doseofsarcasm

#Pepsi #CocaCola #White #BeLessWhite #Diversity Coca-Cola employees were urged to be “less white” as part of the company’s alleged diversity training — but the material was yanked offline following a viral whistleblower post. The “Confronting Racism” course in question was offered by LinkedIn Education and allegedly utilized by the soft-drink titan. “In the U.S. and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white,” reads one of the slides, allegedly sent from an “internal whistleblower” and posted on Twitter by YouTube commentator Karlyn Borysenko. Another slide suggests “try to be less white” with tips including “be less oppressive,” “listen,” “believe” and “break with white solidarity.” Borysenko, who describes herself as a supporter of banning critical race theory, said the screenshots were sent to her from an “internal whistleblower” from Coca-Cola, who told her the course was “required.” Her tweet from Friday has garnered 18,000 retweets and more than 34,000 likes. On Monday, LinkedIn said it had pulled the controversial course — featuring interviews with sociologist Robin DiAngelo, the author of “White Fragility.” “The Confronting Racism course featuring Robin DiAngelo is no longer available in our course library, at the request of the 3rd party content provider we licensed this content from,” Nicole Leverich, vice president of corporate communications, told Newsweek in an email. Leverich continued, “We provide a wide variety of learning content, including more than 270 courses on the topics of diversity, inclusion and belonging. We will continue to add new courses to help people learn the skills they need to be more successful in their career, including the foundational skills we all need to be effective allies and help build a more equitable future.” DiAngelo, meanwhile, insists she was unaware she was featured in the course. “The slides included were not created by Dr. DiAngelo,” said her rep, Caitlin Meyer. “She was unaware that the videos had been re-edited in this way, or that they were being marketed as a course/training on anti-racism, since the way the content was put together did not accurately represent the way she would facilitate that type of work.” Coca-Cola denied that the training was mandatory for employees, Newsweek reported. But Borysenko told the outlet that multiple workers said it was, in fact, required.

#Seuss #Cancelled #Biden #Read #Racism The White House on Tuesday declined to defend Dr. Seuss after President Joe Biden left the children's author out of a proclamation celebrating Read Across America Day. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the day is 'a chance to celebrate diverse authors whose work and lived experience reflect the diversity of our country.' Her comments come after Biden omitted Dr. Seuss from Read Across America Day, which is held annually on the children's author's birthday on March 2. But now six of his children's books will no longer be published because of racist and insensitive imagery, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company that preserves and protects the author's legacy, announced Tuesday. Biden broke presidential tradition when he left out any mention of Dr. Seuss during his proclamation. Both former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump have recognized Dr. Seuss' contributions several times in their proclamations each year. Psaki said the Education Department wrote the proclamation, not the White House. But she added: 'It's especially important that we ensure all children can see themselves represented and celebrated in the books that they read.' Dr. Seuss, whose real name is Theodor Geisel, had been the face of the annual Read Across America day for more than 20 years. Asked if he was omitted this year because of racist images in some of his writing, Psaki said: 'I think it is important that children of all backgrounds see themselves in the children's books that they read, but I would point you to the Department of Education for any more details on the writing of the proclamation.' Explaining the decision to stop the publication of the six Dr. Seuss books, the company said: 'These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.' In 'And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,' an Asian person is portrayed wearing a conical hat, holding chopsticks, and eating from a bowl. 'If I Ran the Zoo' includes a drawing of two bare-footed African men wearing what appear to be grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads. 'Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises' catalog represents and supports all communities and families,' the company said. The decision to cease publication and sales of the books was made last year after months of discussion, the company said. 'Dr. Seuss Enterprises listened and took feedback from our audiences including teachers, academics and specialists in the field as part of our review process. We then worked with a panel of experts, including educators, to review our catalog of titles.' Random House Children Books, Dr. Seuss' publisher, issued a brief statement on Tuesday: 'We respect the decision of Dr. Seuss Enterprises and the work of the panel that reviewed this content last year, and their recommendation.' As adored as Dr. Seuss is by millions around the world for the positive values in many of his works, including environmentalism and tolerance, there has been increasing criticism in recent years over the way blacks, Asians and others are drawn in some of his most beloved children's books, as well as in his earlier advertising and propaganda illustrations. The National Education Association, which founded Read Across America Day in 1998 and deliberately aligned it with Geisel's birthday, has for several years de-emphasized Seuss and encouraged a more diverse reading list for children. School districts across the country have also moved away from Dr. Seuss, prompting Loudoun County, Virginia, schools just outside Washington, D.C., to douse rumors last month that they were banning the books entirely. 'Research in recent years has revealed strong racial undertones in many books written/illustrated by Dr. Seuss,' the school district said in a statement. In 2017, a school librarian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, criticized a gift of 10 Seuss books from first lady Melania Trump, saying many of his works were 'steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes.' In 2018, a Dr. Seuss museum in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts, removed a mural that included an Asian stereotype. 'The Cat in the Hat,' one of Seuss' most popular books, has received criticism, too, but will continue to be published for now.

#Biden #Blackface #Lawsuit #HighSchool #Cancelled Two teenage boys are suing an exclusive Catholic school for $20 million claiming the 'blackface' photo they were 'forced out' over was actually green acne medication. The former students and their parents launched the lawsuit against St Francis High School in Mountain View, California, after the viral image sparked outrage last year. They say the school offered them an ultimatum to leave or be expelled. The school says the teens left voluntarily. A third boy who was in the image went to a different school and is not involved in the suit, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. A selfie - taken in August 2017 - shows the three boys when they were 14-years-old, topless with a dark green mask on their face. In the suit, launched in Santa Clara County Superior Court in August, it is claimed that one boy suffered with severe acne. He had taken a pic with a white facemask a day prior to the green one, it adds. In a statement the two families said: 'This lawsuit is our attempt to redeem our names and reputations, and to correct the record to reflect the truth of what actually happened. 'A photograph of this innocent event was plucked from obscurity and grossly mischaracterized during the height of nationwide social unrest. 'In conjunction with the school and the community, our families sought to be a part of a solution to this obvious misunderstanding, so that the entire (Saint Francis) community could get to a better place, and we were rebuffed by SFHS and its leadership, who seemed to have no interest in entertaining the truth.' The suit says the school's actions were a 'virtue-signaling attempt to be perceived within the community as "fighting against racism", regardless of the true facts and context.' The boys, identified as H.H. and A.H. in the suit, and their parents also say the principal told them their removal was down to 'optics' in the wake of George Floyd's death. The lawsuit states: 'At no time did the boys engage in 'blackface,' nor did they intend to do so or mimic doing so. Neither A.H. nor H.H. had even been aware of the term 'blackface,' let alone what it meant or signified.' It adds that 'despite being on express notice of the falsity of the 'blackface' allegations' officials 'continued to defame and scapegoat' the boys. The families say this was 'for the sole purpose of appeasing members of the…community who were (rightfully) enraged by wholly unrelated incidents of racism at (the school).' It goes on: 'In defendants' hurried attempt to ensure their perception as social justice warriors in the face of an unfolding scandal, and without any efforts to ascertain the true state of affairs, defendants pointed to 3-year-old photograph of plaintiffs that was taken entirely out of context, to falsely accuse plaintiffs of having committed an overt act of racism...and to scapegoat them for the misconduct of other students.' 'It is SFHS'S pattern and practice to sweep incidents of student racism under the rug when doing so would benefit SFHS'S reputation, and to scapegoat students (regardless of their level of fault) when doing so would be better for the school or administration's public perception and ability to collect monetary contributions.' A judge in January said the school 'may have acted negligently'. Judge Thang Barrett noted there was no evidence of an investigation into the matter by administrators in his decision to not dismiss the suit. The image had been shared one of the boy's friends who then uploaded it to her Spotify account. It stayed there until it resurfaced last June when it was shared as an example of racism at the school. The boys and their parents say they attempted to explain the acne face masks to their friends and the dean of the school in the hours that followed.

