24
N.E.W.S., Events, Weather, Sports, History, Records, Facts & More.....
Voice of America
Ukrainian Children Head Back to School Amid War
Though hundreds of Ukraine's schools have been destroyed during the war, the new school year has quietly started. And while some things haven’t changed, many Ukrainian schoolchildren are facing new and frightening realities. Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by David Gogokhia.
Newsweek
Golden Retriever Watches Birds While Trying VR Headset in Heartwarming Clip
"He probably thought he was In a different dimension," said one commenter on the viral video.
Newsweek
Did Queen Elizabeth II Try to Stop Princess Diana's HIV/AIDS Work?
"During the 1980s, the queen tried to stop Princess Diana's work in HIV advocacy, telling her to do something 'more pleasant,'" read a recent viral tweet.
Newsweek
Woman Telling Sister-in-Law Her Baby's Age Is Wrong Backed: 'Correct Me'
"Your child is not 6 months until the 10th. You are incorrect," one user said.
Newsweek
Beyond Bulletproof: Why Billionaires Are Chasing Everlasting Health
The world's most revolutionary business leaders have a habit of thinking big and redefining what's possible.
Newsweek
Things To Consider Before Retiring Early
Retirement does not have to be an all-or-nothing decision.
TIME
Angie Thomas’ New Prequel to The Hate U Give Challenges the Cult of Masculinity
Is our cult of masculinity destroying us? Concrete Rose, Angie Thomas’ latest young adult novel, is a meditation on just that: the problem of boys pretending to be men. The book, out Jan. 12, is a prequel to Thomas’ smash bestseller The Hate U Give, which followed teenager Starr Carter after she witnessed her friend get shot and killed by police. Maverick was her father, and a standout character in the acclaimed 2018 movie adaptation, which turned Angie Thomas into a household name. Concrete Rose tells the story of Maverick as a 17-year-old high school senior and a member of the King Lords gang in Garden Heights, the fictional Black neighborhood where Thomas set both of her previous novels.
When we meet him in Concrete Rose, Maverick is the son of a mother who is working-class poor and a father who is serving a lengthy prison sentence. The teenager has inherited a gang affiliation from his father, and Maverick accepts the opportunity to make money on the side by selling hard drugs. He keeps his mom blind to his activities by doing odd jobs around the neighborhood, and because she works all the time.
From the get, Thomas imbues Maverick with innocence, humor and street smarts. He lives by the code of Garden Heights, where behavior is dictated by a fraternity of violence and aggression, but isn’t blind to the hypocrisy of gang life. Members are protected from rival gangs and the risks of their lifestyle, but the only way out is equally dangerous: to leave a gang, a member must risk his freedom or his life. When Maverick finds out he’s become a father, he’s forced to decide whether or not to take that risk.
Here, a familiar story of violence and poverty takes an important turn. On finding out about her son’s new situation, Maverick’s mother is tough but supportive. When he is faced with the financial pressures that come with giving up dealing, the neighborhood market owner, Mr. Wyatt, offers him a job, a different way to live. And when old friends try to pressure him into an unthinkable act, his father in prison—locked away but not absent—counsels the teenager on how a “real” man comes to a decision: not by succumbing into the demands of the street but instead by weighing the cost to those he loves most.
But what does it mean to be a man? For my brother Lindo, back in the ’90s, it meant throwing a fist to protect Mami against our stepfather, only to find himself flung to the streets. It meant renting a room in our Harlem neighborhood, wearing the flyest kicks around, and, thanks to his new occupation as a 17-year-old drug dealer, offering me the single best clothing item I owned as a teenager. My bomber jacket came off the shoulders of an addict who couldn’t buy what she needed with money. I was there that day—the woman asked me if I wanted it. Lindo was annoyed, but he smirked. He seemed to swell with newfound power. Now a man for real, he could gift his nerdy sister a jacket we’d never afford otherwise, embrace danger by way of a transactional hug and floss and sway all the way to prison, where he’d end up in a matter of months.
