The Full Monty Actor Tom Wilkinson Dies Aged 75

LONDON — Tom Wilkinson, the Oscar-nominated British actor known for his roles in “The Full Monty,” “Michael Clayton” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” has died, his family said. He was 75.

A statement shared by his agent on behalf of the family said Wilkinson died suddenly at home on Saturday. It didn’t provide further details.

Wilkinson was nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his work in 2001’s family drama “In The Bedroom” in 2001 and in the best supporting actor category for his role in “Michael Clayton,” a 2007 film that starred George Clooney.

He is remembered by many in Britain and beyond for playing former steel mill foreman Gerald Cooper in the 1997 comedy “The Full Monty,” about a group of unemployed steel workers who formed an unlikely male stripping act.

Wilkinson appeared in dozens of other movies, including “Batman Begins,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Valkyrie.”

The actor was recognized for his services to drama in 2005 when he was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire.

source https://time.com/6551242/tom-wilkinson-dead-the-full-monty-actor/

Biden Administration Bypasses Congress Again On Emergency Weapons Sale to Israel

WASHINGTON — For the second time this month the Biden administration is bypassing Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel as Israel continues to prosecute its war against Hamas in Gaza under increasing international criticism.

The State Department said Friday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had told Congress that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5 million sale for equipment, including fuses, charges and primers, that is needed to make the 155 mm shells that Israel has already purchased function.

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“Given the urgency of Israel’s defensive needs, the secretary notified Congress that he had exercised his delegated authority to determine an emergency existed necessitating the immediate approval of the transfer,” the department said.

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to ensure Israel is able to defend itself against the threats it faces,” it said.

The emergency determination means the purchase will bypass the congressional review requirement for foreign military sales. Such determinations are rare, but not unprecedented, when administrations see an urgent need for weapons to be delivered without waiting for lawmakers’ approval.

Blinken made a similar decision on Dec. 9, to approve the sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106 million.

Both moves have come as President Joe Biden’s request for a nearly $106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs remains stalled in Congress, caught up in a debate over U.S. immigration policy and border security. Some Democratic lawmakers have spoken of making the proposed $14.3 billion in American assistance to its Mideast ally contingent on concrete steps by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza during the war with Hamas.

The State Department sought to counter potential criticism of the sale on human rights grounds by saying it was in constant touch with Israel to emphasize the importance of minimizing civilian casualties, which have soared since Israel began its response to the Hamas attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.

“We continue to strongly emphasize to the government of Israel that they must not only comply with international humanitarian law, but also take every feasible step to prevent harm to civilians,” it said.

“Hamas hides behind civilians and has embedded itself among the civilian population, but that does not lessen Israel’s responsibility and strategic imperative to distinguish between civilians and Hamas terrorists as it conducts its military operations,” the department said. “This type of campaign can only be won by protecting civilians.”

Bypassing Congress with emergency determinations for arms sales is an unusual step that has in the past met resistance from lawmakers, who normally have a period of time to weigh in on proposed weapons transfers and, in some cases, block them.

In May 2019, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an emergency determination for an $8.1 billion sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after it became clear that the Trump administration would have trouble overcoming lawmakers’ concerns about the Saudi and UAE-led war in Yemen.

Pompeo came under heavy criticism for the move, which some believed may have violated the law because many of the weapons involved had yet to be built and could not be delivered urgently. But he was cleared of any wrongdoing after an internal investigation.

At least four administrations have used the authority since 1979. President George H.W. Bush’s administration used it during the Gulf War to get arms quickly to Saudi Arabia.

source https://time.com/6551227/biden-administration-bypasses-congress-israel-weapons-sale/

Mark Zuckerberg Is Reportedly Building an Underground Bunker in Hawaii. Here’s What to Know

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, co-founder and co-CEO of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, plan to build a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter on their Hawaii ranch with its own energy and food supplies, according to a Wired investigation published earlier this month.

The plan is that the shelter’s door will be made of metal and filled in with concrete—common in bunkers and bomb shelters, the news outlet reported in its extensive article citing planning documents and interviews.  

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The bunker-like construction is just one part of the sprawling 1,400-acre compound, named Koolau Ranch, on the island of Kauai. Planning documents obtained by Wired show the partially-completed compound is set to include more than a dozen buildings with at least 30 bedrooms and 30 bathrooms, including two stand-alone mansions. There are also plans for 11 treehouses, as well as a fitness center, guest houses and operations buildings. 

It was not clear from reports of planning documents what the intent of the underground shelter is. TIME has reached out to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for further information about the project and the purpose of the shelter.

Brandi Hoffine Barr, spokesperson for Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, declined to comment to Wired on the bunker, but told the outlet the family considers the ranch their home. 

There continues to be high interest on social media surrounding Zuckerberg’s reported bunker plans. Speculative posts have argued that Zuckerberg and Chan may be building the bunker for natural disasters or even the “apocalypse” with some remarking on the rising trend among billionaires. One TikTok video, which has racked up 2 million views, looks at Wired‘s report on the cited bunker plans and asks viewers: “What’s Mark Zuckerburg [sic] prepping for?”

@themaybeseanc

Whats Mark Zuckerburg prepping for? Put your thoughts in the comments! #leavetheworldbehind #markzuckerberg #bunker #prepping

♬ original sound – MaybeSeanC

@cbsmornings

Mark Zuckerberg is building a mega-compound that will include an underground bunker on his Hawaiian estate — and it will cost more than $270 million, according to Wired. It will reportedly have some 30 bedrooms, 30 bathrooms and 11 treehouses. #markzuckerberg #meta #facebook #hawaii #kauai

♬ original sound – CBS Mornings

Silicon Valley’s elite have been buying up property and trying to build bunkers for years, The Guardian has reported. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel’s much-publicized plans were not approved by a local council in New Zealand in 2022, as authorities cited concerns that the bunker-like home would negatively impact the surrounding landscape. Entrepreneurs are reportedly selling luxury underground apartments in case of a catastrophe, while super-rich doomsday preppers asked Douglas Rushkoff, author of the book Survival of the Richest, how to guard their own food supply, among other end times survival concerns, he has shared.

Whatever the purpose, the cost to build the new Zuckerberg-Chan compound is expensive––along with the land, it is pegged at upwards of $270 million, Wired reported. Construction and other workers on the property were reportedly made to sign strict non-disclosure agreements, according to the news outlet.

TIME asked the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative about the NDAs. Hoffine Barr did not comment to Wired about NDAs.

source https://time.com/6551188/mark-zuckerberg-underground-bunker-hawaii-report-reaction/

California Is Expanding Health Care Coverage For Low-Income Immigrants in the New Year

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than 700,000 immigrants living illegally in California will gain access to free health care starting Monday under one of the state’s most ambitious coverage expansions in a decade.

It’s an effort that will eventually cost the state about $3.1 billion per year and inches California closer to Democrats’ goal of providing universal health care to its roughly 39 million residents.

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Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers agreed in 2022 to provide health care access to all low-income adults regardless of their immigration status through the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal.

California is the most populous state to guarantee such coverage, though Oregon began doing so in July.

Newsom called the expansion “a transformative step towards strengthening the health care system for all Californians” when he proposed the changes two years ago.

Newsom made the commitment when the state had the largest budget surplus in its history. But as the program kicks off next week, California faces a record $68 billion budget deficit, raising questions and concerns about the economic ramifications of the expansion.

“Regardless of what your position is on this, it doesn’t make sense for us to be adding to our deficit,” said Republican Sen. Roger Niello, the vice-chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee.

