South Korean President Stands Firm as Doctors Strike Weighs on His Party Ahead of Elections

SEOUL — South Korea’s President vowed Monday not to back down in the face of vehement protests by doctors seeking to derail his plan to drastically increase medical school admissions, as he called their walkouts “an illegal collective action” that poses “a grave threat to our society.”

About 12,000 medical interns and residents in South Korea have been on strike for six weeks, causing hundreds of canceled surgeries and other treatments at university hospitals. In support of their action, many senior doctors at their teaching schools have also submitted resignations though they haven’t stopped treating patients.

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Officials say they want to raise the yearly medical school cap by 2,000 from the current 3,058 to create more doctors to deal with the country’s rapidly aging population. Doctors counter that schools can’t handle such an abrupt increase in students and that it would eventually hurt the country’s medical services. But critics say doctors, one of the best-paid professions in South Korea, are simply worried that the supply of more doctors would result in lower future incomes.

Public surveys show that a majority of South Koreans support the government’s push to create more doctors. But observers say many people are increasingly fed up with the protracted confrontation between the government and doctors, threatening to deal a blow to governing party candidates ahead of next week’s parliamentary elections.

Read More: The Ultimate Election Year: Half of World Heads to Polls in 2024

In a nationally televised address, President Yoon Suk Yeol said adding 2,000 medical students is the minimum increase needed to address a shortage of physicians in rural areas, the military and essential but low-paying professions like pediatrics and emergency departments. Yoon said South Korea’s doctor-to-patient ratio—2.1 physicians per 1,000 people—is far below the average of 3.7 in the developed world.

“Increasing the number of doctors is a state project that we can’t further delay,” Yoon said.

Yoon urged the striking doctors to return to work, saying they have a responsibility to protect people’s lives in line with the local medical law. He also said the government remains open to talks if doctors come up with a unified proposal that adequately explains why adding 2,000 more students is too steep of an increase.

“I can’t tolerate an attempt to carry through their thoughts by force without due logic and grounds,” Yoon said. “The illegal collective action by some doctors has become a grave threat to our society.”

Yoon said the recruitment plan won’t lead to lower earnings for doctors, citing what he called expected increases in national income and demand for medical services in the fast-aging society. He said the average income of South Korean doctors is the highest in the developed world.

Yoon’s speech is expected to draw an angry response from doctors, who have maintained they can have serious talks only when the government drops its increased enrollment plan. They deny opposing the plan over worries about future incomes.

Yoon said the government is taking final administrative steps to suspend the licenses of the strikers but added he doesn’t want to punish the young doctors. This implies that his government is willing to soften punitive measures on the strikers if they return to work soon.

Read More: Thousands of Striking Doctors in South Korea Defy Government’s Return-to-Work Deadline

Yoon recently ordered officials to pursue “a flexible measure” to resolve the dispute and seek constructive consultations with doctors at the request of ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon.

The striking junior doctors represent a fraction of the total doctors in South Korea—estimated at 115,000 by Yoon and 140,000 by a doctors’ association. But in some major hospitals, they account for about 30% to 40% of doctors, assisting qualified doctors and department chiefs during surgeries and other treatments while training.

Doctors say the government enrollment plan lacks measures to resolve key medical issues such as how to increase the number of physicians in some key but unpopular professions. They say newly recruited students would also try to work in the capital region and in high-paying fields like plastic surgery and dermatology. They say the government plan would also likely result in doctors performing unnecessary treatments due to increased competition.

Read More: South Korea’s ‘Dior Bag Scandal,’ Explained

source https://time.com/6962270/south-korea-doctors-strike-parliamentary-election-yoon-popularity/

Archbishop of Canterbury Delivers Message About Kate Middleton in Easter Sermon

During his Easter Sunday sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby delivered a message acknowledging the struggles King Charles and Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, as they both battle cancer. 

 “In each of our lives, there are moments which change us forever,” he said in the service held at Canterbury Cathedral in the English county of Kent. “We’ve watched and sympathized with and felt alongside the dignity of the King and the Princess of Wales, as they have talked of their cancer, and in doing so by their lack of selfishness, by their grace and their faith, boosted so many others.” 

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Both the King and Princess have said that they chose to share their own diagnoses publicly in part to support others facing the disease.  

