’s call for assistance.

Video evidence from the incident was not made public, but selective leaks appeared in the Toronto Sun. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) tasked with investigating Korchinski-Paquet’s death noted that “leaks of this nature detract from the public’s confidence, and the family’s confidence, in the integrity of the SIU investigation.”

The maltreatment of Indigenous people by the police remains a major problem. For example, Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation released a video regarding his maltreatment by Wood Buffalo RCMP. Recounting the incident, the chief said: “I could feel that I was going unconscious and all I can remember is the blood gushing out of my mouth.”

The RCMP charged Chief Adam with resisting arrest and unlawful assault of a police officer. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “deeply alarmed” by the incident; the charges against Chief Adam were later dropped.

On Aug. 27, the CBC reported that the Edmonton Police Service was about to take delivery of a new $500,000 armoured tank ordered two years earlier. Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson described the new acquisition as “remarkably tone deaf… I’m not convinced that this is a reasonable expenditure, since they already have two.” CBC reporter Janice Johnston, who broke the news, noted the purchase was “never spelled out” in the budget; rather, it was listed under new vehicles.

Decades of reform requests

Reforms in police organizations have long been a major concern, but the more things change, the more they appear to remain the same.

A 1974 study observed, “Police organizations, because of their para-military organization styles, have tended to resist change more than other types of organizations.”

Frank Iacobucci — a retired justice of the Supreme Court — emphasized the need to professionalize the police in his 2014 report on the response of the Toronto Police Service to individuals in mental distress.

This point was made in 1979 by American criminologist Jaganmohan Lingamneni, who argues that:

“[P]olice departments for the most part, still function in an archaic and outmoded fashion. The officers generally resist change and innovation in the existing police structure and routine. Systems of reward and punishment as well as career development and promotional opportunity often tend to support the ‘semi-skilled laborer’ concept rather than law enforcement as a ‘profession’.”
Conditions for change

A recent Canadian study researched the strategic plans of 23 Canadian police departments and found that they “vary considerably with respect to environmental scans; statements of values, vision and mission; descriptions of goals; (and) resources to be applied to goal achievement.”

While the findings were not unexpected, it is intriguing that the police departments also varied “in indicators to be used to assess success and inform … action” and pay “limited attention to statements of strategic purpose.”

Police departments are survival-oriented entities, not unlike other organizations. That is not a critique. It is a source of optimism. However, under what conditions do police organizations change?

Several studies demonstrate that reforms in police organizations depend on organizational structure, leadership styles, type of innovation, ideological orientation, type and content of innovation, timeliness and broader social context.

However, as sociologist Monique Marks cautions in her study of South African police organizations: “new policies and legislation do not automatically bring about desired transformation within the police.”
Possibilities for reform

Are police departments reformable? The answer is both yes and no.

No, because it is not entirely in the hands of the police. Reforms can be initiated by the entities outside policing that criminologist Matthew Matusiak calls “institutional sovereigns.” Reforming the police is not only about operations, strategic plans, existing legislation or policy. It is an implicitly and explicitly political question.

But it is possible to reform police organizations. The first step to reform is to acknowledge that we have a problem. In June, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki denied the existence of systemic racism in the RCMP: “If systemic racism is meaning that racism is entrenched in our policies and procedures, I would say that we don’t have systemic racism.”

When asked about Commissioner Lucki’s statement, Prime Minister Trudeau replied, “systemic racism is an issue right across the country, in all our institutions, including in all our police forces, including in the RCMP.” Barely 24 hours after Trudeau’s comment, Commissioner Lucki changed her perspective clarifying, “I did not say definitively that systemic racism exists in the RCMP. I should have.”

The impetus to reform rarely comes from within police organizations. Here, the prime minister communicated a strong and unambiguous political position. Commissioner Lucki was arguably aware she could not maintain her position while at odds with the federal government. The lesson? Police departments will align their positions with their understanding of the standpoint of the political authorities.

Other institutions with significant impact on the quality of policing include all elected leaders, particularly mayors, premiers and justice ministers. The media, academia, think tanks and labour unions are crucial.

Major reforms in the Minneapolis police occurred two months after George Floyd’s death and are directly connected to the axes of political power in the state: a mayor and governor from the Democratic Party in favour of reforms.

