CANADA
Green Party's Annamie Paul survives emergency meeting over leadership
David Thurton CBC

© Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press Green Party leader Annamie Paul survived an emergency meeting on her leadership Tuesday night. But the party's federal council adopted a separate motion asking Paul to publicly "repudiate" one of Paul's former senior advisors

The leadership of the Green Party's Annamie Paul is safe— for now — after party brass decided late Tuesday not to kickstart a process that could have ultimately ousted her as leader of the party.

The party's federal council – which is the governing body of the party – held an emergency meeting Tuesday night that lasted more than three-and-a-half hours. Officials were expected to hold a vote on whether to trigger a complex process under the party's constitution which could've declared no-confidence in Paul's leadership.

That vote did not end up taking place, multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting told CBC News.

Instead, sources say, the federal council adopted a separate motion asking Paul to publicly "repudiate" one of Paul's former senior advisors, Noah Zatzman, who accused many politicians — including unspecified Green MPs — of discrimination and anti-Semitism in a social media post last month.

The motion also calls for Paul to "explicitly support" the Green Party caucus. If not, the motion says, Paul would face a vote of non-confidence on July 20.

Tuesday night's decision follows a difficult few weeks for the party, which has been ripped apart by internal disputes over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As violence in the region escalated, Paul issued a statement calling for a ceasefire and condemning both Palestinian rocket attacks and excessive Israeli military force, an apparent attempt to put forward a moderate position close to that of the Trudeau government.

© Guy LeBlanc/Radio-Canada Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin announced on Thursday that she is leaving the federal Green Party to sit as a Liberal.

Green MP Jenica Atwin — who has since left the Green caucus to join the Liberals — ripped into Paul's statement on Twitter. "It is a totally inadequate statement," Atwin wrote. "Forced evictions must end. I stand with Palestine and condemn the unthinkable air strikes in Gaza. End Apartheid."

 (SHE HAS RECANTED AND SINCE BECOME PRO ISRAEL AS PER THE LIBERAL PARTY POLICY)

Green MP Paul Manly also took issue with Paul's statement, saying the planned removal of Palestinian families from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah "is ethnic cleansing."

Zatzman responded with a Facebook post stating that Greens "will work to defeat you and bring in progressive climate champions who are antifa and pro LGBT and pro indigenous sovereignty and Zionists!!!!!"

Zatzman is no longer an adviser to the leader. His six-month contract, slated to expire on July 4 and obtained by The Canadian Press, stipulates that the party will pay Zatzman a fee for time worked beyond 100 hours per month.

CBC News has reached out to the Green Party, Paul and Zatzman for comment following Tuesday's meeting.

Separately, two party executives recently announced they would step down early. One of them was John Kidder, a vice-president on the party's governing body and husband to MP and former leader Elizabeth May.

When Atwin announced last week that she was crossing the floor to join the Liberals, she said there were too many "distractions" in the Green Party and she wanted to work in a more "supportive and collaborative" environment.

In a media statement, May and B.C. Green MP Manly said they were "heartbroken" by Atwin's decision — and that Zatzman was to blame.

"Unfortunately, the attack against Ms. Atwin by the Green Party leader's chief spokesperson on May 14th created the conditions that led to this crisis," the two said. The MPs added that, while they were frustrated, they have "no intention of leaving the Green Party of Canada."

Speaking to reporters after Atwin's announcement, Paul said she was blindsided by her departure and only learned about it from media reports.

Paul said that while the party supports cross-party cooperation and rejects excessive partisanship, she said there are "significant differences" between the Green and Liberal parties and called Atwin's floor-crossing a "disappointment."

Paul said a byelection should be called in Fredericton because voters there chose to elect a Green MP in the 2019 campaign.

She said she doesn't believe the internal squabbling over Israel was what pushed Atwin to switch sides. She said she understands Atwin was in talks with the Liberals for "numerous weeks" before the internal debate over Middle East issues flared up.

China says nuclear fuel rods damaged, no radiation leak

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese nuclear power plant near Hong Kong had five broken fuel rods in a reactor but no radioactivity leaked, the government said Wednesday in its first confirmation of the incident that prompted concern over the facility’s safety.

Radiation rose inside the No. 1 reactor of the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong province but was contained by barriers that functioned as planned, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on its social media account.

The Hong Kong government said it was watching the plant and asking officials in Guangdong for details after its French co-owner on Monday reported increased “noble gases” in the reactor. Experts said that suggested fuel rods broke and leaked radioactive gas produced during nuclear fission.

Noble gases such as xenon and krypton are byproducts of fission along with particles of cesium, strontium and other radioactive elements.

“There is no problem of radioactive leakage to the environment,” the ministry statement said. It said radiation in the reactor coolant increased but was within the “allowable range."

The protective envelope on about five of the reactor’s 60,000 fuel rods is damaged, the ministry said. It said such damage was inevitable due to manufacturing and other problems and was well below the level the facility was designed to cope with.

The ministry said regulators would oversee measures to control radiation levels within the reactor but gave no details.

The Taishan plant, which began commercial operation in December 2018, is owned by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group and Electricite de France. A second reactor began operating in September 2019.

They are the first of a new type called European Pressurized Reactors designed by Framatome, of which Electricite de France is the majority owner. Two more are being built in Finland and France.

The ministry denied a report by CNN that regulators increased the level of radiation allowed outside the power plant to avoid shutting it down. The ministry said regulators reviewed a report about higher radiation levels in the reactor.

China is one of the biggest users of nuclear power and is building more reactors at a time when few other governments plan new facilities because the cost of solar, wind and other alternatives is plunging.

Chinese leaders see nuclear power as a way to reduce air pollution and demand for imports of oil and gas, which they deem a security risk.

China has 50 operable reactors and is building 18 more, according to the World Nuclear Association, an industry group. China has constructed reactors based on French, U.S., Russian and Canadian technology. State-owned companies also have developed their own reactor, the Hualong One, and are marketing it abroad.

Hong Kong gets as much as one-third of its power from the Daya Bay nuclear power plant east of the territory in Guangdong. Plans call for Hong Kong to use more mainland nuclear power to allow the closure of coal-fired power plants.

Previously, the Taishan facility leaked a “small amount” of radioactive gas on April 9, the National Nuclear Safety Administration said on its website. It said the event was “Level 0,” or “without safety significance.”

Joe Mcdonald, The Associated Press

Adele shares message to mark fourth anniversary of Grenfell Tower disaster

KEIRAN SOUTHERN, PA

15 June 2021, 




Adele paid tribute to survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire as she marked the fourth anniversary of the disaster.

The chart-topping singer recorded a video message for the Grenfell United campaign group and called for the official inquiry into the blaze to be hastened along.