King Charles was diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer during a recent treatment for an enlarged prostate. “His Majesty has chosen to share his diagnosis to prevent speculation and in the hope it may assist public understanding for all those around the world who are affected by cancer,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Feb. 5. Following his disclosure, the NHS reported a jump of over 50% in the number of visits to a webpage offering advice on the signs and symptoms of cancer.

On March 22, the Princess announced she had been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing “preventative chemotherapy.” In a video message sharing the news, Kate offered support for all those whose lives have been touched by the disease.

“At this time, I am also thinking of all those whose lives have been affected by cancer. For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone,” she said. 

King Charles attended Easter church service at St George’s Chapel Windsor on Sunday, along with his wife Queen Camilla, marking his first major public appearance since his cancer diagnosis was shared by Buckingham Palace. Kate, who first stepped back from royal responsibilities in January after undergoing a planned abdominal surgery, was expected to return to royal duties after Easter, though her return has been postponed until she is given medical clearance.

The Archbishop previously spoke out against the conspiracies that surrounded Kate’s absence from public life in an interview with Times Radio released on March 21, just a day before she shared the news of her diagnosis.

“We are obsessed with conspiracy and we have little sense of the humanity of those who are caught in the glare of the news,” Welby said when asked whether the conspiracy theories surrounding her public absence pointed to a moral issue. “It doesn’t matter who it is, people should be allowed to be ill, have an operation, whatever it is, and to live their lives in peace without everyone demanding that they prove something every other day.”

source https://time.com/6962204/archbishop-of-canterbury-easter-sermon-kate-middleton-diagnosis/

King Charles Greets Crowds at Easter Service In First Major Public Appearance Since Diagnosis

King Charles greeted the public after Easter church service at St George’s Chapel Windsor on Sunday, marking his first major public appearance since his cancer diagnosis was shared by Buckingham Palace on Feb. 5.

The King and his wife, Queen Camilla, waved to a crowd of onlookers outside the chapel, and chatted with the visitors after the service. They were joined by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh—Prince Edward and Sophie—and their son, James, Earl of Wessex, along with the King’s sister, Princess Anne, who was joined by her husband, Sir Timothy Laurence. Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, were also in attendance.

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King Charles was diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer during a recent treatment for an enlarged prostate. He has continued to carry out many of his royal commitments in private, though he had temporarily paused public-facing duties at the advice of his doctors.  

Just a few days ago, the King spoke of his “great sadness” at missing the traditional Maundy Thursday service in a recorded audio message that was played at the service at Worcester Cathedral. Queen Camilla, who attended the service alone, has largely been solely carrying out public engagements that might otherwise fall on her husband.

The Easter service was a smaller affair than usual this year. Absent from the celebration were the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children. Catherine, the Princess of Wales, has been absent from public royal engagements since Christmas, after undergoing a planned abdominal surgery in January. On March 22, the Princess announced she had been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing “preventative chemotherapy.”

In January, when it was first announced by Kensington Palace that Kate would be stepping back from royal duties, she was expected to return to royal duties after Easter, though her return has been postponed until she is given clearance by her doctors.

source https://time.com/6962170/king-charles-easter-service-greetings-public-appearance/

U.K. Counterterrorism Police Investigate Attack on Iranian TV Presenter in London

LONDON — British counterterrorism police are investigating the stabbing of an Iranian television presenter outside his home in London as concern grows over threats to a Farsi-language satellite news channel long critical of Iran’s theocratic government.

Pouria Zeraati, a presenter at London-based Iran International, was stabbed in the leg Friday afternoon and is in stable condition at a hospital, the station said. His condition is not believed to be life-threatening.

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London’s Metropolitan Police Service said Zeraati’s occupation, together with recent threats to U.K.-based Iranian journalists, triggered the counterterrorism probe, even though the motivation for the attack is still unclear.

“While we continue to assess the circumstances of this incident, detectives are following a number of lines of inquiry and our priority at this time is to try and identify whoever was behind this attack and to arrest them,” Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said in a statement.

“I appreciate the wider concern this incident may cause — particularly amongst others in similar lines of work, and those from Iranian communities.”

Iran International spokesman Adam Baillie said the stabbing was “hugely frightening.” Although the channel’s journalists have been threatened in the past, this is the first attack of its kind, Baillie told the BBC.

