Norway town absorbs horror of local’s bow-and-arrow attack

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Young people look at the floral tributes and candles left for the victims of a bow and arrow attack, on Stortorvet in Kongsberg, Norway, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. The suspect in a bow-and-arrow attack that killed five people and wounded three in a small Norwegian town is facing a custody hearing Friday. He won’t appear in court because he has has confessed to the killings and has agreed to being held in custody. 

(Terje Bendiksby/NTB via AP)

KONGSBERG, Norway (AP) — Residents of a Norwegian town with a proud legacy of producing coins, weapons and silver grappled Friday with the horrible knowledge that someone living in their community used a bow and arrow to attack people doing their grocery shopping or other evening activities — and succeeded in killing five of them.

On a central square in Kongsberg, a former mining town of 26,000 people surrounded by mountains and located southwest of Norway’s capital, people laid flowers and lit candles in honor of the four women and a man who died in Wednesday’s attack. The victims ranged in age from 50 to 70, police have said.

“This a a small community so almost everybody knows each other, so it’s a very strange and very sad experience for us,” Ingeborg Spangelo, a teacher who brought her students to the impromptu memorial, said. “It is almost surreal or unreal.”

Officers arrested a Kongsberg resident identified as Espen Andersen Braathen, a 37-year-old Danish citizen. He was detained about a half-hour after he allegedly began firing arrows in a supermarket where police tried to confront him but lost sight of him when he fired at them and they had to take cover, law enforcement authorities have said.

Andersen Braathen proceeded from the supermarket into a quiet downtown neighborhood of wooden houses and birch trees, where he fired at people on the street and inside some apartments, police said. Along with the five people killed, three were injured.

Senior police officer Per Thomas Omholt said Friday that three weapons in all were used in the attack, but declined to identify the types or to reveal how the five victims were killed, saying investigators need to interview more witnesses and don’t want their accounts tainted by what they read in the news.

Officers who responded to the first alert at 6.13. p.m., encountered the perpetrator in the supermarket. That is where an off-duty police officer who was shopping was injured, reportedly hit by an arrow in the shoulder. Police were shot at twice with arrows, and as they sought shelter and called for reinforcement, the suspect managed to escape. Investigators believe the five victims were killed afterwards.

“The killings were committed both outdoors and indoors. Among other things, (the suspect) has visited private addresses. In addition, arrows were fired at people in the public space,” Omholt told a news conference.

The regional prosecutor leading the investigation has said that Andersen Braathen confessed to the killings after his arrest, and police said they think he acted alone. Norway’s domestic intelligence agency said Thursday that the case appeared to be “an act of terrorism” but cautioned that the investigation was ongoing.

Norwegian broadcaster NRK said Friday that in 2015 the agency, known by its acronym PST, got information about Andersen Braathen and in 2017 they met the suspect. The following year, PST contacted Norwegian health authorities about the man and concluded that he was not driven by religion or ideology, but was seriously mentally ill. The VG newspaper said PST then believed he could carry out a “low-scale attack with simple means in Norway.”

PST had no immediate comment.

Omholt said that as of Friday, investigators were continuing to explore possible motives or reasons for the attack but their ”strongest hypothesis for motive is illness.” His “health has deteriorated,” the officer said, declining to give specifics.

“We work with several hypotheses. They are weakened and strengthened during the investigation,” Omholt said. “We will find out what has happened, and why.”

Andersen Braathen has been transferred to a psychiatric facility. Omholt added that “at least” two experts will observe and evaluate Andersen Braathen to determine if he was legally sane at the time of the attack.

The suspect’s mental health meant that “it is important to obtain information about the accused’s past,” Omholt said and called for witnesses to map his activities in recent years, including on social media.

Mass killings are rare in low-crime Norway, and the attack immediately recalled the country’s worst peacetime slaughter a decade ago, when a right-wing domestic extremist killed 77 people with a bomb, a rifle and a pistol.

“The screaming was so intense and horrifying there was never any doubt something very serious was going on,” said Kongsberg resident Kurt Einar Voldseth, who had returned home from an errand when he heard the commotion Wednesday. “I can only describe it as a ‘death scream,’ and it burned into my mind.”

Voldseth said he recognized the attacker, saying he lived nearby and “usually walks with his head down and headphones on.”

“I have only spoken to him a few times, but I have had the impression he might be a person with problems,” he said.

During an initial hearing Friday, a court in Kongsberg ordered Andersen Braathen held in custody for four weeks, including two weeks in isolation, and banned him from communicating with others.

“Reference is made to the extremely serious nature of the case, which has also led to great media interest both nationally and internationally. If the accused is not shielded from this and from other prisoners, important evidence could be lost,” the ruling read.

He was being held on five counts of preliminary murder and at least three counts of preliminary attempted murder. Preliminary charges are a step short of formal charges, and a terror-related charge could be brought later if the evidence supports it, Omholt said.

Andersen Braathen didn’t appear in court. His defense lawyer, Fredrik Neumann, told Norwegian news agency NTB he had no comments, saying of his client: “He has agreed to imprisonment, so then this really speaks for itself.”

Police described him Thursday as a Muslim convert and said that there “earlier had been worries of the man having been radicalized.” But neither police nor the domestic intelligence service elaborated or said why they flagged Andersen Braathen or what they did with the information.

According to Norwegian media, Andersen Braathen has a conviction for burglary and drug possession, and a court granted a restraining order for him to stay away from his parents for six months after he allegedly threatened to kill one of them.

