RACIST ANTI-ASIAN BIAS
Saule Omarova: Biden bank regulator nominee withdraws after Republicans smear her as a communist

IF SHE WERE UKRAINIAN (WHITE) THEY WOULD EMBRACE HER AS AN ANTISOVIET
Eric Garcia
Tue, December 7, 2021

Saule Omarova, President Biden’s nominee for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (REUTERS)

President Joe Biden’s nominee for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency withdraw her nomination amid constant Republican attacks that she was a communist, despite fleeing the former Soviet Union.

“I deeply value President Biden’s trust in my abilities and remain firmly committed to the Administration’s vision of a prosperous, inclusive, and just future for our country,” she said in her letter withdrawing her name. “At this point in the process, however, it is no longer tenable for me to continue as a Presidential nominee.”

Saule Omarova was born in Kazakhstan and came to the United States after the USSR communist government collapsed to earn a PhD from the University of Wisconsin. Mr Biden hailed her history and background.

“I nominated Saule because of her deep expertise in financial regulation and her long-standing, respected career in the private sector, the public sector, and as a leading academic in the field,” he said. “She has lived the American dream, escaping her birthplace in the former Soviet Union and immigrating to America, where she went on to serve in the Treasury Department under President George W. Bush and now works as a professor at Cornell Law School.”

But she faced heavy criticism from Republican senators. At one point, Sen John Kennedy of Louisiana asked her about her past affiliation with the Komsomol, a state-mandated organisation, during her childhood.

“Senator, I was born and grew up in the Soviet Union … everybody was a member … that was a part of normal progress in school,” she said. Later, Mr Kennedy said “I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”

In response, Ms Omarova pushed back.

“Senator, I’m not a communist. I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born…my family suffered under the communist regime. I grew up without knowing half of my family, my grandmother twice escaped death under the Stalinist regime,” she said at the time.

Mr Biden alluded to those smears in his statement defending her.

“But unfortunately, from the very beginning of her nomination, Saule was subjected to inappropriate personal attacks that were far beyond the pale,” he said.

Wife-turned-critic of Peru ex-president dies


Peru's former first lady Susana Higuchi had been hospitalized for a month before her death from cancer (AFP/FIDEL CARRILLO)


Wed, December 8, 2021

Peru's former first lady Susana Higuchi -- wife-turned-critic of ex-president Alberto Fujimori and mother of opposition leader Keiko Fujimori -- died Wednesday of cancer, her family said on Twitter.

Higuchi, the daughter of Japanese immigrants, was 71 years old and had been hospitalized in Lima for a month.

"After a hard battle with cancer, our mother Susana Higuchi has departed to meet God," tweeted daughter Keiko, who has run, and lost, three presidential races.

An engineer by training, Higuchi had four children with Alberto Fujimori, whose campaign she financed in 1990 when he was an unknown and unable to raise money for his ultimately successful presidential run against the favored candidate, the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa.

The pair divorced, and Higuchi accused her ex-husband of domestic violence and corruption, becoming a vocal critic of his regime from the opposition benches.

In 1994, while still first lady, Higuchi told reporters that she had been held hostage and tortured by her husband. They divorced that year, and Keiko Fujimori -- then only 19 -- became Peru's first lady.

Higuchi said she was tortured after denouncing relatives of Alberto Fujimori for allegedly selling Japanese donations meant for poor people.

In 1994, she tried to challenge Fujimori for the presidency, but he passed a law preventing close relatives from succeeding him.

She had a five-year career until 2006 as a popular member of an anti-Fujimori party in congress, causing a deep rift in the family.

Reconciled, she endorsed two of her daughter's three presidential runs, in 2016 and 2021.

"She was surrounded by the love of us, her children, and her grandchildren until the last moment," tweeted Keiko Fujimori, who had in the past dismissed her mother's claims as "myths."

Alberto Fujimori, 83, is in hospital under police protection for a heart condition.

He has been serving a 25-year prison sentence since 2007 for corruption and crimes against humanity during his 10-year term.

ljc/mlr/dw

Justice Dept. still probing civil rights era police killings
By JAY REEVES


This undated photo shows Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old black Chicago boy, who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in 1955 after he allegedly whistled at a white woman in Mississippi. The U.S. Justice Department told relatives of Emmett Till on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021 that it is ending its investigation into the 1955 lynching of the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman in Mississippi. (AP Photo, File)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Justice Department’s decision to close its investigation of Emmett Till’s slaying all but ended the possibility of new charges in the teen’s death 66 years ago, yet agents are still probing as many as 20 other civil rights cold cases, including the police killings of 13 Black men in three Southern states decades ago.

