Monday, November 28, 2022

And another day of public anger in China, an AZ county refusing to certify election, Iran threatening families of national soccer team, Favre asks to be dismissed, erupting volcanoes, and ‘gaslighting’ comes to a close:

“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.” -- George Orwell

Covid Deaths

US: 1,104,879

World: 6,637,466

Covid Cases

US: 100,507,928

World: 646,463,451

China’s Xi faces threat from public anger over ‘zero COVID’. Barely a month after granting himself new powers as China’s potential leader for life, Xi Jinping is facing a wave of public anger of the kind not seen for decades, sparked by his “zero COVID” strategy that will soon enter its fourth year. Demonstrators poured into the streets over the weekend in cities including Shanghai and Beijing, criticizing the policy, confronting police — and even calling for Xi to step down. On Monday, demonstrators gathered in the semi-autonomous southern city of Hong Kong, where the pro-democracy movement was all but snuffed out by a harsh crackdown following monthslong demonstrations that began in 2019.

GOP-controlled Arizona county refuses to certify election. Republican officials in a rural Arizona county refused on Monday to certify the 2022 election, despite no evidence of anything wrong with the count, amid pressure from prominent Republicans to reject results showing Democrats winning top races. -- Republicans are purposefully trying to destroy democracy.

Surgeons work by flashlight as Ukraine power grid battered. The devastating strikes, which continued last week and plunged the country into darkness once again, strained and disrupted the health care system, already battered by years of corruption, mismanagement, the COVID-19 pandemic and nine months of war. Scheduled operations are being postponed; patient records are unavailable because of internet outages; and paramedics have had to use flashlights to examine patients in darkened apartments.

Iran threatened families of national soccer team, according to security source. The source said that they [the players] were told that their families would face “violence and and torture” if they did not sing the national anthem or if they joined any political protest against the Tehran regime.

Veterans Affairs has denied benefits to Black people at higher rates for years, lawsuit alleges. “The results of VA’s racial discrimination has been to deny countless meritorious applications by Black veterans, depriving them and their families of care and support that their faithful service has earned,” the lawsuit reads. Filed in federal court by Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic on behalf of Conley Monk Jr., a Vietnam War veteran, the suit claims Monk was repeatedly denied home loan, education and medical benefits because he is Black.

Flu continues to spread across the U.S., infecting millions, CDC reports. “People don’t have a good appreciation for how severe flu can be,” said the CDC’s influenza expert. Nearly 3,000 deaths from influenza have been reported since October.

Favre asks to be dismissed from Mississippi welfare lawsuit. Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre is asking to be removed from a lawsuit by the state of Mississippi that seeks to recover millions of dollars in misspent welfare money that was intended to help some of the poorest people in the U.S.

Slow cognitive decline with flavonols, study says. Eating more flavonols, antioxidants found in many vegetables, fruits, tea and wine, may slow your rate of memory loss, a new study finds.

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa erupts, officials warn people to prepare. Many now living in the area weren’t around when Mauna Loa last erupted 38 years ago...“I think everybody should be a little bit concerned,” he said. “We don’t know where the flow is going, we don’t know how long it’s going to last.” He said he’s seen three Mauna Loa eruptions in his lifetime and knows that people need to be vigilant. -- It’s the world’s largest active volcano.

‘Gaslighting’ is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2022. “Gaslighting” — behavior that’s mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year. Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn’t a single event that drove significant spikes in curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year. The gaslighting was pervasive. “It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s unveiling. “It was a word looked up frequently every single day of the year,” he said.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.