Later Friday, a somber-looking Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norway’s new prime minister who took office Thursday, laid a bouquet in the sea of flowers, candles and cards being left on a central square in Kongsberg.

“We know Kongsberg as a safe town. But the unbelievable can also happen,” Gahr Stoere told the crowd. “We stand together when the crisis hits us.” He called the attack “brutal and meaningless.”

Gahr Stoere traveled to the picturesque town about 66 kilometers (41 miles) southwest of Oslo, with Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl.

Established in 1624 as a mining community after the discovery of silver in the area, it is where the Royal Norwegian Mint is based. For decades, the community had a weapons factory that initially produced guns, and now houses defense, aerospace and technology companies.

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS

Workers Are Striking and Quitting Over Pay and Conditions

Oct 14, 2021


Inside Edition

American businesses are struggling to keep workers from quitting. The massive departure of people from the workforce is adding up to what's being called “the great resignation.” Ten-thousand John Deere employees just went on strike, joining 1,400 Kellogg's workers. In California, 20,000 nurses voted to go on strike next week. Hollywood is also facing a strike of 60,000 entertainment workers. “There’s a lot of choice out there,” Li said, “Workers actually have more power than the companies."

   

10,000 workers strike against John Deere 

after the company shut down Georgia facility

  

John Deere workers on strike: ‘They can’t take our money’

Oct 14, 2021

ABC News’ Terry Moran reports on the ongoing strikes across America, with thousands of workers from John Deere, Warrior Met Coal, Kellogg and Kaiser Hospitals hitting the picket lines.

Thousands of U.S. workers go on strike at agricultural giant Deere

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Deere says strike will not impact its operations, which

 include several Canadian distribution centres

The Associated Press · Posted: Oct 14, 2021 

Wheels are attached as workers assemble a tractor at John Deere's Waterloo, Iowa, assembly plant in a 2019 file photo. The vast majority of United Auto Workers union members rejected a contract offer from Deere & Co. (Zach Boyden-Holmes/Telegraph Herald/The Associated Press)

More than 10,000 Deere & Co. workers went on strike Thursday, the first major walkout at the agricultural giant in more than three decades.

The union had said its members would walk off the job if no deal had been reached by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The vast majority of the union rejected a contract offer earlier this week that would have delivered five per cent raises to some workers and six per cent raises to others at the Illinois company known for its green tractors.

"The almost one million UAW retirees and active members stand in solidarity with the striking UAW members at John Deere," UAW president Ray Curry said.

Brad Morris, vice-president of labour relations for Deere, said in a statement that the company is "committed to a favourable outcome for our employees, our communities and everyone involved."

He said Deere wants an agreement that would improve the economic position of all employees.

"We will keep working day and night to understand our employees' priorities and resolve this strike, while also keeping our operations running for the benefit of all those we serve," Morris said.

• Farmers seeking 'right to repair' rules to fix their own tractors gain White House ally

• Biden announces 24/7 L.A. port operations to ease supply chain jams

The Deere production plants are important contributors to the economy, so local officials hope any strike will be short-lived.

"We definitely want to see our economy stabilize and grow after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," Moline Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati said to the Quad-Cities Times. "Hopefully, these parties can come to a resolution soon."

The strike is taking place in the middle of the corn and soybean harvest season, at a time when farmers are struggling to find parts for tractors and combines.

First strike at company in decades

The contracts under negotiation covered 14 Deere plants across the United States, including seven in Iowa, four in Illinois and one each in Kansas, Colorado and Georgia.

The contract talks at the Moline, Ill.-based company were unfolding as Deere is expecting to report record profits between $5.7 billion and $5.9 billion this year. The company has been reporting strong sales of its agricultural and construction equipment this year.

As a result of that performance, CEO John May's total compensation jumped last year to nearly $16 million, from $5 million the previous year, according to SEC filings.

Deere, which has about 27,500 employees in the United States and Canada, had earlier said its operations would continue as normal. The company's presence in Canada includes nine parts and distribution centres, according to the company's website.

Thirty-five years have passed since the last major Deere strike, but workers were emboldened to demand more this year after working long hours throughout the pandemic and because companies are facing worker shortages.

"Our members at John Deere strike for the ability to earn a decent living, retire with dignity and establish fair work rules," said Chuck Browning, vice-president and director of the UAW's Agricultural Implement Department. "We stay committed to bargaining until our members' goals are achieved."

Private sector strikes relatively rare

Chris Laursen, who works as a painter at Deere, told the Des Moines Register before the strike that it could make a significant difference.

"The whole nation's going to be watching us," Laursen said to the newspaper. "If we take a stand here for ourselves, our families, for basic human prosperity, it's going to make a difference for the whole manufacturing industry. Let's do it. Let's not be intimidated."

Earlier this year, another group of UAW-represented workers went on strike at a Volvo Trucks plant in Virginia and wound up with better pay and lower-cost health benefits after rejecting three tentative contract offers.

• Lingering global supply-chain challenges resulting in months-long wait for appliances

• Caterpillar lays off 120 workers as trade war hits sales

But overall just 6.3 per cent of American private sector workers belong to a union, compared to nearly 35 per cent of public sector workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the public sector number has remained relatively steady since 1980, the private sector number has plummeted from a rate of about 20 per cent four decades ago.

Before the pandemic hit, the same government agency noted an uptick in overall U.S. strike activity in 2018 and 2019, albeit from historic low levels of work stoppages during the 1990s and the first decade of this century.