Concrete Rose, one of the most eagerly anticipated books of 2021, is being ushered into the world just as Donald Trump’s presidency ends—a presidency that has been defined, among other things, by the weaponization of toxic masculinity. Thomas’ genius is her ability to craft one man’s history in a way that illuminates the forces that brought us to this critical juncture. She thrusts Maverick into loss after loss after loss, the stakes higher each time. Manhood becomes the confining praxis toward resolution: Is he a man? How big of a man? How brave of a man? We come to understand that loss ushers Maverick to redefine himself beyond the confines of gender norms: he must see himself not as doomed to the legacy of h[...]
TIME
What Really Happens When There’s a 50-50 Split in the Senate?
The electoral victories of Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Georgia last week will result in a 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate—a rare event; it’s only the fourth time the Senate has been evenly divided.
Because the Constitution designates the vice president as the president of the Senate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will hold the tie-breaking vote and all simple majority, party-line stand-offs will likely break for Democrats. That means Warnock’s and Ossoff’s wins open up a host of possibilities for what Democrats may be able to accomplish under the Biden Administration.
But the Democrats holding the narrowest possible majority leaves some major obstacles and mine fields for the party. The Senate cloture rule, for example, requires 60 members to end debate and vote on most topics, which, in practice, will allow Republican Senators to filibuster much of the Democrats’ legislative agenda.
Here’s how the 50-50 split is likely to work in real life. The first hurdle is the organizing resolutionIncoming Democratic Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and outgoing Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have to agree on a set of rules, known as an organizing resolution, which governs how the Senate works. The organizing resolution determines everything from committee membership and staff budgets, to who gets the best office space.
Even with Harris’s tie-breaking vote, Schumer will need McConnell’s support: passing the organizing resolution requires 60 votes. As a result, Republicans will likely end up with much more power than a minority would usually hold.
The last time the Senate was split 50-50, in 2001, lawmakers agreed on an organizing resolution that allowed both parties to share power. Under that deal, the parties agreed to split committee memberships and staff equally and changed the rules, making it so that if a tie vote prevented a measure from moving out of committee, either the majority or the minority leader could bring the bill to the Senate floor.
Schumer and McConnell may take a cue from that 2001 agreement, but Senate observers note that, in these hyper-partisan times, agreeing on even the rules of the road may be tricky. “As partisan as it was in 2000, things have become even more partisan,” says Sarah Binder, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. The prospect of ditching the filibuster In theory, Senate Democrats could change the cloture rule—and, with it, the need for 60 votes. They could, in other words, kill the filibuster.
There are two ways that Democrats could do that. The first is by holding a vote to change the Senate’s standing rules. The only problem is that a vote to change the rules requires a two-thirds majority. So, as has happened many times in the past, Senators can simply filibuster the attempt to eliminate the filibuster.
The second way to kill the filibuster is known as the “nuclear option.” That would mean that Senate Democrats vote to establish a new precedent in the chamber, which can require only a simple majority: the 50 Democrats plus Harris. The nuclear option has been employed twice in the past decade—once in 2013 by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and then once in 2017 by McConnell—to make it easier to confirm executive and judicial nominations.
In recent months, Democrats have been clamoring to eliminate the filibuster. Former President Barack Obama called it a “Jim Crow relic” and President-elect Biden said he’d consider eliminating it, depending “on how obstreperous [Republicans] become.” But Democrats are hardly in lock step over the issue. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has has said he will not support such a vote. If the filibuster stays, what can Democrats do?Because s[...]
Voice of America
Shaka: Extra Time
Voice of America
VOA Newscasts (2 Minute)
Voice of America
International Edition
Voice of America
Sonny Side of Sports
Voice of America
Africa News Tonight
SkySports | News
FA Youth Cup suspended over Covid concerns
The FA Youth Cup has been suspended as a result of the increasing number of coronavirus cases in the UK.
SkySports | News
Parker: 48 hours' notice 'scandalous' | Jose: Are you serious?
Fulham manager Scott Parker says it is "scandalous" the Premier League announced Wednesday's rearranged match against Tottenham on Monday.
Newsweek
California Got 'Lucky' Avoiding Blackouts Amid Energy Crisis: Expert
The state also relied heavily on its new fleet of batteries to cover the high-energy usage gap during evening hours.