Adele, 33, said there are “so many unanswered questions” surrounding the tragedy and “no-one has been held accountable for that night’s events”.

A total of 72 people died in the west London blaze, which happened four years ago on Monday.

Adele added: “Grenfell United is still out here, fighting tirelessly for the justice and for the change that not only they deserve, that their community deserve, but that the whole country deserves.

“For that, I’d like to thank you. Thank you for putting your pain aside for all of these years to fight the fight. I can’t imagine the kind of personal consequences that has on you.

“I really hope that this time next year, you will have the answers that you need to finally, finally be able to breathe together. I love you. I’ll see you soon. Stay strong. We’re all with you.”

Adele, who is from Tottenham, north London, visited Grenfell shortly after the fire and has frequently shared messages of support for survivors.

UK urged to intervene in Belarus crisis over ‘human rights violations’

BRONWEN WEATHERBY, PA

15 June 2021

The UK has been urged to use its “power” as a nation to strengthen sanctions placed on the Belarusian president and his regime amid ongoing concerns about human rights violations taking place in the country.

The leader of the Belarusian opposition Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya addressed the Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday afternoon as part of a one-off evidence gathering session on the current crisis.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya told the session: “This is the moment countries need to unite to put pressure on the regime.”

Members of the Belarusian community protest (Niall Carson/PA)

Two other panels of expert witnesses were invited to speak alongside Ms Tsikhanouskaya about what can be done stop the authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko and his Russian backers and to help create a democratic state.

The committee’s findings will be used to make recommendations to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

Mr Lukashenko, who was elected to power in 1994, won re-election for a sixth time in 2020 with 80% of the vote, in a ballot deemed “neither free nor fair” by the European Union. The “fraudulent elections” sparked mass protest.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya said: “Last summer, people showed the regime it was ready to see the end of a dictatorship. After the fraudulent elections people went onto the streets to protest against stolen votes. The regime answered with cruelty, brutality and torture.

“Since August more than 35,000 people have been detained, there are hundreds of political prisoners. These detentions continue, and there are around 1,000 more every month.

“People are scared now, no one feels safe, and people have to consider if they are kidnapped what will happen to their children or elderly parents. And the borders are closed too so there’s no escape.

“But people are not giving up and they are continuing to fight. And while the demonstrations have stopped, they are using other ways to continue the uprising.”

Ms Tsikhanouskaya said workers have launched a labour movement ready for a national strike, and disaffected members of law enforcement still on the inside of the regime are providing information to the opposition.

Volunteers are also continuing the effort by holding small rallies and travelling to remote areas without internet connection and to see elderly citizens to show them “the reality” of the situation.

Mr Lukashenko has been placed under renewed scrutiny since May this year after a commercial Ryanair Flight to Belarus was redirected and grounded “on the basis of a false bomb scare” in order to arrest journalist and critic of the regime Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend.

Asked about her thoughts on the kidnapping, Ms Tsikhanouskaya said: “I was shocked, I couldn’t believe he created an international crisis over a matter of personal revenge. It was a really big mistake, and shows he was acting more out of emotion than strategically.

“We believe it was an example of the impunity he felt. No sanctions had been put in place since December and he felt he could cross this red line.”

Ryanair owner Michael O’Leary gave evidence to the Transport Select Committee on Tuesday morning, calling the diversion of one of his airline’s flights a “premeditated breach of all the international aviation rules”.

However, the aviation mogul said the continued ban on flying over Belarus would not be beneficial for the industry or its customers in the “long-term” and urged international authorities to work towards getting “appropriate assurances from the Belarusian and/or Russian authorities that this will never happen again”.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya thanked the UK Government for what it had done so far in supporting sanctions against Mr Lukashenko, and doubling financial support to human rights and community groups in Belarus – but said sanctions must now extend to individuals, including judges and prosecutors, as well as on businesses and oligarchs who financially support the regime.

She called on UK officials to keep Belarus on the international agenda and to take the lead in investigating the Government, also urging countries to prevent Mr Lukashenko in abusing Interpol to have dissenters extradited back to Belarus.

Others who joined in the conversation included Professor Philippe Sands QC, professor of public understanding of law at University College London, who highlighted the “serious violence” taking place in Belarusian prisoner camps.

Victoria Fedorova, head of NGO Legal Initiative, said that without any recourse for justice inside Belarus legal proceedings and sanctions started by other nations are their only hope.

Astronomers map motion in galaxies spanning hundreds of millions of light-years

Shane McGlaun - Jun 15, 2021,

A group of scientists comprised of astronomers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), with help from scientists in China and Estonia, have mapped the motion of galaxies via huge filaments that connect the cosmic web. Researchers have found that these long tendrils of galaxies spin on a scale spending hundreds of millions of light-years. The rotation is said to be on enormous scales never before seen.

Cosmic filaments are massive bridges made of galaxies and dark matter that connect clusters of galaxies. The filaments funnel galaxies towards and into large clusters that sit at the end of the filaments. These filaments are described as a type of cosmic superhighway, and astronomers have mapped the motion of galaxies in those filaments using the Sloan Digital Sky survey.

The Sloan Digital Sky survey is a survey of hundreds of thousands of galaxies. Using Sloan data, scientists were able to determine a new and interesting property of the filaments; that property is that the filaments spin. According to astronomer Peng Wang, despite being thin cylinders similar to pencils that span hundreds of millions of light-years, the filaments are only a few million light-years in diameter.

The massive tendrils of matter rotate and have such massive scale that the galaxies inside them are like specks of dust. The tendrils move like a helix or in corkscrew-like orbits circling around the middle of the filament while traveling along it. Spins of this type have never been seen on such massive scales, and the implication is that there must be an unknown physical mechanism responsible for creating torque on these objects.

Exactly how the angular momentum responsible for the rotation is generated is one of the key unsolved mysteries of cosmology. According to the standard model of structure formation, small overdensities in the early universe grew via gravitational instability as matter flowed from under to overdense regions. This type of potential flow is irrotational or curl-free. Researchers say there is no primordial rotation in the early universe.

That means any rotation present in the universe must be generated as structures form. Cosmic webs in general and filaments specifically are intimately connected with galaxy formation and evolution. These filaments also have a significant impact on galaxy spin, often regulating the direction of how galaxies and their associated dark matter halos rotate. However, the astronomers admit it’s unknown if the current understanding of structure formation predicts the filaments themselves should spin.

 

Police deployed at South Korea THAAD base as U.S. seeks upgrades

By Elizabeth Shim

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense base in Seongju, South Korea, has become the site of frequent clashes between protesters and police. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

June 15 (UPI) -- South Korea's military continues to deliver materials and equipment to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense base in Seongju, as the United States aims to enhance interoperability of Patriot and THAAD systems on the peninsula.

