January 4, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris used her first late-night network TV appearance since becoming vice president to reflect on how her life has changed since she got the job — including a shortage of emojis — and to talk up the need to vote in the midterm elections.

Harris, appearing early Tuesday on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in a taped appearance, promoted Biden administration efforts to fight climate change, restore abortion rights and pardon people with federal convictions for marijuana possession as she urged people to “speak with your vote” in the midterms.

“Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed, right?” she said, adding that governors and states should follow the president’s lead in offering pardons for state convictions.

Asked by Meyers how life had changed for her since she became vice president, Harris referenced “high-class problems” like security restrictions that alter day-to-day dynamics. She said taking a walk with her husband, Doug Emhoff, is no longer a one-on-one affair and that family chats via group text are “no longer a thing.”

As for her digital conversations, Harris said: “I have not received directly an emoji in a year and a half.”

Facing outrage over a controversial leaked audio recording with top L.A. city officials, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera offered his resignation at a Monday night meeting with the federation’s executive board, which accepted, according to two sources close to the situation.

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation and former head of the AFL-CIO’s San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, confirmed to The Times that Herrera offered his resignation to the board. “We are focused on rebuilding solidarity and trust in the worker movement,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the county federation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The sources requested anonymity to describe sensitive internal matters. One source said that the organization would make a formal statement Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, reports circulated that Herrera had reportedly been “placed on administrative leave, pending an LA Federation of Labor Executive Board meeting to be held this evening,” the California Labor Federation said in a Monday email to state labor leaders obtained by The Times.

Herrera — along with Los Angeles City Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo — participated in an October 2021 closed-door conversation where Martinez said a white councilmember handled his young Black son as though he were an “accessory” and described Councilmember Mike Bonin’s son as “Parece changuito,” or “like a monkey.”

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Moscow’s barrage of missile strikes on cities all across Ukraine has elicited celebratory comments from Russian officials and pro-Kremlin pundits, who in recent weeks have actively criticized the Russian military for a series of embarrassing setbacks on the battlefield.

Russian nationalist commentators and state media war correspondents lauded Monday’s attack as an appropriate, and long-awaited, response to a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive and a weekend attack on the bridge between Russia and Crimea, the prized Black Sea peninsula Russia annexed in 2014.

Many of them argued that Moscow should keep up the intensity of Monday’s strikes to win the war now. Some analysts suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin was becoming a hostage of his allies’ views on how the campaign in Ukraine should unfold.

“Putin’s initiative is weakening, and he is becoming more dependent on circumstances and those who are forging the ‘victory’ (in Ukraine) for him,” Tatyana Stanovaya, founder of the independent R.Politik think tank, wrote in an online commentary Monday.

After a disaster strikes, once the dead have been counted and the immediate damage stops, recovery is almost always the first question. How do we build things back to the way they were or even better?

For Puerto Rico — where over 3 million people were left without electricity and 760,000 without clean water after Hurricane Fiona flooded the archipelago last month — talking about solutions yet again can feel like déjà vu.

It’s no wonder. Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico in mid-September, right before the fifth anniversary of Hurricane María, the Category 4 storm that led to the death of thousands of people in 2017 and knocked out the power grid for many islanders for nearly a year. In the immediate aftermath of María, politicians, NGOs, and economists rushed to craft potential solutions to make Puerto Rico more resilient against future climate events, ranging from privatizing the electrical grid to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding approximately $28 billion for construction and economic revitalization projects. 

Yet despite the damage and the death toll, only $5 billion of that money was actually disbursed and spent. And four-fifths of that went not to broader resiliency for future disasters but to emergency relief, according to the New York Times. That pattern holds true for other federal funds, such as the Housing and Urban Development department (HUD), too.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has criticised Western nations for their low financial commitment to addressing issues caused by climate change on the continent.

“$55m for 54 countries – this is not fair,” Akufo-Addo was quoted as saying by French state broadcaster RFI on Monday.

Akufo-Addo who is on a six-day visit to France where he is expected to meet President Emmanuel Macron, was referring to commitments made during a climate summit in Rotterdam last September – $23m from the United Kingdom, $15m from Norway, $10m from France and $7m from Denmark.