Therefore, rather than protest in front of police stations or against police officers, protests should be directed at elected politicians, who have the power to make change. Those seeking reforms should also work to elect leaders in favour of police reforms. The public must hold elected politicians responsible whenever there is any unnecessary use of force or death of a civilian at the hands of the police.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Temitope Oriola's research team (with Charles T. Adeyanju, University of Prince Edward Island and Nicole Neverson, Ryerson University) received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for their work on use of force by police.

Puerto Ricans voted on statehood and for a new governor on Tuesday. Like the US, they're anxiously awaiting final results.

Dánica Coto, Associated Press


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — People across Puerto Rico awaited final results Wednesday following elections that saw long lines of voters and produced a tight gubernatorial race in the U.S. Caribbean territory.

Pedro Pierluisi of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party held a slight lead over Carlos Delgado of the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the island's current status. More than 12,000 votes separated the top two candidates after counting more than 95% of the ballots cast Tuesday as well as some returns from early and absentee ballots, which were also still being tallied.

Pierluisi celebrated the early results and held a news conference, while Delgado said shortly after midnight that he would await final results.

“It's irresponsible,” Delgado said of Pierluisi's actions.

Meanwhile, Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico’s current representative in U.S. Congress and Pierluisi's running partner, easily won a second term.

The preliminary results disappointed voters like 69-year-old David Jorge Santos, who said he had been a longtime supporter of one of the two main parties, though he declined to say which. But this year, he voted for a new party because he said the New Progressives and Popular Democrats don't deliver.

“It's one promise after another and they don't do anything,” Santos said.

It's the first time in recent history that either of Puerto Rico's two main parties failed to secure more than 40% of the overall vote as new parties and candidates erode the grip that both parties have long had on the island.

In addition to the general election, voters also faced a nonbinding referendum that asked, “Should Puerto Rico be admitted immediately into the union as a state?"

U.S. statehood was leading with more than 52% support, with more than 95% of votes counted. However, U.S. Congress would have to approve of any changes to the island’s political status

'The people have responded':Puerto Rico residents say they answered 2020 census. The government says otherwise -- over and over again.

As results trickled in late Tuesday, car horns blared and occasional fireworks pierced the night as supporters celebrated.

Trailing the two main candidates were Juan Dalmau of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, which for the first time since the 1950s obtained double-digit support, Alexandra Lúgaro of Citizen Victory Movement, César Vázquez of the Dignity Project and independent candidate Eliezer Molina.

It was the first election held since Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017, causing damages estimated at more than $100 billion and killing an estimated 2,975 people.

Less than two years after the storm, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans took to the streets in protest and prompted Gov. Ricardo Rosselló to quit, an event known as the “Summer of 2019” that was sparked by a leaked chat in which the then-governor and other officials made fun of hurricane victims, among other things, and made comments that led to an investigation into possible corruption.

Pierluisi briefly served as governor following last year’s protests and previously represented Puerto Rico in Congress for eight years. He and Rosselló are from the same party.

The candidates faced a dwindling voter base because of emigration caused by hardship. There are 2.36 million eligible voters, compared with 2.87 million in 2016 and 2.4 million in 2012

Despite the drop in eligible voters, the diversity of parties and candidates has increased in recent years, slowly eroding the grip that the New Progressives and Popular Democrats have had on the island’s politics for decades.

Rafael Fonseca, an administrator, said he had hoped neither of the two parties would win this year.

“They’ve been doing the same thing for years and there’s no change,” he said, adding that the island’s public education system needs to be improved and wages increased to prevent the loss of young people moving to the U.S. mainland in search of work.

Fonseca lamented that the energy fueling last year’s protests and demands for new leaders seemed to have dissipated.

“Puerto Ricans have a short memory,” he said, adding that he remains hopeful a non-traditional party will eventually lead Puerto Rico. “Possibly not in my lifetime.”

The election came amid an economic crisis and efforts to restructure a portion of Puerto Rico’s more than $70 billion public debt, which officials declared unpayable in 2015.

The new governor will have to work alongside a federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances and has previously clashed with local officials over austerity measures, including proposed public pension cuts.