#Illegal #Accident #California #Biden #Border The Ford SUV that was carrying '25 illegal immigrants' as it pulled out in front of a semi-truck in southern California early on Tuesday morning had seats removed to allow for more people to be packed in, according to new reports. At least 13 people were killed, including ten Mexican nationals, when the crash occurred on State Route 115 in the area of El Centro, 10 miles north of the US-Mexico border, at around 6:15am local time, authorities said. The SUV, a maroon Ford Expedition, had been driving westbound on Norrish Road when it traveled 'in the direct path' of an unloaded gravel truck heading northbound on 115. Victims were flung from the crowded car, which normally can only safely hold eight people, onto the road, authorities said. 'I don't know if they were cut out or removed, I'm not sure, but they were not in the vehicle,' said California Highway Patrol Chief Omar Watson of the SUV's back seats. 'What it indicates is that there were not enough safety belts for the passengers.' The driver of the Expedition, a 22-year-old Mexican national from Mexicali, was among those killed. It is not yet known why he drove into the intersection in front of the semi truck and if he had stopped at the stop sign, or if the vehicle was registered to him. The Mexican Consulate confirmed to CNN that at least ten of those killed were Mexican but that it was still trying to confirm the identity of the other three victims. Authorities said in a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon that many of the passengers of the SUV did not speak English and that they had not provided further information on what caused the crash. Earlier Tuesday, chief executive officer of El Centro Regional, Dr. Adolphe Edward, said he believed that all the victims in the SUV were undocumented migrants. The claim is yet to be confirmed by authorities but a Border Patrol source told Fox News that they were undocumented. The source added that the crash happened after a hole had been cut in the border fence near Calexico and two vehicles crammed with people had driven through in the early hours of the morning. They added that it had evaded a mobile camera system set up nearby. Fox reported that the source claimed border patrol had not been on the look out for human smugglers until it was informed by Imperial County Sheriffs Office of the crash that happened eight miles away later that morning. Twelve people were found dead at the scene of the crash, including the driver of the Ford, and another victim died after arriving at El Centro Regional Medical Center, California Highway Patrol Chief Omar Watson said in a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon. An area hospital had initially said at least 15 had died, but CHP later clarified the numbers. Several other passengers of the SUV were also hurt, all aged between their early 20s and their 50s. At least five of the injured were airlifted from the scene, three of whom are currently in intensive care at the trauma center of Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. The 69-year-old semi driver from El Centro, California, was also taken to hospital for his injuries. He is expected to survive. The truck struck the left side of the SUV, which appeared to have been pushed off the road. 'It would be premature for me to speculate or discuss what caused this collision. What we have to keep in mind is that 13 people died in this crash,' Watson said. 'It's a very sad situation.' 'Twenty-five passengers were inside the Ford Expedition at the time of impact. The older-model Ford should only fit eight people,' Watson said. 'Obviously, that vehicle's not meant for that many people,' he added. 'It's unfortunate that that many people were put into that vehicle because there´s not enough safety constraints to safely keep those people in that vehicle.' Numerous people were ejected from the vehicle, while others 'were able to pull themselves' out of the wreck, according to Watson. Injuries are said to vary in severity from fractures, to chest injuries, to head traumas. He said that several of those in the car had identification cards with them but would not confirm their nationalities. Watson added that the youngest person in the car was 16 years old and that there were no young children as previously reported. He added that there was an even split of women and men in the vehicle but that he couldn't say where they were traveling from. 'We are close to the border so we do have people who come back and forth on a daily basis for work so that something that we couldn't rule out,' Watson said. Macario Mora, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in Yuma and El Centro, told KTLA his department is assisting with the investigation into the crash. He said the immigration status of those in the SUV was unknown and is currently being investigated.

#TI #AOC #Racism #Yoga #NYPD #Africa #Digidog Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has denounced the NYPD's new crime-fighting robot dog, appearing to accuse the department of racism for deploying the device for testing in only low-income communities of color. The Democratic firebrand blasted the police department's four-legged 'Digidog' in a succession of Thursday tweets, two days after the cyber hound was filmed responding to a home invasion in her home borough of the Bronx. 'Shout out to everyone who fought against community advocates who demanded these resources go to investments like school counseling instead,' she wrote. 'Now robotic surveillance ground drones are being deployed for testing on low-income communities of color with under-resourced schools.' Ocasio-Cortez then argued that police funding that allows for new technology like the Digidog would have better served the community if it had been allotted to programs for education or housing. 'Please ask yourself: when was the last time you saw next-generation, world class technology for education, healthcare, housing, etc consistently prioritized for underserved communities like this?' she added in a follow-up tweet. Digidog, which was designed by Boston Dynamics and has a starting price of around $75,000, joined the NYPD last year. The blue and black rover, which weighs approximately 70 pounds, is equipped with lights, two-way communication, and video cameras, the department said. The robot is fitted with cameras to search an area and send back real-time footage and is powered by artificial intelligence to navigate on its own. The cyber canine can also climb stairs, see in the dark, and run at about three-and-a-half miles an hour. It was designed for emergency situations that would otherwise be too dangerous for human officers. Digidog is currently being tested by the NYPD's Technical Assistance Response Unit, which deployed it at a home invasion and barricade situation on East 227th Street near White Plains Road in Wakefield on Tuesday. Two men were reportedly being held hostage in a Bronx apartment. They had been threatened at gun point, tied up and tortured for hours by two male assailants who pretended to be plumbers to gain access to the home. One of the victims managed to escape and called the police. Digidog was deployed and helped officers determine that the armed suspects were no longer inside the home. The police said they were still searching for the two men, who stole a cellphone and $2,000 in cash and used a hot iron to burn one of the victims. Digidog was also previously deployed in Brooklyn in October to help find a gunman hiding in a basement, and was also used in a hostage situation in Queens the following month. The robotic dog is also currently being used by the Massachusetts State Police and the Honolulu Police Department. ------------------ A Delaware kindergarten teacher has come under fire for an online yoga lesson that used the history of slavery in the US — and an inaccurate one at that — to teach different yoga poses. The unidentified teacher pre-recorded a 35-minute yoga lesson for students of the McIlvaine Early Childhood Center in Magnolia. But in a misguided attempt to incorporate some Black History Month education into the lecture, the teacher shared an abbreviated and incorrect history of how enslaved people were brought to the US and made to work, using their boat journey across the Atlantic to teach 'boat pose' and their forced work of the land to teach 'plow pose.' A video recording of part of the lesson has been making the rounds on Facebook after being uploaded by a parent of one of the students. The online clip starts a partial world map with the image of a boat in the middle of the ocean, with arrows showing how enslaved Africans were taken to other parts of the world, including the US. 'African people came to America on boats to become slaves,' the teacher can be heard saying. 'So here's the great big country of Africa. They crossed the Atlantic to come over to America. So right now, I need you to get into your boat pose.' Besides the teacher mistakenly referring to Africa as a country — it is in fact a continent made up of many countries — she also makes it seem like enslaved people went to the US and 'became' slaves willingly. As the parents who is recording the lesson can be heard saying in the background, Africans did not 'come' to America — they were stolen from their lands and transported forcibly, often in chains. But the teacher continues to try to find links between slavery and yoga poses. 'Africans were treated very poorly, even though they farmed the land and plowed the fields to make America beautiful and help grow our food,' she says. 'They worked in the fields all day. If you're at home, you can try the plow pose.' Commenters on the video have been horrified by the lesson, arguing that it trivializes slavery by relating its horrors to relaxing yoga poses.

#UnitedStates #Israel #Passport #Vaccine #EU There is a new rule at Meir Elbaz's synagogue near Tel Aviv. Only people who can produce a green pass, Israel's new Covid passport, may cross the threshold. If you don't have one of the highly-prized passes, you are relegated to the courtyard and forced to listen to prayers through the open windows. 'It's a harsh rule to impose but it's for a really good reason, and ultimately it's the kind of approach that will allow Israel to quickly return to normality,' said Elbaz, a 29-year-old logistics manager. Last week was the carnival-themed Jewish holiday of Purim, when the whole congregation traditionally attends prayers in fancy dress. It's the highlight of the calendar for children and the place is normally filled with youngsters dressed as princes, princesses, superheroes and animals, given a once-a-year right to make as much noise as they like. But only adults can get green passes and it's hard to hear prayers from the courtyard, so Elbaz's 18-month-old daughter – like all the other children – stayed home, with only her mother to admire her ladybird outfit. It's a stark example of how the new virus certificate, introduced on February 21, is changing Israel. Anyone above the age of 16, the minimum age at which you can be given the vaccine, can download the government-issued certificate to their phone if they have been inoculated against Covid or have recovered from the virus. The certificate features a QR code that, once scanned, checks Israeli health records to confirm that the holder has received both doses of the Covid vaccine. It can also be printed out on paper, allowing the smartphone-averse ultra-Orthodox community to also benefit from the scheme. The government sees the system as having a key role to play in opening up society following the success of its world-beating vaccination programme which has seen public clinics give at least one dose to half the population. Latest data indicates that the vaccine is proving to be 94 per cent effective. And for the first time in months, Israelis have flocked to gyms and swimming pools last week, with access legally restricted to those who could present a green pass at the door. The system will also be introduced at cafes, bars and restaurants as they are allowed to open over the coming weeks. 'Opening these places is a big deal as recreational activities like eating out are a huge part of our culture and we're all excited,' said Joseph Gitler, chairman of Leket Israel, the national food bank. He added: 'We've been seeing chefs and other furloughed restaurant staff turning up at our soup kitchens for meals, and the chance to kickstart our huge hospitality sector will do wonders in reducing poverty.' The launch of the passport is also welcome news for concert promoter Ronit Arbel. She is used to laying on gigs for the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga and Eric Clapton but, thanks to the pandemic, it will be some time before she hosts any more global icons. Instead she will be organising concerts for local acts and, in another twist, she will be concentrating on those that appeal to an older demographic. As most people who have been vaccinated so far – and are thus eligible for a green pass – are in the 60-plus age group, Arbel's target market is now the elderly rather than the young. She has predicted that artists who play music from the 1950s and 60s could be about to find themselves inundated with bookings. She added: 'All over the world, people are struggling with the loss of cultural events but I'm now starting to be optimistic, and think that the green pass will make Israel the first to revive.'