Seoul made deliveries six times in May and multiple times in June. The military made its fourth delivery of the month to the THAAD site early Tuesday, News 1 reported.

Supplies began to arrive at the location at about 6 a.m. but local protesters may have attempted to block the vehicles from entry. More than 50 people also held a sit-in at a nearby village hall, according to Newsis.

Police began to force the group to disband at about 6:50 a.m., with more than 1,000 officers deployed to the area. The vehicles were able to enter the base about 7:30 a.m., News 1 said

The Soseong-ri All-Source Situation Room, an anti-THAAD group, said that police have been mobilized about twice a week to "secure a regular overland transportation route" for the military.

Activists who claim the THAAD base is illegal clashed with police. No injuries were reported.

"The more police there are, the more severe the human rights violations at Soseong-ri," activists said, according to Newsis. "As long as police enable illegal construction at the THAAD base, [clashes] will inevitably continue at Soseong-ri."

The military said more than 20 vehicles were used to deliver essential supplies to soldiers and construction material.

Confrontations between police and protesters in South Korea come at a time when the U.S. military could be seeking to upgrade the THAAD base on the peninsula.

U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Lt. Gen. Daniel L. Karbler said Wednesday in a statement to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that "development efforts associated with U.S. Forces Korea" are designed to "improve Patriot and THAAD interoperability and bring a Patriot launch-on-remote capability ... in Fiscal Year 2021."

Karbler also said a new integrated capability that will leverage "THAAD's AN/TPY-2 radar together with the Patriot radar" will be "fielded this summer" with USFK.

South Korea's defense ministry previously said facility improvements were being made on the base.

Australia trade deal paves way for ‘climate-destructive deals’
By Rosie Greenaway
-June 15, 2021

Reacting to the news that Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison have agreed a free trade agreement (FTA) between the UK and Australia, the Soil Association (SA) says British farmers ‘justifiably feel betrayed’.

Johnson hails the FTA as marking ‘a new dawn in the UK’s relationship with Australia, underpinned by our shared history and common values’.

“Our new free-trade agreement opens fantastic opportunities for British businesses and consumers, as well as young people wanting the chance to work and live on the other side of the world.

“This is global Britain at its best – looking outwards and striking deals that deepen our alliances and help ensure every part of the country builds back better from the pandemic,” comments the UK’s PM.

But the news from Downing Street has been met with disappointment from some quarters. Liz Bowles, associate director of the SA, says: “Barely 24 hours after pledging more ambitious climate action through the G7 group, the UK has agreed a trade deal that threatens to offshore our climate impact and exacerbate the ecological emergency.

“Australian farmers are permitted to use growth hormones, prohibited pesticides, battery cages and sow stalls, and they are responsible for far more antibiotic use than producers in the UK. What happened to the Conservative manifesto pledge that there will be no compromise on our environmental, animal welfare and food standards?

“This deal has been agreed without adequate Parliamentary oversight or public scrutiny, and could pave the way for low standard, climate-destructive deals with other nations such as the United States and Brazil. The government’s promise of a cap on tariff-free imports for 15 years, plus tariff rate quotas and other safeguards, will offer scant reassurance to farmers who justifiably feel betrayed.”

Ikea fined over spying campaign in France

NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY15 June 2021, 7:55 am



A French court has ordered home furnishings giant Ikea to pay some 1.1 million euros (£946,600) in fines and damages over a campaign to spy on union representatives, employees and some unhappy customers in France.

Two former Ikea France executives were convicted and fined over the scheme and given suspended prison sentences.

Among the other 13 defendants in the high-profile trial, some were acquitted and others given suspended sentences.

The panel of judges at the Versailles court found that between 2009 and 2012, Ikea’s French subsidiary used espionage to sift out trouble-makers in the employee ranks and to profile squabbling customers.

Ikea France was convicted of receiving personal data obtained through fraudulent means in a habitual way, and ordered to pay one million euros in fines and about 100,000 euros in damages.

Ingka Group, which owns and operates most Ikea stores, noted in a statement after the verdicts that the French retail operation “has strongly condemned the practices, apologised and implemented a major action plan to prevent this from happening again.”

“We will now review the court’s decision in detail and consider if and where any additional measures are necessary,” the group said.

Trade unions accused Ikea France of collecting personal data by fraudulent means, notably via illegally obtained police files, and illicitly disclosing personal information.

Lawyers for Ikea France denied that the company had any strategy of “generalised espionage”.

A lawyer for the unions, Solene Debarre, expressed hope that the verdict would “make some companies tremble”, adding: “One million euros isn’t much for Ikea, but it’s a symbol.”

The company, which said it cooperated in the investigation, had faced a potential financial penalty of up to 3.75 million euros.

Prosecutor Pamela Tabardel asked the court to hand “an exemplary sentence and a strong message to all companies”.

The executive who was in charge of risk management at the time of the spying, Jean-Francois Paris, acknowledged to French judges that 530,000 to 630,000 euros a year were earmarked for such investigations.

Paris — the only official to have admitted to the alleged illegal sleuthing — said his department was responsible for handling the operation on orders from former Ikea France CEO Jean-Louis Baillot.

Paris was convicted of fraudulently gathering personal data, fined 10,000 euros (£8,600) and given an 18-month suspended sentence.

Baillot, who denied ordering up a spy operation, was convicted of receiving fraudulently collected data and complicity in the scheme.

He was fined 50,000 euros (£43,000) and given a two-year suspended sentence.

Another former CEO of Ikea France was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Ikea France’s lawyer, Emmanuel Daoud, said the company had not decided whether to appeal.

He said the case was marked by a lack of hard evidence and holes, and noted that the fines were well below the maximum possible.

“The court took into account the action plan that Ikea put in place after the revelation of the facts, in 2012. That’s very satisfying,” Mr Daoud said.

The company fired four executives and changed internal policy after French prosecutors opened a criminal probe in 2012.

Trade unions alleged that Ikea France paid to gain access to police files that had information about targeted individuals, particularly union activists and customers who

THIRD WORLD USA

How Detroit residents are building their own internet

Faced with a stark digital divide, Detroit community groups are mobilizing to build an internet network block by block

By Aaron Kalischer-Coggins | May 28, 2021

VIDEO

Detroit has historically been one of the least connected cities in America, with about 40 percent of Detroit residents lacking any home internet access at all. Things are changing, though, thanks in large part to projects like the Equitable Internet Initiative (EII), a collaboration between the Detroit Community Technology Project and a network of community organizations.

EII has an ambitious goal: to strengthen neighborhoods by building low-cost, high-speed internet for the underserved communities of Detroit, to increase digital literacy, and to train residents to be “digital stewards.” And against all odds, they are succeeding.