#BOYCOTTISRAEL   #BDS   #FREEPALESTINE
Israel quietly advances settlements with little US pushback

In this Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012 file photo, a general view of Givat Hamatos area is seen in east Jerusalem. Israel is quietly advancing controversial settlement projects in and around Jerusalem while refraining from major announcements that could anger the Biden administration. Critics say Israel is paving the way for rapid growth when the political climate changes.

 (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)


JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is quietly advancing controversial settlement projects in and around Jerusalem without making major announcements that could anger the Biden administration. Critics say the latest moves, while incremental, pave the way for rapid growth once the political climate changes.

On Wednesday, as Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met with U.S. officials in Washington, a local planning committee in Jerusalem approved the expropriation of public land for the especially controversial Givat Hamatos settlement, which would largely cut the city off from Palestinian communities in the southern West Bank.

The same committee advanced plans for the construction of 470 homes in the existing east Jerusalem settlement of Pisgat Zeev. Authorities have scheduled a Dec. 6 hearing for another project in east Jerusalem to build 9,000 settler homes in the Atarot area, according to Ir Amim, an Israeli rights group that closely follows developments in the city.

A military body has meanwhile scheduled two meetings in the coming weeks to discuss a planned settlement of 3,400 homes on a barren hillside outside Jerusalem known as E1. Critics say it would largely bisect the occupied West Bank, making it impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel. A two-state solution is still seen internationally as the only realistic way to resolve the century-old conflict.

“The fact that simultaneously all of these very controversial plans that have been longstanding international red lines have now been advancing ... is very indicative that the Israeli government intends to advance and ultimately approve these plans,” said Amy Cohen of Ir Amim.

Jerusalem’s deputy mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum downplayed the latest developments, noting that Givat Hamatos was approved years ago. “Nothing’s changed over the last few years,” she said. “We are a city and we’re providing for our residents.”

Spokespeople from the defense and housing ministries, which are also involved in approving settlements, declined to comment.

Construction is already underway in Givat Hamatos, where tenders for more than 1,200 homes were announced last November. The other projects are still progressing through a long bureaucratic process, and it could be months or years before shovels break ground.

FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2020, file photo, a European Union official visits a construction site for Givat Hamatos settlement in Jerusalem. Israel is quietly advancing controversial settlement projects in and around Jerusalem while refraining from major announcements that could anger the Biden administration. Critics say Israel is paving the way for rapid growth when the political climate changes. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

But critics of the settlements say every step matters.

“The thing with those plans is that in order to make them come true you need to do the whole process,” said Hagit Ofran, of the Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now. “Every step on the way is in the control of the government... If they don’t act to stop it, then it happens.”

Every Israeli government since 1967 has expanded settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories Israel seized in the Mideast war that year which the Palestinians want for their future state. The Palestinians view the settlements — now housing some 700,000 settlers — as the main obstacle to peace, and most of the international community considers them illegal.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city to be its capital. It views the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people. But it has refrained from annexing the territory because of international pressure and because it is home to more than 2.5 million Palestinians, the absorption of whom could erode Israel’s Jewish majority.

U.S. presidents from both parties opposed the settlements until President Donald Trump broke with that tradition, proposing a Mideast plan in which Israel would keep all of them. The Trump era witnessed explosive growth in settlements, and Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, broke with precedent by visiting one last year. Pompeo, a possible Republican presidential hopeful in 2024, was back in Israel this week and paid another supportive visit to a settlement.

President Joe Biden’s administration has criticized settlement construction as an obstacle to eventually reviving the long-moribund peace process but has not demanded a freeze. In 2010, Israel announced a major settlement project during a visit by then-Vice President Biden, aggravating a diplomatic rift that festered throughout President Barack Obama’s presidency.

Biden, who as president is prioritizing other challenges like COVID-19, China and climate change, appears keen to avoid a showdown with Israel, a close U.S. ally.

“We have been clear publicly and in private about where we stand on settlement activity and on annexation,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday. “We oppose any unilateral steps that put a two-state solution further out reach.”

When asked whether that concern had grown recently, he said it had “remained constant.”

Israel’s political system is dominated by pro-settlement parties and its new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, is opposed to a Palestinian state. But he heads an unwieldy coalition of parties from across the political spectrum — some opposed to settlements — and appears to be seeking middle ground that would sideline the issue at home and abroad.

A senior Israeli official who participated in Lapid’s meetings in Washington said the discussions had focused primarily on Iran and Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbors but acknowledged that the Americans had raised the settlements issue.

However, the Palestinian issue was “not the dominant theme in the region” during the discussion, the official said. The official was not authorized to discuss the details of the private talks and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A State Department readout of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting with Lapid made no specific reference to settlements in the one sentence it devoted to the Palestinians.

With U.S. attention focused elsewhere, and the Palestinian leadership divided and increasingly unpopular, Israel faces few if any immediate consequences for expanding settlements.

But critics have long warned that the failure to create a viable Palestinian state will leave millions of Palestinians living under permanent Israeli rule without the same rights as Jews. Two well-known human rights groups say Israel has already become an apartheid state.

“These are all incremental steps in order to create a new reality on the ground, an irreparable reality,” Ir Amim’s Cohen said about the advancement of settlements. “You are foiling any prospect of a two-state framework.”

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Hungary’s ‘last’ Roma fortuneteller preserves traditions

Zoltan Sztojka, traditional Gypsy fortune-teller is seen in his home in Soltvadkert, central Hungary on Oct. 10, 2021. Sztojka, by his own account Hungary’s last Roma fortuneteller, is working to preserve his culture's traditions that are slowly vanishing in the Central European country. 

(AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

By JUSTIN SPIKE

SOLTVADKERT, Hungary (AP) — Zoltan Sztojka, by his own account Hungary’s last Roma fortuneteller, lays 36 weathered tarot cards on a table at his home in the village of Soltvadkert, and peers at them from beneath the brim of his large felt hat.

As he turns the cards with his heavily ringed fingers, he presents his clients — whom he calls “patients” — details of their past, present and future, a skill of divination he says he inherited from an “unbroken family lineage” of fortunetellers dating back to 1601.

“They were fortunetellers and seers,” he says of generations of his ancestors, who were “chosen by God” to practice the gift of fortunetelling.

Sztojka, 47, whom friends and locals call simply “Zoli with the hat,” uses cards and palm reading to divine information about his clients, a trade he has been practicing for 25 years. His skills at seeing the unseeable, he says, were apparent from childhood.

“You’re either born with it or you inherit it, but to say you can learn it is humbug,” he said while seated in a room filled with burning candles and religious icons, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

Sztojka is a member of Hungary’s large Roma minority, which some estimates place at as many as 1 million people in the Central European country — roughly 10% of its population. Present in virtually every country in Europe, many Roma face racism, segregation, social exclusion and poverty.

First migrating to Hungary in the 15th century, Roma were known historically for their skills as craftspeople and musicians. They long spoke their own language and maintained numerous dialects and customs related to their trades — metalworkers, horse grooms and traders, musicians and fortunetellers, among others.

But in the mid-18th century, Habsburg empress Maria Theresa ordered the forced assimilation of the Roma, outlawing their nomadic way of life and the use of their language, Romani.

Roma children were removed from their homes and placed with non-Roma families, while use of the Hungarian word for Roma — cigany — was also forbidden. They were dubbed “New Hungarians.”

This and other processes of marginalization means that most Roma in Hungary are no longer able to speak the Romani language, and many of their traditional trades — like fortunetelling — were lost, said Szilvia Szenasi, director of the Uccu Roma Informal Educational Foundation.

“Traditional occupations are very much on the wane,” Szenasi said. “It is important to preserve them for the next generation, because it is through them that the Roma people can live their own identity.”

Zoltan Sztojka, traditional Gypsy fortune-teller, is photographed in his home in Soltvadkert, central Hungary, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021. Sztojka, by his own account Hungary’s last Roma fortuneteller, is working to preserve his culture's traditions that are slowly vanishing in the Central European country. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

For Sztojka, preserving Roma culture goes beyond keeping the centuries-old art of fortunetelling alive. He dresses each day in brilliantly colored vests and shirts adorned with floral folk patterns, and wears a traditional long, dark moustache.

A devout Catholic, he only removes his wide-brimmed hat — a trademark of the Gabor Roma clan of Transylvania — when eating or attending church.

“It’s terribly important to preserve our culture and traditions, because if we don’t have a culture, then the Gypsy community will cease to exist,” he said. “I try to pass them on to many people so they can really get to know us, because all they know is that there are Gypsies, but they don’t know anything about us.”

While in several cultures the word Gypsy is considered an offensive term, Sztojka prefers using it to Roma.

He and his family belong to the Lovari subgroup of Roma people, and speak the Lovari dialect of Romani — something he says is “on the verge of extinction.”

“People don’t really want to speak the Gypsy language. Everyone assimilates as if suddenly they wanted to be Hungarian,” he said.

Along with his clairvoyance, Sztojka inherited his 150-year-old tarot cards from his great-great-grandmother, who herself was a fortuneteller in a time when the tradition was a much greater part of Roma identity.

Beatrix Kolompar, one of Sztojka’s relatives, said that her people’s traditions “can distinguish us as Gypsies, as Roma.”

“Since we don’t have a country of our own, we carry on the world we live in, the Roma way of life, through our traditions,” she said. “The dancing girls, the colorful dresses, the fortunetelling and the fortuneteller, it’s proof of who we are.”

But Szenasi, the director of the Uccu Foundation, says that preserving such traditions “requires cultural recognition, which is very lacking in Hungary.”

Without “institutional culture” such as museums and other cultural institutions, she said, “the traditions that the Gypsy people are doing are slowly becoming lost, and these values will unfortunately disappear.”

Sztojka says he has lost around half of his business during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that many of his “patients” are return visitors who are convinced of his clairvoyance.

Sztojka makes his living from fortunetelling, charging 15,000 Hungarian forints ($50) per session, although he says he doesn’t turn poor people away. But he also considers it “a mission” that spiritually enriches both him and his customers.

“To read cards is a total blessing for me. It’s how I can help my fellow human beings,” he said.

Despite the vanishing of his culture’s centuries-old way of life, “Zoli with the hat” says he will never give up on carrying forward the mystical trade of his ancestors.

“My parents didn’t assimilate, my grandparents didn’t assimilate, and I won’t either. If you have no past, you have no future,” Sztojka said.

“I believe that I was born a Gypsy, and I will die a Gypsy.”

Our automated cultural landscape: Netflix shapes who we are

David Beer, University of York


In this scene from the popular South Korean Netflix show "Squid Game," contestants try to etch out the shape of a very thin sugar candy called “dalgona.” Photo courtesy of Netflix

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Netflix's dystopian Korean drama Squid Game has become the streaming platform's biggest-ever series launch, with 111 million viewers watching at least two minutes of an episode.

Out of the thousands of programs available on Netflix globally, how did so many people end up watching the same show? The easy answer is an algorithm -- a computer program that offers us personalized recommendations on a platform based on our data and that of other users.