#Cuomo #Harassment #NewYork #Fredo #Deomcrat A second aide has claimed Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed her - at the height of the pandemic. Charlotte Bennett, 25, said the New York Governor told her he was open to dating women in their 20s and asked her questions about her personal life in June. It comes after Lindsey Boylan, 36, claimed he asked her to play strip poker and kissed her on the lips without her permission when she worked for him in 2017. Cuomo, 63, said he 'never intended to act in any way that was inappropriate' with Ms Bennett and his press secretary said Ms Boylan's claims were 'false'. The governor yesterday promised a review by former federal judge - appointed by Bill Clinton - Barbara Jones into the allegations against him. But prominent Democrats such as Alessandra Biaggi, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Carl Heastie turned their backs on him and called for a 'truly independent probe'. Ms Bennett, who was an executive assistant before she resigned in November, claims on numerous occasions, the governor asked her questions about her personal life. The questions in early June included those that pertained to a romantic relationship between two people of different ages. Bennett said Cuomo also made comments stating he was open to dating women in their 20s, which she took as overtures to a s***** relationship. The former aide did state that Cuomo never made an attempt to touch her but added that he was lonely and 'can't even hug anyone'. Bennett says she said she missed hugging her parents, to which she claims he said: 'No, I mean like really hugged somebody?' Bennett told the New York Times: 'I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared. 'And was wondering how I was going to get out of it and assumed it was the end of my job.' Bennett, who served in a number of roles for Cuomo - including executive assistant and health policy advisor - said the governor made a number of concerning comments to her last spring during the height of the pandemic in the state. Bennett informed Cuomo's chief of staff, Jill DesRosiers, of the interaction and was transferred to her role as the health policy adviser. Her new office was in the complete opposite side of the Capitol. She also said she gave a statement to Judith Mogul, special counsel to the governor. She also told her parents and friends of the encounters, soon after they occurred, informing them of the growing discomfort she had with working with him. According to her LinkedIn, Bennett is now working at Primary Maternity Care as a Director of Operations. Bennett said she initially saw Cuomo as a 'father figure', telling him she even played middle school soccer against one of his daughters. 'We got along really well,' she said, noting that she didn't think anything of the questions about her dating life at first. Bennett sent her mother a text on January 20, following an extensive conversation she had with Gov. Cuomo. 'Had a really long convo with Gov today,' she texted, telling her mother of the two-hour talk she had with Cuomo. 'He had a lot to say and was very emotional and serious but also asked a lot of questions,' she wrote. 'He got emotional. Not me.' As she transitioned roles and began working in Albany, Bennett noted that the relationship she had with Cuomo began to change by mid-May. On May 15, she got to the Capitol at 7am and soon engaged in a chat with Cuomo about her love life. She told the Times the governor began gossiping with her about who she had been romantically involved with in the governor's staff. Bennett shared the conversation with other staff members. During the chat, Bennett told Cuomo of a speech she was scheduled to give to Hamilton students about her experience as a survivor as s***** assault. She said that the governor soon became enamored with her story. 'The way he was repeating, 'You were raped and abused and attacked and assaulted and betrayed,' over and over again while looking me directly in the eyes was something out of a horror movie,' she said in a text to a friend. 'It was like he was testing me.' Bennett describes the May 15 encounter 'as the turning point in our relationship.' 'Anything before it I now see differently,' she said. 'I now understand that as grooming.' The former aide said three weeks later, Cuomo began asking her questions about her love life after they had finished working in his office with another aide who had already left. Bennett said the governor even asked her whether she was monogamous or enjoyed having s** with older men. During a text with a friend on June 5, Bennett expressed being shaken and upset by the encounter and said she was even worried about writing down what happened. 'Something just happened and I can't even type it out or put it in a video,' Ms. Bennett stated. Bennett did tell her friend that there had been nothing physical between her and Cuomo.

#Reproduction #Chemicals #SpermCount #Phthalates Falling sperm counts are a threat to human survival, a leading epidemiologist has warned. Dr Shanna Swan said the impending fertility crisis is a global threat in her provocative new book, 'Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race'. Falling sperm counts could be as big a threat as the climate crisis, according to Dr Swan, an environmental and reproductive epidemiologist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. In the book, she wrote: 'The current state of reproductive affairs can’t continue much longer without threatening human survival.' She is also the author of a ground-breaking 2017 study that revealed that sperm counts around the world have fallen by more than half over the past four decades. And all signs suggest the downward trajectory will only continue in the decades to come. Only about 1.9 percent of all babies born in the US were conceived using artificial reproductive technology. By 2050, that will change, claims Dr Swan her new book Dr Swan predicts that by then, a large proportion of people around the world will not be able to conceive without technological assistance. That will be the result of declining sperm count among men around the world, she says. There are many drivers of infertility, but Dr Swan has homed in on a sneaky prime suspect: household chemicals called phthalates. Phthalates are in all manner of products. They make plastics pliable, they make it possible for our skin to absorb lotion and they help make food packaging like cellophane stretchy and air-tight. But they seep from these packagings into our food and into our bodies where they do something much more insidious, disrupting the endocrine system that controls hormones, including testosterone. Dr Swan and many other scientists believe this is a primary drive of men's plummeting sperm counts. Her 2017 study showed a shocking decline in men's sperm counts, especially among Western men. Men that have a sperm count below 15 million sperm per mL or 39 million per ejaculate are at risk of being infertile, according to the Mayo Clinic, although the shape and motility - or movement - of sperm matter, too. One in seven couples in the US are already estimated to be infertile, as a result of fertility issues contributed by one or both partners. Individually, about nine percent of men were estimated to be infertile already in 2018, the CDC's latest estimate. That's far more than were infertile in 2017, according to Dr Swan's 2017 study. She found that sperm counts among Western men had declined by nearly 60 percent between 1973 and 2011. On average, sperm counts declined by a little more than one percent each year. At that rate, the share of men who are infertile would now be around 12 percent. And if that continues, by 2050, 41 percent of men will be infertile. As sperm counts and quality decline, much of the population will be forced to use assisted reproductive technology (ART), Dr Swan told DailyMail.com. She calls this outcome 'a third step' in a cascade of issues. 'Preceding that, you have to start with the decline in sperm counts and semen quality, including decreased fertility, and fact that if men's sperm counts get really low, your only option, really, is to use assistive reproductive technology,' Dr Swan said. Her study shows that sperm counts have been declining since at least 1973, but few of its scale had been done before, so it's hard to say when things really started to turn downward. Phthalates were invented in the 1920s, and became commercially available in 1931. They started out mainly being used in PVC, a tough but stretchy plastic, and products like insect repellent.