Puerto Rico awaits final result in tight gubernatorial race

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — People across Puerto Rico awaited final results Wednesday of elections that saw long lines of voters and produced a tight gubernatorial race in the U.S. Caribbean territory. 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Pedro Pierluisi of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party held a slight lead over Carlos Delgado of the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the island's current status. More than 12,000 votes separated the top two candidates after counting more than 95% of the ballots cast Tuesday as well as some returns from early and absentee ballots, which were also still being tallied.

Pierluisi celebrated the early results and held a news conference, while Delgado said shortly after midnight that he would await final results.

“It's irresponsible,” Delgado said of Pierluisi's actions.

Meanwhile, Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico’s current representative in U.S. Congress and Pierluisi's running partner, easily won a second term.

The preliminary results disappointed voters like 69-year-old David Jorge Santos, who said he had been a longtime supporter of one of the two main parties — though he declined to say which — but this year voted for a new party because he said the New Progressives and Popular Democrats don't deliver.

“It's one promise after another and they don't do anything,” Santos said.

It's the first time that neither of Puerto Rico's two main parties won more than 40% of the overall vote and neither will hold a majority in the legislature, according to preliminary results. New parties and candidates won several legislative seats.

The island's Senate also for the first time will have a gay Black woman as a member.

“There were fundamental changes,” said political analyst Domingo Emanuelli.“They're seeking candidates not based on ideology, gender or party, but because they're decent. This is work that takes four, five, 10 years, but the people have already started.”

Voters also favoured a nonbinding referendum that asked, “Should Puerto Rico be admitted immediately into the union as a state?," which was backed by more than 52% support, with more than 95% of votes counted.

However, U.S. Congress would have to approve of any changes to the island’s political status.

The race to become mayor of Puerto Rico's capital also was extremely tight, with only hundreds of votes separating two candidates, including one from a new party. The winner would replace Carmen Yulín Cruz, known for her public spats with U.S. President Donald Trump.

As results trickled in late Tuesday, car horns blared and occasional fireworks pierced the night as supporters celebrated

Trailing the two main candidates were Juan Dalmau of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, which for the first time since the 1950s obtained double-digit support, Alexandra Lúgaro of Citizen Victory Movement, César Vázquez of the Dignity Project and independent candidate Eliezer Molina.

It was the first election held since Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017, causing damages estimated at more than $100 billion and killing an estimated 2,975 people.

Less than two years after the storm, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans took to the streets in protest and prompted Gov. Ricardo Rosselló to quit, an event known as the “Summer of 2019” that was sparked by a leaked chat in which the then-governor and other officials made fun of hurricane victims, among other things, and made comments that led to an investigation into possible corruption.

Pierluisi briefly served as governor following last year’s protests and previously represented Puerto Rico in Congress for eight years. He and Rosselló are from the same party.

The candidates faced a dwindling voter base because of emigration caused by hardship. There are 2.36 million eligible voters, compared with 2.87 million in 2016 and 2.4 million in 2012.

Despite the drop in eligible voters, the diversity of parties and candidates has increased in recent years, eroding the grip of the traditional parties.

Rafael Fonseca, an administrator, said he had hoped neither of the two parties would win this year.

“They’ve been doing the same thing for years and there’s no change,” he said, adding that the island’s public education system needs to be improved and wages increased to prevent the loss of young people moving to the U.S. mainland in search of work.

Fonseca lamented that the energy fueling last year’s protests and demands for new leaders seemed to have dissipated.

“Puerto Ricans have a short memory,” he said, adding that he remains hopeful a non-traditional party will eventually lead Puerto Rico. “Possibly not in my lifetime.”

The election came amid an economic crisis and efforts to restructure a portion of Puerto Rico’s more than $70 billion public debt, which officials declared unpayable in 2015.

The new governor will have to work alongside a federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances and has previously clashed with local officials over austerity measures, including proposed public pension cuts.

DáNica Coto, The Associated Press

David Rosenberg: The U.S. economy is much closer to a bust than a boom — and markets are mispriced

© Provided by Financial Post A closed deli in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The U.S. economy has a long way to go to get back to anything that can be remotely called a pre-COVID-19 norm, writes David Rosenberg.