Streaming platforms like Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime have undoubtedly reshaped the way we consume media, primarily by massively increasing the film, music and TV available to viewers.

How do we cope with so many options? Services like Netflix use algorithms to guide our attention in certain directions, organizing content and keeping us active on the platform. As soon as we open the app the personalization processes begin.

Our cultural landscape is automated rather than simply being a product of our previous experiences, background and social circles. These algorithms don't just respond to our tastes, they also shape and influence them.

But focusing too much on the algorithm misses another important cultural transformation that has happened. To make all this content manageable, streaming platforms have introduced new ways of organizing culture for us. The categories used to label culture into genres have always been important, but they took on new forms and power with streaming.

Classifying our tastes

The possibilities of streaming have inspired a new "classificatory imagination." I coined this term to describe how viewing the world through genres, labels and categories helps shape our own identities and sense of place in the world.

While 50 years ago, you might have discovered a handful of music genres through friends or by going to the record shop, the advent of streaming has brought classification and genre to our media consumption on a grand scale. Spotify alone has over 5,000 music genres. Listeners also come up with their own genre labels when creating playlists. We are constantly fed new labels and categories as we consume music, films and television.

Thanks to these categories, our tastes can be more specific and eclectic, and our identities more fluid. These personalized recommendations and algorithms can also shape our tastes. My own personalized end-of-year review from Spotify told me that "chamber psych" -- a category I'd never heard of -- was my second-favorite genre. I found myself searching to find out what it was and to discover the artists attached to it.

These hyper-specific categories are created and stored in metadata -- the behind-the-scenes codes that support platforms like Spotify. They are the basis for personalized recommendations, and they help decide what we consume. If we think of Netflix as a vast archive of TV and film, the way it is organized through metadata decides what is discovered from within it.

On Netflix, the thousands of categories range from familiar film genres like horror, documentary and romance, to the hyper-specific "campy foreign movies from the 1970s."

While Squid Game is labeled with the genres "Korean, TV thrillers, drama" to the public, there are thousands of more specific categories in Netflix's metadata that are shaping our consumption. The personalized homepage uses algorithms to offer you certain genre categories, as well as specific shows. Because most of it is in the metadata, we may not be aware of what categories are being served to us.

Take Squid Game -- it might well be that the way to have a large launch is partly to do with the algorithmic promotion of widely watched content. Its success is an example of how algorithms can reinforce what is already popular. As on social media, once a trend starts to catch on, algorithms can direct even more attention toward it. Netflix categories do this too, telling us what programs are trending or popular in our local area.

Who is in control?

As everyday media consumers, we are still at the edge of what we understand about the workings and potential of these recommendation algorithms. We should also consider some of the potential consequences of the classificatory imagination.

The classification of culture could shut us out to certain categories or voices -- this can be limiting or even harmful, as is the case with how misinformation is spread on social media.

Our social connections are also profoundly shaped by the culture we consume, so these labels can ultimately affect who we interact with.

The positives are obvious -- personalized recommendations from Netflix and Spotify help us find exactly what we like in an incomprehensible number of options. The question is: Who decides what the labels are, what gets put into these boxes and, therefore, what we end up watching, listening to and reading?

David Beer is a professor of sociology at the University of York.

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

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

#MeToo, 4 years in: ‘I’d like to think now, we are believed’

By JOCELYN NOVECK and MARYCLAIRE DALE

today

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In this Nov. 1, 2017 file photo, participants march against sexual assault and harassment during the #MeToo March in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. At center is Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement. According to a 2021 The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, just over half of Americans - 54% - say they personally are more likely to speak out if they're a victim of sexual misconduct. 

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — To Charlotte Bennett, the new book that arrived at her Manhattan apartment this week — Anita Hill’s “Believing” — was more than just a look at gender violence.

It was a dispatch from a fellow member of a very specific sisterhood — women who have come forward to describe misconduct they suffered at the hands of powerful men.

Bennett’s story of harassment by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo helped lead to his resignation after an investigation found he’d harassed at least 11 women. And 30 years ago this month, Hill testified before a skeptical Senate Judiciary Committee that Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her.

“I can’t imagine what it was like doing that in 1991,” said Bennett, 26. “I’ve thought about that a lot.”

Hill’s history obviously predates the #MeToo movement, the broad social reckoning against sexual misconduct that reaches its four-year mark this week. But Bennett’s moment is very much a part of it, and she believes #MeToo is largely responsible for a fundamental change in the landscape since 1991, when Hill came forward.



“I’d like to think that now, we are believed,” Bennett said in an interview. “That the difference is, we are not convincing our audience that something happened and trying to persuade them that it impacted us. I would really like to think we’re in a place now where it’s not about believability — and that we don’t have to apologize.”

But for Bennett, a former health policy aide in the Cuomo administration, what emboldened her to come forward — and bolster the claims of an earlier accuser — was also the feeling that she was part of a community of survivors who had each other’s back.

“I was really scared to come forward,” Bennett said. “But something that reassured me even in that moment of fear was that there were women before me … (it wasn’t) Charlotte versus the governor, but a movement, moving forward. And I am one small event and one small piece of reckoning with sexual misconduct, in workplaces and elsewhere.”

There’s evidence Bennett is not alone in feeling a shift. Four years after actor Alyssa Milano sent her viral tweet asking those who’d been harassed or assaulted to share stories or just reply “Me too,” following the stunning revelations about mogul Harvey Weinstein, most Americans think the movement has inspired more people to speak out about misconduct, according to a new poll.