Immigration and health care advocates, who spent more than a decade fighting for the changes, have said the expanded coverage will close a gap in health care access and save the state money in the long run. Those who live in the state illegally often delay or avoid care because they aren’t eligible for most coverage, making it more expensive to treat them when they end up in emergency rooms.

“It’s a win-win, because it allows us to provide comprehensive care and we believe this will help keep our communities healthier,” said Dr. Efrain Talamantes, chief operating officer at AltaMed in Los Angeles, the largest federally qualified health center in California.

The update will be California’s largest health care expansion since the 2014 implementation of former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which allowed states to include adults who fall below 138% of the federal poverty level in their Medicaid programs. California’s uninsured rate dropped from about 17% to 7%.

But a large chunk of the population was left out: adults living in the United States without legal permission. They are not eligible for most public benefit programs, even though many have jobs and pay taxes.

Some states have used their tax dollars to cover a portion of health care expenses for some low-income immigrants. California first extended health care benefits to low-income children without legal status in 2015 and later added the benefits for young adults and people over the age of 50.

Now the last remaining group, adults ages 26 to 49, will be eligible for the state’s Medicaid program.

The state doesn’t know exactly how many people will enroll through the expansion, but state officials said more than 700,000 people will gain full health coverage allowing them to access preventative care and other treatment. That’s larger than the entire Medicaid population of several states.

“We’ve had this asterisk based on immigration status,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a consumer advocacy group. “Just from the numbers point of view, this is a big deal.”

Republicans and other conservative groups worry the new expansion will further strain the overloaded health care system and blasted the cost of the expansion.

State officials estimated the expansion will cost $1.2 billion the first six months and $3.1 billion annually thereafter from the budget. Spending for the Medi-Cal program, which is now about $37 billion annually, is the second-largest expense in the California budget, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Earlier this month, the state Department of Finance sent a letter urging state agencies to cut costs in light of the deficit. It has not given specific directions about the Medicaid expansion, state officials told The Associated Press in December.

California’s expansion of Medicaid will face other challenges. The state is chugging through a review of Medicaid enrollees’ eligibility for the first time in more than three years that was prompted by the end of some federal pandemic policies. Many immigrants who had their coverage protected during the COVID-19 pandemic now find themselves ineligible because they no longer financially qualify.

John Baackes, CEO of L.A. Care Health Plan, the state’s largest Medi-Cal plan with nearly 2.6 million members, said roughly 20,000 members have lost their Medicaid coverage during the review process this past year and are looking to secure new insurance plans. His organization is juggling to help people navigate through both processes.

“People are being bombarded with information,” Baackes said. “I can’t imagine if somebody were having to maneuver through all this, why they wouldn’t be terribly confused.”

“The phones are ringing off the walls,” he said. Fear and distrust are also barriers for the expansion, said Sarah Dar, policy director for the California Immigrant Policy Center.

Many immigrants avoid accepting any public programs or benefits out of fear it will eventually prevent them from gaining legal status under the “public charge” rule. The federal law requires those seeking to become permanent residents or gain legal status to prove they will not be a burden to the U.S., or a “public charge.” The rule no longer considers Medicaid as a factor under President Joe Biden’s administration, but the fear remains, she said.

More resources and effort are required to reach this population “because of the history of just being completely excluded and not interfacing with the health care system or with government programs at all for so long,” Dar said.

California has more work to do to see the state’s uninsured rate hit zero, known as “universal coverage,” Dar said.

For one thing, immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission are still not eligible to purchase insurance from Covered California, the state-run exchange offering steep discounts for people who meet certain income requirements. A bill pending in the state Legislature, supported by the California Immigrant Policy Center, would change that.

“It’s going to be another really big undertaking,” Dar said. “And we know that revenues are down… but it’s our job to make the case that, in times of economic downturn and whatnot, these are the communities that need the support the most.”

source https://time.com/6551181/california-expanding-health-care-coverage-immigrants/

There’s No Need For a Second Trial of FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Say Prosecutors

NEW YORK — A second trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on charges not in the cryptocurrency fraud case presented to a jury that convicted him in November is not necessary, prosecutors told a judge Friday.

Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in a letter that evidence at a second trial would duplicate evidence already shown to a jury. They also said it would ignore the “strong public interest in a prompt resolution” of the case, particularly because victims would not benefit from forfeiture or restitution orders if sentencing is delayed.

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They said the judge can consider the evidence that would be used at a second trial when he sentences Bankman-Fried on March 28 for defrauding customers and investors of at least $10 billion.

Bankman-Fried, 31, who has been incarcerated since several weeks before his trial, was convicted in early November of seven counts, including wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and three conspiracy charges. He could face decades in prison.

Last spring, prosecutors withdrew some charges they had brought against Bankman-Fried because the charges had not been approved as part of his extradition from the Bahamas in December 2022. They said the charges could be brought at a second trial to occur sometime in 2024.

However, prosecutors at the time said that they would still present evidence to the jury at the 2023 trial about the substance of the charges.

The charges that were temporarily dropped included conspiracy to make unlawful campaign contributions, conspiracy to bribe foreign officials and two other conspiracy counts. He also was charged with securities fraud and commodities fraud.

In their letter to Kaplan, prosecutors noted that they introduced evidence about all of the dropped charges during Bankman-Fried’s monthlong trial.

They said authorities in the Bahamas still have not responded to their request to bring the additional charges at a second trial. A lawyer for Bankman-Fried declined comment.

A conviction on the additional charges would not result in a potential for a longer prison sentence for Bankman-Fried, prosecutors said.

“Proceeding with sentencing in March 2024 without the delay that would be caused by a second trial would advance the public’s interest in a timely and just resolution of the case,” prosecutors wrote. “The interest in avoiding delay weighs particularly heavily here, where the judgment will likely include orders of forfeiture and restitution for the victims of the defendant’s crimes.”

source https://time.com/6551168/sam-bankman-fried-second-trial-unnecessary-prosecutors/

Ohio Governor Vetoes Bill Banning Gender-Affirming Care for Young People

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine vetoed a bill that would ban any gender transition care for minors on Dec. 29, breaking with his own party’s legislature, which had voted to pass the measure earlier in December. 

Capping a year in which nearly 20 states have restricted gender-affirming care for youth under the age of 18, Ohio’s Republican-majority House and Senate both passed the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act on Dec. 13. The bill aimed to outlaw providing youth under 18 with gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, puberty blocker medication, or gender reassignment surgery. 

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The governor, a Republican, cited the life-saving nature of gender-affirming care at a press conference announcing his veto decision.

“This bill would impact a very small number of Ohio’s children. But for those children who face gender dysphoria, and for their families, the consequences of this bill could not be more profound. Ultimately I believe this is about protecting human life,” DeWine said. “Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today, if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio’s children’s hospitals.”

The vetoed measure, Ohio’s House Bill 68, also would have prohibited transgender athletes who weren’t assigned female at birth from playing on sports teams designated for women at the high school and college levels. 

The Ohio measure was one of more than 500 anti-LBGTQ bills that lawmakers across the country introduced or passed in 2023. More than 75 have been passed into law—the majority of which have restricted health care for transgender minors, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. 

Legal attacks on trans youth have intensified over the past two years, says Erin Upchurch, executive director of Kaleidoscope Youth Center (KYC) in Columbus. The center provides community and support, including gender-affirming care, for LGBTQIA+ people ages 12 to 24 in Ohio, and Upchurch says her team witnesses the importance of providing this type of care to trans adolescents. 