By David Rosenberg and Andrew Hencic

To help alleviate all the confusion over whether the United States economy is actually out of recession and into a full-fledged and reliable recovery, we have constructed a new Boom-Bust index that measures exactly where the economy is operating relative to some semblance of normality.

The index is based on a set of seven economic and financial indicators and is designed to judge whether economic performance is more similar to an average economic boom or an average recession. What it currently shows (with all due deference to the increased risk appetite through the spring and summer courtesy of unprecedented fiscal stimulus and massive market-price distortions by the U.S. Federal Reserve) is that the economy, sad to say, is really not out of its recessionary state; at a minimum, it shows that we have a long way to go to get back to anything that can be remotely called a pre-COVID-19 norm. This, in turn, tells us that if you are prone to being long the pro-cyclical reflation trade that is so contingent on a vaccine, it’s best to wait for this to become a trend rather than a trade… or, more than likely, a value trap.

We based our index on something called the “Mahalanobis distance,” which was introduced for economic purposes by recent research out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (A New Index of the Business Cycle by William Kinlaw, Mark Kritzman and David Turkington). We then deployed seven different macroeconomic and market-price indicators at a monthly frequency: the original four used in the paper (industrial production, the U.S. 10-Year T-Note/Fed funds rate spread, nonfarm employment and the S&P 500) supplemented with initial unemployment claims, single-family housing construction permits and the Conference Board’s consumer expectations index.

From a technical perspective, our definitions of “booms” and “busts” are the same as those from the MIT report: a bust is a technical recession as defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a boom is a period where the year-over-year growth rate in industrial production is in the 75th percentile of the past 10 years.

The index is centered around 50, which corresponds to an economy that is neither running “hot” nor “cooling off.” A value of less than 50 means that the indicators are showing more features of a recession than a boom period (a value of zero is when the indicators are fully pointing to recession). Values above 50 mean the economy has more in common with solid growth, while a value of 100 would be a consensus that a boom is ongoing.

The index is responsive to the start of recoveries, as it jumps quickly back to values close to 50 at the conclusion of recessions (with the tech wreck and Great Financial Crisis taking slightly longer). However, the six-month trend performs quite well in anticipating recessions (values below 50 have preceded every recession since 1980 with the notable exception of 2015-2016) and with turning points off the lows that signal the resumption of growth.

The current value and six-month trend both sit at zero, firmly planting conditions as of September’s data in the Bust category. Going back to the late 1970s, the only other time the six-month average has hit these lows was in the later stages of the Great Financial Crisis. Though, with initial jobless claims still more than 750,000 per week, and nonfarm employment at -6.4% year over year (still worse than any period since the demobilization after the Second World War), this really shouldn’t be much of a surprise — the bulls, for some reason, see making up lost ground with unprecedented stimulus as the primary reason for being positioned with a pro-cyclical bias. Meanwhile, the debt overhang that caused the 2009-2019 economic expansion to have been the weakest in the past seven decades has only become worse and represents a massive tax liability and constraint on aggregate demand for the foreseeable future.

The equity market may have surged off its March lows, and credit spreads sharply tightened on both real and pledged Fed intervention, but the actual fundamentals paint a pretty bleak picture. Activity is still severely depressed and with COVID-19 cases reaching another daily record last week, it may be some time before things turn around.

In the face of this uncertainty, a portfolio positioned defensively — including Treasuries, gold and equities that trade with “utility-like” characteristics and have reliable dividend growth characteristics — is a prudent strategy that mitigates downside risks, but has the ability to capture upside potential, as economic growth prospects are very sluggish and inflation risks are still low alongside a massive resource gap in the broad economy.

David Rosenberg is founder of independent research firm Rosenberg Research & Associates Inc. and Andrew Hencic is a senior economist there. You can sign up for a free, one-month trial on his website .

David Rosenberg: We’re in a depression, not recession — and the scars will take years to heal

No matter who wins the election, America will still be in a jobs crisis

By Anneken Tappe, CNN Business Wed November 4, 2020


New York (CNN Business)It's not yet clear who will win the election, but no matter who ends up on top, one of the biggest priorities for the next administration is indeed clear: fixing America's broken job market.

America's jobs crisis is nowhere near over. Last month, the economy was still down 10.7 million jobs from February, before the pandemic forced businesses to shutter.