“It was a shocking, shocking incident, whatever the outcome of an investigation reveals,” he said.

Mehdi Hosseini Matin, Iran’s charge d’affaires in the UK, said “we deny any link” to the incident.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pouria Zeraati (@pouriazeraati)

Police say they have disrupted “a number” of plots to kill or kidnap people in the U.K. who were seen as enemies of the Iranian government. Officers are working with intelligence agencies to disrupt future plots and provide protection for the targeted organizations and individuals, police said.

Early last year, Iran International temporarily shut down its operations in London and moved to studios in Washington, D.C., after what it described as an escalation of “state-backed threats from Iran.” The station resumed operations at a new location in London last September.

An Austrian man was convicted in December of attempting to collect information likely to be useful for terrorism after security guards spotted him carrying out surveillance on the former headquarters of Iran International. Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, 31, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

Alicia Kearns, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, expressed concern that Britain still isn’t doing enough to protect opponents of the Iranian government.

“Whilst we don’t know the circumstances of this attack, Iran continues to hunt down those brave enough to speak out against the regime,” Kearns said on X, formerly Twitter. “Yet I remain unconvinced that we and our allies have clear strategies to protect people in our countries from them, and protect our interests abroad.”

Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary David Cameron condemned the conviction in absentia of 10 journalists from the BBC’s Persian service on propaganda charges against the Islamic Republic of Iran, calling it “completely unacceptable.”

“And also, when I last met the Iranian foreign minister, I raised the case of the fact that Iran was paying thugs to try and murder Iranian journalists providing free and independent information for Iran TV in Britain,” Cameron said in the House of Lords. “On both counts, in my view, they are guilty.”

source https://time.com/6962101/pouria-zeraati-attack-london-uk-counterterrorism-police-investigate/

Trump Criticized After Posting Video With an Image of President Biden Hog-Tied in a Truck

Former President and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump has been criticized after sharing a video on his social media platform, Truth Social, of a truck bearing the image of President Joe Biden tied up.

The video, posted on Friday, March 29, showed two vehicles decked out in American flags, a Blue Lives Matter flag—showing support for law enforcement—and other images. “Trump 2024” is seen on the side of the black pickup truck. The caption on the post appeared to indicate that the trucks were spotted in Long Island, New York, on Thursday, where Trump attended the wake of an NYPD officer who was shot and killed.

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But what alarmed critics the most was the image of a hog-tied President Biden on the rear of the vehicle, giving the illusion he was being held in the back of the truck.

“This image from Donald Trump is the type of crap you post when you’re calling for a bloodbath or when you tell the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by,’” Michael Tyler, the Communications Director for the Biden campaign, said in a statement emailed to TIME. “Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it’s time people take him seriously—just ask the Capitol Police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on January 6.”

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told NBC News that the “picture was on the back of a pickup truck that was traveling down the highway,” and said “Democrats and crazed lunatics” had called for violence against Trump. He added that they were “weaponizing the justice system against him.”

TIME has reached out to the Trump and Biden campaigns for comment.

Trump has repeatedly been accused of inciting violence due to his rhetoric since his 2016 campaign for President. Federal officials previously warned Trump to refrain from rhetoric that could “incite violence or civil unrest.”

source https://time.com/6962075/donald-trump-video-president-biden-tied-up-truck/

Everything to Know About Beyoncé’s Collaborators on Cowboy Carter

Beyoncé’s music always features a long list of collaborators, songwriters, and credits for samples and interpolations. In Renaissance, only two songs had officially credited features, but the credits tell a much deeper story. Her latest album, Cowboy Carter, is no different. The list of collaborators is just as expansive. Multiple songs feature country music acts, including newer ones like Tanner Ardell and Shaboozey and legends of the genre, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, and Dolly Parton. On the technical side, she worked with major hit-making producers like DA Got That Dope, Ryan Tedder, and Pharrell Williams.

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The BeyHive started reading the tea leaves on Wednesday afternoon, when Beyoncé uploaded a cryptic tracklist to her social media pages. The track listing “Jolene,” confirmed that Beyoncé used Dolly Parton’s famous song in some way after the country singer told Knox News that Beyoncé recorded a version of her song. Listeners got a taste of what was to come when Beyoncé released the lead singles off the album, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” in February. She had Rhiannon Giddens playing the banjo and viola on the former and Robert Randolph playing the steel guitar on the latter.