The department is reviewing the killings of six men shot by police during a racial rebellion in Augusta, Georgia, in 1970, according to the agency’s latest report to Congress. The city best known for hosting golf’s Masters Tournament had been engulfed by riots after a Black teenager was beaten to death in the county jail.

The agency also is investigating the killings of seven other Black men involved in student protests in South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana during the societal upheaval of the late 1960s and early ’70s. And investigators are looking at cases in which seven more individuals were killed, including a girl in Pennsylvania, the report showed.

Suspects were already tried and acquitted in some of these killings, making prosecution on the same charges all but impossible. Fading memories, lost evidence and the death of potential witnesses almost always pose problems in the quest for justice in decades-old cases.

Still, in Georgia, a leader of a group formed to tell the story of the “Augusta Six” — John Bennett, Sammie L. McCullough, Charlie Mack Murphy, James Stokes, Mack Wilson and William Wright Jr. — hopes some type of justice will prevail for the victims’ families, even if it’s not a criminal conviction.

“With the Justice Department’s stamp on it, even a statement that the killings were wrongful would help even if there’s no prosecutions. I think that would be very helpful for the community,” said John Hayes of the 1970 Augusta Riot Observance Committee.

The Justice Department said Monday it had ended its investigation into the 1955 lynching of Till, the Black teenager from Chicago who was tortured, killed and thrown in a river in Mississippi after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman at a rural store. Two white men who were acquitted by all-white juries later confessed to the killing in a paid magazine interview, but both are dead and officials said no new charges were possible.


This file photo shows two black people killed in the "Orangeburg Massacre" at the edge of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, S.C., on Thursday, Feb. 8, 1968. The killings are among the cases under review by the Justice Department's Cold Case Initiative, according to the agency's latest report to Congress. (AP Photo/File)

The bullet-riddled windows of Alexander Hall, a women's dormitory at Jackson State College in Jackson, Miss., are shown after two African-American students were killed and 12 injured when police opened fire on the building claiming they were fired upon by snipers, May 15, 1970. The killings are among the cases under review by the Justice Department's Cold Case Initiative, according to the agency's latest report to Congress. (AP Photo/File)

The Justice Department Cold Case Initiative began in 2006 and was formalized the following year under a law named for Till, whose slaying came to illustrate the depth and brutality of racial hatred in the Jim Crow South. Initially created to investigate other unresolved cases of the civil rights era, it was later expanded to include more recent cases, including killings that occurred in cities and on college campuses during demonstrations against the Vietnam War and racism.

In Augusta, as many as 3,000 people were estimated to have participated in protests and rioting that followed the death of 16-year-old Charles Oatman, who was beaten to death while being held in the jail. Frustration over his death and years of complaints over racial inequity erupted in unrest that left an estimated $1 million in damage across a wide area.

Once the gunfire ended early on May 12, 1970, six Black men were dead from shots fired by police, authorities said. Two white officers were charged, one with killing John Stokes and the other with wounding another person, but both were acquitted by all- or mostly white juries.

Families are still grieving, Hayes said, but the killings generally aren’t discussed much in Augusta.

“There’s a lot of trauma there and things people don’t want to bring up,” said Hayes, whose group is in contact with relatives of half the victims.

The other police shootings under review were sparked by campus demonstrations amid simmering resentment over mistreatment of Black people.

Three men were killed on Feb. 8, 1968, during protests to desegregate a bowling alley near South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Nine state police officers were acquitted in what came to be known as the “Orangeburg Massacre,” and a campus sports arena now honors the three victims, Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton and Henry Smith.

Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green were killed by police during a student demonstration at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi, on May 15, 1970, and Leonard Brown and Denver Smith were gunned down during a protest at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Nov. 16, 1972. No one was ever prosecuted for the killings in Jackson or Baton Rouge.

The seven other cases still under review by the Justice Department span the years 1959 through 1970 and involve individuals. The victims include 9-year-old Donna Reason, killed on May 18, 1970, when someone threw a Molotov cocktail into the home of her mixed-race family in Chester, Pennsylvania. No one was ever arrested.

___

Reeves is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team.