Newsweek
The Connection Between Queen Elizabeth II and Paddington Bear Explained
Social media has been filled with sweet videos and images of the British monarch appearing alongside the adorable children's character.
Newsweek
Where To Watch the 74th Emmy Awards 2022 and How to Live Stream the Show
The 74th Emmy Awards will take place in September 2022, with big awards up for grabs. Newsweek has information on how to watch the ceremony celebrating TV.
Newsweek
Jan. 6 Committee's Trump Probe Cost Taxpayers Millions This Year
While the price tag has eclipsed the investigation into Benghazi, the total cost is still relatively low compared to others throughout history.
Newsweek
Queen Elizabeth II's Floral Tributes Evoke Memories of Princess Diana's
Following news of Diana's death, mourners went to Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace where they left about 60 million flowers.
TIME
How Olympic Athletes Are Coping with the Wait for the Postponed 2021 Games
Wedding cupcakes may propel a javelin thrower to gold at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. In typical times, such a statement would seem ridiculous. But these days, it sounds plausible.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck last year, Kara Winger, a three-time Olympian and the U.S. national record holder in the javelin, needed to adjust. Since she could no longer access indoor facilities for her typical strength and technique drills, she and her husband, former U.S. discus and shot-put thrower Russ Winger, connected a 30-ft. cable from their back fence to a hook at the rear of their house, running it through a metal tube that’s about a foot and a half long. On this neatly angled wire, which allows Winger to replicate proper javelin-throwing motion, she tosses the tube, once a portion of the cupcake stand Russ built for their 2014 wedding. “Both were made,” says Winger, “with love.”
All over the world, the pandemic has forced athletes like Winger, with their Olympic hopes on hold after the postponement of the Games for a year, to find innovative ways to stay sharp during extended lockdown periods. Bottles of laundry detergent—and beer—have subbed in as weights. Norwegian wrestler Stig-Andre Berge did push-ups with his baby on his back; Oktawia Nowacka, a modern pentathlete from Poland, did squats while holding her dog. Brooke Raboutou, a U.S. climber, crawled along her kitchen counter, scaled the back of her stairs and maneuvered across her fireplace chimney, like Spider-Woman.
With much of the world now facing a COVID winter-—and the potential for further surges in cases and shutdowns—Olympic athletes may again need to rely on Spidey sense and pets and backyard contraptions as the postponed Games approach. With such creativity, however, comes the potential for crippling uncertainty. Olympic sports often offer a single shot at glory. Careers hinge on an event that occurs every four years, so any tweak to carefully crafted training routines can send the minds of elite athletes spiraling. And even with vaccine rollouts promising a safer 2021, and Olympic officials insisting the Games will go on this July, athletes are keenly aware that givens don’t exist. This year could somehow prove more disheartening than the last one. “We’re now going back to a space where you don’t know if the gym is going to be open tomorrow,” says U.S. fencer Daryl Homer, who trains in New York City. “It’s like Olympic dreams on hold, 2.0.”
https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/olympic-training-covid-02.jpg?w=560&w=560 <figcaptionDavid Zalubowski—APWinger uses a cable system to simulate throwing a javelin as she trains outside her home in Colorado Springs in April
No athlete is immune from disruption. Noah Lyles, the reigning 200m world champion who in Tokyo will seek to replace Usain Bolt as the face of track and field, lifted weights in a park near his Central Florida home. British gymnast Max Whitlock, who won two golds at the Rio Games, used his sofa as a pommel horse. Rio double gold-medalist swimmer Lilly King joined a few teammates for laps in a Bloomington, Ind., pond. “Once I saw a snapping turtle,” King says, “I hightailed it out of there.”
When the pandemic struck, the makeup of Samantha Schultz’s sport, modern pentathlon, only compounded her stress; she couldn’t conduct her usual training for five different events: fencing, shooting, equestrian, swimming and running. Schultz improvised—she shot a laser pistol at a target in her Colorado Springs neighborhood. “People would drive by and see me with an oversize handgun,” she says. “They were like, ‘She’s so weird.’” Despite her adjustments, the toll of the delays finally hit her on July 27, when she realized she would have been in Tokyo, the Games under way. “I felt like I was carrying a bag of bricks on my[...]