About half of Americans — 54% — say they personally are more likely to speak out if they’re a victim of sexual misconduct, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. And slightly more, 58%, say they would speak out if they witnessed it.

Sixty-two percent of women said they are more likely to speak out if they are a victim of sexual misconduct as a result of recent attention to the issue, compared to 44% of men. Women also are more likely than men to say they would speak out if they are a witness, 63% vs 53%.

AP-NORC poll

Sonia Montoya, 65, of Albuquerque, used to take the sexist chatter in stride at the truck repair shop where she’s worked as the office manager — the only woman — for 17 years. But as news broke in 2016 about the crude way presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke about women, she realized she’d had enough. She demanded respect, prompting changes from her colleagues that stuck as the #MeToo movement took hold.

“It used to be brutal, the way people talked (at work). It was raw,” said Montoya, a poll participant who describes herself as an independent voter and political moderate. “Ever since this movement and awareness has come out, the guys are a lot more respectful and they think twice before they say certain things.”

Justin Horton, a 20-year-old EMT in Colorado Springs who attends a local community college, said he saw attitudes start to change as the #MeToo movement exploded during his senior year of high school.

He thinks it’s now easier for men like him to treat women with respect, despite a culture that too often objectifies them. And he hopes people realize that men can be sexually harassed as well.

“I feel like it’s had a lasting impact,” he said. “I feel like people have been more self-aware.”

Close to half of Americans say the recent attention to sexual misconduct has had a positive impact on the country overall — roughly twice the number that say it’s been negative, 45% vs. 24%, the poll shows. As recently as January 2020, Americans were roughly split over the impact of the movement on the country.

Still, there are signs the impact has been unequal, with fewer Americans seeing positive change for women of color than for women in general. That dovetails with frequent criticism that the #MeToo movement has been less inclusive of women of color.

“We haven’t moved nearly enough” in that area, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke told The Associated Press in an interview last month.

The AP-NORC Poll also showed generational differences: More Americans under 30 said they’re more likely to speak out if they are a victim, compared with older adults, 63% vs. 51%. And 67% of adults under 30 said they were they are more likely to speak out if they witness sexual misconduct, compared with 56% of those older.

There is a price for speaking out. Bennett said Cuomo, despite having resigned, is still not taking true responsibility for his actions, and so her struggle goes on.

“He’s still willing to try and discredit us,” she said. “And I am at a point where I’m exhausted. This has been a horrible experience.”

Bennett has said the 63-year-old Cuomo, among other comments, asked if her experience with sexual assault in college had affected her sex life, asked about her sexual relationships, and said he was comfortable dating women in their 20s. Cuomo denies making sexual advances and says his questions were an attempt to be friendly and sympathetic to her background as a survivor. He’s denied other women’s allegations of inappropriate touching, including an aide who accused him of groping her breast.

How is Bennett doing, two months after the resignation? She replies haltingly: “I’m doing OK. Every day is hard. It’s sad. It takes a piece of you a little bit. But ... I would make the same decision every single time. The reason I was in public service was to be a good citizen and give back and do the right thing and contribute. I didn’t see my role like this, but that’s what it turned into. And that’s OK. I’m proud of myself for coming forward, and I will get through it.”

She muses about where the country might be in three more decades.

“I think reflecting on Anita Hill’s experience is a great way to understand how long 30 years is,” she said.

“So what do I feel like the next big change will be? I think it’s just not apologizing for being inconvenient. I could sit here and apologize. But I want to get to a place … where we’re not apologizing, where it’s our job to come forward if we have the means and ability to do so.”

And the #MeToo movement, she said, should be not only a community, not only “a soft landing place” for women who come forward.

“It should it be where leaders come from,” Bennett said. “We know how institutions act. We know the underbelly of these institutions better than anyone. We have a lot of solutions to fix it and we should be at the table.

“It should be OUR table.”

___

Dale reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Hannah Fingerhut and Emily Swanson contributed to this report.

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,099 adults was conducted Sept. 23-27 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

Bolsonaro's veto of free feminine hygiene products sparks outcry

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT HE COULD NOT BE

AN EVEN BIGGER ASSHOLE 

Issued on: 15/10/2021 -

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, shown here in Brasilia on October 7, 2021, has ignited an outcry with his veto of a law to provide free sanitary products to millions of women EVARISTO SA AFP/File

Rio de Janeiro (AFP)

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of misogyny after his veto of a law that intended to make sanitary towels free for millions of women sparked an outcry.

Millions of poor Brazilian women have little or no access to feminine hygiene products during their periods.

The "#LivreParaMenstruar" (free to have my period) hashtag has been circulating for a week on social media while several celebrities have hit out at Bolsonaro's October 7 veto.

"Bolsonaro has shown all his misogyny with this veto," added Marilia Arraes, a leftwing legislator who was behind the bill.

"We cannot be silent, we're talking about the dignity of thousands of women."

She hopes to have the far-right leader's veto overturned in parliament.

"What century are we living in? Why do we have to fight for such obvious things? Once again us women have been disrespected. Menstrual poverty has been in our country for years," singer Preta Gil, the daughter of music icon Gilberto Gil, wrote on Instagram.

On Thursday night, Bolsonaro said on his weekly Facebook speech that he would have to "manage" to find the money for the initiative if his veto is overturned.

The bill aimed to benefit five million women, notably students from poor neighborhoods and prison inmates.

Bolsonaro claims the bill does not specify where the money would come from and that he would be forced to "take funds from the health or education budget" should it be passed.