Renaissance featured a similarly long list of credits as Beyoncé paid homage to the queer Black pioneers of house music. Songs like “COZY” and “Break My Soul” feature the voices of TS Madison and Big Freedia, while “PURE/HONEY” samples tracks from Moi Renee, Kevin Aviance, and Kevin Jz Prodigy. The album uplifted the underrepresented icons who made the genre what it is today. Cowboy Carter, which came out on March 29,  spans across country music, and Beyoncé made sure to not only highlight those who came before her, but uplift newer artists as she pushes the genre’s boundaries into new directions.

Here are all the features, samples, interpolations, prominent songwriters, and producers Beyoncé worked with on Cowboy Carter. 

Who is featured on Cowboy Carter?

The album features appearances in the form of spoken word interludes from country music legends Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, and Dolly Parton. The latter had her song “Jolene” covered by Bey, with many of the lyrics changed. Parton is also featured briefly in the intro to “Tyrant.” Nelson joins in as a radio host for two interludes titled “Smoke Hour” and “Smoke Hour II,” whereas Martell is featured on “Spaghettii” and an interlude titled “The Linda Martell Show.” Martell is known as being the first Black female artist to achieve commercial success in the country music genre and made history as the first Black female artist to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. For features, Beyoncé enlisted a diverse set of artists. 

Post Malone makes an appearance on a song called “Levii Jeans.” Shaboozey hops on “Spaghettii” and “Sweet Honey Buckin’,” and Willie Jones is featured on “Just For Fun.” On the song “Blackbiird,” Bey enlists the help of four young singers—Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts. Adell had a viral hit with her country/hip hop slammer, “Buckle Bunny.” One of the most surprising additions to the featured artists list is Miley Cyrus, who has no issue harmonizing with Bey on “II Most Wanted.” Following in her sister Blue Ivy’s footsteps, Rumi Carter is featured on the intro of the song “Protector.”

“Take these broken wings and learn to fly”

I cannot believe it. God is so good. I’m on a @Beyonce record. And not on one but TWO songs. You can catch me on those harms on Tyrant too!

Thank you Beyoncé for shining your light. Thank you thank you thank you😭 pic.twitter.com/ErNmO3eND1

— Tiera Kennedy (@TieraMusic) March 29, 2024

What songs does Beyoncé sample or interpolate on this album?

There are few samples and interpolations spread out across the album. The song “Blackbiird” is a cover of the 1968 song by The Beatles, which Paul McCartney wrote in the summer of that year, inspired by the civil rights movement. He said in a 1997 book written by Barry Miles called Many Years From Now that he wrote this song with a Black woman in mind. He said, “Those were the days of the civil rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about, so this was really a song from me to a Black woman, experiencing these problems in the States: ‘Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.’”

The second cover we hear on Cowboy Carter is “Jolene.” While the essence of the original Dolly Parton song is still there, Beyoncé took some liberties with the lyrics on the new version. She’s much more defensive of her man on the song, adding lines like “I’m warnin’ you, woman, find you your own man” and “I’m still a Creole banjee b–ch from Louisianne (Don’t try me).”

Later on in the album, we hear Beyoncé interpolate “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys and Nancy Sinatra’s version of “These Boots Are Made For Walking” on the song “YAYA,” sample “Oh Louisiana” by Chuck Berry on the interlude of the same name, and the song “Sweet Honey Buckin’” sees Beyoncé covering Patsy Cline’s 1961 country-pop hit, “I Fall To Pieces.” Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé’s collaboration seemingly interpolates the chord progression of Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 song, “Landslide.” We also hear two songs on Nelson’s “Smoke Hour” interlude: Berry’s “Maybellene,” Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “Down by the River Side” and “Don’t Let Go” by Roy Hamilton.

source https://time.com/6961812/beyonce-cowboy-carter-collabs/

U.S. Changes How it Categorizes People by Race and Ethnicity for the First Time in 27 Years

(ORLANDO, Fla.) — For the first time in 27 years, the U.S. government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, are the latest effort to label and define the people of the United States. This evolving process often reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a wish for people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the numbers produced by the federal government.

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“You can’t underestimate the emotional impact this has on people,” said Meeta Anand, senior director for Census & Data Equity at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s how we conceive ourselves as a society. … You are seeing a desire for people to want to self-identify and be reflected in data so they can tell their own stories.”