Over the past six years, EII has built and maintained an impressive internet network across large swaths of Detroit, training digital stewards from the community to set up and install wireless access points, fiber hookups and hotspots, and educating residents on how to safely and effectively use the internet.

The onslaught of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns around the country exacerbated an issue that has been pervasive for decades: the digital divide. As many Americans logged into Zoom to conduct business, chat with their family and watch Netflix, millions of others were offline and disconnected, struggling to find information about COVID-19, schedule vaccine appointments and apply for unemployment. This is the digital divide: the gap between those who have digital connectivity, and those who do not. This disparity is especially pronounced in communities of color, as well as low income communities.

According to Nyasia Valdez, network manager for Grace in Action in Southwest Detroit, one issue behind the digital divide in Detroit is affordability for residents. “In some areas of Southwest, there is only one internet provider, versus in other areas where there are three or four. So if their only option is $100 a month, then that’s what they have to pay.”

The areas that the Equitable Internet Initiative serves are predominantly communities of color, and the digital stewards that EII train and employ come from these communities. “It’s easier to make a community member a technician than a technician a community member,” according to digital steward Shiva Shahmir.

The stewards help install and maintain EII’s high speed network, which is wireless, point-to-point and provides a 25mbps up and down speed. It utilizes donated connections from 123Net, an enterprise ISP, who beams a gigabit connection from the top of the Renaissance Center, the highest point in Detroit, to the three anchor organization partners: Grace in Action, Church of the Messiah, and North End Woodward Community Coalition. From there, the stewards create wireless distribution networks to community hubs, and then to residential homes.

Now, EII is working on resilience plans for the future. First are solar charging stations, which are set up around Detroit and provide free, high speed internet access, as well as device-charging.

EII is also creating portable network kits, which are battery-powered cases that provide wireless signal to a four block radius, and can be used in situations where there is a network outage.

Finally, EII is developing an intranet, a system for communicating offline and solely via their network. This allows people to communicate privately and offline. “Law enforcement agencies are often asking me, can they become a part of our network,” says the Rev. Wally Gilbert, project manager for EII. “I say no, we guarantee the users of our network privacy, we don’t do any data collection. We want the community to feel safe communicating.”

“Access to information is like liberty. Whenever that is restricted or limited for the sake of capitalism, it’s so symbolic of oppression because people can’t make up their own minds,” says Shahmir. “When they don’t have that information, can they really make the best decisions for themselves?”

Man-sized halibut reeled in in the North Sea

By Christian Spencer | June 11, 2021

VIDEO

Story at a glance:

A Scottish man bought a 169 pound, 6 foot long halibut caught in the North Sea for his fishmonger business.

Halibut off Alaska can weigh up to 500 pounds.

A 250 pound Alaskan halibut can lay 4 million eggs.

A Scottish fishmonger bought a halibut caught in the North Sea that was the size of an average man.


A Halibut is seen on the line of a fisherman on July 23, 2013 in Ilulissat, Greenland. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

With the help of four men, Campbell Mickel brought the nearly 170-pound, 6-foot-long fish into his store, the New York Post reported.

“It’s a beast and it wasn’t cheap that’s for sure,” Mickel said. “It was wrapped up after I bought it and shipped to me on two pallets.”

In the city of Edinburgh, Mickel has his own seafood market and sells fillets of fish to nearby restaurants.

“The hardest part was getting it into the shop window on display,” he said. “It took four men to get it up there, it’s not the easiest job in the world lifting the dead weight of 169 lbs. slimy fish. It dwarfed the other halibut next to it.”

“We have filleted it now and started delivering it to our restaurant customers around Edinburgh, so it’s fair to say halibut will be on the menu this week. Everyone is used to small halibut, a regular one weighs between 22-30 lbs., so this is really special,” he added.

While Mickel’s halibut is impressive, Alaskan halibut can grow to be 8 feet long and 5 feet wide, and weigh 500 pounds, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.

A 50-pound female halibut can produce about 500,000 eggs, and a 250-pound female can produce 4 million eggs.

“It’s fantastic news for our seas and oceans to see this size come out,” Mickel said. “I’m delighted to see that fish this size can still exist. It’s good news for the oceans and I’m looking forward to seeing more that have had the time to thrive and grow – as this one has.”

US Senate passes bill to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday

By Tanner Stening | tstening@masslive.com

The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a bill to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday, according The Hill.



Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years prior, has been celebrated by Black communities for years as the day slavery officially ended in the U.S.

The bill’s passage comes just days before the holiday is celebrated on June 19, and now awaits passage in the House.

Juneteenth became an officially recognized holiday in Massachusetts, thanks to an amendment added by State Rep. Bud L. Williams, of Springfield, and Maria Duaime Robinson, of Framingham, to a COVID-19 spending bill signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker last year.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the state’s first Black governor, in 2007 signed a proclamation to recognize Juneteenth as a day of observance. For the first time in Massachusetts, the historic day will be recognized as a state holiday this coming weekend.

Biden chooses tech critic Lina Khan to lead FTC

The move could signal a more progressive agenda for the Federal Trade Commission.

Abrar Al-Heeti

CNET
June 15, 2021 

Lina Khan was confirmed by the Senate to be commissioner of the FTC on Tuesday.

Getty Images

President Joe Biden selected big tech critic Lina Khan, a Democrat, to serve as chair of the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, the agency said. Her swearing in came soon after the Senate confirmed Khan in a 69-28 vote to be a commissioner of the FTC, according to CNBC.

"I look forward to working with my colleagues to protect the public from corporate abuse," Khan said in a statement.

Khan, 32, previously worked as an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School, and served as counsel to the US House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, helping in the investigation of digital markets related to Google, Apple and other big tech companies.

Tuesday's move could indicate Biden hopes the FTC takes on a more progressive agenda, CNBC notes. The president said in March he would nominate Khan to be an FTC commissioner.

Khan will take over for FTC Acting Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a Democrat. The FTC is comprised of five commissioners, of which no more than three can be from the same party. In her role, Khan will vote on enforcement issues involving competition and consumer protection.

Khan tweeted, "I'm so grateful to the Senate for my confirmation. Congress created the FTC to safeguard fair competition and protect consumers, workers, and honest businesses from unfair & deceptive practices. I look forward to upholding this mission with vigor and serving the American public."


First published on June 15, 2021 at 2:27 p.m. PT.

SHE BELIEVES IN GOD NOT EVOLUTION

Marjorie Taylor Greene leads conspiracy-heavy attack on Fauci

Alexander Nazaryan
·National Correspondent
Tue, June 15, 2021,

WASHINGTON — One after another, some of the most conservative members of the House of Representatives took to the stage at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to denounce Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top medical adviser to President Biden, and to air other pandemic-related grievances.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who was introducing a bill to reduce Fauci’s salary to $0 and have him account for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, led the attacks. The proposed legislation, called the Fire Fauci Act, stands no chance of passage in a House controlled by Democrats.

Nevertheless, the highly vituperative affair — replete with reminders that Fauci was an “unelected bureaucrat” — was indicative of how the bespectacled, Brooklyn-born immunologist continues to be at the center of every ongoing debate related to the coronavirus, including the economic costs of lockdowns (low, says a new study, though there are, of course, social and psychic costs to isolation) and the efficacy of wearing masks (exceptionally high, the discomfort of masking aside).

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Bitter recriminations over the handling of the pandemic continue to fill the national discourse, even as that pandemic ends. Conservatives believe that restrictions were onerous and unnecessary, while liberals and progressives have criticized former President Donald Trump’s response. Trump frequently undermined and threatened Fauci, eventually making Dr. Scott Atlas, a controversial Stanford-affiliated physician, his top coronavirus adviser.

Even as the pandemic ebbs in the United States, the attacks against Fauci have intensified. Critics have used his emails, released recently under a Freedom of Information Act request, to buttress their claims. Those show that he was uncertain about the efficacy of masks in the early stages of the pandemic. So were many others at a time early on when how the virus spread was poorly understood. One email Fauci received in January 2020 did raise the possibility of a lab escape, but there is no evidence he concealed critical information about the origins of the virus. Such information has been exceptionally difficult to come by for investigators outside China.

“Please cover his emails,” Greene said. “Get the truth out.” The emails were extensively covered by the Washington Post and other outlets, but conservatives who have been suspicious of Fauci and the scientific establishment from the start insist that the messages merit more investigation.

Taylor and her co-sponsors on the anti-Fauci bill (Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky; Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona; Mary Miller of Illinois; Buddy Carter of Georgia; Bob Good of Virginia; Matt Gaetz and Greg Steube of Florida; and Mo Brooks of Alabama) claim that Fauci knowingly funded research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that made the virus more lethal. Although that laboratory did receive National Institutes of Health funding through a New York-based organization called the EcoHealth Alliance, both Fauci and NIH Director Francis Collins have explicitly said that Chinese grant recipients were prevented from using U.S. funds for so-called gain-of-function research, which makes a pathogen either more transmissible or more potent to see how it might then behave.

Rep. Thomas Massie calls for the firing of Dr. Anthony Fauci at the Capitol on Tuesday. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Conservatives are unconvinced. Now that Fauci is associated with Biden, not Trump, their attacks are seemingly intended to imply that the new administration is incapable of holding China to account. Biden has, in fact, called for a more complete investigation of how the coronavirus originated.

“Were we all victims of a bioweapon?” wondered Greene, a onetime adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory who has also mused about “Jewish space lasers” and more recently dismissed evolution. She demanded “reparations” from the Chinese government, which has sought to distance itself from any responsibility for the origins of the virus, going so far as to call for investigations of bioweapons at American facilities. Yet scientists have become increasingly emboldened in arguing that the lab escape theory needs a harder look, with greater cooperation from China. The notion that China unleashed a bioweapon on the world, however, is not considered a credible hypothesis.

Trump was sometimes irritated with Fauci’s media appearances, and by the high degree of trustworthiness he was afforded by the public. Those grievances plainly persist. “Dr. Fauci leveraged his position as a leading figure in the White House to become a celebrity,” charged Rep. Biggs.

Greene and others spoke standing beside a placard that said: “Fauci lied. People died.” The words were accompanied by a photo of a masked Fauci, who is head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He has been in the federal government for 40 years and has served seven consecutive presidents, including Trump.

Firing him would be difficult, since Fauci is a senior public servant, not an appointed official. Nor are congressional Democrats, or the president, bound to take personnel advice from the most radical members of the opposition party, some of whom called into question Biden’s legitimate victory in last November’s election.

Dr. Anthony Fauci at a Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill on May 26. (Sarah Silbiger/Reuters)

Among the participants in Tuesday’s anti-Fauci fusillade was Rep. Brooks, who last week was sued by Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., for his alleged role in inciting pro-Trump rioters on Jan. 6. In response to a question from Yahoo News, Brooks angrily denied that the anti-China rhetoric on display Tuesday could be fueling attacks against Asian Americans. He noted that Chinese Americans “are not necessarily members of the Chinese Communist Party.”

The purpose of Tuesday’s rally was largely symbolic, more significant in what it says about how conservatives plan to litigate the pandemic in the coming months, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Even as life returns to normal in many parts of the country, there remain uncertainties about the upcoming school year, about how long white-collar workers will continue to work from home and just how much effort should go into investigating the origins of the coronavirus, not to mention how to prevent the next pandemic.

“Let’s not divide people with politics,” said Greene, who less than 24 hours earlier had called a press conference to apologize for having compared pandemic restrictions to the horrific treatment of Jews by Nazis during World War II. A skilled cultural warrior with little interest in seeking legislative solutions, Greene understands that the pandemic remains a motivating issue for both sides of the nation’s gaping political divide.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene holds a press conference outside the Capitol following a private visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Monday. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

Fauci has been living under heightened security for months. That is likely to continue as long as he remains at the center of conservatives’ ire. Last month the National Review ran a cover story on what it deemed “the unforced errors of America’s political doctor,” mockingly depicting him as a would-be saint. And the anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to release a book highly critical of Fauci in September. As of Monday evening, that book was among the bestselling on Amazon.

Republicans introduce bill to fire Fauci, face of US Covid response

US Republicans including congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (2ndL) introduced a measure that would remove pandemic expert Anthony Fauci from his government job

 JIM WATSON AFP
Issued on: 15/06/2021 - 

Washington (AFP)

Several Republican lawmakers, eager to blame a US government official for the response to the coronavirus pandemic, introduced a bill Tuesday to fire Anthony Fauci, the face of American efforts to combat Covid-19.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene led a handful of colleagues in announcing the so-called Fire Fauci Act, which would reduce the famed infectious disease expert's government salary to zero and require the Senate to confirm someone to fill his position.

Fauci, who has advised seven US presidents, had become a trusted figure in the government's Covid-19 response, beginning with his work during Donald Trump's administration.

But conservatives have taken aim at his performance, accusing him of misleading Americans and providing contradictory advice on masks and social distancing.

"Dr Fauci was not elected by the American people. He was not chosen to guide our economy. He was not chosen to rule over parents and their children's education," Greene told reporters.

"But yet Dr Fauci very much controlled our lives for the past year."

The bill is not expected to receive a floor vote in the Democratically-controlled House.

Greene, whose extremist statements have made her a controversial figure in Congress, pointed to a series of Fauci emails that Republicans seized on to argue that he misled Americans and initially dismissed the idea that Covid-19 may have originated in a Chinese laboratory.

"It's time to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci and give answers to the American people," she said.

The White House defended Fauci this month after the emails surfaced, calling him "an undeniable asset" in the pandemic response.

Greene also aimed a fiery accusation at China, voicing suspicion that a Wuhan laboratory was seeking to weaponize the virus.

"Why would there ever be viruses created, taken out of nature, that can be shared and passed among bats or other creatures, and then harnessed and changed into some sort of virus that can be spread among people? There's a word for that: it's called bioweapon," she said.

"Were we all victims of a bioweapon? We demand answers."

China also must be held accountable, she said, noting the Wuhan Institute of Virology's "gain-of-function" research, in which scientists increase the strength of a virus to better study its effects on hosts.

This week the Chinese scientist at the center of theories that the pandemic originated with a leak from her specialized Wuhan lab denied her institution was to blame for the health disaster.

"How on earth can I offer up evidence for something where there is no evidence?" Dr Shi Zhengli told The New York Times.

Another fire Fauci sponsor, congressman Mo Brooks, expressed support for Greene's bioweapons theory, saying a country would only make a virus more contagious for "militarization purposes."

Coronavirus was likely present in US from December 2019: study

Issued on: 15/06/2021 

A phlebotomist takes blood through a finger prick during a Covid-19 antibody test Frederic J. BROWN AFP

Washington (AFP)

A new antibody testing study published Tuesday has found further evidence that the coronavirus was present in the United States from at least December 2019, weeks before the first confirmed case was announced on January 21.

The National Institutes of Health study analyzed 24,000 stored blood samples contributed by volunteers across the country from January 2 to March 18, 2020.

Antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus were detected via two different serology tests in nine patient samples, according to the paper, which was published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The participants were outside the major hotspots of Seattle and New York City, thought to be the key entry points of the virus to the United States.

The first positive samples came from participants in Illinois and Massachusetts on January 7 and 8, 2020, respectively, suggesting that the virus was present in those states in late December.

"Antibody testing of blood samples helps us better understand the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the US in the early days of the US epidemic, when testing was restricted," said lead author Keri Althoff, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The research builds on a similar investigation published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last November that reached the same conclusion.

But since there are uncertainties surrounding serology testing, further confirmation builds extra confidence in the finding.

To help minimize the possibility of false positives, the team used two separate tests on each sample, searching for antibodies that bind to different parts of the virus.

The types of antibodies they were looking for are called Immunoglobulin G, or IgG, which "neutralize" the virus' ability to invade cells and do not appear until two weeks after a person has been infected.

It therefore follows that study participants with these samples were exposed to the virus at least several weeks earlier.

Limitations include that the number of samples taken from many states was low -- just a few dozen or hundred,

The authors also do not know whether the participants became infected during travel, or within their own communities, and would like to see their work confirmed in further study.

Finally, there is a possibility that the antibodies they detected were formed against infection to other coronaviruses, such as the four that cause common colds.

But since other research has shown that "cross-reactivity" between these coronaviruses is low, the team estimated that the probability all nine samples were false positives was one in 100,000.

The US death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 600,000 on Tuesday, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

THE UNDEAD PARTY

Algeria’s establishment FLN wins parliamentary poll

Issued on: 15/06/2021 

The president of the National Independent Elections Authority (ANIE), Mohamed Charfi, speaks during a press conference in Algiers on June 15, 2021. © Ryad Kramdi, AFP

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Algeria's National Liberation Front (FLN) party won weekend parliamentary elections with a significantly reduced number of seats and with the country's lowest ever turnout at 23 percent, the electoral board said Tuesday.

According to initial figures, the FLN, the North African country's single party for decades and the main component of the outgoing parliament, led with 105 out of 407 seats in Saturday's poll, the head of the National Independent Elections Authority (ANIE) said.

The result comes somewhat as a surprise, as the party had been considered moribund after the rule of ousted former autocrat Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

However, it would also indicate that the FLN has lost more than 50 seats and controls less than a quarter of the new assembly.

Independents were second with 78 seats while the moderate Islamist party Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), which had previously claimed its candidates were ahead in most regions, was third with 64, electoral commission chief Mohamed Chorfi said.

"The foundations of this parliament have been built in total freedom and transparency for the people," he added.

Democratic National Rally (RND), traditional ally of the FLN and also linked to Bouteflika's rule, was on 57 seats.

Only 5.6 million of more than 24 million eligible voters lodged a ballot at Saturday's polls -- a record low turnout of just 23.03 percent -- with more than a million invalid votes cast, the ANIE said in provisional figures.

The long-running Hirak protest movement which ousted Bouteflika from power had boycotted the vote, as with a constitutional referendum in November that gave additional powers to the presidency and the army.

(AFP)

FASCISTS PASS ANTI HUMAN RIGHTS LAW
Lawmakers in Hungary pass anti-LGBT law ahead of 2022 election

Issued on: 16/06/2021 - 

FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators protest against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the latest anti-LGBTQ law in Budapest, Hungary, June 14, 2021. © REUTERS/Marton Monus

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Hungary's parliament passed legislation on Tuesday that bans the dissemination of content in schools deemed to promote homosexuality and gender change, amid strong criticism from human rights groups and opposition parties.

Hardline nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who faces an election next year, has grown increasingly radical on social policy, railing against LGBT people and immigrants in his self-styled illiberal regime, which has deeply divided Hungarians.

His Fidesz party, which promotes a Christian-conservative agenda, tacked the proposal banning school talks on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues to a separate, widely backed bill that strictly penalises paedophilia, making it much harder for opponents to vote against it.

The move, which critics say wrongly conflates paedophilia with LGBT issues, triggered a mass rally outside parliament on Monday, while several rights groups have called on Fidesz to withdraw the bill.

Fidesz lawmakers overwhelmingly backed the legislation on Tuesday, while leftist opposition parties boycotted the vote.

Under amendments submitted to the bill last week, under-18s cannot be shown any content that encourages gender change or homosexuality. This also applies to advertisements. The law sets up a list of organisations allowed to provide education about sex in schools.

The U.S. Embassy in Budapest said it was "deeply concerned" by anti-LGBTQI+ aspects of the legislation.

"The United States stands for the idea that governments should promote freedom of expression and protect human rights, including the rights of members of the LGBTQI+ community," it said in a statement on its website.

Restrictions

Gay marriage is not recognised in Hungary and only heterosexual couples can legally adopt children. Orban's government has redefined marriage as the union between one man and one woman in the constitution, and limited gay adoption.

Critics have drawn a parallel between the new legislation and Russia's 2013 law that bans disseminating "propaganda on non-traditional sexual relations" among young Russians.