“We know what it means when the part of you that’s inside gets to be alive—what it means to be seen. We get to see it every single day because of the space we provide,” Upchurch says. “The idea of taking that light away from somebody is just really cruel.” 

Upchurch says she has been impressed with the strength of young trans people in Ohio as their state lawmakers have tried to invalidate their identities and right to care. 

“They have been so brave, courageous, and resilient,” Upchurch says, though she’s sad that is what the political climate has required of them. “What choices do they have?” 

Many parents of transgender children in Ohio have been distressed as HB68 advanced through committees this year. Upchurch says families she works with have been figuring out whether they should stay in the state if HB68 passed. Some have started taking steps like gathering documents for moving out of Ohio and working elsewhere. She works with multiple young people who have pending gender surgeries scheduled, and as they waited for the governor’s decision, they worried they would lose their upcoming care.

DeWine said he spoke with many recipients of gender-affirming care, their families, and physicians at all five of Ohio’s children’s hospitals in order to make his decision. After talking with trans youth who said they were thriving due to their care, and parents who said gender-affirming treatment saved their children’s life, the governor emphasized the rights of parents to make any choices about their own child’s health care.

“These are gut-wrenching decisions that should be made by parents and should be informed by teams of doctors who are advising them,” DeWine said. “Were House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government, knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child the most: the parents.”

Ohio Republicans have a supermajority in the state legislature, which gives them the power to override his veto. DeWine announced actions to support some of the positions of the bill’s sponsors, such as requiring data collection about gender-affirming care for young people and looking into banning gender reassignment surgeries for anyone under 18. 

Despite this, Upchurch says she is elated about DeWine’s veto. But transgender young people and their communities know the threat of anti-LGBT legislation, and the emotional toll it takes remains. 

“What I want to believe is that Governor DeWine is an example of how to lead, how to have a state where people can feel at home, where people can thrive,” she says. “I’m hoping this veto and conversation moving forward can bring the light back to these young folks and their families.”

source https://time.com/6551149/ohio-governor-gender-affirming-care/

Russia Launches the Biggest Aerial Barrage of the War, Ukraine Says

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones against Ukrainian targets, officials said Friday, killing at least 30 civilians across the country in what an air force official called the biggest aerial barrage of the war.

At least 144 people were injured and an unknown number were buried under rubble during the roughly 18-hour onslaught, Ukrainian officials said. A maternity hospital, apartment blocks and schools were among the buildings reported damaged across Ukraine.

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In the capital, Kyiv, broken glass and mangled metal littered city streets. Air raid and emergency service sirens wailed as plumes of smoke drifted into a bright blue sky.

Kateryna Ivanivna, a 72-year-old Kyiv resident, said she threw herself to the ground when a missile struck.

“There was an explosion, then flames,” she said. “I covered my head and got down in the street. Then I ran into the subway station.”

Meanwhile, in Poland, authorities said that what apparently was a Russian missile entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars.

In the attack on Ukraine, the air force intercepted most of the ballistic and cruise missiles and the Shahed-type drones overnight, said Ukraine’s military chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Western officials and analysts had recently warned that Russia limited its cruise missile strikes for months in an apparent effort to build up stockpiles for massive strikes during the winter, hoping to break the Ukrainians’ spirit.

The result was “the most massive aerial attack” since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his official Telegram channel. It topped the previous biggest assault, in November 2022 when Russia launched 96 missiles, and this year’s biggest, with 81 missiles on March 9, according to air force records.

Fighting along the front line is largely bogged down by winter weather after Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive failed to make a significant breakthrough along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) line of contact.

Ukrainian officials have urged the country’s Western allies to provide it with more air defenses. Their appeals have come as signs of war fatigue strain efforts to keep support in place.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the attack should stir the world to further action in support of Ukraine.

“These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy,” Sunak said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “We must continue to stand with Ukraine — for as long as it takes.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the scale of the attack should wake people up to Ukraine’s continuing needs.

“Today, millions of Ukrainians awoke to the loud sound of explosions,” he wrote on X. “I wish those sounds of explosions in Ukraine could be heard all around the world. In all major capitals, headquarters, and parliaments, which are currently debating further support for Ukraine.”

In Kyiv, the bombardment damaged a subway station that lies across the street from a factory belonging to the Artem company, which produces components for various military-grade missiles. Officials did not say whether the factory was directly hit.

Overall, the attack hit six cities, and reports of deaths and damage came in from across the country. Several dozen missiles were launched towards Kyiv, with more than 30 intercepted, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration. Eight people were killed there, officials said.

In Boyarka, near Kyiv, the debris of a shot-down drone fell on a home and started a fire. Andrii Korobka, 47, said his mother was sleeping next to the room where the wreckage landed and was taken to hospital suffering from shock.

“The war goes on, and it can happen to any house, even if you think yours will never be affected,” Korobka said.

Tetiana Sakhnenko lives next door and said neighbors ran with buckets of water to put out the blaze, but it spread quickly. “It’s so scary,” she said.

In the eastern city of Dnipro, four maternity hospital patients were rescued from a fire, five people were killed and 20 injured, officials said.

In Odesa, on the southern coast, falling drone wreckage started a fire at a multistory residential building, according to the regional head, Oleh Kiper. Two people were killed and 15, including two children, were injured, he said.

The mayor of the western city of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, said one person was killed there, with three schools and a kindergarten damaged in a drone attack. Local emergency services said 30 people were injured.

In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city was subjected to at least three waves of aerial attacks that included S-300 and Kh-21 missile launches. One person was killed and at least nine injured, officials said.

___

Dmytro Zhyhinas contributed to this story

source https://time.com/6551131/russia-aerial-attack-ukraine/

U.S. Sanctions Money Network Tied to the Yemen Houthi Rebels Blamed for Shipping Vessel Attacks

The U.S. on Thursday imposed sanctions on a group of money exchange services from Yemen and Turkey alleged to help provide funding to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have been launching attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the southern Red Sea.

Included in the sanctions are the head of a financial intermediary in Sana’a, Yemen, along with three exchange houses in Yemen and Turkey. U.S. Treasury alleges that the people and firms helped transfer millions of dollars to the Houthis at the direction of sanctioned Iranian financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal.

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The sanctions block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans.

Thursday’s action is the latest round of financial penalties meant to punish the Houthis.
Earlier this month, the U.S. announced sanctions against 13 people and firms alleged to be providing tens of millions of dollars from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities to the Houthis in Yemen.

Brian E. Nelson, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Thursday’s action “underscores our resolve to restrict the illicit flow of funds to the Houthis, who continue to conduct dangerous attacks on international shipping and risk further destabilizing the region.”

Nelsons said the U.S. and its allies “will continue to target the key facilitation networks that enable the destabilizing activities of the Houthis and their backers in Iran.”

The Houthis have sporadically targeted ships in the region in the past, but the attacks have increased since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, spiking after an Oct. 17 explosion at a hospital in Gaza killed and injured many. Houthi leaders have insisted Israel is their target.

In December, the White House also announced that it was encouraging its allies to join the Combined Maritime Forces, a 39-member partnership that exists to counter malign action by non-state actors in international waters, as it looks to push back against the Houthis.

The attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels have scared off some of the world’s top shipping companies and oil giants, effectively rerouting global trade away from a crucial artery for consumer goods and energy supplies that is expected to trigger delays and rising prices.

source https://time.com/6551097/us-impose-sanctions-yemen-turkey-money-network/

Football Power Was Always Part of the Plan for Liberty University

On Jan. 1, 2024, Liberty University faces off with the University of Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. 