On one hand, that means nearly half of the 22 million jobs lost in the crisis have been recovered. But the pace of improvement has tapered off in recent months. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' October jobs report, due on Friday at 8:30 am ET, is expected to show a further slowdown in the labor market recovery.

Economists predict the US economy added 600,000 jobs in October, down slightly from 661,000 in the prior month. That would still leave America down some 10 million jobs during the pandemic and many people without the means to make ends meet.

The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 7.7%, down from 7.9% in September -- which was the nation's highest unemployment rate on record going into a presidential election.

Wednesday's ADP Employment Report came in far below expectations, showing private employers added only 365,000 jobs in October. Economists had expected 650,000. The ADP and government reports aren't correlated, but experts pay attention to both for a complete picture of the labor market.

Any improvements are good news, but the recovery is far from complete and the situation isn't looking hopeful for the jobless.

In July, Congress let expire its bill that provided additional $600 weekly checks to unemployed Americans on top of their regular unemployment benefits. That expiration led the monthly poverty rate to increase, according to a study from Columbia University's Center on Poverty and Social Policy.

Meanwhile, a growing number of workers have exhausted their state benefits and rolled onto alternative government programs, such as the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. As of October 10, 3.7 million people received PEUC benefits, put in place to deal with the current crisis.

The PEUC program -- as well as the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides benefits for people such as the self-employed who aren't usually eligible for them -- are due to expire at the end of the year.

No matter who the next president will be, Washington needs to act fast to ensure help for those in need and get the country on track for a full jobs recovery.

-- CNN's Tami Luhby contributed to this story.

WAIT WHAT?
Ilhan Omar Fires Back at Sean Hannity After He Criticized Her for Encouraging Election Day Voting

Katherine Fung 

© Stephen Maturen/Stringer Congressional candidate Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks during a get out the vote event on the University of Minnesota campus on November 3, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Omar fired back at Fox News host Sean Hannity for…

Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar from Minnesota fired back at conservative political commentator Sean Hannity after the Fox News host tried to criticize her for encouraging Election Day voting among her constituents.

Early Tuesday, Omar told Minnesotans to go to the polls even if they weren't registered to vote because the battleground state is one of 19 states and the District of Columbia that allows same-day voter registration.

However, in an attempt to attack the progressive congresswoman, Hannity took Omar's message out of context, tweeting, "NOT A JOKE: Ilhan Omar Tells Residents 'You Don't Have to be Registered to Vote' in Minnesota."

Omar was quick to call Hannity out on his mistake.

"Where is the lie, we are proud to have same day registration here in the great state of Minnesotan [sic]," Omar tweeted. "Access to the ballot box is a priority for us, I know it's a hard concept for republican to understand."

Omar has often been the target of right-wing commentators from Fox News and Hannity has frequently criticized more progressive Democrats,including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

Omar, who was elected during her state's 2018 blue wave, won reelection in Minnesota's 5th congressional district on Tuesday—a seat that didn't seem to face a real threat to begin with.

Although Omar's seat was predicted to be safe—and in fact, late Wednesday, the Associated Press had called the race for her—other Republicans in Minnesota have attempted to use Omar as a tactic to defeat their Democratic opponents.

"Republican candidates in other areas of the state running against her in their own district are trying to link their Democratic opponents to Representative Omar. But for Representative Omar's part, she's in a very safe seat," Kathryn Pearson, an American politics professor at the University of Minnesota, told Newsweek.

Steve Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College, noted that Omar represents Minneapolis, the city that became the center of racial justice protests following the death of George Floyd.

Omar has also advocated for defunding the police, an idea that has become controversial amid this past summer's national unrest surrounding police brutality. The protests will be a key issue for many Minnesotans casting their ballots this election cycle.

"The whole question of defining the police has been an issue in the metro area," Schier told Newsweek. "What difference that makes on Election Day is hard to say but it has an unusually intensity in Minnesota because of the events here."

Newsweek reached out to Fox News for comment but did not hear back before publication.

US Supreme Court grapples over Catholic organization's fight against nondiscrimination law

Harper Neidig and John Kruzel 

© Getty Images Supreme Court grapples over Catholic organization's fight against nondiscrimination law

The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard a dispute that pits religious rights against nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people, in a case that could give one of the clearest signals yet of the newly 6-3 conservative court's direction.