#Hasbro #PotatoHead #Stimulus Toy manufacturer Hasbro Inc. is updating its iconic Mr. Potato Head, dropping the “Mr.” in favor of a kit that will let kids create a Potato Head family from a variety of pieces. At first, the company said it was making a “modern” update to the nearly 70-year-old toy. “Hasbro is making sure all feel welcome in the Potato Head world by officially dropping the Mr. from the Mr. Potato Head brand name and logo to promote gender equality and inclusion,” the company said in an initial announcement. The company has since updated the announcement on its website to remove this language. “Hasbro is officially renaming the Mr. Potato Head brand to Potato Head to better reflect the full line. But rest assured, the iconic Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters aren’t going anywhere and will remain Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head,” the updated news release indicated. The new Potato Head toy is slates to be available in the fall. The announcement was one of many during Hasbro’s investor event, in which the toy maker introduced updates to a number of its brands and even the way it reports its quarterly results. The company also announced that it is launching the first Peppa Pig theme park at the LegoLand resort in Florida. Opening in 2022, the Peppa Pig Theme Park will require a separate ticket and include water rides, interactive attractions, and other features. Hasbro’s Nerf brand has partnered with NFL Flag to provide footballs and flag belts to the more than 1,600 NFL Flag U.S. leagues starting in the summer. Children under six years old will use Nerf-style foam balls, while older children will use traditional, air-filled Nerf footballs. The partnership also includes school programs and NFL Flag branding on packaging at select retail locations starting spring 2022. In entertainment, a new “My Little Pony” movie is heading to Netflix in 2022, a new series for preschoolers called Kiya is coming in 2023, and dozens of other projects in the pipeline. Hasbro has also extended its partnership with Epic Games, the company behind the popular “Fortnite” videogame. The company is also launching new Monopoly games, new product lines for PJ Masks are coming soon, and there will be digital game launches for “Magic: The Gathering” and “Dungeons & Dragons.” Behind the scenes, Hasbro has revamped its financial reporting segments, which the company will begin using in April for its first-quarter earnings release. Consumer products will include toys and games; Wizards of the Coast and digital gaming will encompass “Magic: The Gathering,” “Dungeons & Dragon”s and licensed Hasbro digital gaming; and entertainment will include Hasbro and eOne entertainment across family brands, TV and film, and music. “Our expectation is that we return to growth in revenues, earnings and EBITDA in 2021,” said Brian Goldner, Hasbro’s chief executive, in a statement. (Goldner was MarketWatch’s CEO of the Year in 2008.) “This includes revenue growth in all three segments to potentially achieve double-digit revenue growth across Hasbro for the year.” Hasbro reported fourth-quarter earnings in early February, beating expectations. Hasbro shares were up 1% on Thursday, and have gained 11.3% over the past year. The benchmark S&P 500 index is up 22.9% for the period.

#Ehukai #Pillbox #Oahu Ehukai Pillboxes is a 2.3 mile heavily trafficked loop trail located near Haleiwa, Oahu, Hawaii that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking and is accessible year-round. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash. Very family oriented, wide, easy, well graded trail. Only thing to watch out for are the junctions to the pillboxes and when it's raining, it can get slippery. Some rope sections which could come handy when muddy and slippery. This trail is easy to follow and had minimal mud only at the beginning, ropes to help when it was very steep, good roots for footing and really beautiful views. The pillboxes were full of people at sunset but still very expansive views. From pillbox 1 to pillbox 2 is only a few minutes of steep decline and it’s worth checking out both. There are some very steep parts on this trail, but they’re short. This would be an excellent challenge for a beginner hiker as well as a fun journey for someone in tip-top shape.

#MoroCanyon #LagunaBeach #CrystalCove #OrangeCounty El Moro Canyon Loop Trail is a 4 mile hike that brings you through a canyon and up to Moro Ridge, offering jaw-dropping views of the Pacific Ocean throughout the duration. The trail features a waterfall and is open year-round, but is best used in the spring. Remember to bring $15 cash for the parking fee. The Laguna Beach trail is shared by trail runners, mountain bikers, hikers, and the occasional horseback rider. Dogs are not allowed in Crystal Cove State Park. Crystal Cove State Park is a beautiful area in Laguna Beach that includes 3 miles of coastline and dozens of miles of hiking trails. I set out to explore the most popular trail, El Moro Loop Trail, which included hiking through a nice canyon and going along a ridge that overlooked the ocean. It was a great five mile trail in Orange County, and here is all the information. Crystal Cove State Park is north of Downtown Laguna Beach on Highway 1. You will see signs directing you to the park, and you will want to enter near El Moro School. From there, you will go through the pay station, pay your fee and then park down near where the beach parking is but up in the lot closer to the hills. There was plenty of parking when I went in the spring, but I am sure in the summer this area gets really busy. rom the parking lot, the trailhead is in the northeast part of the lot. There is a map there that you can take a photo of, but the trail is relatively straightforward as long as you take the correct direction at the two splits.

#HerschelWalker #Reparations #Grift #Scam NFL legend Herschel Walker argued against reparations for black Americans at a congressional hearing, saying: 'Slavery ended over 130 years ago.' Walker made his case to members of the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties who met via Zoom on Wednesday to discuss House Resolution 40, which aims to 'establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery'. The athlete, who played for the University of Georgia and won the Heisman Trophy in 1982 before going pro, asserted that compensating black Americans for the lasting impacts of slavery would cause more harm than good. 'We use black power to create white guilt,' Walker, a longtime friend of former president Donald Trump, told the subcommittee. 'My approach is biblical...how can I ask my Heavenly Father to forgive me if I can't forgive my brother? 'America is the greatest country in the world for me, a melting pot of a lot of great races, a lot of great minds that have come together with different ideas to make Americans the greatest country on Earth.' Walker went on to rant about the impracticality of reparations, given that slavery was abolished so long ago. 'How many African-Americans was alive today that was in slavery? Which is none,' he said. 'So I go to some of the older people for experience and I remember my mom mentioning, how could we pay for your great, great, great grandfather being burned to death? Or how could we pay for your great, great uncle being hung?' 'I understand that those pictures are horrible,' Walker said, referencing photos of a beaten slave and lynched black Americans that HR 40's sponsor, Rep Sheila Jackson Lee (D - Texas), presented at the start of the hearing. 'But right now, I think the fact finding is going to be very difficult to go back over history when history is not even taught in school on what we're trying to in fact find.' He continued: 'Where would the money from from? Does it come from all the other races except the black taxpayers? 'Who is black? What percentage of black must you be to receive reparations? Do you go to 23andMe or a DNA test to determine the percentage of blackness? 'Reparations teach separation,' Walker concluded. 'Slavery ended over 130 years ago. How can a father ask his son to spend prison time for a crime he committed? 'I feel it continues to let us know we're still African American, rather than just American. Reparation or atonement is outside the teaching of Jesus Christ.' Walker was joined in the opposition by talk show host Larry Elder, who argued that systemic racism is not the main problem. 'Obviously there are black people who are poor, the extent of which the poverty is a result of slavery and Jim Crow is tenuous at best,' Elder said. 'The larger factor behind black poverty is the absence of fathers in the home.' Elder also called reparations for slavery the 'greatest generational transfers of wealth back and forth, because virtually every people on the face of the earth was involved in slavery.' Rep Burgess Owens, a freshman Republican from Utah, used the venue to place blame on the Democrats for most of the US's sordid racial history. 'It has not been an American problem, it has been pretty specific. When you think about where slavery began, where segregation, where Jim Crow, it's always the Democratic Party,' Owens said. 'Earlier we mentioned 40 acres and a mule, that was ended by a Democratic president, Andrew Johnson, we talked about the KKK, that was a Democratic terrorist organization that actually was ended, at the end of the 1880s, but brought back again by Woodrow Wilson in 1915,' he continued. Owens - one of just two black Republicans in the House - called reparations 'impractical and a non-starter' and said it was 'unfair and heartless to give black Americans the hope that this is a reality'. 'The reality is that black American history is not a hapless hopeless race oppressed by a more powerful white race,' he said, calling the current inequities 'the failure of policies'.

#Wikipedia #LarrySanger #Neutrality #Concentration #Camp #Germany A 95-year-old former N*** concentration camp guard has been deported from the United States and arrived Saturday in his native Germany where he is being held by police for questioning, authorities said. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in a statement that Friedrich Karl Berger was sent back to Germany for serving as a guard of a Neuengamme concentration camp subcamp in 1945. Berger, who had retained German citizenship, was deported for taking part in 'N***-sponsored acts of persecution', the department said. The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. German authorities confirmed Berger arrived Saturday at Frankfurt and was handed over to Hesse state investigators for questioning, the dpa news agency reported. Berger admitted to U.S. authorities that he served as a guard at a camp in northwestern Germany, which was a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, for a few weeks near the end of the war but said he did not observe any abuse or killings, prosecutors in the German city of Celle said. A spokesman for the prosecutor´s office in Celle said police in the German state of Hesse had been asked to question him on his return to Germany. A police spokesman said there is no live investigation linked to him and he is a free individual and has not been taken in custody. German prosecutors in Celle had investigated the possibility of bringing charges against Berger, but said in December that they had shelved the probe because they had been unable to refute his own account of his service at Neuengamme. But prosecutors asked for him to be questioned again upon his return to Germany, however, to determine whether accessory to murder charges could be brought, police said. Berger was ordered expelled from the U.S. by a Memphis, Tennessee court in February 2020. The deportation of Berger was 'possibly the last' such US expulsion of a former N***, given the dwindling number of war survivors, one US official said. In recent years, German prosecutors have successfully argued that by helping a death camp or concentration camp function, guards can be found guilty of accessory to murder even if there is no evidence of them participating in a specific killing. ------------------------- Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger has slammed the site's leftist bias and claims its days of 'neutrality are long gone' in a new interview. Sanger, 52, called alleged bias on the site he co-founded in January 2001 with Jimmy Wales 'disheartening' in an interview for a Fox News analysis. According to his own Wikipedia page, Sanger has long 'been critical of the project,' and described it as being 'broken beyond repair' in 2007. 'Wikipedia's ideological and religious bias is real and troubling, particularly in a resource that continues to be treated by many as an unbiased reference work.' Wikipedia pages related to socialism and communism contain show how the website has 'become merely left-wing advocacy essays,' according to Fox News. 'The two main pages for "Socialism" and "Communism" span a massive 28,000 words, and yet they contain no discussion of the genocides committed by socialist and communist regimes, in which tens of millions of people were murdered and starved,' the Fox News analysis claims. Sanger told the outlet he is now working on a new 'Encyclosphere' project but said he doesn't think Wikipedia could be 'salvaged.' His own Wikipedia page documents a long history of criticism against the site he co-founded. Sanger's woes with the company were first revealed in 2004 when he wrote an article for the website Kuro5hin. Sanger's article claimed that Wikipedia, which calls itself 'the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit,' is not perceived as credible by librarians and academics because it lacks a formal review process and is 'anti-elitist.' In 2007, Sanger criticized Wikipedia again after the launch of Citizendium, another wiki-based encyclopedia he created to address the 'flaws' with Wikipedia. Sanger said Wikipedia was 'broken beyond repair' and had 'a whole series of scandals' from 'serious management problems' to 'frequently unreliable content,' according to IT News. The techie again distanced himself from Wikipedia in September 2009 when he claimed: 'I thought that the project would never have the amount of credibility it could have if it were not somehow more open and welcoming to experts.' 'The other problem was the community had essentially been taken over by trolls to a great extent. That was a real problem, and Jimmy Wales absolutely refused to do anything about it,' Sanger told Internet Revolution. Sanger sent a letter to the FBI in April 2010 claiming that Wikimedia Commons was hosting child pornography, according to a BBC article.