As millions of Americans tune into the football game, they will be watching the fulfillment of Liberty founder and chancellor Jerry Falwell’s greatest prophecy. Athletic success formed a foundational part of Falwell’s plan for the school, so much so that its founding mission statement promised “Here we Train Champions for Christ.” 

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From the beginning, Falwell declared it a goal for Liberty to be the evangelical equivalent of Notre Dame for Catholics and Brigham Young University for Latter-day Saints, both football powerhouses. Falwell’s vision has had major implications for the country. He infused students with a new, strident, aggressive form of faith that has reshaped American religion and politics over the last half century. In real ways, Liberty has driven the growth of the Christian Nationalism that is at the forefront of American politics today — and it has often used its football team to do so. 

Founded in 1971, Liberty did not field a football team for its first two academic years. In 1973, however, Liberty added football and Falwell immediately began using it as a tool to preach his message that the U.S. had to return to what he argued were its Christian roots.

The football media guide for 1975 signified his vision for the school. The cover displayed three American flags, the word “FLAMES” in star-spangled-banner font, and a bald eagle with arrows in its right talon, an olive branch in its left, and a football in its beak. The media guide praised Falwell as a conqueror. It also interspersed cartoons that illustrated the school’s emphasis on patriotism, America’s founding, and faith with information about the team.

From 1975 to 1988, Falwell stressed the spiritual qualifications of Liberty’s football coaches, but they lost more games than they won. Their record and lower level of competition limited the team’s visibility and Falwell’s platform.

Read More: Theologian Russell Moore Has a Message for Christians Who Still Worship Donald Trump

In 1988, Falwell decided it was time to hire a coach who would bring more attention and wins to his burgeoning football program. He settled on former Cleveland Browns coach and ESPN announcer Sam Rutigliano. In a Sporting News article, Falwell justified the move by declaring that evangelical young people deserved their equivalent of BYU or Notre Dame — “a “world-class university.” Liberty needed to “be about the business of creating a Cadillac program.”

In 1989, Falwell shuttered the Moral Majority — his conservative, Christian political organization. That left Liberty as Falwell’s primary vehicle for expanding his political influence by shaping the faith and politics of young evangelicals. In his estimation, a winning football program promised to attract students from across the country, garner media attention, and grow Falwell’s own reach.

But that wasn’t all. Falwell saw a winning football program as a path for fueling his fight to restore Christian America. In 1995, the NCAA gave him a chance and he seized it. The governing body made all end zone celebrations a 15-yard penalty, including kneeling or pointing to heaven. Liberty, Rutigliano, and four players filed a lawsuit against the NCAA charging that the new rule violated their First Amendment Rights.

The national media descended on Liberty for a press conference with the coach, players, and Falwell. They announced their intentions to continue to kneel in prayer on the field, no matter the penalty. The next day Liberty beat West Virginia Institute of Technology 76-6. Players kneeled after every score. The NCAA quickly amended the rule to allow post-touchdown prayers, handing Falwell a victory in the first major political fight that he waged with his school’s football team.

Falwell brought Rutigliano onto his television program, the Old Time Gospel Hour. The reverend reassured his viewers that he agreed with the new rules aimed at cutting down poor sportsmanship — just not when they interfered with his goal of restoring Christianity to the center of American life. But he insisted that any future football players who kneeled would owe a debt of gratitude to his Liberty team for defending their constitutional freedom. After Falwell’s long, passionate introduction, Rutigliano gave a brief homily, challenging viewers to join Falwell’s cultural war. 

In 2007, Falwell died and his son Jerry Falwell Jr. took over Liberty. Falwell Jr. maintained his father’s commitment to building the school’s political influence and its football program. In 2013, Liberty brought NFL quarterback Tim Tebow to speak. The previous year he had become a cultural icon by kneeling on the field with a clinched fist pressed to his forehead as he prayed. By doing so on the NFL stage with its massive platform, Tebow illustrated how Liberty’s football team could increase the visibility of Falwell’s brand of conservative evangelical Christianity if it could reach the highest echelons of college football.

Five years later, Liberty’s football team jumped back into the political fray, once again over kneeing, but this time on the opposite side. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality, igniting a firestorm. Nike followed with a commercial featuring the quarterback that exhorted, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

While that message could’ve meshed with Liberty’s brand of faith, Falwell Jr. instead saw Kaepernick as unpatriotic — a danger to the Christian nationalism for which Liberty stood. He threatened to break the school’s athletic apparel contract with Nike. Liberty’s football team gave Falwell the platform and power to publicly shape the politics and consumption of conservative evangelicals. His threat to boycott through his football team’s gear codified the pillar of Christian nationalism that sanctified the support of police.

In 2017, the NCAA approved Liberty’s bid to join the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). After 46 years, the Falwells’ dream of building a football program — and a school — that would compete against the likes of Notre Dame and BYU became a reality. 

At the May graduation ceremony that year, it took another step. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barak Obama had all followed victories with trips to South Bend to serve as Notre Dame’s commencement speaker. Donald Trump, by contrast, rewarded evangelical Christians for their overwhelming support by venturing to Liberty instead. Over 50,000 people filled the school’s football stadium. The crowd roared as Falwell Jr. boasted about the president’s slight of Notre Dame.

Read More: Liberty University Students Divided Over President Trump as Commencement Speaker

Trump emphasized Falwell Sr.’s vision for an evangelical university that would shape the minds of young Christians. He declared, “And I want to thank you because, boy, did you come out and vote!” He also praised the school’s commitment to developing a winning athletic program to help it grow. “That is why,” Trump bellowed, “Reverend Falwell’s vision for making Liberty a world-class institution was having a world class football team much like the great teams of Notre Dame.”

Trump’s logic illustrated why the Falwells needed to build a football powerhouse. With a winning, big-time college program, Liberty could spread its brand of conservative Christianity. To continue doing so Falwell Jr. hired Hugh Freeze as coach. The former University of Mississippi coach had been fired for repeatedly calling numbers linked to female escorts from his university phone. At Liberty, however, the possibility of elevating the football program was tantalizing enough that students either defended or ignored Freeze’s previous sins. He went 34-15 as the head coach and led the school to its first bowl game.

While both Liberty football and Christian Nationalism have only recently entered the national consciousness, the two forces have been feeding one another for over half a century. In that time, Liberty’s enrollment has increased exponentially to over 130,000 in 2022 making it the largest private school in the nation. On campus and online, Liberty students imbibe the school’s blend of faith, football, and politics. After graduation, they fill church pulpits and pews across the country.

From the start, Falwell foresaw creating a university that shaped conservative Christians like Notre Dame has Catholics and BYU has Latter-day Saints. The 2023 football season is the culmination of years of work and hundreds of millions of dollars spent. While Notre Dame is playing a lower tier bowl game, and BYU failed to qualify for one, Liberty is on one of the biggest stages in the sport in front of a projected television audience of over 8 million. According to marketing executive Blake Area, the game’s Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE), a preferred metric by universities and athletic departments to measure the monetary value of a sporting event, will net Liberty over $30 million in unpaid advertising.

No matter the outcome of the Fiesta Bowl, then, it will be a victory for Jerry Falwell Sr.’s prophetic vision for his Christian Nationalist football program. As Christian Nationalism is increasingly preached by politicians, Liberty football is mainstreaming its beliefs to the American public and instilling its virtues in the next generation of voters.