TIME
Sheldon Adelson Has Died. The GOP Kingmaker Was Key to Many Political Careers—Including Trump’s
Sheldon Adelson had little use for regret.
During the Republican primaries in 2012, the billionaire mega-donor and his family sent a $5 million check to longtime ally Newt Gingrich’s super PAC to help him keep up with Mitt Romney, whose style of politics didn’t exactly mesh with Adelson’s. The cash allowed the Gingrich camp to buy a film attacking Romney’s business practices, helping force Romney into a protracted primary. The Adelsons continued unloading their arsenal on Romney, dumping another $11 million into the effort to deny him the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
But when it became clear Gingrich couldn’t overpower Romney—Gingrich would ultimately win only South Carolina and Georgia—the Adelson clan switched gears in a coldly pragmatic pivot. They were suddenly in Romney’s corner, writing $20 million in checks to a pro-Romney super PAC. Adelson so desperately wanted to defeat incumbent President Barack Obama that he indicated he would do whatever it took, even if that meant setting aside his previous misgivings about Romney’s candidacy. In all, the Adelsons spent more than $150 million that cycle to boost Republican causes.
Adelson’s largesse and ruthlessness gave the casino mogul, who died on Jan. 11 at age 87, an almost unrivaled influence over American politics. He was a self-made man whose net worth topped $35 billion at the time of his death. For almost two years, the casino magnate had been publicly battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Just last week, he announced he had taken a leave of absence from his company, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, to restart treatment. His company said in a Jan. 12 statement that Adelson died of complications from treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
At his peak—along with his second wife, Miriam—he was a coveted donor to political candidates, who were frequent visitors to his offices in his Venetian resort towers on the Las Vegas Strip and a pair of Adelson estates just outside the city. Would-be candidates took turns pitching him on their pro-Israel stances during annual meetings at his glitzy resort. Just days after being named Romney’s running mate, then-Rep. Paul Ryan was inside the Venetian to get a once-over by Adelson and his like-minded super-donors.
https://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sheldon-adelson-01.jpg?w=560&w=560 <figcaptionMichael Kovac—WireImage/Getty Images Sheldon Adelson and Dr. Miriam Adelson attend the John Wayne Cancer Institute Auxiliary’s 29th Annual Odyssey Ball on April 5, 2014, in Beverly Hills.
The White House released a statement from President Donald Trump after confirmation of Adelson’s death, calling him “a great man.”
“Sheldon lived the true American dream,” Trump said. “His ingenuity, genius and creativity earned him immense wealth, but his character and philanthropic generosity his great name.”
Throughout Adelson’s massive orbit, tributes poured in. “We have lost one of the most consequential figures in American Jewish history: an American patriot, a dedicated defender of Israel, an extraordinary philanthropist and a dear mentor and friend,” Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matt Brooks and chairman Norm Coleman said in a joint statement. “A strong defender of Israel, Jewish life and American opportunity and freedom has departed the Jewish community and the American political scene.” Building an empireSheldon Gary Adelson grew up in a one-room Boston tenement, the son of a taxi driver and seamstress. As a Jewish kid in an Irish-Catholic town, he was often bullied and on the defense, an experience that taught him the value of a counter-punch. From an early age, he showed a streak of entrepreneurship and appetite for risk. His first business was selling newspapers and candy, which he later devel[...]
TIME
As COVID-19 Tears Through Federal Death Row, the Trump Administration Is Still Planning Executions
When Gary Sampson tried to speak with his legal team on Jan. 5, he was so weak he dropped the phone, his attorney Madeline Cohen tells TIME.
Sampson, 61, has been incarcerated since 2003, sentenced to die after he pleaded guilty to carjacking resulting in death. He tested positive for COVID-19 in mid-December, Cohen says, becoming increasingly ill, frail and disoriented until he was eventually treated with Regeneron’s antibody cocktail. Sampson suffers from several health issues including stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver, she notes, and is still quite ill with COVID-19.