Senate Republicans try to block Biden vaccine mandate


Senators John Barrasso and Mike Braun talk ahead of a news conference about Covid-19 vaccine mandates on December 8, 2021 (AFP/Drew Angerer)

Wed, December 8, 2021,

The US Senate was expected to vote Wednesday to block President Joe Biden's vaccine-or-test mandate for large private employers, in a symbolic win for conservatives that will have little tangible effect.

The Republican-led vote -- planned for the evening -- is expected to pass with the backing of two Democrats, but has worse prospects in the House of Representatives, where it may only have support from the right.

Under Biden's plan, all companies with more than 100 workers will have to require their employees be immunized or undergo weekly testing from January 4.

The Senate pushback is being led by Indiana's Mike Braun, who told reporters that threatening Americans' jobs if they refuse on both counts "is the heavy hand of government."

Wyoming's John Barrasso, the chairman of the Senate Republicans, accused Biden, who is not a doctor, of "medical malpractice."

Numerous states run by both Democrats and Republicans already require hundreds of thousands of their citizens to be vaccinated against a variety of diseases, and none of these mandates is controversial.

Most cover childhood immunizations, which have been a feature of American society since the 19th century, but there are mandates covering adults, too.

New York requires all workers in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities to be immunized against measles and rubella while Rhode Island requires child care workers to be immunized against a variety of common childhood diseases, and the flu.

Several states have vaccination mandates for college students and all 50 require school children to get shots for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, measles, rubella and chickenpox.

Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer likened the Republicans to flat-earth theorists and accused those who have sought out vaccine shots for themselves of hypocrisy.

"The biggest thing standing between us and the end of the pandemic is Americans who have refused to get vaccinated," he said.

All three major Biden vaccine policies for people not employed by the federal government -- the mandates for contractors, certain health care workers and employees of larger companies -- face legal challenges and are currently on ice.

ft/dw

GUNRUNNER TO THE WORLD

House passes $770B National Defense Authorization Act

House lawmakers on Tuesday voted to approve a $770 billion Pentagon spending bill including changes to how the military prosecutes sexual assault cases and orders a review of the Afghanistan war. 

Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The House on Tuesday passed the National Defense Authorization Act, moving the must-pass measure one step closer to becoming law.

The bill, which authorizes nearly $770 billion in funding for the Department of Defense passed by a vote of 363-70 with 169 Democrats and 194 Republicans voting in favor of the measure while 51 Democrats and 19 Republicans were opposed.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., withheld her vote.

The version of the bill passed by the House includes changes to how sexual assault and harassment are handled within the military, directs an independent review of the Afghanistan war and authorizes a 2.7% pay increase for military service members and Pentagon civilian employees.

In regards to foreign policy, the measure includes a "statement of policy on Taiwan," directs President Joe Biden to develop a classified "Grand Strategy with Respect to China" and authorizes the president to appoint a senior official to lead a "whole-of-government" effort to address "anomalous health incident" commonly referred to as "Havana Syndrome."

The annual spending bill, usually seen as a bipartisan effort, was crafted behind closed doors by the heads of the House and Senate armed services committees.

It faced opposition from House Democrats who said it lacked key provisions to alter the military's culture to provide more equity for women and people of color.

"It is an unconscionable failure to deliver a National Defense Authorization Act that does not meet the values of equity and justice for which we have long strived or a bill that does not meaningfully protect the foundations of our democracy," Rep. Anthony G. Brown, D-Md., wrote in a letter urging fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus to oppose the bill.

The bill now moves to the Senate where it is expected to pass after Republicans on the chamber last week blocked the measure demanding more time to debate amendments, before heading to Biden's desk for his signature.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

Cochlear implants linked to new bone growth, may hurt hearing, study says

By Amy Norton, HealthDay News

Cochlear implants may contribute to greater hearing loss over time, according to a new study finding that many patients had developed new bone growth and worse hearing in the years after an implant. Photo by Engin_Akyurt/Pixabay

People who get cochlear implants to treat severe hearing loss may develop new bone growth in the ear -- and it may lessen any hearing they have left, a new study hints.

The researchers found that among 100-plus adults with cochlear implants, two-thirds showed evidence of new bone formation near the implant within four years.

And of patients who still had some hearing when they received the implant, those with new bone growth showed more hearing loss over time.

However, no one with a cochlear implant should be alarmed by the findings, stressed researcher Dr. Floris Heutink, of Radboud University Medical Center, in the Netherlands.

