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Showing posts from September, 2020

Qatar’s World Cup Dress Rehearsal - WSJ

Qatar’s World Cup Dress Rehearsal - WSJ : It was the busiest, because it was built specifically for soccer fans visiting this mostly dry country. And it was the cheapest, because it was specially exempt from the so-called Qatari “sin tax.” For once, beers cost just $7 here instead of the usual $15.
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Chicken Pudding and Other Desserts Around the World

Chicken Pudding and Other Desserts Around the World : Wagashi are ornate sweets that are carefully sculpted from a smooth dough made up of a mixture of bean paste and sweetened rice cake. They are often shaped into the form of flowers. Nothing short of perfection is accepted at the wagashi shop run by the Fukushima family in Tokyo. According to Toshio Fukushima, wagashi must be a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth. The best way to enjoy a dessert that’s almost too beautiful to eat? With green tea.
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Luis Suarez accused of passing rigged Italian language exam, according to prosecutors - CNN

Luis Suarez accused of passing rigged Italian language exam, according to prosecutors - CNN : According to the chief prosecutor, the five employees could go to trial for revealing official secrets and ideological falsehood, while Suarez is not currently under investigation. Grazie @LuisSuarez9 per la tua visita di oggi all'Universit� per Stranieri di Perugia. � stato un piacere averti come studente!@UniStraPg @GregoBolli #unistrapg pic.twitter.com/etaNYEryN8 — Stefania Spina (@sspina) September 17, 2020 "During the investigation carried out since February 2020 by the Financial police of Perugia for different cases related to the University for Foreigners of Perugia, irregularities emerged in the certification of the Italian language test carried out on September 17 by the soccer player from Uruguay, Luis Alberto Suarez Diaz," said a statement from Raffaele Cantone, the chief prosecutor in Perugia. "From the investigation, it emerged that the topics of the exam w
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Senate resolution to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg blocked after partisan fighting over language - CNNPolitics

Senate resolution to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg blocked after partisan fighting over language - CNNPolitics : Ginsburg, appointed to the high court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, died Friday at age 87 due to complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. While the nation mourns Ginsburg's death, the Senate is gearing up for a high stakes political battle over the future of the Supreme Court, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to bring President Donald Trump's nominee to a vote on the Senate floor. Trump said he will announce his nominee on Saturday.
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Some followers of the effective altruism movement give up to half of their income to charity. Their message is winning both converts and critics. - The Washington Post

Some followers of the effective altruism movement give up to half of their income to charity. Their message is winning both converts and critics. - The Washington Post : effective altruism, a movement devoted to improving the world in the most logical, evidence-based way possible. Oxford professor William MacAskill, who helped found the movement, estimates that if you’re a one-person U.S. household earning more than $58,000, you’re in the top 1 percent in the world, even accounting for global cost differences. Since a dollar means far more to the less fortunate than to those living in such comfort, effective altruists donate a large percentage of their income.
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The model of asymmetric warfare of the Centre for Asymmetric Threat... | Download Scientific Diagram

The model of asymmetric warfare of the Centre for Asymmetric Threat... | Download Scientific Diagram : The model of asymmetric warfare of the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies (CATS). Source: Presentation at the European External Action Service (EEAS)/EU Intelligence and Situation Centre (INTCEN)/EU Hybrid Fusion Cell on 'How to Understand and Counter Hybrid Threats -A Swedish View' by Dr Lars Nicander. Also see Lars Nicander and Linnea Arnevall (2015, 135).
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Labs found novichok in and on my body, says Alexei Navalny | Alexei Navalny | The Guardian

Labs found novichok in and on my body, says Alexei Navalny | Alexei Navalny | The Guardian : Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has said in his first blogpost since emerging from a coma that western laboratories had found traces of novichok in and on his body and demanded that Moscow return his clothes. Navalny, who is recovering in Berlin’s Charit� hospital, fell critically ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow and spent two days in hospital in Russia before being airlifted to Germany. “Two independent laboratories in France and Sweden, and the Bundeswehr specialised laboratory confirmed the presence of novichok in and on my body,” he said, referring to a German military lab. He noted that Russia had still not opened an investigation and that Russian talk shows had suggested that western intelligence officials or his own allies carried out the attack. He demanded that Russian authorities return his clothes that were removed before he was flown to Germany – “totally na
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How rescuing drowning migrants became a crime | Refugees | The Guardian