The nine justices seemed split along predictable ideological lines over the question of whether Philadelphia could impose a non-discrimination requirement on a religious organization that is opposed to same-sex marriage.

The lawsuit arose after Philadelphia ended its foster-care partnership with a Catholic social services organization. The city severed ties after learning that the Catholic group refused to place foster children in the homes of gay couples, in violation of Philadelphia's non-discrimination ordinance.

The group, Catholic Social Services (CSS), represented by the nonprofit Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, brought a lawsuit in federal court. The organization alleges that the city has unfairly targeted the religious contractors whose sincerely held objection to gay marriage is protected under the "free exercise" clause of the First Amendment.

The conservative justices, including the newly sworn-in Amy Coney Barrett, appeared sympathetic to the Catholic group, repeatedly noting that CSS has yet to turn away a gay couple and that there are other fostering services in the city that would allow LGBT families to adopt.

Justice Samuel Alito accused city officials of targeting the Catholic church for its religious views.

"if we are honest about what's really going on here, it's not about ensuring that same sex couples in Philadelphia have the opportunity to be foster parents," Alito said. "It's the fact that the city can't stand the message that Catholic social services and the Archdiocese are sending by continuing to adhere to the old fashioned view about marriage."

The three liberal justices, meanwhile, appeared concerned about potential widespread discrimination from government contractors if the court were to allow an exemption to Philadelphia's policy for CSS.

"What is dangerous is the idea that a contractor with a religious belief could come in and say, exclude other religions from being families ... exclude someone with a disability ... or exclude interracial couples," said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general under the Obama administration representing Philadelphia in the case, argued that if CSS were to prevail before the high court, it would have far-reaching consequences and "opens the door for all kinds of claims" to allow various forms of discrimination.

"It radiates far beyond foster care to all government contracts in all 50 states," Katyal said.

The case is one of the first major tests on social issues for the court's strengthened conservative majority.

Last term, the 5-4 majority sided with religious conservatives in three major cases. They upheld the Trump administration's expansion of religious or moral exemptions from the Affordable Care Act's birth control mandate, expanded immunity for religious institutions from workplace discrimination lawsuits and ruled that religious schools cannot be excluded from state-financed private school scholarship programs.

It's unclear when the court will rule on the case argued Wednesday. A decision could come as late as June, when the current term ends.

Vicious Circle Of Global Warming And Large-Scale Ice Loss Set To Worsen

GLACIER IN ICEFJORD IN ILULISSAT, GREENLAND

By Alfredo Carpineti 28 OCT 2020

Global warming has increased the loss of ice sheets all over the world and in turn, the reduction in ice contributes to global warming in several ways, creating a vicious cycle that does not spell good news for Earth. A new study in Nature Communications assessed how much the loss of ice contributes to an increase in temperature.

The study estimates that if the Arctic ocean was to lose its ice coverage completely, it would add 0.2°C (0.36°F) to the average increase of global temperatures. The same increase would happen again if Greenland and West Antarctica lost their glaciers, resulting in a median additional global warming of 0.4°C (0.72°F). As we struggle to keep the global average temperature increase below 2 °C (3.6 °F), the difference that ice loss makes is significant.

"If global ice masses shrink, this changes how much of the sunlight that hits Earth's surface is reflected back into space. Decreasing ice cover in the Arctic exposes more of the darker ocean water that absorbs more energy," lead author Nico Wunderling, from the Potsdam Institute For Climate Impact Research, said in a statement. "This is referred to as albedo feedback. It's like wearing white or black clothes in summer. If you wear dark, you heat up more easily."

The albedo feedback accounts for 55 percent of that possible increase. But ice melting also changes the concentration of water vapor in the atmosphere. A more humid world is a world that retains heat better – really not what we currently want. It also changes cloud coverage, again leading to a temperature increase. Water vapor changes account for 30 percent of that 0.4°C (0.72°F), the remaining 15 percent is from changes in cloud coverage.

"[E]very tenth of a degree of warming counts for our climate," said Ricarda Winkelmann, who led the research group. "Preventing Earth system feedback loops, or vicious circles, is thus more urgent than ever."