RELATED Cochlear implants improve hearing in older adults, with no side effects

"Cochlear implantation allows most candidates to tremendously improve speech perception compared to their hearing situation (before), despite the possible presence of new bone formation," Heutink said.

Cochlear implants are small electronic devices that send sound signals from the environment directly to the ear's auditory nerve, bypassing damaged portions of the ear.

They can provide some sense of sound to people who are deaf or severely hard-of-hearing -- typically enough to help them understand speech.

The implant has an external portion that sits behind the ear and picks up sounds with a microphone. Those signals are sent to a receiver implanted under skin, and then transmitted to tiny electrodes implanted in the cochlea -- a part of the inner ear.

It's already known that in people who have some hearing ability left, cochlear implants can sometimes diminish that "residual" hearing.

Studies have also shown that the implanted electrodes can spur inflammation that may lead to fibrosis, or tissue growth, including new bone formation.

RELATED Study: 1 in 4 children with common hearing condition receives treatment

But, Heutink said, it has not been clear exactly when that bone growth happens, or if it's related to any residual hearing loss.

In this study, Heutink's team was able to spot new bone growth using high-resolution CT scans, and correlate it with diminishing hearing in the ear with the implant.

None of that, however, means people with cochlear implants should be getting CT scans, said Dr. Maura Cosetti, who directs the cochlear implant program at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, in New York City.

For one, there's no clear way to use that CT scan information. Various factors can contribute to residual hearing loss, Cosetti noted, and it's not yet known how new bone formation fits in -- or what to do about it.

People with cochlear implants already regularly have their hearing and quality of life assessed -- and that's what they should continue to do, said Cosetti, who was not involved in the study.

The findings were published Tuesday in the journal Radiology.

They're based on 123 patients, average age 63, who received cochlear implants at Radboud. The patients underwent CT scans about four years later, on average.

At that point, 68% showed signs of new bone growth near at least one implanted electrode, the study found.

There were 24 patients who still had some hearing ability when they received the implant. In that group, those with new bone formation showed more residual hearing loss in the implanted ear, the researchers reported.

Overall, 48% had preserved their level of hearing, versus almost 79% of those with no signs of new bone growth in the ear.

The study received funding from Med-El, an Austrian cochlear implant maker that is developing a version with electrodes that contain the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone. The idea is to reduce inflammation and tissue damage that can happen post-implantation.

But for now, Heutink said, more research is needed to better understand how new bone growth might affect cochlear implant patients' hearing -- and whether somehow preventing that tissue formation has benefits.

Cosetti said there is growing interest in whether and how residual hearing might be preserved in people with cochlear implants.

Traditionally, she noted, the implants were reserved for people with profound deafness. But an increasing number of people with some residual hearing are receiving them, too.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders has more on cochlear implants.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

1. The Difference In Interpretation of The Words "May" and Shall
   https://lawgic.info/difference-interpretation-words-may-shall-law-india

   2016-05-05 · 10. To reiterate the words “may” and “shall” are distinct in meaning. While one confers a discretionary power, the latter one pelts out mandatory directions. These words are not synonymous but may 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Firm once owned by 'pharma bro' to pay $40M in price-gouging settlement


Former Vyera Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli is seen outside federal court during a fraud trial on August 3, 2017, in New York City.

File Photo by Dennis Van Tine/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 8 (UPI) -- A company once owned by hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli, a young investor who became known as "pharma bro," has agreed to pay $40 million to settle charges that it ran up the cost for a potentially life-saving medication after acquiring the rights to it.

The Federal Trade Commission said Vyera Pharmaceuticals agreed to the deal to settle price-gouging charges.

Under Shkreli, the company hiked the price of Daraprim in 2015 from $17.50 to $750 per tablet, an increase of 4,000%.

Shkreli, who faces antitrust charges for the scheme, was found to have created a "web of anti-competitive restrictions" meant to delay the production of generic versions of the drug. His trial is set to begin on Dec. 14.

Under the settlement, Vyera and Phoenixus are required to pay $10 million immediately and $30 million over ten years. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

In 2018, Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison on federal charges of wire and securities fraud. He was banned from any role in the pharmaceutical industry for seven years.

Tuesday's order in New York, California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia names Shkreli, associate Kevin Mulleady, Vyera Pharmaceuticals and parent company Phoenixus AG.

Mulleady will be banned from the drug industry and subject to a fine of $250,000 if he violates the order.