Hunter M. Hampton is an assistant professor of history at Stephen F. Austin State University. His research focuses on religion, sport, and American culture. Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here.

source https://time.com/6549712/liberty-university-fiesta-bowl/

Gypsy Rose Blanchard Released From Prison

Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the Missouri woman who persuaded an online boyfriend to kill her mother after she had forced her to pretend for years that she was suffering from leukemia, muscular dystrophy and other serious illnesses, was released Thursday from prison on parole.

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Blanchard was released early in the day from the Chillicothe Correctional Center, said Karen Pojmann, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Corrections. Blanchard was granted parole after serving 85% of her original sentence, Pojmann said.

Blanchard’s case sparked national tabloid interest after reports emerged that her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who was slain in 2015, had essentially kept her daughter prisoner, forcing her to use a wheelchair and feeding tube. It turned out that Gypsy Blanchard, now 32, was perfectly healthy, not developmentally delayed as her friends had always believed. Her mother had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological disorder in which parents or caregivers seek sympathy through the exaggerated or made-up illnesses of their children, said her trial attorney, Michael Stanfield.

“People were constantly telling Dee Dee what a wonderful mother she was, and Dee Dee was getting all of this attention,” he said.

Through the ruse, the mother and daughter met country star Miranda Lambert and received charitable donations, a trip to Disney World and even a home near Springfield from Habitat for Humanity.

Stanfield said Gypsy Blanchard’s mother was able to dupe doctors by telling them her daughter’s medical records had been lost in Hurricane Katrina. If they asked too many questions, she just found a new physician, shaving the girl’s head to back up her story. Among the unnecessary procedures Gypsy Blanchard underwent was the removal of her salivary glands. Her mother convinced doctors it was necessary by using topical anesthetic to cause drooling.

Gypsy Blanchard, who had little schooling or contact with anyone but her mother, also was misled, especially when she was younger, Stanfield said.

“The doctors seem to confirm everything that you’re being told. The outside world is telling you that your mother is a wonderful, loving, caring person. What other idea can you have?” Stanfield said.

But then the abuse became more physical, Stanfield said. Gypsy testified that her mother beat her and chained her to a bed. Slowly, Gypsy also was beginning to understand that she wasn’t as sick as her mom said.

“I wanted to be free of her hold on me,” Gypsy testified at the 2018 trial of her former boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn of Big Bend, Wisconsin, who is serving a life sentence in the killing. She went on to add: “I talked him into it.”

When she took the stand at his trial, prosecutors already had cut her a deal because of the abuse she had endured. In exchange for pleading guilty in 2016 to second-degree murder, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The first-degree murder charge she initially faced would have meant a life term.

“Nick was so in love with her and so obsessed with her that he would do anything,” Godejohn’s trial attorney Dewayne Perry argued in court, saying his client has autism and was manipulated.

Prosecutors, however, argued that he was motivated by sex and a desire to be with Gypsy Blanchard, whom he met on a Christian dating website.

According to the probable cause statement, Gypsy Blanchard supplied the knife and hid in a bathroom while Godejohn repeatedly stabbed her mother. The two ultimately made their way by bus to Wisconsin, where they were arrested.

“Things are not always as they appear,” said Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott as the strange revelations began to emerge.

Even Gypsy’s age was a lie. Her mother had said she was younger to make it easier to perpetuate the fraud, and got away with it because Gypsy was so small: just 4 feet, 11 inches (150 centimeters) tall.

Law enforcement was initially so confused that the original court documents listed three different ages for her, with the youngest being 19. She was 23.

Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson described it as “one of the most extraordinary and unusual cases we have seen.”

Stanfield recalled that the first time he met Gypsy, she got out of breath walking the 75 yards (69 meters) from the elevator to the room where he talked to her. He described her as malnourished and physically frail.

“I can honestly say I’ve rarely had a client who looks exceedingly better after doing a fairly long prison sentence,” Stanfield said. “Prison is generally not a place where you become happy and healthy. And I say that because, to me, that’s kind of the evidence to the rest of the world as to just how bad what Gypsy was going through really was.”

Gypsy Blanchard later said it wasn’t until her arrest that she realized how healthy she was. But it took time. Eventually, she got married while behind bars to Ryan Scott Anderson, now 37, of Saint Charles, Louisiana.

The bizarre case was the subject of the 2017 HBO documentary “Mommy Dead and Dearest,” the 2019 Hulu miniseries “The Act” and an upcoming Lifetime docuseries “The Prison Confession of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.” Daytime television psychologist “Dr. Phil” McGraw interviewed her from prison. The novel “Darling Rose Gold” draws upon the story for its premise and Blanchard’s own account, “Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom” is set for publication next month.
Amid the media storm, Pojmann, of the corrections department, said no in-person coverage of her release was allowed “in the interest of protecting safety, security and privacy.”

source https://time.com/6551079/gypsy-rose-blanchard-released-prison-murder/

The New York Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over the Use of Its Stories to Train Chatbots

NEW YORK — The New York Times has filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking to end the practice of using its stories to train chatbots, saying that copyright infringements at the paper alone could be worth billions.

The paper joins a growing list of individuals and publishers trying to stop OpenAI from using copyrighted material.

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In the suit filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the Times said OpenAI and Microsoft are advancing their technology through the “unlawful use of The Times’s work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it” and “threatens The Times’s ability to provide that service.”

OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Media organizations have been pummeled by a migration of readers to online platforms and while many publications have carved out a digital space online as well, artificial intelligence technology has threatened to upend numerous industries, including media.

Artificial intelligence companies scrape information available online, including articles published by media organizations, to train generative AI chatbots. Those companies have attracted billions in investments very rapidly.

Microsoft has a partnership with OpenAI that allows it to capitalize on the AI technology made by the artificial intelligence company. The Redmon, Washington, tech giant is also OpenAI’s biggest backer and has invested billions of dollars into the company since the two began their partnership in 2019 with a $1 billion investment. As part of the agreement, Microsoft’s supercomputers help power OpenAI’s AI research and the tech giant integrates the startup’s technology into its products.

The number of lawsuits filed against OpenAI for copyright infringement is growing. The company has been sued by a number of writers – including comedian Sarah Silverman – who say their books were ingested to train OpenAI’s AI models without their permission. In June, more than 4,000 writers signed a letter to the CEOs of OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta and other AI developers accusing them of exploitative practices in building chatbots that “mimic and regurgitate” their language, style and ideas.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday said generative AI tools developed by OpenAI and Microsoft are closely summarizing content from the Times, mimicking its style and even reciting it verbatim. The complaint cited examples of OpenAI’s GPT-4 spitting out large portions of news articles from the Times, including a Pulitzer-Prize winning investigation into New York City’s taxi industry that was published in 2019 and took 18 months to complete. It also cited outputs from Bing Chat that it said included verbatim excerpts from Times articles.

The Times did not list specific damages that it is seeking, but said the legal action “seeks to hold them responsible for the billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages that they owe for the unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.”

The Times, however, is seeking the destruction of GPT and other large language models or training sets that incorporate its work.

In the complaint, the Times said Microsoft and OpenAI “seek to free-ride on The Times’s massive investments in its journalism” by using it to build products without payment or permission.

In July, OpenAI and The Associated Press announced a deal for the artificial intelligence company to license AP’s archive of news stories.

The New York Times said it’s never given permission to anyone to use its content for generative AI purposes.

The lawsuit also follows what appears to be breakdowns in talks between the newspaper and the two companies.

The Times said it reached out to Microsoft and OpenAI in April to raise concerns about the use of its intellectual property and reach a resolution on the issue. During the talks, the newspaper said it sought to “ensure it received fair value” for the use of its content, “facilitate the continuation of a healthy news ecosystem, and help develop GenAI technology in a responsible way that benefits society and supports a well-informed public.”

