© AFP/Abdullah Doma
Society's Child
22 civilians killed by Western backed GNA mercenaries in Libya during protests over living standards
© Andy Buchanan/PA
Many families are having to spend more on food and utilities than before.
Many families are having to spend more on food and utilities than before.
Researchers from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and the Church of England (C of E) spoke to parents who said they had been forced to sell possessions to protect their children's quality of life, and found that 80% of poorer families surveyed felt they had become worse off financially since the lockdown began.
The findings underline the disproportionate strain being placed on the poorest households as the UK struggles to deal with the pandemic. In June the Resolution Foundation said that while many low-income families were turning to credit cards to get by under lockdown, many higher-income households were able to save more money as their costs fell.
© JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF
The gunman in the High Court in Christchurch on Monday.
The gunman in the High Court in Christchurch on Monday.
He said he wanted to instil fear in non-Europeans and had planned attacks on other New Zealand mosques before deciding on Christchurch.
The last close people he contacted before starting his massacre on March 15 was his family in a text message sent at 1.31pm, telling them of his plans. Police received the first 111 call from the Masjid An-Nur (also known as Al Noor mosque) 10 minutes later.
Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 29, who was led into court with his arms and legs shackled and flanked by at least four Corrections officers, is being sentenced in the High Court in Christchurch this week on 51 charges of murder, 40 charges of attempted murder and a charge of committing a terrorist act. He could become the first in New Zealand to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Justice Cameron Mander confirmed with the shooter if he was going to represent himself during the sentencing. "Ah yeah," he said.
The victims were worshippers at Masjid An-nur Masjid and the Linwood Islamic Centre (Linwood mosque) in Christchurch.
New details emerged as the summary of facts was read in court on Monday morning, including the gunman's planning of the attack and graphic accounts of the "systematic" shootings he carried out, including of young children.
Stella Moris took the couple's two children Gabriel, three, and Max, one, to meet their 'much thinner' father at the south-east London prison today.
The WikiLeaks founder, 49, is awaiting an extradition hearing on behalf of the US government, which is due to start at the Old Bailey on September 7.
Ms Moris said the visit was 'incredibly stressful' but expressed relief at being able to visit her partner for the first time since March 22.
She added the family had to wear face masks and visors during the 20-minute meeting, and Assange was not able to touch his children.
© Getty Images / artpartner-images
In the light of Black Lives Matter and the decision by Oriel College at Oxford University to move its statue of Sir Cecil Rhodes, the idea of "decolonising" education has made serious headway, with many institutions now reworking curricula to better reflect diversity and black and ethnic minority concerns.
There are plenty of problems with that outlook. It suggests that ethnic minority writers and thinkers should be included in college courses because of the colour of their skin, rather than the brilliance of their ideas. It also suggests that students can only really learn if education is "relevant" to them. After decades of fighting for equality, it seems we are now re-racialising society. Worse, this re-racialisation is seen as progressive.
Comment: It is impossible to build anything of lasting substance based on lies and delusions, but those "fighting against the colonially oppressive blah blah blah" in the hard sciences are determined to try. Unfortunately, they're trying to drag the rest of society into their delusions and if they win it will put the world back several hundred years in terms of scientific and technological development.
© Getty Images / Eternity in an Instant
Ending a message with a period has come to "signify an abrupt or angry tone of voice" to Generation Z, some linguists claim, arguing that in the era of ubiquitous texting and instant messaging, full stops are no longer necessary to merely indicate the end of a sentence.
An idea's conclusion is implied by the end of the message, they insist (because nobody communicates in more than one sentence at a time anymore, apparently - you just hit 'send' and start a new message). When full stops are used, they're supposedly interpreted as "ominous" or emotionally charged by the hyper-sensitive young people reading the message.
The full stop's use is being "revised in a really fundamental way," Professor David Crystal, billed by the UK Telegraph as "one of the world's leading language experts," alleges. It's no longer about ending a sentence but about an "emotion marker," he says. This is even "backed up by science" - a 2015 Binghamton University study found college students perceive text messages ending in a full stop as being "less sincere" than those without one.
Comment: It appears we are close to reaching peak millennial. Even a dot on a page can hurt, apparently. Talk about micro-aggression. . . . . . .
© REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque; Handout via REUTERS/2020 Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention's Monday lineup featured speakers like US Senator Tim Scott, Congressman Vernon Jones and former NFL player Herschel Walker, who are all African Americans and were accused of being "Uncle Tom's". Their critics who use this derogatory term believe that they were betraying the black community by aligning with the Republican party and President Donald Trump.