“The adaptation summit had the mission of mobilising $25bn by 2025 … ridiculously, while the G20 countries are responsible for 80 percent of emissions, Africa left Rotterdam with pledges of up to $55m,” the Ghanaian leader said.

The African Development Bank pledged an additional $12.5bn to support the cause.

The Rotterdam summit was set up to discuss climate change financing for Africa and took place ahead of the 27th annual summit of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) to be held this November in Egypt.

It also came on the heels of a warning from the UN climate science panel that extreme weather and rising seas are hitting faster than expected, prompting calls for more money and political will to help people adapt.

The Rotterdam meeting – attended by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa and International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva – heard from representatives of African nations, small island developing states and other climate-vulnerable countries.

Editor’s note, October 11, 10:50 am: Baltimore prosecutors have dropped all charges against Adnan Syed. This original story, published on September 20, is below.

In a shocking new twist to one of the most notable true crime cases of the modern era, a Baltimore judge has vacated the conviction and ordered the immediate release of Adnan Syed, 41, from prison. Syed has maintained his innocence while serving 23 years of a life sentence for the 1999 murder of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee — the case that turned the 2014 podcast Serial into a podcasting phenomenon.

The decision comes as part of a new investigation spearheaded by the state as part of ongoing citywide and statewide efforts to create significant criminal justice reform — a reform arguably galvanized by a cultural wave of interest in true crime that began because of Serial itself.

The investigation revealed serious errors in Syed’s original court case, including multiple Brady violations, meaning that the prosecution refused to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense prior to Syed’s trial.

In light of this new evidence, brought forth not by the defense but by the prosecution in an extremely rare moment of self-reflection, Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn overturned the verdict and gave the state 30 days in which to drop the existing charges against Syed or schedule a retrial.

At the time of Lee’s murder, Syed, then 17, was considered a beloved and upstanding member of his Baltimore Muslim community. Following the murder of Lee, his high school ex-girlfriend, Syed was put through a trial — thoroughly excavated by journalist Sarah Koenig in Serial, as well as by advocates like Rabia Chaudry — that relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, shaky testimony from Syed’s drug dealer, and now-infamous cellphone tower records whose accuracy has been hotly debated. 

Syed’s defense was further hampered by what was generally believed to have been an inadequate defense counsel who failed to investigate at least one potential alibi witness on his behalf, and who was later disbarred.

Rep. Mary Peltola's election to the U.S. House of Representatives made history in several ways.

With her recent swearing-in, it became official for the first time in more than 230 years: A Native American, a Native Alaskan and a Native Hawaiian are all members of the House — fully representing the United States' Indigenous people for the first time, according to Rep. Kaiali'i Kahele of Hawaii. Now, there are six Indigenous Americans who are representatives in the House.

Kahele shared this history-making moment on social media this week with a photograph of him, Peltola, and Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas (a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation).

Peltola, the first Native Alaskan and woman elected to the House for Alaska, is taking over for Rep. Don Young, who died in March.

"It's a historic moment," Lani Teves, an associate professor at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa said.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remained without electricity or running water and rescuers used heavy equipment to lift survivors to safety.

The storm’s eye passed close to Grand Turk, the small British territory’s capital island, on Tuesday morning after the government imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas. Storm surge could raise water levels there by as much as 5 to 8 feet above normal, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Late Tuesday morning, the storm was centered about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north-northwest of that island, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 30 miles (45 kilometers) from the center.

“Storms are unpredictable,” Premier Washington Misick said in a statement from London, where he was attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. “You must therefore take every precaution to ensure your safety.”

Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) and was moving north-northwest at 9 mph (15 kph), according to the Hurricane Center, which said the storm is likely to strengthen further into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Bermuda on Friday.

Nearly one million people descended on London on Monday to bid a final farewell to Queen Elizabeth II, among them heads of state and representatives from nearly 200 governments as well as visitors from across Britain and around the world. The international nature of the gathering was a testament to the Queen’s immense global soft power, the likes of which is unlikely to be rivaled by any of her successors. 

But it’s also fitting of the country over which she reigned. The Britain that Queen Elizabeth II leaves behind is considerably more ethnically and religiously diverse than the one that she inherited 70 years ago.