How rescuing drowning migrants became a crime | Refugees | The Guardian : As the Iuventa entered the harbour of Lampedusa, the crew expected to be questioned briefly by police, as they had been on previous occasions, then allowed to get back to work. They were wrong. Within a few hours, their ship would be seized, marking the beginning of a long and still unresolved criminal investigation that leaves 10 humanitarian volunteers facing up to 20 years in prison. In the small hours of 2 August, while a crowd of journalists assembled on the quayside filmed and took photographs, detectives specialising in organised crime searched the Iuventa. The following morning, before the crew were even fully informed of the case against them, details were splashed across the Italian media. This “German extremist NGO”, as one newspaper later put it, was suspected of aiding illegal immigration – a crime in Italian law – by collaborating with Libyan smugglers. News outlets quoted liberally from a case fi
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The extradition of Julian Assange would undermine freedom of speech | Julian Assange | The Guardian

The extradition of Julian Assange would undermine freedom of speech | Julian Assange | The Guardian : It was through reading the documents revealed by Assange that Brazilians learned of the relationship between the man who would later be minister of foreign affairs in the Temer administration, Jos� Serra, and executives in the North American oil giants ExxonMobile and Chevron. The charge adopted by the Trump administration to justify the allegations against Assange – that he attempted to help Manning hack into government computers – is both dangerous and false.
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A Hong Kong teenager's death became a magnet for conspiracies, and exposed deep problems in how the city operates - CNN

A Hong Kong teenager's death became a magnet for conspiracies, and exposed deep problems in how the city operates - CNN : The state of decomposition meant that ascertaining the cause of Chan's death was impossible. But pathologist Garrick Li, who performed the autopsy on Chan, said that while he could not be sure, there was a "distinct possibility" that she had drowned.
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Eddie Izzard on going into politics: 'Why shouldn't I be mayor of London?' | Eddie Izzard | The Guardian

Eddie Izzard on going into politics: 'Why shouldn't I be mayor of London?' | Eddie Izzard | The Guardian : At first I'd put Izzard's humourless demeanour down to pre-match nerves. A lifelong Palace fan, he became an associate director of the club last year, so we meet for lunch at the ground before the game. By the time post-match drinks arrive, five hours later, I�have to conclude that while I had been very much looking forward to our meeting, he evidently hadn't. Then up bounces the former Labour leader. It's a�relief just to see a friendly, smiling face – but all the more so when it turns out that even with Kinnock, one of his all-time heroes, Izzard remains detached. Nothing seems to defrost the comedian, which makes me feel better about the whole strangely tense day – but even more confused about Izzard.
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Oklahoma Supreme Court denies hearing on tribal compacts

Oklahoma Supreme Court denies hearing on tribal compacts : The high court Monday voted 5-1 to deny the rehearing. In July, the court determined Stitt’s compacts with the Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribe were not valid because the Republican governor overstepped his authority by trying to greenlight sports betting and house-banked card and table games. The ruling also concluded that state law prohibits those types of games.
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A new perspective on Trump's charm offensive with North Korea - CNN

A new perspective on Trump's charm offensive with North Korea - CNN : So far though, Trump's outreach has done nothing to rid North Korea of its nuclear arms and its missile programs have progressed during his term. Whoever sits in the Oval Office next year, Woodward's alarming discoveries show the unsolved 70-year US-North Korea showdown is as dangerous as ever.
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The Only Possible Way to Understand White Trump Voters | by Jack Luna | Sep, 2020 | Medium

The Only Possible Way to Understand White Trump Voters | by Jack Luna | Sep, 2020 | Medium : the whole Trump brand, and by extension his 2020 campaign, is nothing more than a white coming-out party. After decades of watching LGBT supporters celebrate pride month, Black people marching to demand equal rights and justice, Native Americans trashing the legacy of Christopher Columbus, and leftists staging radical and shocking performance art — and, perhaps just as importantly, seeing these movements validated by the mainstream media — only to have it all topped off with eight years under Barack Obama, the first Black President in American history, millions of alienated white voters have come to idolize President Trump for supposedly giving them “their turn” to show pride and assert their white identity in a way they’ve either never felt or else haven’t been able to feel in a long time. It turns out that millions of white people have been desperately wanting an excuse to do the equivalent
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I was infected with coronavirus in March, six months on I’m still unwell | World news | The Guardian