Poland's conservative ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), Fidesz's main ally in the European Union, has taken a similarly critical stance on LGBT issues. Budapest and Warsaw are at odds with the European Union over some of their conservative reforms.

The European Parliament's rapporteur on the situation in Hungary, Greens lawmaker Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, slammed the new law on Tuesday: "Using child protection as an excuse to target LGBTIQ people is damaging to all children in Hungary."

Orban has won three successive election landslides since 2010, but opposition parties have now combined forces for the first time and caught up with Fidesz in opinion polls.

Hungary passes ban on LGBTQ+ content in schools tied to child sex abuse law
By Sommer Brokaw

Protesters march to oppose LGBTQ+ related amendments to a national child sex abuse law at the parliament building in Budapest, Hungary, on Monday. The amendments include changes in sex education curricula in schools. Photo by Szilard Koszticsak/EPA-EFE


June 15 (UPI) -- Hungarian lawmakers on Tuesday passed a ban against certain LGBTQ+ content in schools through amendments that were made to a national child sex abuse law.

Hungarian Parliament voted to adopt the law that increases sentences for sex crimes and creates a public database of sex offenders. But it also includes late changes that restrict LGBTQ+ content for students under 18 in schools.

The law restricts education and advertising deemed to "popularize" homosexuality or gender identification outside of the that assigned at birth. It also restricts sexual education to teachers and organizations approved by the government.

The national assembly passed the law 157-1 after a plea from one of Europe's leading human rights officials to abandon it as "an affront" against the LGBTQ+ community.

"This is a dark day," Amnesty International Hungary Director David Vig said in a statement. "This new legislation will further stigmatize the [LGBTQ+] people and their allies. It will expose people already facing a hostile environment to even greater discrimination."

"Tagging these amendments to a bill that seeks to crack down on child abuse appears to be a deliberate attempt by the Hungarian government to conflate pedophilia with [LGBTQ+] people," he added.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is also president of the ruling Fidesz political party, has been accused of using the child abuse law to gain support in his conservative base ahead of elections next year and to shifhe focus away from other scandals.

The majority Fidesz-controlled Hungarian Parliament previously enacted legislation barring gay couples from adopting children.

WHACKADOODLE

Trump cited conspiracy theories to pressure DOJ to overturn 2020 election results, emails show

MICHAEL MCAULIFF AND DAVE GOLDINER NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
JUNE 15, 2021 

Former President Donald Trump repeatedly pressured the Justice Department to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, at one point urging prosecutors to file a Supreme Court lawsuit to nullify the election, according to new emails released Tuesday by the House Oversight Committee.

The emails from Trump and his aides during the last weeks of his presidency revealed bogus claims of fraud and conspiracy theories to win then-Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen’s support, prompting outrage from Rosen’s deputy.

“Pure insanity,” wrote then-Deputy AG Richard Donoghue, after receiving a YouTube link from Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows about a theory involving Italian spies.

Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., called the 232-page report a smoking gun that proves Trump wanted to block certification of Biden’s win — a campaign that eventually led to the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.

“Trump tried to corrupt our nation’s chief law enforcement agency in a brazen attempt to overturn an election that he lost,” said Maloney.

The emails cited debunked claims of voter fraud in various swing states and outlandish claims spouted by far right-wing conspiracy theorists that Italy used military satellites to switch votes to Biden.

Maloney said the new documents prove the necessity of forcing officials like Meadows, Rosen and former Attorney General Bill Barr to testify under oath about Trump’s and their own actions.

“Those who aided or witnessed President Trump’s unlawful actions must answer the committee’s questions about this attempted subversion of democracy,” the New York Democrat said.

The emails date back to Dec. 14, right as Barr resigned from his post after declaring there was no evidence of widespread fraud or any other substantial issues with the presidential election.

Trump and his acolytes clearly hoped to take advantage of Rosen’s tenuous position to obtain ammunition for their campaign to block Congress from certifying the election.

Meadows demanded in one email that Rosen order prosecutors to look into possible issues with signature matching on absentee ballots in the county that includes Atlanta after Biden narrowly won Georgia.

“Engage on this issue immediately to determine if there is any truth to this allegation,” Meadows wrote.

Rosen resisted the efforts. He wrote to Donoghue deriding the request, according to the documents.

“Can you believe this?” Rosen asked. “I am not going to respond to the message.”

Rosen also said he “flatly refused” Meadows’ demand that he meet with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, to discuss the Italian spy claims.

“(I) said I would not be giving any special treatment to Giuliani or any of his ‘witnesses,’” Rosen wrote.

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, argued Tuesday that it’s the Justice Department that should be probed for ignoring Trump and Meadows’ demands.

“When the president, when the chief of staff to the president of the United States asked someone in the Executive Branch to do something, and they basically give him the finger, I think that’s the problem we should be looking into. But that’s not what the Democrats are going to look into,” said Jordan, R-Ohio.

CASINO CAPITALI$M

Hindenburg Research reveals DraftKings short position, says company is hiding black market operations

Will Daniel Jun. 15, 2021, 10:39 AM

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins.
Angela Rowlings/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images

Hindenburg Research revealed its latest short position in a report on Tuesday, setting sights on online betting company DraftKings.

The short seller claimed DraftKings is hiding "black market operations."

Hindenburg says 50% of DraftKings' SPAC partner SBTech's revenue comes from markets where gambling is banned.

Short seller Hindenburg Research revealed its latest short position against DraftKings in a report on Tuesday.

Hindenburg said that one of DraftKings' SPAC merger partners, Bulgaria-based gaming technology company SBTech, "brings exposure to extensive dealings in black-market gaming, money laundering, and organized crime."

The short seller claimed that, according to their estimates based on SEC filings, "supporting documents," and conversations with former employees, roughly 50% of SBTech's revenue comes from markets where gambling is banned.

DraftKings did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment about the report.

Hindenburg said the company's illicit customer relationships were shuffled into a newly formed "distributor" entity called BTi/CoreTech when DraftKings went public via a SPAC merger with Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp. in April 2020.

The short seller has been a frequent critic of popular startups, many of which have gone public via SPAC. Previous targets include electric vehicle makers Nikola and Lordstown Motors, as well as Chamath Palihapitiya-backed Clover Health.

Hindenburg also noted that DraftKings insiders have dumped over $1.4 billion in stock since the company went public, and SBTech's founder personally sold around $568 million in shares.

Finally, the short seller argued DraftKings' business model of aggressively spending cash to acquire customers that may or may not be loyal to the platform could be a risk moving forward.

DraftKings stock traded down 4.24% as of 1:14 p.m. ET after news of the short-seller report broke.

Queer Video Game Life Is Strange Coming to Nintendo Switch



Both Life Is Strange: Remastered and Life Is Strange: True Colors are coming to the platform.