Over the course of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, Britain’s population grew by nearly a third from roughly 50 million in 1950 to 67 million today—an increase spurred, at least in part, by increased immigration. As of last year, people born outside of the country made up 14.5% of the population, compared to just 8% in 2004.

Ilesha, Nigeria - In his early twenties, Simeon Abolarinwa did the grown-up thing of making a curriculum vitae for the first time. At the bottom of the document, he listed his hobbies: hunting, hiking and fishing. Unlike many of his peers doing the same to fill space or boost their profiles, these were actually his hobbies.

Growing up in his native Osun state in southwest Nigeria, he regularly snuck out of the family house to make hooks out of binding wire and go fishing with friends in nearby streams.

These days, the 41 year old lives in Osogbo, the state capital, working as a network administrator with a university. His favourite place to fish is a spot on the Osun river, less than a kilometre (half a mile) from his apartment and a few kilometres from the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Students in Uvalde went back to school Tuesday for the first time since a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in a classroom attack that shocked the country and helped fuel passage of a landmark national law on gun violence.

Children began arriving at Uvalde Elementary before dawn, walking through newly installed 8-foot (2.4-meter) metal fencing that surrounds the campus and past a state trooper standing guard outside an entrance.

Colorful flags hung inside the hallways, and teachers wore turquoise shirts that read “Together We Rise & Together We Are Better” on the back. State troopers were parked on every corner outside the school.

The district announced in late June that the scene of the assault, Robb Elementary, would be permanently closed and eventually torn down, though a timeline has not been set. Fundraising is underway for the construction of a new elementary campus.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) —

The eastern Mediterranean and Middle East are warming almost twice as fast as the global average, with temperatures projected to rise up to 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century if no action is taken to reverse the trend, a new report says.

The region will experience “unprecedented” heat waves, more severe and longer-lasting droughts and dust storms and rainfall shortages that will “compromise water and food security” for the region’s 400 million people, according to a summary of the report released Tuesday.

The eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East are more susceptible to warming trends because of their unique natural characteristics, like large desert expanses and lower water levels, the study said.

The report was prepared by an international group of scientists overseen by The Cyprus Institute’s Climate and Atmosphere Research Center and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. Originally published in June in the journal Reviews of Geophysics, it aims to underscore the impact of climate change in the region ahead of the United Nations climate summit in Egypt this November.

CHILDERSBURG, Ala. (AP) — Michael Jennings wasn’t breaking any laws or doing anything that was obviously suspicious; the Black minister was simply watering the flowers of a neighbor who was out of town.

Yet there was a problem: Around the corner, Amber Roberson, who is white, thought she was helping that same neighbor when she saw a vehicle she didn’t recognize at the house and called police.

Within minutes, Jennings was in handcuffs, Roberson was apologizing for calling 911 and three officers were talking among themselves about how everything might have been different.

Harry Daniels, an attorney representing Jennings, said he plans to submit a claim to the city of Childersburg seeking damages and then file a lawsuit. “This should be a learned lesson and a training tool for law enforcement about what not to do,” he said.

A 20-minute video of the episode recorded on one of the officers’ body cameras shows how quickly an uneventful evening on a quiet residential street devolved into yet another potentially explosive situation involving a Black man and white law enforcement authorities.

An upset victory for US Democrats in conservative-leaning Alaska has refuelled the party’s hope of retaining its slim majorities in Congress in the upcoming midterm elections against historical trends.

In a special congressional election on Tuesday, Mary Peltola became the latest Democrat to score an surprise win against Republicans, defeating former vice presidential candidate, ex-Alaska governor and Donald Trump ally Sarah Palin.

Peltola, a former state legislator, is now the first Alaska Native to represent the remote northwestern state in Congress. The special election was to replace Republican Congressman Don Young, who held Alaska’s sole seat in the US House of Representatives for nearly half a century until his death earlier this year.

Pelota will serve in Congress until the end of the year and face reelection in November. Alaska employed its ranked voting system for the first time on Tuesday.

Palota bested Palin and Republican candidate Nick Begich, coming on top in the first round of voting with nearly 40 percent of the vote. After third-placed Begich votes were distributed between her and Palin based on ranked choice, she beat the former governor 51.5 to 48.5 percent.