I was infected with coronavirus in March, six months on I’m still unwell | World news | The Guardian : He’s not running 5km three times a week like he used to. He’s not going to the pub. He’s not working. And he’s not getting better. “If I had known that I’d be this ill, I would have taken everything a lot more seriously back in March,” Russell said. “But all that we heard back then was that if you were infected and you were a young person, you’d most likely not have any symptoms at all. Or you’d be ill for a couple of weeks and that would be it.” Instead, Russell has suffered from chest pains, excruciating migraines, severe breathlessness, dizziness and exhaustion, one of the legions of “long Covid” sufferers who have experienced long-term symptoms from the coronavirus.
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Roger Stone to Donald Trump: bring in martial law if you lose election | Roger Stone | The Guardian

Roger Stone to Donald Trump: bring in martial law if you lose election | Roger Stone | The Guardian : attorney general William Barr. But he still faced prison before Trump acted. His conviction stands. Both men were in Nevada on Saturday, Trump holding campaign events while Stone sought to raise money for himself. He outlined his advice to Trump should he lose in a call to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s Infowars online show, on Thursday.
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Roger Stone to Donald Trump: bring in martial law if you lose election | Roger Stone | The Guardian

Roger Stone to Donald Trump: bring in martial law if you lose election | Roger Stone | The Guardian : Roger Stone, whose 40-month prison sentence for lying to Congress and witness tampering in the Russia investigation was commuted by Donald Trump, has said Trump should seize total power and jail prominent figures including Bill and Hillary Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg if he loses to Joe Biden in November.
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Netflix co-CEO says many tech giants are 'data-exploiting'

Netflix co-CEO says many tech giants are 'data-exploiting' : In a recent interview, Netflix (NFLX) co-CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings said many of the largest tech companies are “very data-exploiting” in their efforts to drive revenue through digital advertising. He contrasted that business model with Netflix, which relies on subscription fees and forgoes advertising. “The four of them plus Microsoft are formidable,” he told Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer on Sept. 3. “They've got much bigger market caps, they're multi-business lines, many of them have ad support and are very data-exploiting in that way — we don't have any of that.” “We're just a simple, extremely great entertainment company,” he adds. “For about $15 a month, you get amazing content.”
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Michael Sandel: 'The populist backlash has been a revolt against the tyranny of merit' | Michael Sandel | The Guardian

Michael Sandel: 'The populist backlash has been a revolt against the tyranny of merit' | Michael Sandel | The Guardian : What Money Can’t Buy sealed Sandel’s status as perhaps the most formidable critic of free-market orthodoxy in the English-speaking world. But as an age of violently polarised, partisan and poisonous politics has taken hold, it is that early encounter with Reagan that has begun to play on his mind. “It taught me a lot about the importance of the ability to listen attentively,” he says, “which matters as much as the rigours of the argument. It taught me about mutual respect and inclusion in the public square.”
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Michael Cohen alleges Trump racist outbursts and role in Stormy Daniels payoff in new book | Donald Trump | The Guardian

Michael Cohen alleges Trump racist outbursts and role in Stormy Daniels payoff in new book | Donald Trump | The Guardian : Of all the crises Cohen confronted working for Trump, none proved as vexing as the adult film actor Stormy Daniels and her claims of an extramarital affair with Trump, Cohen writes in Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump. Trump, despite his later protestations, green-lighted the $130,000 payment to silence Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, reasoning he would “have to pay” his wife a far greater sum if the affair ever became known, Cohen writes, adding the president later reimbursed him with “fake legal fees”. “It never pays to settle these things, but many, many friends have advised me to pay,” Trump said, according to Cohen. “If it comes out, I’m not sure how it would play with my supporters. But I bet they’d think it’s cool that I slept with a porn star.”
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Pelosi's office acknowledges indoor hair appointment, violating San Francisco Covid-19 restrictions - CNNPolitics

Pelosi's office acknowledges indoor hair appointment, violating San Francisco Covid-19 restrictions - CNNPolitics : Kious described Pelosi's visit as "a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can't work." The new restrictions in San Francisco say hair salons can operate outdoors, though certain procedures, such as shampooing, color and chemical treatments are still prohibited.
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