“These negotiations have not led to a resolution,” the lawsuit said.

source https://time.com/6551035/new-york-times-sues-openai-microsoft/

Michigan Supreme Court Keeps Trump on the State’s 2024 Ballot

On Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear a case looking to assess whether the insurrection clause in the 14th Amendment applies to former President Donald Trump, allowing him to remain on the presidential ballot for 2024.

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The court’s order upheld a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling on the matter, saying that it was “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court” and refusing to comment on whether Trump engaged in insurrection, or whether the insurrectionist ban applies to presidential candidates.  

This comes after the decision made on Dec. 19 in Colorado—where justices ruled that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment does apply to presidential candidates and that Trump was ineligible for election because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, removing him from the primary ballot. 

The Colorado Supreme Court said they would stay their ruling until Jan. 4 in case the U.S. Supreme Court wanted to weigh in. The Supreme Court has not yet agreed to hear the case, but their opinion could be instrumental in how the 2024 presidential election plays out given this most recent ruling. 

The Michigan case was filed by Free Speech for People, a nonprofit organization, on behalf of voters. But LaBrant v. Benson was rejected on procedural grounds before it even received a hearing because the state’s higher court agreed that Michigan state law does not allow the secretary of state to exclude a candidate like Trump from the primary election. 

Plaintiffs “have identified no analogous provision in the Michigan Election Law that requires someone seeking the office of President of the United States to attest to their legal qualification to hold the office,” wrote Justice Elizabeth Welch in the court order on Wednesday, saying that Michigan law differs from Colorado’s.

“We are disappointed by the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision,” said Ron Fein, Legal Director of Free Speech For People, an attorney for the plaintiffs, in a Wednesday statement. “The ruling conflicts with longstanding US Supreme Court precedent that makes clear that when political parties use the election machinery of the state to select, via the primary process, their candidates for the general election, they must comply with all constitutional requirements in that process.”

However, Welch said that appellants would still have the chance to bring forward another case regarding Trump’s qualifications as a presidential candidate if he becomes the Republican nominee, or seeks election as an independent. 

Free Speech for the People, which has another lawsuit seeking to remove Trump from the ballot in Oregon, said the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision has no impact on other efforts to disqualify Trump. 

“The Court’s decision is disappointing but we will continue, at a later stage, to seek to uphold this critical constitutional provision designed to protect our republic,” said attorney Mark Brewer. “Trump led a rebellion and insurrection against the Constitution when he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election and he is disqualified from ever seeking or holding public office again.

source https://time.com/6551024/michigan-supreme-court-trump-2024-ballot/

At Least 140 Villagers Killed by Suspected Herders in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen attacked remote villages over the weekend in north-central Nigeria’s Plateau state, killing at least 140 people, officials and survivors said Tuesday, the latest case this year of such mass killings blamed on the farmer-herder crisis in the West African nation.

The assailants targeted 17 communities in “senseless and unprovoked” attacks on Saturday and Sunday, burning down most houses in the area, Plateau Gov. Caleb Mutfwang said in a broadcast on the local Channels Television.

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“As I am talking to you, in Mangu local governorate alone, we buried 15 people. As of this morning, in Bokkos, we are counting not less than 100 corpses. I am yet to take stock of (the deaths in) Barkin Ladi,” Mutfwan said. “It has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in Plateau.”

Amnesty International’s Nigeria office told The Associated Press that it has so far confirmed 140 deaths in the Christian-dominated Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi areas of Plateau, based on data compiled by its workers on the ground and from local officials. There were fears of a higher death toll as some people remained unaccounted for.

Some of the locals said that it took more than 12 hours before security agencies responded to their call for help, a claim the AP couldn’t independently verify, but which echoes past concerns about slow interventions in Nigeria‘s deadly security crisis, which has killed hundreds this year, including in Plateau.

“I called security but they never came. The ambush started 6 in the evening but security reached our place by 7 in the morning,” said Sunday Dawum, a youth leader in Bokkos. At least 27 people were killed in his village, Mbom Mbaru, including his brother, he said.

No group took responsibility for the attacks though blame fell on herders from the Fulani tribe, who have been accused of carrying out such mass killings across the northwest and central regions where the decadeslong conflict over access to land and water has further worsened the sectarian division between Christians and Muslims in Africa’s most populous nation.

The Nigerian army said it has begun “clearance operations” in search of suspects, with the help of other security agencies, although arrests are rare in such attacks.

Abdullsalam Abubakar, who commands the army’s special intervention operation in Plateau and neighboring states, said his forces “will not rest” until they find those responsible.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was elected this year after promising to tackle security challenges his predecessor had failed to address, instructed security agencies to “scour every stretch of the zone and apprehend the culprits,” according to a statement from his office. He also ordered the “immediate mobilization of relief resources” for the survivors and prompt medical treatment for the wounded, it added.

Amnesty’s Nigeria director Isa Sanusi said Tinubu’s government and others have failed to take “tangible action” to protect lives and ensure justice for victims in the conflict-hit northern region.

“Sometimes they claim to make arrests but there is no proof they have done so,” he said. “The brazen failure of the authorities to protect the people of Nigeria is gradually becoming the norm.”

source https://time.com/6551014/nigeria-farmer-herder-mass-killing/

6-Year-Old Boy Traveling to Visit Grandma for Christmas Put on Wrong Spirit Flight

(FORT MYERS, Fla.) — A 6-year-old boy who left on a flight for the Christmas holiday to visit his grandmother in southwest Florida instead was put on the wrong plane and ended up 160 miles away in Orlando, Florida.

When the grandmother, Maria Ramos, showed up on Thursday at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers to greet her grandson who was flying for the first time from Philadelphia, she was told he wasn’t on the Spirit Airlines flight.

“I ran inside the plane to the flight attendant and I asked her, ‘Where’s my grandson? He was handed over to you at Philadelphia?’ She said, ‘No, I had no kids with me,’” Ramos told WINK News.

She then got a call from her grandson from the airport in Orlando, telling her that he had landed.

An email was sent to Spirit Airlines on Tuesday morning seeking comment.

In a statement to WINK News, Spirit Airlines said the boy was under the care and supervision of an airlines employee the entire time, even though he was incorrectly boarded on a flight to Orlando. Once the mistake was discovered, the airlines let the family know, the statement said.

“We take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our Guests seriously and are conducting an internal investigation,” the statement said. “We apologize to the family for this experience.”

source https://time.com/6551004/6-year-old-boy-christmas-travel-wrong-flight-spirit/

Alexei Navalny, Russian Opposition Activist, Found in an Arctic Penal Colony

MOSCOW (AP) — Associates of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he has been located at a prison colony above the Arctic Circle nearly three weeks after contact with him was lost.

Navalny, the most prominent foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. He had been imprisoned in the Vladimir region of central Russia, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) east of Moscow, but his lawyers said they had not been able to reach him since Dec. 6.

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His spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, said he was located in a prison colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.

Navalny is “fine — at least as much as possible after such a long stage” and a lawyer visited him, Yarmysh told The Associated Press.

The region is notorious for long and severe winters. The town is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Vorkuta, whose coal mines were among the harshest of the Soviet Gulag prison-camp system.

“It is almost impossible to get to this colony; it is almost impossible to even send letters there. This is the highest possible level of isolation from the world,” Navalny’s chief strategist, Leonid Volkov, said on X.