Under the revisions, questions about race and ethnicity that previously were asked separately on forms will be combined into a single question. That will give respondents the option to pick multiple categories at the same time, such as “Black,” “American Indian” and “Hispanic.” Research has shown that large numbers of Hispanic people aren’t sure how to answer the race question when that question is asked separately because they understand race and ethnicity to be similar and they often pick “some other race” or do not answer the question.

A Middle Eastern and North African category will be added to the choices available for questions about race and ethnicity. People descended from places such as Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and Syria had been encouraged to identify as white, but now will have the option of identifying themselves in the new group. Results from the 2020 census, which asked respondents to elaborate on their backgrounds, suggest that 3.5 million residents identify as Middle Eastern and North African.

“It feels good to be seen,” said Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando whose parents are from Iran. “Growing up, my family would check the ‘white’ box because we didn’t know what other box reflected our family. Having representation like that, it feels meaningful.”

The changes also strike from federal forms the words “Negro” and “Far East,” now widely regarded as pejorative, as well as the terms “majority” and “minority,” because they fail to reflect the nation’s complex racial and ethnic diversity, some officials say. The revisions also encourage the collection of detailed race and ethnicity data beyond the minimum standards, such as “Haitian” or “Jamaican” for someone who checks “Black.”

Read More: At Census Time, Asian Americans Again Confront the Question of Who ‘Counts’ as Asian. Here’s How the Answer Got So Complicated

The changes to the standards were hammered out over two years by a group of federal statisticians and bureaucrats who prefer to stay above the political fray. But the revisions have long-term implications for legislative redistricting, civil rights laws, health statistics, and possibly even politics as the number of people categorized as white is reduced.

Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, recently alluded to arguments made by people who allege Democrats are promoting illegal immigration to weaken the power of white people. As president, Trump unsuccessfully tried to disqualify people who were in the United States illegally from being included in the 2020 census.

Momentum for changing the race and ethnicity categories grew during the Obama administration in the mid-2010s, but was halted after Trump became president in 2017. It was revived after Democratic President Joe Biden took office in 2021.

The changes will be reflected in data collection, forms, surveys and the once-a-decade census questionnaires put out by the federal government, as well as in state governments and the private sector because businesses, universities and other groups usually follow Washington’s lead. Federal agencies have 18 months to submit a plan on how they will put the changes in place.

The first federal standards on race and ethnicity were produced in 1977 to provide consistent data across agencies and come up with figures that could help enforce civil rights laws. They were last updated in 1997 when five minimum race categories were delineated — American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander and white; respondents could pick more than one race. The minimum ethnic categories were grouped separately as not Hispanic or Hispanic or Latino.

The interagency group that worked on the latest revisions noted that categories are sociopolitical constructs, and race and ethnicity are not defined biologically or genetically.

Racial and ethnic categories used by the U.S. government reflect their times.

In 1820, the category “Free Colored People” was added to the decennial census to reflect the increase in free Black people. In 1850, the term “Mulatto” was added to the census to capture people of mixed heritage. American Indians were not explicitly counted in the census until 1860. Following years of immigration from China, “Chinese” was included in the 1870 census. There was not a formal question about Hispanic origin until the 1980 census.

Not everyone is on board with the latest revisions.

Some Afro Latinos feel that combining the race and ethnicity question will reduce their numbers and representation in the data, though previous research by the U.S. Census Bureau did not find significant differences among Afro Latino responses when the questions were asked separately or together.

Mozelle Ortiz, for instance, is of mixed Afro Puerto Rican descent. She feels the changes could eliminate that identity, even though people can choose more than one answer once the race and ethnicity questions are combined.

“My entire lineage, that of my Black Puerto Rican grandmother’s and all other non-white Spanish speaking peoples, will be erased,” Ortiz wrote the interagency group.

Others are unhappy about how some groups of people such as Armenians or Arabs from Sudan and Somalia were not included in the examples used to define people of Middle Eastern or North African background.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said that while she was “incredibly happy” with the new category, that enthusiasm was tempered by the omissions.

“It is not reflective of the racial diversity of our community,” Berry said. “And it’s wrong.”

source https://time.com/6961576/us-race-ethnicity-category-change/