The team only estimated how the loss of ice will affect temperatures but there are other effects to consider. The polar regions have been able to trap greenhouse gases for millennia and these are slowly being released. Researchers from the International Siberian Shelf Study Expedition 2020 have reported the first detection of methane being released from the continental slope in the Laptev Sea. The detection comes from a depth of 300 meters (984 feet) off the East Siberia coast.

The team wrote on Facebook that they believe that the emissions are still modest at this time, but it's a new and worrying alarm bell for the effects of the climate crisis in the Arctic. The polar regions might feel distant but safeguarding them has a global impact.

‘Death by irony’: The mystery of the SMOKY mouse that died of smoke inhalation, but went nowhere near a fire

Author Andrew Peters
July 12, 2020 

This article is part of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a special project by The Conversation that tracks the recovery of Australia’s native plants and animals after last summer’s bushfire tragedy. Explore the project here and read more articles here.

I looked through the microscope at the insides of a dead smoky mouse, and could barely believe my eyes. Thousands of tiny smoke particles lined its lungs. But the mouse had been kept more than 50 kilometres from the nearest bushfires. How could this be?

As it turned out, the critically endangered mouse had died from smoke inhalation. Some 45 had been held at a captive breeding facility near Canberra. Nine ultimately died - the first recorded wildlife in the world killed by bushfire smoke far outside a fire zone.

The deaths were a blow for conservation efforts. But in recent weeks, there’s been good news: smoky mice have been spotted at seven sites burnt in the fires. For now, at least, the species lives on.

The smoky mouse case shows bushfire smoke can affect wildlife far from the fire zone. 

NASA Earth Observatory

A unique, bulgy-eyed rodent

The smoky mouse is shy, gentle and small – usually about nine centimetres in body length, plus its tail. They are rather cute, with bulgy eyes and very soft grey fur which inspired the species’ name.

In the wild, the smoky mouse is limited to a few sites in Victoria’s Grampians and East Gippsland, as well as in Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales. It lives in underground communal nests, in heath and forest habitats.

Read more: After the bushfires, we helped choose the animals and plants in most need. Here's how we did it

Ancestors of the smoky mouse arrived in Australia more than five million years ago when the Australian continent finally drifted close enough to Southeast Asia for rodents to raft across.

These ancient rodents diversified into more than 50 species. Many, like the smoky mouse, are in decline. Others, like the white-footed rabbit-rat have already become extinct.

Several threats are reducing smoky mouse numbers, but feral cats and foxes are a major cause.

Baby smoky mice photographed in 2017 at the captive breeding facility. 

Office of Environment and Heritage

Death by irony?

Some 119 animal species were identified for urgent conservation intervention following the fires. The smoky mouse was among them. Modelling showed 26% of its distribution overlapped with burnt areas, and in NSW more than 90% of the species’ habitat burned.

I am a wildlife health and pathology expert based in Wagga Wagga in NSW, and part of my job is to diagnose why animals have died. The first dead smoky mouse I encountered had come from a Canberra breeding facility. It was sent by a vet and arrived via courier in mid-January.

Through the microscope: smoke particles in the lungs of a smoky mouse suffering smoke inhalation.

In a note attached, the vet suggested bushfire smoke had killed the smoky mouse – and asked, in a nod to the species’ name, if this was a case of “death by irony”.

Canberra, like many other cities and towns, was shrouded in thick smoke in January. But the breeding facility was more than 50 kilometres from the nearest fire zone, so I thought the vet’s theory was unlikely.

When I and other veterinary pathologists examined organs of the mouse under the microscope, the only abnormality we could find was fluid and congestion in the mouse’s lungs.

Over the following month, eight more smoky mice died. I inspected the lungs of one – to my shock, it contained thousands of brown smoke particles. Once I knew the distribution of particles to look for, I found them in most of the other dead mice too.

The mice didn’t die immediately after inhaling the smoke. They hung on, but when temperatures in Canberra spiked at more than 40℃, they went into respiratory distress and died.

Read more: A season in hell: bushfires push at least 20 threatened species closer to extinction

Death from smoke inhalation has long been suspected in wildlife. But it’s poorly recorded because after bushfires, the bodies of dead animals are usually incinerated or too decomposed to make a diagnosis.