Transfers within Russia’s prison system are shrouded in secrecy and inmates can disappear from contact for several weeks. Navalny’s team was particularly alarmed when he could not be found because he had been ill and reportedly was being denied food and kept in an unventilated cell.

Yarmysh said the transfer was connected with the campaign for the Russian presidential election in March. While Putin’s reelection is all but certain, given his overwhelming control over the country’s political scene and a widening crackdown on dissent, Navalny’s supporters and other critics hope to use the campaign to erode public support for the Kremlin leader and his military action in Ukraine.

“They deliberately sent him to this particular colony precisely in order to isolate Alexei as much as possible, so as not to give him any opportunity to communicate with the outside world,” she said. “This is all happening precisely because Alexei, despite the fact that he is in prison, is still the main opponent of Vladimir Putin … It is not surprising that they began to transfer him to another colony right now, so that he could not interfere with Putin’s campaign.”

Navalny has been behind bars in Russia since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. Before his arrest, he campaigned against official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests.

He has since received three prison terms and spent months in isolation in Penal Colony No. 6 for alleged minor infractions. He has rejected all charges against him as politically motivated.

source https://time.com/6550972/alexei-navalny-arctic-penal-colony/

Check Out the Galaxy’s Very Own Christmas Tree

NASA’s telescopes have delivered a just-in-time holiday gift from the other side of the galaxy—a new composite image of a particularly festive grouping of stars known as the Christmas Tree Cluster. 

The “tree,” along with another deep-sky object known as the Cone Nebula make up the NGC 2264 cluster. It was discovered in January 1784 by the astronomer William Herschel and is one of the many nebulae to receive a nickname based on a resemblance to an earthly object or creature. To create the most pine-like image of the cluster yet, NASA researchers have compiled renderings from multiple sources, including the agency’s own Chandra X-ray Observatory. The Chandra telescope specializes in capturing X-ray emissions from stars at high temperatures, represented in the image by blue and white specks.

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An animated version of NASA’s image showing overlays of each star’s variations via X-ray was created with the assistance of the Two Micron All Sky Survey, an infrared project supported by NASA at the turn of the century.

The stars that make up NGC 2264 are between one and five million years old, according to NASA, and the brightest among them are believed to have a mass equivalent of as many as seven of our suns. The triangular shape they form has been rotated in the image to better highlight its resemblance to a tree, while optical data from the National Science Foundation’s Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOIRLab Observatory captures the cloud of nebulous gas making up the leaflike bushiness of the holiday staple.

NGC 2264 lives in the Milky Way’s Monoceros constellation, roughly 2,5000 light-years from Earth. Though it isn’t prominent in NASA’s new image, NGC 2264 is also home to another seasonal set of stars nicknamed the “Snowflake Cluster.” This smaller structure is found within the larger Christmas Tree Cluster, and is made up of lines of young stars gradually drifting out from a center point. 

source https://time.com/6550961/nasa-christmas-tree-image/

Bethlehem Reverend Delivers ‘Christ in the Rubble’ Christmas Sermon Amid Gaza Conflict

Beside the nativity manger, where baby Jesus, draped in a Palestinian keffiyeh, lay amid rocks, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac stood at the pulpit of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem to deliver his Christmas sermon.

“If Jesus were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble in Gaza,” Isaac said in his address during the “Christ in the Rubble: A Liturgy of Lament” service on Dec. 23 in the West Bank.

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Isaac, a Palestinian Christian theologian, told the congregation that the Christmas message “is not about Santa, trees, gifts, lights, etc. My goodness, how we twisted the meaning of Christmas. How we have commercialized Christmas.” Instead, he said, the Christmas message is that Jesus, who miraculously survived a massacre, was “born among the occupied and marginalized. He is in solidarity with us in our pain and brokenness.”

The reverend called out the Western world, which he views as complicit in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza that has displaced two million people and killed 20,000—actions he called “a genocide.”

“Let it be clear: Silence is complicity, and empty calls for peace without a ceasefire and end to occupation, and the shallow words of empathy without direct action—are all under the banner of complicity,” he said. The true Christmas message, he argued, is that “this genocide must stop now.”

Read more: Is What’s Happening in Gaza a Genocide? Experts Weigh In

Genocide experts have offered different opinions on whether Israel’s actions meet the United Nations’ definition of genocide as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Complaints have been filed in the International Criminal Court alleging genocide conducted by both Hamas and Israel, and its chief investigator is gathering information about potential crimes.

The Israeli mission to the U.N. in Geneva has called genocide accusations “deplorable and deeply concerning” and pointed out the current war was brought upon Israel by Hamas, who killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in Israel on Oct. 7, Reuters reported. Hamas also kidnapped around 240 people—130 of whom remain in captivity, with at least 20 of them believed to be dead.

Read. more: Amid the Israel-Hamas War, Iran Marches Towards Nuclear Breakout

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to criticism of Palestinian civilian deaths by French President Emmanuel Macron via social media, saying on Nov. 10 that “the responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas” and said Israel “does everything in its power to avoid harming civilians and urges them to leave the battle areas.”

Citing a frequent response that Israel is acting in self-defense in Gaza, Isaac in his message asked “how is the killing of 9,000 children self-defense?”

“We are angry. We are broken. This should have been a time of joy; instead, we are mourning. We are fearful,” he began his message. “Gaza as we know it no longer exists,” he continued, adding that Palestinians in the West Bank were now also asking “could this be our fate in Bethlehem?” 

Isaac acknowledged with gratitude a global group of Christian leaders, led by a South African delegation, who came to mourn in solidarity at the service, which was live-streamed by the American Red Letter Christians group, but called out the broader Western world for its silence. He also called out the “theology of Empire” from the Western church that he said “becomes a powerful tool to mask oppression under the cloak of divine sanction. It divides people into “us” and “them.”

Read more: The World’s Job During the War on Hamas

Isaac claimed the war has proven that the “Western world does not see us as equal,” adding that the “hypocrisy and racism of the Western world is transparent and appalling.” He said he never wanted to get a lecture on human rights from the West again, because he said it appeared as though those laws didn’t apply to non-white Palestinians.

To those who are not appalled by what is happening, Isaac said “there is something wrong with your humanity” adding that “Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world.”

In reference to the name and theme of his Christmas sermon, Isaac said that the “Christ in the rubble” manger is about “resilience,” exemplified in Jesus’ meekness, weakness and vulnerability. “Resilience because this very same child, rose up from the midst of pain, destruction, darkness and death to challenge Empires, to speak truth to power and deliver an everlasting victory over death and darkness.”

source https://time.com/6550851/bethlehem-christmas-sermon-nativity-rubble/

U.K. Home Secretary James Cleverly Apologizes For Making Joke About Date Rape Drug

LONDON — British Home Secretary James Cleverly was under fire Sunday for joking about date rape just hours after announcing plans to crack down on what he had dubbed a “perverse” offense.

Cleverly, who oversees national security and law enforcement in England and Wales, faced a call to step down after he reportedly joked at an event at the prime minister’s home about drugging his wife.

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He told women guests at a Dec. 18 reception that the secret to a long marriage was having a spouse who “is always mildly sedated so she can never realize there are better men out there,” the Sunday Mirror newspaper reported.

Cleverly said “a little bit of Rohypnol” — the so-called date rape drug — “in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit.”

The drug, colloquially known as a roofie when it is crushed and put into someone’s beverage without their knowledge, makes the subject drowsy and can lead to unconsciousness and memory loss.