BY MEY RUDE
JUNE 15 2021 

Today was Nintendo's presentation at this year's virtual Electronic Entertainment Expo (more commonly known as E3), and apart from announcing a new Metroid game and a classic Tekken character coming to Super Smash, the gaming giant also gave some good news to the queer gamers this morning!

Nintendo just announced that the groundbreaking series of LGBTQ-inclusive video games, Life Is Strange, will be coming to the Switch later this year.

In a preview shown during the Nintendo Direct, we saw cute, cartoon-styled versions of Chloe and Max, as well as Life Is Strange: True Colors' main character Alex Chen. The trio is riding in a train boxcar together through the Pacific Northwest.

Life Is Strange: True Colors launches on Nintendo Switch on September 10, and no release date for the Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection has been announced just yet.

The Remastered Collection stars Max and Chloe in their adventures from both the original game and Before the Storm. There’s no announcement on whether or not Life Is Strange 2 will come to the platform.

The original Life Is Strange featured Max, a queer teen who learns that she can rewind time and must embark on a journey to save her friends and her hometown. In the game, she sparks up a romance with her childhood friend Chloe. The prequel, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm shows Chloe having romantic feelings for another female character, Rachel.

The protagonist of Life Is Strange 2, Sean Diaz, is a bisexual teen with latent telekinetic abilities. Now, in the newest installation of the game, you play as Alex Chen, a young, Asian-American queer woman with the power to read and manipulate other people’s emotions. In the game, you have two potential love interests, one named Ryan, and one named Steph.

It’s going to be queer autumn for gamers everywhere, and we can’t wait to play as tragic, psychic queer teens once again!

MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist and Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife, has given $2.7 billion to a variety of charities

Scott, who is worth almost $60bn, has donated to 286 organisations from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre to racial equity funds in philanthropy and journalism 

[File: Jorg Carstensen/AFP/Getty Images]

By Sophie Alexander

Bloomberg
15 Jun 2021

MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist and Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife, has given $2.7 billion to a variety of charities, she wrote in a blog post Tuesday, bringing her total donations since her first giving spree in July 2020 to $8.5 billion.

Scott, 51, shook up the philanthropy world last year with the pace and magnitude of her giving. This time she donated to 286 organizations from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre to racial equity funds in philanthropy and journalism. This is her first time announcing donations since she remarried to Dan Jewett, a Seattle science teacher.

“Me, Dan, a constellation of researchers and administrators and advisors — we are all attempting to give away a fortune that was enabled by systems in need of change,” Scott, who is worth almost $60 billion, wrote in the post. “We are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others.”

Scott, who ended up with a 4% stake in Amazon.com Inc. following her divorce with Bezos, has quickly become one of the most consequential philanthropists in the world.

Last year she likely set a record for the largest annual distribution by a living person. Scott has been lauded by experts and philanthropy critics alike not only for the speed and scope of her gifts, but also for what organizations she’s giving to — smaller ones typically overlooked by big donors — and for the no-strings-attached that come with her gifts.

“Because we believe that teams with experience on the front lines of challenges will know best how to put the money to good use, we encouraged them to spend it however they choose,” she wrote in her post Tuesday. “Many reported that this trust significantly increased the impact of the gift.”

#PFAS

Study: Many cosmetics contain unlisted, toxic 'forever chemicals'

HEALTH NEWS
JUNE 15, 2021 / 11:00\

 
Cosmetics contain high levels of potentially dangerous "forever chemicals," according to a new analysis. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

June 15 (UPI) -- Commonly used cosmetics, including certain types of mascara and lipstick, contain high levels of potentially toxic chemicals that are not listed on labels, according to an analysis published Tuesday by the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters.

As a result, some makeup wearers may be absorbing and ingesting these chemicals, called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, the researchers said.

Several of the products tested, including multiple brands of waterproof mascara, liquid lipstick and foundations, had high fluorine levels -- a sign of the "probable presence of PFAS," which are also known as "forever chemicals."

Products with the highest fluorine levels that underwent further analysis were found to contain at least four PFAS of concern, with the majority not listed on the label.

RELATED DoD expects to wrap investigation of PFAS pollution by 2024

"Lipstick wearers may inadvertently eat several pounds of lipstick in their lifetimes," study co-author Graham Peaslee said in a press release.

"But unlike food, chemicals in lipstick and other makeup and personal care products are almost entirely unregulated," said Peaslee, a professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

In addition to potentially ingesting PFAS from lip products, cosmetic wearers may be absorbing the chemicals through their skin and tear ducts so that they enter the bloodstream, the researchers said.

RELATED Legislation calls for 'forever chemicals' to be regulated as hazardous substances

PFAS, which have also been found in drinking water, soil and in food packaging, can accumulate in the human body and persist in the environment -- hence their nickname "forever chemicals."

Some studies have linked them with fertility problems, birth defects, obesity, diabetes and cancer, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group.

RELATED PFAS should be classified as carcinogens, researchers say

The chemicals are often intentionally added to personal care products such as dental floss, lotion, cleanser, foundation, lipstick, eyeliner, eyeshadow, water-proof mascara, nail polish and shaving cream to improve their durability, texture and water resistance.

The Environmental Working Group has been pushing federal lawmakers to more strongly regulate PFAS, including labeling some of these chemicals as carcinogens, designating them as hazardous to human health.

"The public shouldn't have to worry that they're putting their own health at risk by doing something as routine and mundane as applying personal care products," Scott Faber, the group's senior vice president for government affairs, said in a press release.

"The only way to adequately protect the public from toxic chemicals like PFAS being used as ingredients in cosmetics is for Congress to step up and change the law," he said.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., are expected to introduce legislation this week that would ban toxic PFAS in cosmetics.

For the new study, Peaslee and his colleagues screened 231 cosmetic products purchased in the United States and Canada for fluorine, a sign of the presence of PFAS, using particle-induced gamma-ray emission spectroscopy.

More than three-quarters of waterproof mascara, nearly two-thirds of foundations and liquid lipsticks and more than half of eye and lip products had high fluorine concentrations, they said.

All 29 products selected for targeted analysis contained detectable levels of at least four specific PFAS, including those known to break down into other forever chemicals that are highly toxic and environmentally harmful.

Nearly all of the 29 products in the separate analysis did not have any PFAS listed on their ingredient labels.

Many of the products containing PFAS were advertised as "wear-resistant" or "long-lasting." In many cases, PFAS listed on product labels often include "fluoro" in the ingredient name, the researchers said.

"PFAS are not necessary for makeup," study co-author Arlene Blum said in a press release.

"Given their large potential for harm, I believe they should not be used in any personal care products," said Blum, executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute in Berkeley, Calif.