"Uncle Tom" is a common trope used to degradingly describe African American conservatives in the US. Notably, following the RNC the term began trending nationally on Twitter without any hashtag or other means of user coordination.
© Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Justice Department is planning to charge Teva as soon as Tuesday after the company rebuffed a settlement that would have required paying a criminal penalty and admitting wrongdoing, said the person, who declined to be named because the matter is confidential.
Teva's U.S.-traded shares fell as much as 6% on the news and were down 2.3% to $9.41 at 3:25 p.m. in New York. A spokesperson for the company, which is based in Israel, declined to comment.
Charges against Teva, the world's largest generic-drug maker by market value, would mark the most significant case to come out of the Justice Department's years-long investigation into allegations that companies conspired with one another to prop up the prices of certain widely used medications. Nine of every 10 prescription drugs dispensed in the U.S. are generics.
© Reuters / Lindsey Wasson
The Washington Post's outlook on using blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients to treat the sick has flipped from optimistic to skeptical following a Sunday announcement from US President Donald Trump that the treatment has received emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration. The switch in coverage was noted by the spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday.
Despite promising preliminary results, including data from a large Mayo Clinic study suggesting plasma treatments can significantly reduce mortality, the newspaper appears to have done a 180 on what had been very positive coverage of the treatment, publishing a story on Monday headlined "Scientists express doubts about coronavirus treatment touted as breakthrough by Trump."
Comment: Maybe Trump can do us all a favor by coming out in favor of mandatory vaccinations, thereby forcing the Leftist Media to immediately denounce vaccines.
© AP/Andrew Harnik
Joe Biden's stare at the DNC convention
Joe Biden's stare at the DNC convention
Morning Consult reported that Biden went into the DNC with the support of 51 percent of likely voters. Biden ticked up only one point after the convention to 52 percent. Donald Trump remained at 43 percent in both polls. That was in contrast to a similar poll in 2016 that found Hillary Clinton at 40 percent pre-DNC and 43 percent after. Trump experienced the reverse: 44 percent before the DNC, 40 percent after.
In 2020, only six percent of voters said they were undecided after the convention. That number was 17 percent in 2016.
In 1992, Bill Clinton won a 16-point bounce after the DNC to catapult himself over incumbent President George H.W. Bush, according to Politico.
Biden's lack of any significant bounce is better than what happened to Mitt Romney in 2012 when Romney actually lost a point in the standings.
The RealClearPolitics (RCP) average of polls found Biden has led Trump since at least last October. RCP's average of polls found Biden is 7.6 percent ahead of Trump.
Comment: The results depend on who, how many and political orientation of the sample to determine the relative validity of a numerical tally. Let's see their promo, affiliations and to whom they cater:
About itself: Morning Consult is the official polling partner of POLITICO, Fortune, New York Times, and Bloomberg News. Morning Consult also has a news section that is centered around polling and trends. Typically, there is minimal bias presented such as this: Detroit Debates Deliver Meager Returns for Biden's Challengers. A factual search reveals they have not failed a fact check. In fact, their polls are frequently used by IFCN fact-checkers as evidence.
Overall, we rate the Morning Consult 'Least Biased' based on mostly neutral polling and low biased story selection. We also rate them Very High for factual reporting due to a proven polling methodology as well as being a reliable source for fact-checkers. (D. Van Zandt 10/31/2016) Updated (8/3/2019) Source: https://morningconsult.com/
RealClearPolitics: One of our most notable features, the RCP Poll Average, changed the way people talk about public opinion surveys during the election cycle. The most cited source for U.S. political polling information, the RCP Poll Average provides everyone from political experts and campaign consultants to amateur political junkies a more accurate read on the status of the election.
The accuracy of the RCP Poll Average is unmatched and trusted for use in Bloomberg terminals and campaign communication documents, as well as being widely cited by hundreds of news organizations including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, FOX News, CNN, USA Today, and MSNBC.
FiveThirtyEight, a company founded by Nate Silver (who published under the name Poblano for political blog Daily Kos), had been partnered with The New York Times, then passed to ESPN. The final prediction by FiveThirtyEight on the morning of election day (November 8, 2016) was at 10:41AM and had Hillary Clinton with a 71% chance to win the 2016 presidential election.See also:
FiveThirtyEight, a company that rates pollsters for accuracy and bias, gives Morning Consult a B- for accuracy and a slight leftward bias of 0.6%. (as per source Morning Consult)
FiveThirtyEight was acquired by ABC News on Apr 17, 2018.
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Comment: See also: