And another day of guilty verdicts, white men taking the law into their own hands, 52-year low jobless claims, burner phones, water shortages in San Francisco, outrage, Squid Game, and the alleged first crime in space comes to a close:
“Happy heavy traffic day! If you’re vaccinated, drive carefully. If you’re not, stay home and make a plan to stop endangering everyone around you.” — Walter Shaub
Deaths
US: 798,242 (+1923)
World: 5,191,762 (+8794)
Cases
US: 48,969,792 (+134,576)
World: 259,699,497 (+684,743)
The significance of the guilty verdicts in Ahmaud Arbery’s murder. The three white men who shot the 25-year-old Black man dead won’t walk free. Whether the verdict changes behavior or not, Arbery’s death has already led to legal reform in Georgia, including the passage of a hate crimes law as well as the gutting of a slavery-era citizen’s arrest law that the men used to defend their killing. These changes could eventually ripple across the country. But most states still have these laws in effect, giving citizens and vigilantes what some legal scholars say is undue power to act on their worst biases.
2 trials, 1 theme: White men taking law into their own hands. The two cases, which ended with an acquittal for Rittenhouse last week and guilty verdicts for Arbery’s killers on Wednesday, highlighted polarizing issues about gun and self-defense laws, and racial injustice. They also forced the questions: Who or what is being protected? And from whom? Should peace of mind for white Americans come at the expense of the protection and safety of Black Americans? “So much of this issue about protection and safety is about the safety and the protection of whites or white property,” said Carol Anderson, historian and professor of African American studies at Emory University. “There is a hubris of whiteness. The sense that it is on me to put Black lives back into their proper place.”
US jobless claims hit 52-year low after seasonal adjustments. The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits plummeted last week to the lowest level in more than half a century, another sign that the U.S. job market is rebounding rapidly from last year’s coronavirus recession. — The lowest level since 1969.
Jan. 6 Organizers Used Anonymous Burner Phones to Communicate with White House and Trump Family, Sources Say. Some of the organizers who planned the rally that took place on the White House Ellipse on Jan. 6 allegedly used difficult-to-trace burner phones for their most “high level” communications with former President Trump’s team. Kylie Kremer, a top official in the March for Trump group that helped plan the Ellipse rally, directed an aide to pick up three burner phones days before Jan. 6, according to three sources who were involved in the event. One of the sources, a member of the March for Trump team, says Kremer insisted the phones be purchased using cash and described this as being “of the utmost importance.”…According to the three sources, some of the most crucial planning conversations between top rally organizers and Trump’s inner circle took place on those burner phones. “They were planning all kinds of stuff, marches and rallies. Any conversation she had with the White House or Trump family took place on those phones,” the team member says of Kylie Kremer.
Fact check: Greg Abbott attack ad deceptively alters Beto O'Rourke's comments on policing. In three important ways, the Abbott ad deceptively edited O'Rourke's words about policing to try to make him sound more extreme.
Sweden has named Magdalena Andersson as the country's first female prime minister. Andersson, 54, replaces Stefan Löfven, who recently stepped down as both the country's premier and as leader of the Social Democrats party. All the other Nordic countries -- Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland -- have previously elected female national leaders.
Water shortage emergency declared in San Francisco. In a vote on Tuesday, the commission adopted a system-wide water reduction use of 10 percent, an announcement from the mayor's office said…As the drought persists in California, San Francisco’s reservoir supply is at nearly 73 percent capacity. At this time of year, 80 percent capacity would be considered normal. Roughly one-third of that supply, however, is not able to be touched because of state policies regarding the drought.
New documentary highlights plight of missing Black women and why their cases go ignored. A third of the almost 300,000 U.S. girls and women reported missing in 2020 were Black. That's according to the National Crime Information Center. Yet those cases are often marginalized or ignored by law enforcement and national media. Now, a four-part documentary series on HBO follows the lives of two women working to bring awareness to these cases. Amna Nawaz has the story.
Femicide is on the rise in Germany, the latest figures show. In Germany, there is on average one reported attempted homicide of a woman every single day. And according to new statistics, every two-and-a-half days a woman actually dies at the hands of her partner or former partner. In 2020, 139 women were killed.
Sweden's first female prime minister resigns hours after appointment. "I understand that this may look very messy, and what has happened is completely unique," Andersson said, according to Bloomberg. "Despite the fact that the parliamentary positions appear unchanged, the issue should be tried anew. I don’t want to lead a government whose legitimacy might be questioned."
Parents are scrambling after schools suddenly cancel class over staffing and burnout. Schools and districts around the country have been canceling classes on short notice. The cancellations aren't directly for COVID-19 quarantines; instead schools are citing staff shortages, staff fatigue, mental health and sometimes even student fights…”We all feel like we're witnessing the death of public education up close and personal." — And that is the point: to destroy public education.
Oklahoma GOP Head: RNC Chair 'Must Resign' For LGBTQ Support. In a 1,100-word fundraising email headed “RNC Chair MUST Change Course or RESIGN,” OKGOP chair John Bennett said McDaniel “must resign” if “she cannot or will not stand for who we say we are.” — Because the Republican Party gives explicit permission for people to hate others.
Outrage as India court reduces child abuse sentence. Just days after India's Supreme Court struck down a controversial order that cleared a man of sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl because "there was no skin-to-skin contact" with the victim, another judgement that reduced the jail term of a man convicted of forcing a 10-year-old boy to perform oral sex on him has caused outrage.
North Korea has sentenced to death a man who smuggled and sold copies of the Netflix series “Squid Game” after authorities caught seven high school students watching the Korean-language global hit show.
NASA investigating first allegation of crime in space. Astronaut Anne McClain is facing the first allegation of a crime committed in space, reports The New York Times. McClain's estranged wife, Summer Worden, accused the astronaut of accessing her bank account while on a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is spawning in an explosion of color as the natural wonder recovers from life-threatening coral bleaching episodes. Scientists on Tuesday night recorded the corals fertilizing billions of offspring by casting sperm and eggs into the Pacific Ocean off the Queensland state coastal city of Cairns.
Flying Taxis Just a Few Years Away According to Paper of Record. Yes, it’s flying taxi season, something that comes around like clockwork every six months or so—especially during a holiday week when the news might be slow. You’ll notice Thanksgiving is a just a few days away, something that we’re sure is merely a coincidence.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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