The smoky mouse case shows bushfire smoke can damage wild animals far beyond fire zones. That means the impact of bushfires on wildlife may be greater than we thought.

Seven smoky mice have been spotted in the wild since the bushfires. Museums Victoria

A bit of good news

There is hope for the smoky mouse. Motion-sensing cameras set up in Kosciuszko National Park after the fires have recorded smoky mice at seven burnt sites. Over the next year, more sites will be surveyed to better understand how many individuals remain, and where they live.

Most smoky mice at the Canberra captive breeding facility survived, and there are plans to release some into the wild. This captive breeding program has also been identified as a priority for federal funding.

But as global warming escalates, fires in Australia are predicted to become even worse. Now more than ever, the future of the smoky mouse, along with many other Australian animals, hinges on decisive climate action. Captive breeding programs and blind hope will not be enough.

Author
Andrew Peters
Associate Professor of Wildlife Health and Pathology, Charles Sturt University
Disclosure statement
Andrew Peters is deputy chair of Wildlife Health Australia.

Read more: Conservation scientists are grieving after the bushfires -- but we must not give up

Radio bursts detected from within our own Milky Way galaxy for first time
Doyle Rice, USA TODAY 

For the first time, astronomers have discovered a "fast radio burst" that came from within our own Milky Way galaxy, according to new research published Wednesday.

© Andre Renard, AP A file photo provided by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment collaboration shows the CHIME radio telescope in Kaleden, British Columbia, Canada. On Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, astronomers say they used the instrument to trace an April 2020 fast radio burst to our own galaxy and a type of powerful energetic young star called a magnetar.

They also believe they have found a source of one of the bursts, which are extremely bright flashes of energy that last for a fraction of a second, during which they can blast out more than 100 million times more power than our sun.

Since they were first detected in 2007, astronomers have observed these fast radio bursts scattered across the universe, but their sources have been too far away to clearly make out, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Making it even harder is that they happen so fast, in a couple of milliseconds.

It had been a mystery, then, as to what objects could possibly produce such brief though brilliant radio bursts.

Now astronomers report that in April, they observed fast radio bursts from within our own galaxy, for the first time. The radio pulses are the closest ones detected to date, and their proximity has allowed the team to pinpoint their source.

It came from outer space: Weird radio signal came from distant galaxy

It appears the radio pulses were produced by a magnetar – a type of neutron star with a hugely powerful magnetic field. How powerful? The field can be 10 trillion times stronger than a refrigerator magnet's and up to a thousand times stronger than a typical neutron star's. This represents an enormous storehouse of energy that astronomers suspect powers magnetar outbursts, according to NASA.

The magnetar that produced the burst is an estimated 32,000 light-years from Earth, located in the constellation Vulpecula.

Fast radio bursts: More 'fast radio bursts' have been detected from a distant galaxy. This one has a repeating pattern.

Magnetars are incredibly dense, with 1.5 times the mass of our sun squeezed into a space the size of Manhattan. Physicists had hypothesized that magnetars might produce fast radio bursts, but proof had been lacking, until now.

“There’s this great mystery as to what would produce these great outbursts of energy, which until now we’ve seen coming from halfway across the universe,” said Kiyoshi Masui, assistant professor of physics at MIT, who led an analysis of the radio burst’s brightness. “This is the first time we’ve been able to tie one of these exotic fast radio bursts to a single astrophysical object.”

The findings were published Wednesday in a series of studies in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature.

Astronomers have had as many 50 different theories for what causes these fast radio bursts, including aliens, and they emphasize that magnetars may not be the only answer, especially since there seem to be two types of fast radio bursts. Some, like the one spotted in April, happen only once, while others repeat themselves often.

However, one expert believes magnetars are the source of most radio bursts.

"Before this event, a wide variety of scenarios could explain the origin of fast radio bursts," said Chris Bochenek, a doctoral student in astrophysics at Caltech who led one study of the radio event. "While there may still be exciting twists in the story of fast radio bursts in the future, for me, right now, I think it's fair to say that most come from magnetars until proven otherwise."

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Radio bursts detected from within our own Milky Way galaxy for first time