#Professor #JohnsHopkins #Corona #Herd #Immunity #Vaccine Johns Hopkins professor Dr Marty Makary has made a bold claim: 'We'll have herd immunity by April'. Dr Makary wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that he estimates that the U.S. will have herd immunity by then, driven by the high, but underestimated, number of people who have been infected already and vaccination. 'Some medical experts privately agreed with my prediction that there may be very little Covid-19 by April but suggested that I not to talk publicly about herd immunity because people might become complacent and fail to take precautions or might decline the vaccine,' said Dr Makary in his editorial, published Friday. 'But scientists shouldn’t try to manipulate the public by hiding the truth.' Dr Makary noted that new daily infections have declined 77 percent in the past six weeks (a DailyMail.com analysis of Johns Hopkins data shows a 72 percent decline), equating this decrease to a 'miracle pill.' President Joe Biden also said he hopes Americans can 'return to normalcy' by the end of this year during a visit to a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing facility in Michigan on Friday. The US saw 74,676 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, compared to six weeks ago, when the seven-day rolling average of new daily infections was 247,164. Infections have been declining steadily for the past five weeks, but top health officials including Dr Anthony Fauci and CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky have warned that the progress is tenuous. America is still seeing more new infections a day than it did at the height of the summer peak, Dr Walensky reiterated on Friday - and even the current downward trajectory is threatened by the spread of new variants like the UK's, which has already caused more than 1,600 infections in 43 states. Dr Makary's rosy prediction largely dismisses the presence of variants, noting that cases are declining in the UK, where the B117 variant quickly became dominant, triggering massive case surges and lockdowns there. He also claims that herd immunity in the Brazilian city of Manaus, where 76 percent of people had already been infected resulted in a 'slowing of the infection.' But the Lancet report that he drew those statistics from documented the 'resurgence of COVID-19 despite high' proportions of the population who had previously infected. In the US, the CDC predicts that the B117 variant will become dominant by March. Cases are already doubling about every 10 days, according to a recent Scripps Research Institute study - and experts are concerned that the 1.58 million doses of vaccine being given a day won't enough to the more infectious variants now spreading in the U.S. Inevitably, the US and every other nation comes a little closer to herd immunity with every day and every additional case of COVID-19, and that does reduce the number of people vulnerable to infection - but the nation is likely still a long way off from reaching vaccination or prior infection for 70 percent of the population. So far, just 12.6 percent of the population has had one or more dose of coronavirus vaccine, and about 1.6 million doses are being given a day. At that rate, Bloomberg's vaccination calculator estimates that 70 percent of the US won't be inoculated until about New Year's Day, 2022. Some of that gap, however will be made up by the number of Americans who acquire immunity by surviving COVID-19. As of Friday evening, 27.9 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, according to Johns Hopkins University data. It's widely agreed that that figure is an underestimate. The CDC estimates that some 83.1 million Americans have had the virus. With a population of 331 million, that estimate would suggest that a quarter of the US population has been infected and immunity to COVD-19 (although it's still not clear how long that protection will last, most studies suggest it will provide three to eight months of immunity, at least). Combined with the 12.6 percent of the US that's been infected, that would bring the total share of Americans with COVID-19 immunity to 37.6 percent. Even assuming both the CDC's estimate of cases and the vaccination rate are underestimates, the nation is still a long way off from herd immunity. If both vaccinations and infections both keep up at the current rates, it's possible that the combination could push the number of people with some immunity from one or the other past 300,000 - but the declining case rates will hamper that progress, and variants - especially those that arrived to the US from Brazil and South Africa and can evade antibodies - could weaken protection if they take hold. But Dr Makary argues that the number of Americans who have already had coronavirus and are now immune or, at least, less at-risk of the infection, is discounted in other public health experts' predictions of when the US could reach herd immunity.

#Australia #Facebook #Ban #News #Money #BigTech #Zuckerberg #Censorship Facebook users in Australia are slowly coming to terms with the fact that they’ll no longer be able to get their daily news updates on the platform. In a snap decision announced Wednesday, the social media giant said it was no longer going to allow publishers and Australian users to share and view news content on its site. The move was a direct response to Australia’s proposed “new media code,” which would force Google and Facebook to pay news publishers for the right to link to their content in news feeds or search results. Google announced a major deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp on Wednesday, but Facebook has taken the nuclear option, according to Peter Lewis, director of the Centre for Responsible Technology at the think tank Australia Institute. How residents have responded Facebook’s actions have divided opinion across the country, with some indifferent, and others angry. The #deletefacebook hashtag was trending on Twitter in Australia on Thursday. When removing news pages from its platform, Facebook also inadvertently pulled pages for dozens of charities, state health organizations, small businesses, and a weather bureau. Sydney resident Fred Azis-Laranjo told CNBC that he thinks Facebook’s decision will “massively backfire” and that Facebook will lose fans and customers in Australia as a result. “It will inconvenience and annoy a huge group of the population who get their news from their Facebook news feed,” he said. “Longer term, I think it is a good thing if it encourages more people to seek news more proactively, which will likely mean they’re exposed to a greater diversity of views and will also likely benefit established news organizations over niche players.” Josh Gadsby, director of client relationship management at Visa in Sydney, told CNBC that he cares and he thinks most other people in Australia do as well. Facebook exacerbated the situation by banning non-news pages, according to Gadsby. “Having worked for the Financial Times for several years, I saw the impact Facebook and Google were having on ad revenues for traditional publishers and I think it’s reasonable for them to be expected to pay something to use content from publishers,” he said. Gadsby believes that Facebook should have negotiated a deal with publishers. “It’ll be interesting to see what their next step is as personally, I think it’s unlikely the ban will be long-lasting,” he said. The timing of the decision has angered some people. Natasha Kinrade, who works in sales at corporate events firm Cliftons in Sydney, told CNBC that “it seems wrong that they are banning news and alerts especially during Covid times” and pointed out that Facebook is sometimes the best and quickest place to get accurate updates during an event like a terrorist attack. John Henderson, a venture capitalist at AirTree Ventures in Sydney, told CNBC that he worries about the societal consequences of legitimate news sources disappearing from Facebook. “Surely it just creates space for lower integrity journalism and more fake news,” he said. But Joe Daunt, a senior video editor at A Cloud Guru in Melbourne, told CNBC he hopes that people will see less fake news and misinformation if they start looking beyond Facebook for their news. “I think it’s a good move to be honest,” he said. Jon Gore, who is located in Byron Bay, New South Wales, told CNBC that he doesn’t really care. “I don’t go to Facebook for news or much else these days,” he said, adding that he feels like he has to do a lot of source checking when looking at news on Facebook. “I’m not interested in sensationalist stories. I get frustrated by, and actively don’t click on links if they have leading clickbait titles.” Gore said that many of the charities and small businesses will have likely struggled after their pages were removed by Facebook. “There’s a fair few places that use Facebook in place of a dedicated website,” he said. Carly Gower, who works at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, told CNBC that the proposed media law doesn’t make sense to her. “Why should media companies be paid for content that they are voluntarily posting to Facebook?” she said. “The ban is a tough response but sort of justified for the big media companies who wanted the new laws.” A Facebook spokesperson told CNBC that the company will reverse some of the bans. “The actions we’re taking are focused on restricting publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content,” a company spokesperson said. “As the law does not provide clear guidance on the definition of news content, we have taken a broad definition in order to respect the law as drafted. However, we will reverse any pages that are inadvertently impacted.”