Under the settlement, Vyera and Phoenixus are required to pay $10 million immediately and $30 million over ten years. They also must make Daraprim available to any generic competitor at list price.

World's top manga One Piece publishes milestone 100th volume

 

Eiichiro Oda’s manga A PLAY (published by Shueisha Inc.) took a significant step forward by releasing its 100th volume, 24 years after it was first published in 1997.

Netherlands ready to pay 150 mn euros for Rembrandt painting

The Dutch government said Wednesday it would contribute 150 million euros ($170 million) to bring a Rembrandt self-portrait set to be sold by the Rothschild family back to the Netherlands.

Restorers discover hidden sketch in Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch'


Around 30 experts worked on the canvas for two and a half years using cutting-edge imaging techniques and computer technology (AFP/Herman WOUTERS)

Charlotte VAN OUWERKERK
Wed, December 8, 2021

A sketch that has lain hidden for centuries under the thick layers of paint Rembrandt applied to create "The Night Watch" offers new insight into the Dutch master's creative process, museum officials said Wednesday.

Hailing a "breakthrough" in the understanding of Rembrandt's most famous work, Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits told reporters: "We always suspected Rembrandt must have made a sketch on the canvas before embarking on this incredibly complex composition, but we didn’t have the evidence."

The sketch reveals that the artist initially planned to paint feathers on one militiaman's helmet, and that he decided against including a sword that he had drawn between the two main figures.


"On the sketch, the feathers are clearly visible, on the painting not," said Pieter Roelofs, the Amsterdam museum's head of paintings. "

"Why did Rembrandt change his mind? ... We don't know," he said. "But probably he removed the feathers because they drew too much attention as Van Cruijsbergen (the militiaman) is in the centre of the painting."

Around 30 experts have been working on the 1642 masterpiece for two and a half years using cutting-edge imaging techniques and computer technology.

At Wednesday's news conference, the Rijksmuseum unveiled the findings of a first phase of the project aimed at understanding the artist's technique as well as restoring the massive work to its original brilliance.

"It is fascinating to see Rembrandt searching for the right composition" of the work, which is 3.8 metres high and 4.5 metres wide (12.5 x 14.8 feet) and weighs 337 kilos (740 pounds), Dibbits said. "We have discovered the genesis of 'The Night Watch'."

- Historic restoration -

Rembrandt van Rijn painted "The Night Watch" in 1642 after a commission by Frans Banninck Cocq, the mayor and leader of Amsterdam's civic guard, to depict the officers and other members of the militia.

Since the project kicked off in July 2019, millions of visitors have been able to observe the historic restoration work in real time at the Rijksmuseum, where it is protected by a glass casing in the centre of the museum's main gallery.

The painting has suffered many travails over the centuries.

In 1715, large chunks of the work were sliced off the edges so that it could fit into a new venue.

Thanks to a reconstruction based on a small 17th-century copy, the missing sections were restored to the work using artificial intelligence earlier this year.

The painting was stabbed by a man with a knife in 1911, was hidden in a bunker when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands, then was slashed by another knifeman in 1975 and sprayed with acid in 1990.

The current multi-million-euro "Operation Night Watch" is the most extensive research and restoration project to tackle the masterpiece.

In the next phase, which kicks off on January 19, experts will study deformations in the painting's upper left corner.

They will also decide whether to carry out a complete or partial restoration.

"In many areas the paint is still in an excellent state," the museum said in a press release, adding that other areas "are in poor repair... It is more than likely.. that the removal of varnish in the past led to the dissolving of paint at some locations."

Roelofs told the news conference: "The condition of the painting is what you would expect from an almost 400-year-old painting, but nowhere does the condition set alarm bells off."

Meanwhile, also on Wednesday the Dutch government said it would contribute 150 million euros ($170 million) to bring a Rembrandt self-portrait set to be sold by the Rothschild family back to the Netherlands.

Paris had said Tuesday that it would allow a sale on the open market even though the 1636 work titled "The Standard-Bearer" and valued at 165 million euros is classed as a "national treasure" in France.

If the Dutch parliament approves the 150 million euros of public cash, the Rembrandt Association would add 15 million euros to the pot and the Rijksmuseum would fund 10 million.

cvo/gd/tgb

 

World Aids Day

 

"The children are the one paying the highest price to this pandemic" Dr Landry Dongmo Tsague, Senior HIV/AIDS specialist at the UNICEF Regional Office for Western and Central Africa