"I'm not going to increase taxes or create a new one for this," he said.

According to the Girl Up NGO, created by the United Nations in 2010, a quarter of teenage girls have to miss several days of school a month due to "not being able to have their periods with dignity."

According to a UNICEF report, 713,000 Brazilian girls do not have toilets or showers in their homes and more than a quarter of a million do not have "access to necessary hygiene at school."

© 2021 AFP

Sheldon Whitehouse: Don't believe Justice Alito -- it's clear this Supreme Court was built by dark money

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Salon
October 14, 2021

Samuel Alito (screen capture)

Justice Samuel Alito wants desperately for us to believe that everything is just fine at the Supreme Court. Indeed, in his view the court is a victim.

Before an audience at Notre Dame on Sept. 30, Alito denounced "unprecedented efforts to intimidate the court." He aimed his outrage at the media, at leading legal academics, and at people like me who are concerned about, as he put it, the Supreme Court "deciding important issues in a novel, secretive, improper way in the middle of the night, hidden from public view."

The problem for Justice Alito's sense of grievance is that the evidence supports our concerns. Alito has participated in a pattern of decisions — like the court's recent "shadow docket" ruling suspending abortion rights in our second-biggest state — that deliver wins for big Republican donors. Americans' perception that the court lacks independence, and the court's related drop in approval, doesn't flow from some left-wing conspiracy. It's a recognition that the evidence shows a pattern whenever certain interests come before the court.

How strong a pattern? During Chief Justice John Roberts' tenure, the Court has issued more than 80 partisan decisions, by either a 5-4 or 6-3 vote, involving big interests important to Republican Party major donors. Republican-appointed justices have handed wins to the donor interests in every single case. The decisions greenlit rampant voter suppression and bulk gerrymandering (Shelby County v. Holder and Husted v. Randolph Institute); closed courthouse doors to workers wronged by their employers (Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis); unleashed floods of dark money to corrupt our politics and foul our democracy (Citizens United v. FEC and Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta); and more. Eighty to zero is a pattern so strong that it could serve as compelling evidence in a trial alleging bias and discrimination.

This pattern did not just happen. It is the fruit of a half-century-long operation by right-wing donors to win through the Supreme Court what they can't win through elected branches of government. In 1971, a corporate attorney from Virginia named Lewis Powell wrote a memo for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce laying out a game plan for corporations and right-wing ideologues to use "an activist-minded Supreme Court" as an "instrument for social, economic, and political change." (Within months, Powell himself would be appointed by Richard Nixon to the court to advance the plan from within. His memo was never disclosed to the Senate.)

Powerful interests have a long, sordid history of "regulatory capture." Volumes have been written on that history. For big donors, turning the techniques of regulatory capture to the Supreme Court was a short leap. Of course it can't be obvious, so the court-capture operation would obscure its influence using front groups and anonymous secret funding.

The Federalist Society emerged as gatekeeper, monitoring Republican-appointed judges for allegiance to right-wing donor interests, while accepting gobs of anonymous donations. The Judicial Crisis Network and its offshoots sprang up as political attack dogs in the confirmation fights for Federalist Society-approved judges, funded by anonymous donations as big as $17 million. Other front groups groomed convenient plaintiffs to manufacture controversies to give the selected justices cases that would generate precedent favorable to donor interests. Secretly-funded groups also began to lobby the court in orchestrated flotillas — through so-called "friend of the court" briefs — signaling which cases are important to donor interests and advising judges which way the donors want them to rule. They have a perfect winning record.

All of this required boatloads of anonymous money; what people who study this clandestine activity call "dark money." The Washington Post has exposed how the right-wing donor network spent upwards of $250 million in dark money on its judicial influence operation; testimony before my Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee has since upped that dark money figure to $400 million. Because the funding is covert, we do not know exactly who contributed that money or what interests they have before the court. But rarely do people spend $400 million for no reward.

The success of this operation is undeniable. And it is not legal conservatism at work. To reach the desired results, Republican justices often abandon the principles and doctrines of legal conservatism, like textualism and originalism. Take last term's Americans for Prosperity Foundation decision, which created sweeping First Amendment protections for the funders behind dark-money political groups, like the Koch-backed plaintiff in the case. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out in her dissent, the "decision discards decades of First Amendment jurisprudence" to produce a novel, activist creation in the law: constitutional protection for dark money. Good luck finding support for massive dark-money, special-interest spending in the debates at the Constitutional Convention.

Perhaps Justice Alito is so touchy because his fingerprints are all over this pattern of Republican judicial activism. Consider his decades-long judicial campaign against public sector unions, a prime political target of major Federalist Society donors like the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. In a series of cases over a few short years (Knox v. SEIU Local 100, Harris v. Quinn, and Janus v. AFSCME), Alito invited successive challenges to a bedrock 40-year-old precedent protecting unions. Anti-labor front groups with financial ties to the Federalist Society and Bradley Foundation eagerly rushed cases to the court tailored to that invitation, and Alito delivered new First Amendment rights to strike the precedent and gut the unions. Textualist or originalist principles were nowhere to be found in his opinion.

If Alito and the Republican majority on the Supreme Court want the public to believe the court is not a secretive political "cabal" (his word) doing the bidding of big donors who helped put them there, they should deal with the evidence. Explain the 80-0 donor win record. Disclose who's behind the dark-money briefs. Stop the special-interest fast lane around the "case or controversy" requirement. Report gifts and hospitality — not worse than the other branches of government do, but better. Take precedent seriously when it doesn't suit you, not just when it does. Ditto recusal. Put yourself under a code of ethics, like every other federal judge. And understand that you have fouled your nest, not us, and that the Supreme Court must now at least match every other political institution with a renaissance of transparency. Democracy demands it. And the Court That Dark Money Built has squandered the benefit of the doubt.