#NewYork #Assault #Alarm #Cuomo #DeBlasio #Clown #Arrest A New York man has been charged with strangling and r***** a woman in her own home before breaking in to the property again two days - this time wearing terrifying clown makeup, prosecutors say. Joseph T. Johnson, 33, of Wyandanch, was charged with 13 counts including r***, strangulation, and multiple burglary counts. He is accused of a wild rampage, which began on September 19 with the breaking into several parked cars at Wyandanch train station between 1am and 3am. Later the same day, Johnson allegedly broke into a woman's home in Wyandanch where he raped and strangled her, stealing money as he left. The traumatized woman installed several surveillance cameras in and around the property, Suffolk County district attorney, Timothy Sini, said on Wednesday. Two days after the attack, on September 21, the woman was alerted that the cameras had been turned off. The cameras were found to have been damaged or turned away from the home, and the wires to the cameras' recording unit inside the house had been cut. Video surveillance captured before the cameras were damaged allegedly showed Johnson, wearing clown face paint, at the residence. Johnson appeared to have something of a clown fetish: his Facebook page featured numerous photos of him in clown makeup. Johnson was identified from the surveillance video by a Suffolk County Police Detective and was arrested. DNA testing confirmed his being inside the house and r***** the woman, authorities said. 'This is an extremely disturbing case,' said Sini. 'As alleged in the indictment, this defendant went on a crime spree that escalated from breaking car windows to breaking into the victim's home twice in the span of 72 hours, r***** and repeatedly strangling the victim while threatening her life. 'This is a dangerous individual and a convicted s** offender who is now off our streets thanks to the excellent work of the Suffolk County Police Department and Assistant District Attorney Ferron Lien.' Justice Chris Ann Kelley, acting Suffolk County Supreme Court justice, set bail at $500,000 cash, $1 million bond, or $5 million partially-secured bond. He is being represented by the Legal Aid Society and is due back in court on March 9. If convicted, Johnson faces up to 40 years in prison, if sentenced consecutively.

#Meena #Kamala #Nepotism #Capitalism #VicePresident #WillieBrown #Biden #Influencer Kamala Harris’ niece is still using the Vice President to flog her range of feminist sweatshirts – despite being ordered not to by the White House. DailyMail.com can reveal that Meena Harris’s Phenomenal line is still listed on non-profit retail website Social Goods next to a quote from Harris. A $59 ‘Ambitious’ sweatshirt appears next to a line from the Vice-President that reads: ‘There will be a resistance to your ambition, there will be people who say to you, 'you are out of your lane.' ‘They are burdened by only having the capacity to see what has always been instead of what can be. But don't you let that burden you.’ Meena, 36, was ordered to stop promoting her products using Harris’ name after the November 3 election. At that point, she had already launched a range of gear featuring the ‘I’m speaking!’ quote that was used by Harris to check former Vice President Mike Pence during their debate. But the mom-of-two has continued to cash in since then – launching a collection of ‘MVP’ [Madam Vice President] sweatshirts and collaborating with Beats by Dre on a set of limited-edition headphones featuring a quote from Harris’ acceptance speech. Although Meena has now removed the MVP line from her Phenomenal Clothing website, she has continued to push her products on Social Goods using her aunt’s name. She also continues to sell an ‘I’m Speaking’ sweatshirt for $59 on her own website, although references to Harris have been taken out. Social Goods also sells a children’s picture book called Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea for $18.99 – the name was inspired by Harris and Meena’s mother Maya. The accompanying blurb also references the Vice-President, although it still refers to her as being a US Senator, and reads: ‘Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea by Meena Harris is an empowering picture book about two sisters who work with their community to effect change, inspired by a true story from the childhood of her aunt, US Senator Kamala Harris, and mother, lawyer, and policy expert Maya Harris. ‘It's an uplifting tale of how the author’s aunt and mother first learned to persevere in the face of disappointment and turned a dream into reality.’ On Sunday, a White House official scolded the 36-year-old in the Los Angeles Times, saying: 'Some things can't be undone. That being said: Behavior needs to change.' Both Meena and Social Goods have been contacted for comment by DailyMail.com. In a statement released through a PR firm to the LA Times last week, Meena said: ''Since the beginning of the campaign, I have insisted on upholding all legal and ethical standards and will continue to strictly adhere to the ethics rules of the Biden/Harris White House. 'With regards to Phenomenal, it was always our plan to remove the likeness of the Vice President from the website before the Inauguration, and refrain from using her likeness in any products or campaigns going forward,' Meena is the daughter of Maya Harris, who was a single mother at 17. The Vice President helped raise her niece. The 36-year-old lives in San Francisco, California, with husband Nikolas Ajagu, 37, and their two young daughters, and launched Phenomenal in 2017 on the back of the Women’s March in DC. She uses her Instagram page to promote the clothes, regularly posting selfies of herself wearing the sweatshirts. Meena also uses her social media to push her political views, which include support for the Defund The Police movement. She has also created a range of t-shirts for her Phenomenal line promoting Black Lives Matter, and is also campaigning for the rights of migrant farmworkers. Since the election, the 36-year-old has become a media fixture and has used interviews to promote Phenomenal and her latest children’s book Ambitious Girl, while talking about her aunt. Meena has also spoken about how she gave up a high-flying job at Uber to launch the company, while husband Ajagu has taken leave from his job at Facebook to care for their daughters and allow her to focus on the brand full time. In an interview with The Times of London last month, Meena said her partner gave up his high-flying tech job in San Francisco to be a stay-at-home father to their two daughters, and free her to run her business. She told how Ajagu, who she met while working in the tech industry, decided he wanted to be a full-time father to Amara, four, and two-year-old Leela. ‘We do not ascribe to the traditional gender role thing in our house,' she said.

#NYPD #Subway #Ripper #Homeless #Arrest A subway stabber who killed two homeless people and slashed two others during a violent 14-hour spree has been caught, and was splattered in blood when he was arrested, police say. The man, who has not yet been named, was in still in possession of the knife and had blood on his sneakers, cops told the New York Post. The man was wearing layers of clothes and a winter coat with high-top sneakers, sources told the New York Daily News. The suspect was reportedly arrested in Upper Manhattan, just blocks from where the bloody rampage began and he is in custody at the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights. The fatal stabbings took place on opposite ends of the A subway line, which connects the Inwood section of Upper Manhattan with Rockaway, Queens. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea announced on Saturday that a 'surge' of 500 additional cops for the department's Transit Bureau would be immediately deployed across the city. The wounded victims were reportedly helping police identify the assailant earlier on Saturday. During a news conference on Saturday, police told reporters that the violent stabbing spree started at around 11:20am on Friday. That's when a 67-year-old man was stabbed by an assailant at the 181st Street A-line subway station. The victim is expected to survive, according to police. He told cops that his attacker had shouted 'I am going to kill you', before he was stabbed in the right knee and left buttock, New York Post reported. The next attack took place before midnight, when authorities found a man stabbed to death in his seat on the A train at the Mott Avenue station in Far Rockaway, Queens. The victim died of stab wounds to his neck and torso. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Just two hours later, a 44-year-old was found unconscious after she was stabbed while riding the A train at the 207th Street Station in Upper Manhattan. The woman was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Just a few minutes later, a 43-year-old man was randomly stabbed at the A subway station on West 181st Street in Manhattan. The man was rushed to hospital where he is listed in stable condition. The slashing spree sparked a massive manhunt and an outcry for safer subways. Officers were seen patrolling subway stations across the city looking for the alleged suspect before the man was arrested. The NYPD plans to deploy an additional 865 officers to patrol the subway system on Monday. Officials said had said earlier on Saturday they believed the attacker to be possibly a Hispanic male standing at a height of 5ft tall and wearing a face mask. 'Three of these incidents appear to be connected and the Detective Bureau is looking into the possibility that all four could have been committed by one individual,' Transit Chief Kathleen O'Reilly told reporters. 'We will work tirelessly to bring the individual or individuals to justice.' DailyMail.com has reached out to the New York Police Department for further comment. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been an uptick in violent incidents inside the largely desolate subway stations as ridership has plummeted due to fears of getting infected. Transit workers have been demanding that the 24-hour subway schedule be resumed after several reported being assaulted during the overnight hours when trains are shut down for COVID-19 cleanings. The union representing Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers who operate the city's public buses and subways are assaulted, harassed, spit upon, and in severe cases nearly killed by assailants in largely empty stations. In November, the New York Police Department said that it would add around 200 cops on its patrols of subway stations after a series of disturbing incidents.