Cleverly apologized through a spokesperson for what he called an “ironic joke” after he had announced the Conservative government planned to update legislation to make clear that such drink spiking is illegal. He described the practice as a “perverse” crime.

The comments were made during a drinks reception at 10 Downing Street where political journalists mingled with political aides, ministers and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Conversations at such events are typically off the record, but the Sunday Mirror said it decided to report the news because of Cleverly’s position and the subject matter.

“In what was always understood as a private conversation, James, the home secretary tackling spiking, made what was clearly meant to be an ironic joke – for which he apologizes,” his spokesperson said.

Jemima Olchawski, chief executive of the women’s rights group the Fawcett Society said the remarks were “sickening,” and she called on Cleverly to resign.

“How can we trust him to seriously address violence against women and girls?” Olchawski said in a statement. “It’s sickening that the senior minister in charge of keeping women safe thinks that something as terrifying as drugging women is a laughing matter.”

Cleverly, 54, who met his wife in college and has two children, previously described tackling violence against women and girls as a personal priority.

Senior members of the opposition Labour Party condemned the “appalling” comments.

“It is truly unbelievable that the home secretary made such appalling jokes on the very same day the government announced new policy on spiking,” Yvette Cooper, a Labour member of Parliament, said. “Victims will understandably be questioning if they can trust him to take this vile crime seriously.”

The government has pledged to clarify that drink spiking is a crime while stopping short of making it a specific offense.

Police in England and Wales receive an average of 561 reports of spiking a month, mainly by women who report incidents at bars and nightclubs, according to a Home Office report.

source https://time.com/6550867/home-secretary-james-cleverly-date-rape-joke-apology/

The Enduring Lesson of Langston Hughes’ Christmas in Uzbekistan

On a snowy Christmas morning in 1932, the writer and poet Langston Hughes woke up to find a stocking hanging from the post of his bed. It was stuffed with halva, cashew, and pistachio nuts grown by his hosts, a group of African American agronomists who had been living in Yangiyul, Uzbekistan, at the invitation of the Soviet government.

The day was filled with yet more surprises. “We even had pumpkin pie for dessert,” Hughes later wrote in I Wonder as I Wander, his self-described autobiographical journey, “and the tables were loaded down with all the American-style dishes that those clever Negro wives could concoct away over there in Uzbekistan.” The meal was the result of a joint effort thanks to the male agronomists’ ability to coax a harvest from the unforgiving tundra, and to their wives’ skill at turning the ingredients into a meal reminiscent of the kind they used to enjoy back home in the United States.

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As we enter a holiday season set against the backdrop of war and other conflicts, we would do well to remember Hughes’ forgotten Uzbek celebration. It stands as testament to the power of creating a sense of home and community even under the most challenging of circumstances.

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A chance encounter in Moscow led to the Christmas visit. Hughes had been hired to help punch up the script for a Communist International (Comintern)-financed film titled Black and White. The production was to be shot in Moscow but set at a steel mill in Birmingham, Ala. According to Hughes: “its heroes and heroines were Negro workers. The men were stokers in the steel mills, the women domestics in wealthy homes…Its villains were the reactionary white bosses of the steel mills and the absentee owners, Northern capitalists, who aroused the poor white Southern workers against both the [incipient] union and the Negroes.”

In short, the film was meant to bolster the Soviet model of trade unionism and criticize the United States’ divisive racial politics. At the same time, it was also an opportunity for African American actors and writers to get work in their chosen fields during a time when such opportunities were in short supply back home.

While the film crew waited out some production delays, they made their way through Moscow’s popular gathering spots, like the Metropol, the Bolshoi Moscow, and the Grand Hotel, where they were staying. Somewhere along this circuit, Hughes ran into another group that happened to be in the city for reasons somewhat like his own.

That group was led by Oliver Golden, a Mississippi-born veteran of the First World War and graduate of the Tuskegee Institute (now University) who, despite having studied under George Washington Carver, could only find work in the United States as a pullman porter and dishwasher.

Those early roadblocks made it relatively easy for him to accept an invitation from a Soviet recruiter to pursue studies at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV) in the 1920s. The student body represented more than 70 nationalities and ethnicities and included, at various points, future leaders like North Vietnam’s Hồ Chí Minh and Deng Xiaoping of the People’s Republic of China. The school included African Americans in its mission because the Soviets considered them, like their KUTV brethren, a colonized people (in their case, within their own country, by their fellow citizens), and sought to train them to lead Communist movements in the United States.

Golden’s experience taught him that the Soviets valued his intellect and contributions, and he continued to work for Communist causes when he returned to the United States. That work soon put him in the path of another recruiter who invited Golden to lead a team of African American agronomists on a two-year project in the Soviet Union’s burgeoning agricultural industry in Uzbekistan. This gave him the opportunity to do the kind of work Golden had gone to school for, and wanted to do, for years. In exchange, the Soviets would pay several hundred dollars a month, which amounted to a fortune during the Depression, along with a home to live in, an extended paid vacation each year, and the service of a household maid.

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Regardless of how appealing he and his wife Bertha Bialek (a U.S.-born daughter of Jewish immigrants from Poland) personally found the possibility of accepting the Soviet offer, Golden initially struggled to assemble a team. It was a hard sell to ask recruits to leave their home country for a place even Golden had never visited. They knew nothing of its customs and culture, and worried that they would be traveling vast distances only to encounter the same kind of racism they left behind, all without familiar support systems to navigate it. But what choice did they have?

Golden eventually managed to convince a group that included fellow Tuskegee alumnus John Sutton, Wilberforce University graduate George Tynes, Virginia State College’s Joseph Roane, and several of their wives (not all the men were married). Their first official stop was in Moscow, where they pulled in to the Oktyabrsky rail terminal on Nov. 7, 1931, which not coincidentally fell on the 14th anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution that overthrew the tsarist government and brought Vladimir Lenin to power. A ceremonial program in Red Square and the next day’s issue of the Moscow News happily reported that the agronomists had front row views to the festivities.

Golden and Roane got on with Hughes so well during this busy Moscow interlude that they invited him to call on them in Yangiyul sometime if he was ever willing to make the trip. No one knew it at the time, but the Black and White production would soon fall apart, dashing the film crew’s artistic hopes but ultimately freeing up Hughes to travel around the Soviet Union and take his new American friends up on their offer to visit.

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Hughes arrived just in time for Christmas in 1932. By then, the agronomists had begun to tally several successes like introducing a new species of cotton to the region (one that is still grown today), growing their own food, getting married, having children, developing ties with the local Uzbek community, and generally finding ways to settle into their lives by drawing inspiration from both old worlds and new.

Still, to a casual visitor like Hughes, Yangiyul’s pleasures were slow to reveal themselves. He had had a long, somewhat arduous journey east, and the end was marked with the surprising discovery that his train would only be slowing down, and not stopping, to let him disembark.

Golden and Roane eagerly met him at the train station for what should have been a happy reunion. “But as we slithered through the sticky snow and pulled our feet from the sucking mud at each step,” Hughes admitted, “I am afraid I failed to hide very well my lack of joy at seeing at last a large group of fellow American Negroes away out in Asia.” While not the most easygoing guest upon his arrival, Hughes soon understood what a feat the agronomists and their families had managed. Out here in this vast expanse a world away from the home (one they were forced to leave by circumstances beyond their control), they came together to find refuge, community, and, in that, a reason to celebrate.

Tamara J. Walker is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Barnard College, co-founder of The Wandering Scholar, and the author of Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad. Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here.

source https://time.com/6550243/langston-hughes-uzbekistan-christmas/