Citing conversations with her clients and fellow lawyers, Cohen says that at least 33 of the 47 men in the Special Confinement Unit (SCU), which houses federal death row prisoners at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., have tested positive for COVID-19 since Dec. 16. Advocates argue this outbreak is a near-inevitable result of the numerous federal executions that have taken place at the facility.
As of Jan. 11, 103 inmates and 5 staff members at Terre Haute USP, which contains the SCU, were positive for COVID-19, per the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). In a statement to TIME, the BOP said it does not break down COVID-19 figures for “specific housing quarters within our institutions, or specific groups of inmates upon request as we are devoting our staff resources primarily to maintaining institution operations and fulfilling our public safety mission at this time.”
In its statement, the BOP also says that it has taken “swift and effective action” to combat COVID-19 and has “instituted a comprehensive management approach that includes screening, testing, appropriate treatment, prevention, education, and infection control measures.”
Despite the outbreak at FCC Terre Haute, at least one more person, 55-year-old Corey Johnson, is scheduled to be executed by the federal government on Jan. 14, just days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. (Biden has pledged to eliminate the federal death penalty during his presidency.) Lisa Montgomery was scheduled to be executed Jan. 12 before a judge issued a stay on Monday, while Dustin Higgs could also face execution Jan. 15 pending the results of court proceedings. Both Johnson and Higgs have also contracted COVID-19.
Between 50 and 125 people travel to Terre Haute for an execution, per court documents, including a 40 person execution team that doesn’t quarantine upon arrival. Yet 10 executions took place during the second half of 2020 as COVID-19 ravaged the U.S. Advocates have pointed to the two most recent executions—that of Brandon Bernard on Dec. 10 and Alfred Bourgeois and Dec. 11—as potential sources for the most recent outbreak at the prison.
On Jan. 7, federal judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ruled in a lawsuit brought on behalf of people incarcerated at FCC Terre Haute that upcoming executions can only take place if the BOP imposes specific preventive measures to stem the spread of COVID-19, writing that “there is compelling circumstantial evidence that the [Department of Justice is] knowingly disregarding a risk to inmates’ health if they proceed with the January executions in the same manner as the earlier executions.”
According to Magnus-Stinson’s ruling, between Dec. 8 and Jan. 7, 657 inmates and 70 staff members tested positive for the virus.
The BOP had “failed” to enforce mask wearing at previous executions, “chosen not to utilize rapid testing of staff and visitors who enter prison grounds” and did not properly conduct contact tracing after a BOP staff member involved in the executions tested positive,” she wrote. “The failure was not by accident but by design,” she added.
(When asked for comment on Judge Mangus-Stinson’s ruling, BOP said that it does “not comment on pend[...]
Voice of America
Health Chat
Voice of America
VOA Newscasts
Voice of America
VOA Newscasts
Voice of America
Africa 54
You are watching Africa 54, your daily news and feature magazine-style program, from the Voice of America. Host Esther Githui-Ewart and a team of correspondents zero in on the big stories making news on the continent and around the world with context and analysis.
Top Stories - Google News
House Democrats to look into social media’s role in Capitol riot as part of broad disinformation inquiry - The Washington Post
1. House Democrats to look into social media’s role in Capitol riot as part of broad disinformation inquiry The Washington Post
2. Growing Number Of Social Media Companies Ban Trump | NBC Nightly News NBC News
3. Parler deserved to be taken down. We still need new rules for the Internet. The Washington Post
4. Twitter's Trump ban is apt, but Big Tech power is concerning Los Angeles Times
5. Trump can't be silenced, even by Facebook and Twitter, but we can prevent another Trump USA TODAY
6. View Full Coverage on Google News
SkySports | News
Abramovich considers Chelsea return for Grant
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is considering a move to bring former manager Avram Grant back to Stamford Bridge to work with current Blues boss Frank Lampard.
SkySports | News
The Papa John's Trophy: Who's reached the last 16?
The EFL Trophy, now known as the Papa John's Trophy, continues with the round of 16 on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Unsure about the exact format of the competition? Well, not to worry as we explain it all to you here…