#Cuomo #Butcher #NursingHomes #Chris #Andrew #CNN #NewYork CNN anchor Chris Cuomo has been mocked online for failing on Friday to mention the scandal surrounding his older brother Andrew, the governor of New York. One social media user said she was 'disappointed', while another joked that there was 'big news coming out of New York state' that Chris Cuomo ignored. 'How convenient,' said another. Andrew Cuomo, 63, has been rocked by the confession on Thursday of his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, that they deliberately hid data on nursing home COVID deaths, in the midst of a Justice Department investigation into their handling of the pandemic. He is yet to comment on the scandal, which is seeing mounting calls for him to resign. On Friday night CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Erin Burnett covered the story, with Tapper tweeting that it 'keeps getting worse', but Chris Cuomo, 50, instead dedicated his entire show to Donald Trump's impeachment trial. 'Some big news coming out of New York state,' joked one. 'Something about the governor and killing senior citizens. You might want to look into that, Mr Reporter.' Another added: 'Speaking of trusting data and governors...' One person dismissed the Cuomo family as 'scumbags'. Another said they were 'disappointed', adding: 'Is your brother off limits?' 'I noticed no mention of the news about your brother on the show tonight! How convenient!' noted another. CNN is yet to respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment. In May the brothers were criticized for making light of the pandemic, after Andrew Cuomo appeared on Chris Cuomo's show. The governor recounted how he was tested for coronavirus on live TV during his daily press briefing on Sunday, leading his brother to joke he had a big nose and required a baseball bat-sized nasal swab for a test. The View host Meghan McCain led the criticism on Twitter saying: 'I’m not sure I’m going to ever be able to buy a crib or baby clothes for my first child in a store, Most of my friends are jobless, petrified and dealing w depression & @JaniceDean lost both her mother and father in law to COVID within a week of each other.' 'This is HILARIOUS guys,' she added sarcastically. Andrew Cuomo was at the White House on Friday, to meet Joe Biden and discuss COVID relief efforts. He did not take questions about the growing scandal. Cuomo, who heads the National Governor's Association, instead praised the president in a statement released after the Oval Office meeting, saying Biden and his team 'made clear that they recognize and appreciate how critical this targeted relief is for our ability to recover from this pandemic.' White House press secretary Jen Psaki would not say on Friday whether Biden has lost confidence in Cuomo given the growing criticism.

#Squirrel #NYC #Queens #Female #Attack #Cage #MMA #Food #Reparations #BLM #Antifa #Reparations #Patriarchy Wild squirrels have been attacking residents living in the New York City borough of Queens since late November, leaving many afraid of venturing outside. The wild attacks have occurred mostly in Rego Park, with the bulk of them happening on 65th Drive near Fitchett Street. One woman has even had to go to the emergency room, with others expressing their worry about even going outside. 'It just basically runs up my leg and I'm like OK squirrel, hello, what are you doing,' Micheline Frederick told ABC7 about her December 21 attack. 'He either bit or scratched me on my neck and then I must have reached over and next thing I know, it's a cage match and I'm losing.' Frederick had blood and bruises all over her hands. She got a rabies shot as a precaution and then warned another neighbor, who was eventually attacked by a squirrel herself. 'I tried to shake it off but I couldn't, squirrels have claws, cling onto your winter jacket, there's no way to shake it off,' shared neighbor Licia Wang. Three other residents shared that they had similar experiences with a single squirrel or ones that traveled in groups. The residents were forced to hire their own licensed trapper after the city provided no additional solutions to help. 'Worried for the children, that's what most people are scared with the kids,' Frederick stated. Experts believe that the squirrels are acting out as a result of being fed by humans. But residents in the area asserted that they had not been interacting with the squirrels when they were attacked. 'When we leave the house, we have to carry mom's homemade pepper spray to make sure if it comes at us, we spray it,' resident Anika Singh Sood said. The NYC Department of Health instructed for New Yorkers to call 311 if they believe they have 'observed an animal infected with rabies.'

#Illinois #Teacher #Crime #Teacher #Student #Sex #Teen #ErinKemp #Minor #Cop #Police #Arrest An Illinois high school teacher is facing seven years in jail after she was charged with s***** abuse of a minor student who she allegedly kissed and inappropriately touched during a month-long relationship. Erin Kemp, who appeared in court on Monday, has been charged with criminal s***** abuse after she admitted to an inappropriate relationship with a male student. The 38-year-old business teacher said she had a month-long relationship with the student in September and resigned from her job as a teacher on September 17, according to the Morton Unit School District 709. An investigation into her conduct had been under way since the relationship was discovered by a Morton police detective, to whom Kemp admitted the relationship to before she resigned, according to the Pekin Daily Times. Kemp maintained that the relationship did not involve s***** misconduct, but the teenager involved in the case said that it had. The teacher was caught on camera by the police detective who also worked as the school's resource officer, according to the Pekin Daily Times. Kemp had dismissed her class early for lunch, the detective had learned and reviewed the surveillance video. According to the Times, citing an affidavit, the footage 'captured (Kemp) engaging in physical interactions … that demonstrated a level of familiarity and comfort that was inappropriate between a teacher and student.' Kemp then admitted that she had kissed and 'inappropriately touched' the minor, but not in a s***** way. The student - who is under the age of 18 - disputed this to children's services, according to the Times. WEEK-TV, also citing an affidavit, reported that text messages between the teacher and her student - which the student later shared with the police - revealed conversations 'of a nature inconsistent with a teacher-student relationship'. The teacher also allegedly told the student that she loved him, wanted to spend a full day alone with him, and that she feared he would 'move on', according to WEEK. Earlier this month, Kemp was charged with two counts of aggravated criminal s***** abuse and appeared in Tazewell County Circuit Court on Monday. If she is convicted of the Class 2 felony, she could face up to seven years in prison. Kemp had been working in District 709 since August 2007. She is due back in court on February 19.

#TikTok #Bahamas #Charli #Dixie #ChaseHudson #NoahBeck #MadiMonroe #Vacation #Viral #Pushback #Hypocrisy #Hypocrite #Teens A group of TikTok stars have come under fire for flying from COVID-19 hotspot California to the Bahamas despite at least one of them telling fans to stay home amid the pandemic. Charli, 16, and Dixie D'Amelio, 19, Chase Hudson, 18, Noah Beck, 19, and Madi Monroe, 16, were spotted at Atlantis Bahamas with videos of the young influencers emerging late Monday. Atlantis Bahamas required them to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test before entering the resort. They are also required to stay in a 'safe zone' on the island for the duration of the stay and are eligible for free rapid testing. Clips and images shared on social media show Hudson and Beck posing with fans at a pool. One image shows Beck posing with a fan on Twitter. Footage shows the group with someone who appears to be a staff member wearing an Atlantis shirt. Another image showed Beck and Hudson in what appeared to be the Saint Laurent store located within Atlantis Bahamas' Crystal Court shopping area. Monroe, who is believed to have a net worth of about $1million, shared a photo of herself on a plane with the caption: 'I'm on my way.' Several people quickly took to social media to call out the group for traveling amid a pandemic, especially when health experts have warned against it. The most famous of the group, Charli, who has a net worth of $8million, was specifically called out for previously telling fans to stay home amid the pandemic, which has killed more than 338,000 people and infected more than 19.5 million Americans. 'No cause the way charli even SPOKE out on live abt how she said she'd do better staying home and social distancing then they all go to the f**king BAHAMAS? could that not wait??? like its ok take a break from social media i get it but you can do that AT HOME,' one person shared. Another wrote: 'charli damelio won person of the year.. she's literally in the bahamas rn with 15 other people during a pandemic and has been doing so all year.' 'Not charli d'amelio telling people to stay home and stay safe and stop being seflish [sic] etc, when she is literally with friends in the f**king bahamas rn,' a third person wrote. Another shared: 'There is no way charli d'amelio got on live and told everyone to stop hanging out with their friends bc they're endangering the people around them while she's been doing the EXACT same thing and is currently in the Bahamas with her friends...' The users were referring to an Instagram Live video in which Charli, whose family recently landed a reality series on Hulu, was seen telling people to be safe. 'Please stop being so inconsiderate to others,' she said the clip. 'You are putting other people at risk.

#RonDesantis #FredPiccolo #CDC #KungFlu #WuhanVirus #WinniethePooh #NHS #MentalHealth #ZhangZhan The spokesman for Florida governor Ron DeSantis has left Twitter after he posted an insensitive message in the early hours of Wednesday morning. A search for the account of Fred Piccolo Jr. currently comes up empty on the social media site. The deactivation of his account comes after he tweeted, 'I'm wondering since 99%. Of Covid patients survive shouldn't you have 99 photos of survivors for every one fatality? Otherwise you're just trying to create a narrative that is not reality.' The tweet was deleted prior to the account disappearing from the website. Before it was deleted, however, it was captured in a screenshot by WLRN reporter Danny Rivero. 'I’ve made people far angrier with other things in the past, this is just an observation that I think was worthy of consternation,' Piccolo said to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel before deleting his account. 'But I said this was going to be my Christmas gift to myself to get off of the medium, so I said let’s do it.' ---------------------- The Covid-19 pandemic could be the biggest hit to mental health since the Second World War, a leading psychiatrist has warned. Dr Adrian James, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, has said even when the virus is under control, there will be 'profound' long-term consequences. He told the Guardian: 'It is probably the biggest hit to mental health since the Second World War. 'It doesn't stop when the virus is under control and there are few people in hospital. You've got to fund the long-term consequences.' The deaths of loved ones from coronavirus, along with mass unemployment and the social effects of draconian lockdown are well documented. Mental health charity Mind described the situation by Christmas as a 'mental health emergency', adding that '2020 has been a year of anxiety and uncertainty and more people need us than ever before'. The charity said in November more people have experienced a mental health crisis during the coronavirus pandemic than ever previously recorded. There was a 15 per cent increase in urgent referrals of people suffering mental health crises from March until July this year, and 2,276 more urgent referrals made in July 2020 than the same month last year, according to Mind. Dr James' comments come as Britain's Covid crisis continues to swell, with millions more people in England facing Tier Four restrictions to control rapidly growing outbreaks. Doctors fear that the NHS could be overwhelmed within days as hospital admissions surge due to the highly infectious Covid strain raging across the country. The total number of patients in hospital with the virus is likely to exceed the peak from the first wave, with 21,286 coronavirus patients being treated on December 22 - the most recent day data is available for. In comparison, the figure on April 12 was 21,683. --------------------- A Chinese citizen journalist who was arrested after 'reporting the truth' about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan was today jailed for four years. Zhang Zhan, 37, has been found guilty of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble' for her criticism of the Wuhan government's handling of the crisis at the peak of the outbreak. Ms Zhang - the first citizen journalist known to have been tried - was among a handful of people whose firsthand accounts from crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a more dire picture of the pandemic epicentre than the official narrative. Her lawyer Ren Quanniu said they will likely appeal her four-year sentence handed down at a court in Pudong, Shanghai. Before the trial - which ended at 12.30pm local time - he said: 'Ms Zhang believes she is being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech.' Criticism of China's early handling of the crisis has been censored, and whistle-blowers, such as doctors, have been warned off speaking out. State media have credited success in reining in the virus to the leadership of President Xi Jinping. A New York-based human rights organisation earlier told MailOnline that Ms Zhang was being punished 'for doing exactly what the world desperately needed: reporting on the coronavirus from Wuhan'. Home to some 11million people, the Chinese provincial capital caught international attention last December when coronavirus first broke out there before spreading around the globe, with at least 1.7 million reported deaths so far. In Shanghai, police enforced tight security outside the court where the trial opened seven months after Ms Zhang's detention, although some supporters were undeterred.

#Nashville #Bomb #Explosion #Warner #DNA #MichelleSwing #Quinn #Anthony #Copycat #Arrest #5G State and federal law enforcement agencies detained the driver of a suspicious box truck just outside of Nashville on Sunday night after fears of a possible copycat attack two days after a similar vehicle was used in a bombing in the city. The driver of the box truck was detained on Sunday as he was driving from Rutherford County into Wilson County some 30 miles outside of Nashville, according to The Tennessean. The driver was detained by deputies from the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office with assistance from their counterparts in neighboring Wilson County. A search of the box truck found no explosive devices. The arrest was made just hours after a Tennessee highway was closed amid reports of a truck with PA system telling people to evacuate the area. The Wilson County Sheriff's Office tweeted: 'Highway 231 South from the Cedars of Lebanon State Park to Richmond Shop road is currently shut down due to a suspicious vehicle.' It comes just two days after the Nashville bombing in which a recreational vehicle blew up on a mostly deserted street and was prefaced by a recorded warning advising those nearby to evacuate. -------------------- The Nashville Christmas bomber claimed to have cancer and appeared to be winding up his affairs before Friday's attack on an AT&T building, according to a new report. Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, was named by the FBI on Sunday as perpetrator of the Christmas Day bombing outside an AT&T building, after DNA showed he perished in the attack carried out with an RV rigged to explode. In the weeks prior to the suicide attack, which also injured three and caused massive damage, Warner told his ex-girlfriend that he had cancer and gave her his car, according to the New York Times. On December 5, also told a real estate agent that he worked for as a tech consultant that he planned to retire, according to the newspaper. A month before the bombing, Warner also gave away the $160,000 home he lived in to a woman in California whose link to him remains unclear, DailyMail.com first reported on Saturday. ------------------------ The FBI has confirmed that Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, was the attacker who perished in the Nashville Christmas Day bombing, saying he died in an apparent suicide attack when an RV exploded outside of an AT&T building. Local and federal officials said on Sunday that remains at the scene were a DNA match to Warner, an eccentric IT worker who lived outside of Nashville, and that he is believed to have acted alone in carrying out the attack. 'We're still following leads, but right now there is no indication that any other persons were involved,' said Douglas Korneski, special agent in charge of the FBI's Memphis field office. 'We've reviewed hours of security video surrounding the recreation vehicle. We saw no other people involved.' Investigators refused to comment on a possible motive, following reports that Warner harbored deep paranoia about 5G cell phone technology. Nashville Mayor John Cooper on Sunday said he suspects that the AT&T transmission center was targeted in the attack, which wreaked havoc on phone systems in multiple Southern states on Christmas Day. ----------------------- Nashville bomber Anthony Quinn Warner was involved in an ugly dispute over property that became so bitter that he was sued by his own mom, DailyMail.com can reveal. Warner, 63, was named by the FBI on Sunday as the lone suspect in the Christmas Day bombing outside an AT&T building, after DNA showed he perished in the attack carried out with an RV rigged to explode. According to Davidson County court records, Warner’s 62-year-old brother, Steven Warner, died in September 2018, without leaving a will. Their mother, Betty Christine Lane, who divorced father Charles B. 'Popeye' Warner years before his 2011 death, argued that the former family home, which had passed from Charles to Steven, should then legally belong to her.

#Fauci #Christmas #Carolofthebells #Peanuts #Bowser Flipflop #Award #Herd #Immunity #Vaccine Top White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci has appeared to shift his stance on what percentage of the U.S. population needs to get a COVID-19 vaccine in order for the country to reach herd immunity. Herd immunity is when a large percentage of a specific population becomes immune to a virus; immunity can happen naturally or by way of vaccines to prevent viral infections like the flu and COVID-19. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director told The New York Times in an interview published Thursday that between 70% and 90% of the U.S. population would need to get inoculated (or vaccinated) against COVID-19 in order for the country to reach herd immunity. Fauci indicated that he based his shifting statements on public polling on the popularity of coronavirus vaccines. "When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent," Fauci said. "Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, 'I can nudge this up a bit,' so I went to 80, 85." CORONAVIRUS HERD IMMUNITY NOT LIKELY UNTIL END OF NEXT YEAR, WHO SAYS He continued: "We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. But, I’m not going to say 90 percent." His comments appear to be in contrast with some of his previous statements regarding herd immunity against COVID-19. Fauci previously told Fox News' "The Story" on Dec. 3 that the United States could reach herd immunity if 70% of the population gets a COVID-19 vaccine. CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE "The estimate is that you'll need about 70%, maybe 75%, of the people in the country vaccinated to get that umbrella of herd immunity that will get us really on the road, very close, to being normal." In a Dec. 17 interview with CNBC, however, Fauci said that between 75% and 85% of the population will need to get inoculated against COVID-19 and create an "umbrella," according to the outlet. "That would be able to protect even the vulnerables who have not been vaccinated, or those in which the vaccine has not been effective," Fauci said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP About 1 million vaccines have been distributed so far, representing about 0.3% of the country's population of about 331 million. Meanwhile, about 18.5 million Americans have tested positive for the virus, or more than 5% of the population. The administration is planning to deliver about 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of the year. CORONAVIRUS VACCINE DISTRIBUTION PLAN: STATE-BY-STATE BREAKDOWN Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marty Makary told "The Story" on Monday that the country could reach herd immunity if only 20% to 25% of the population gets vaccinated by March "to really hit those 70% herd immunity levels."