LONDON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - While Pakistanis count the cost of one of the country's worst recorded floods, heavy rain is hitting southwestern China as the Texas city of Dallas recovers from a 10-inch deluge in a single day last month.

Each of these rain-fuelled disasters followed a heatwave, suggesting the regions have been swinging wildly between two contradictory extremes. But extreme heat and extreme rainfall are closely related - and being gassed-up by climate change, scientists say.

Sweltering spring temperatures in South Asia, topping 50 degrees Celsius, are likely to have warmed the Indian Ocean. That warm water would then have fuelled what the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this week called "a monsoon on steroids" over Pakistan – dumping more than three times as much rain as the 30-year average for August and inundating a third of the country.

More than 1,100 people have been killed, crops are ruined, and homes destroyed, prompting urgent pleas for aid.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years after completing a White House summer internship, Cassidy Hutchinson was in the room where the president’s top aides debated how they could overturn his election loss.  Hutchinson, 25, who served as a top aide to Mark Meadows, chief of staff to President Donald Trump, is scheduled to testify Tuesday at a surprise hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.

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In his decision overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Justice Samuel Alito argues that the rulings that had protected abortion rights were not only poorly reasoned but actively harmful to American democracy.

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The Pentagon on Tuesday said that last week's Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade won't impact service members, spouses and dependents who use military treatment facilities.  The memo, sent by Gil Cisneros, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, came in response to Friday's Supreme Court ruling that overturned the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that had guaranteed abortion rights under the Constitution.  Cisneros said that facilities on military bases are federal facilities and they won't change how they operate. The military will continue providing abortions in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is at risk. Federal law prohibits the Pentagon from performing or paying for other types of abortions, the memo states.

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The actions — or more notably, the inaction — of a school district police chief and other law enforcement officers have become the center of the investigation into this week’s shocking school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Damn...

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The former top leader of the Proud Boys will remain jailed while awaiting trial on charges that he conspired with other members of the far-right extremist group to attack the U.S. Capitol and stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory, a federal judge has ruled.

Now, I bet - he’s pissed because most white folks who were there too got out.   So I bet this “MF" just realized that he championed a white-false cause and still at the end of the day  - is Black  anyway and still locked up.

Just what he deserves.

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The family and friends of 86-year-old Ruth E. Whitfield held visitation and funeral services at a Buffalo church two weeks after police say a White supremacist killed Whitfield and nine other people. Authorities say the gunman targeted the Tops Friendly Markets store because it was in a predominately Black neighborhood.

Damn shame.

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The social media that this evil person got his news from, and FOX is the reason that this will probably get even worse.

These are our people that are  being slaughtered and the white perpetrators, in the right wing media...are basically celebrating.

Including candidates running for office, like JD Vance.  Damn shame.

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The revelation indicates the breach of ballot data in Elbert County was wider than previously understood. The case, now being investigated by the Colorado secretary of state, is one of at least nine unauthorized attempts to access voting-system data around the United States, at least eight of which involved Republican officials or activists seeking evidence to delegitimize Democratic President Joe Biden's election victory.  

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Within days of the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, when body-camera video captured white troopers stunning, beating and dragging the Black motorist, the head of the Louisiana State Police wrote a stark note about the case in his journal: “Realize there is a problem — must address immediately.”

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The island had a 4,600 percent increase in cases in recent weeks after mounting one of the nation’s most successful vaccination campaigns.

Two exhibitions highlight stories of Indigenous bondage in southern Colorado, in an effort to grapple with the lasting trauma.

Customers have questions, you have answers. Display the most frequently asked questions, so everybody benefits.

A series of articles about the voting experiences and the effort needed to save our rights.

In this Reuters Institute factsheet we analyse the percentage of non-white top editors in a strategic sample of 100 major online and offline news outlets in five different markets across four continents: Brazil, Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US).

Article originally appeared several years ago.  

Harry Reid was, in the senate,  a great man and he needs to be appreciated. 

This is a very disturbed individual, only because of his hate for people different in his idea of America.  

These are some great thinkers forming the MasterClass streaming platform.