Experts: Meals given to the poor often score low on healthy eating scale


Free meals, and those obtained with federal assistance, often have lower-than-average nutritional levels, according to a new study. Photo by Derrick Brutel/Flickr

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Accessing healthy, nutritious food remains challenging for people living in poverty in the United States, even among those who receive meals at work or school, experts said Friday.

Meals obtained by adults during free food programs offered through their work had an average score between 38 and 43 points on the 100-point Healthy Eating Index scale, the data from a study published this week by PLOS One showed.

Similarly, free meals obtained by children during school had average Healthy Eating Index scores that ranged between 38 and 50 points, the researchers said.

On average, people age 2 and older in the United States have diets scoring 57 points on the Healthy Eating Scale, a measure of dietary quality, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

RELATED  CDC: Schools aren't doing enough to teach kids about nutrition

The 100-point Healthy Eating Index was established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, in 2010.

Scores were slightly higher for free meals obtained by children living in poverty who received SNAP benefits -- roughly 50, on average -- compared to 48 for those who did not receive these federal subsidies, according to the researchers.

However, for adults, the Healthy Eating Index scores for free meals actually were lower for SNAP beneficiaries, at about 38 on average, than those who were covered under SNAP, at 43, they said.

"A lot of food in the American diet is acquired for free, like free lunch at school and free food at work," study co-author Aviva Musicus told UPI in an email.

"One way for people to make healthier choices is for the institutions that provide free food to improve the nutritional quality of the foods they offer," said Musicus, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

The findings of the analysis suggest that free meal programs offered by schools and employers need to be regulated with "strong nutrition standards" to improve their "health profile, which can in turn improve overall dietary quality for American families," she said.

About 38 million people in the United States, about 50% of whom are children, receive SNAP benefits -- monthly funds to pay for groceries -- according to the USDA.

Most of the free meals offered to children in schools are provided through the National School Lunch Program, which is also administered through the USDA and provides free and reduced-price lunches to more than 30 million children daily, Musicus and her colleagues said.

Roughly half of National School Lunch Program participants also live in households that receive SNAP benefits, they said.

Meals provided through the program are required to adhere to strict nutrition standards based on the USDA's Dietary Guidelines for Americans, agency officials said.

"School meals are vital to the health and well-being of our nation's children," a spokesman at the USDA told UPI in an email.

"USDA's school meals programs provide critical nutrition to millions of children every school day, and updated program standards have had a positive and significant influence on nutritional quality over the last decade," the spokesman said.

Most workplaces nationally do not have standardized nutrition requirements, and few nutritional standards govern food offered in institutional settings, Musicus and her colleagues said.

She and her team evaluated the nutritional quality of both free and "non-free" meals accessed by people with household incomes below 185% of the federal poverty level -- $26,500 for a family of four -- and compared them with those living above that threshold.

The study period covered 2019 and 2020, with the latter year seeing many schools and businesses closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers said.

During the study period, about 30% of meals obtained by SNAP recipients were acquired through free food programs, compared with 22% for non-SNAP beneficiaries with incomes less than 185% of the federal poverty level, about $49,000 annual income for a family of four, the data showed.

Health Eating Index scores were higher for non-free meals obtained by non-SNAP recipients with incomes higher than that threshold -- about 51 for children at school and 44 for adults at work -- than for free meals acquired by those living below the federal poverty level, the researchers said.

This was true whether or not those living below the federal poverty level received SNAP benefits, they said.

In addition, the Healthy Eating Index scores for non-free meals obtained by SNAP recipients, likely with funds through the program remained lower -- 44 for children, 37 for adults -- than the national average, the data showed.

"We live in a food environment in which the healthy choices are not typically the easy, affordable, most convenient ones and not the ones most often promoted," Lorrene Ritchie, director of the Nutrition Policy Institute at the University of California, told UPI in an email.

"While low-income individuals tend to have lower diet quality than those in more advantageous circumstances, Americans across the board have 'failing' scores," said Ritchie, who was not part of the PLOS One study.

Florida man who caught gator in trash can removes snake from house

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- A Florida man who went viral for using a trash can to catch an alligator shared video of his latest animal encounter when a large snake invaded his home.

Eugene Bozzi, who uses the alias Abdul Gene Malik online, posted a video to Instagram showing him carrying a long snake at arm's length outside his Mount Dora home



Bozzi said the snake had found its way inside his home, and he returned it to its habitat outside.

Bozzi previously made headlines when a video went viral showing him using a trash can to catch an alligator wandering through his neighborhood.

Florida man captures alligator in garbage bin

Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A Florida man who spotted an alligator wandering through his neighborhood was caught on camera capturing the reptile in a garbage bin.

Abdul Gene Malik, a U.S. Army veteran, posted a video to Instagram showing how he captured the alligator in his Mount Dora neighborhood.



The video shows Malik asking onlookers to tell him when the alligator's head was safely inside the trash bin he slid horizontally on the ground to ensnare the hissing gator.

Malik was able to get the alligator into the bin and flip it upright, trapping the reptile inside.

"I got kids to protect," Malik wrote in the Instagram post.

Malik said he contacted the proper authorities to come remove the gator from his garbage bin.