Typhoon Kong-rey Hits Taiwan’s East Coast, Leaving At Least One Dead

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A powerful typhoon made landfall in Taiwan on Thursday, killing one person and bringing high winds and floods to much of the island’s east coast and northern areas, after barreling past the northern Philippines.

Flights and train service were suspended in Taiwan and 8,600 people moved to shelters.

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Typhoon Kong-rey was blowing at 184 kilometers (114 miles) per hour with gusts of up to 227 kph (141 mph) as it moved over the eastern county of Taitung. Parts of Yilan and Hualien counties were inundated by heavy rain, but many farmers in the largely rural areas had already brought in their crops in anticipation of damage from the storm.

Taiwan authorities reported one death and 73 injuries from the storm as of Thursday afternoon. The fatality occurred after a tree fell on a vehicle. Officials also said they were trying to contact a pair of Czech tourists who had been hiking in Hualien’s Tarako National Park, famed for its steep cliffs and mountain trails. Other travelers were advised to stay where they were.

The capital, Taipei, was largely shut down as it was hit by high winds and heavy rains. Offices and schools across the island were closed. Off the north coast, a tugboat was dispatched to tow away a Chinese-registered freighter that floundered and had been abandoned by its crew amid heavy seas.

Earlier Thursday, the typhoon’s eye blew about 110 kilometers (68 miles) east of the northernmost Philippine province of Batanes, a cluster of islands and islets of about 19,000 people. Villagers in northern Philippine provinces evacuated to shelters on Wednesday.

The Philippines weather agency had warned the the storm could blow away roofs and shatter windows and wreak extensive damage to farmland, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

“It’s so, so powerful and we haven’t seen the extent of the damage yet because the wind outside is still so strong,” Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco told The Associated Press by cellphone before the line was cut off.

Kong-rey, the 12th weather disturbance to hit the Philippine archipelago this year, lashed the Southeast Asian nation while it’s still recovering from a storm last week that left 179 dead and missing. Hundreds of thousands of people are still in emergency shelters from Tropical Storm Trami.

China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and regularly sends planes and warships around the island, largely suspended its patrols, with just eight planes detected around the island between Wednesday and Thursday, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry

source https://time.com/7160777/typhoon-kong-rey-hits-taiwans-east-coast-leaving-1-dead/

Hearing Is Set on Effort to Stop $1M-a-Day Sweepstakes From Elon Musk PAC

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia judge plans to hold a hearing Thursday in the city prosecutor’s bid to shut down Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day sweepstakes in battleground states. The giveaways come from Musk’s political organization, which aims to boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Lawyers for Musk filed a motion late Wednesday seeking to move the case to federal court, saying it involves a federal election issue. However, a spokesperson for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Thursday the initial hearing at City Hall was still scheduled.

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Krasner, a Democrat, filed suit Monday to stop the America PAC sweepstakes, which is set to run through Election Day. Judge Angelo Foglietta is set to preside in the case.

Matthew Haverstick, one of several lawyers representing the defendants, declined to say late Wednesday if Musk would attend the hearing.

The sweepstakes is open to people in battleground states who sign a petition supporting the Constitution.

Krasner has said he could still consider criminal charges, saying he is tasked with protecting the public from both illegal lotteries and “interference with the integrity of elections.”

Election law experts have raised questions about whether it violates federal law barring someone from paying others to vote. Musk has cast the money as both a prize as well as earnings for work as a spokesperson for the group.

Krasner, in the suit, said that America PAC and Musk “are indisputably violating Pennsylvania’s statutory prohibitions against illegal lotteries and deceiving consumers.”

Both Trump and Kamala Harris have made repeated visits to the state as they fight for Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes.

Musk, who founded SpaceX and Tesla and owns X, has gone all in on Trump this election, saying he thinks civilization is at stake if he loses. He is undertaking much of the get-out-the-vote effort for Trump through his super PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money.

He has committed more than $70 million to the super PAC to help Trump and other Republicans win in November.

source https://time.com/7160769/elon-musk-pac-million-giveaway-donald-trump-hearing/

Supreme Court Allows Virginia to Resume Its Purge of Voter Registrations

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Virginia to resume its purge of voter registrations that the state says is aimed at stopping people who are not U.S. citizens from voting.

The justices, over the dissents of the three liberal justices, granted an emergency appeal from Virginia’s Republican administration led by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The court provided no rationale for its action, which is typical in emergency appeals.

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The justices acted on Virginia’s appeal after a federal judge found that the state illegally purged more than 1,600 voter registrations in the past two months. A federal appeals court had previously allowed the judge’s order to remain in effect.

Such voting is rare in American elections, but the specter of immigrants voting illegally has been a main part of the political messaging this year from former President Donald Trump and other Republicans.

Trump had criticized the earlier ruling, calling it “a totally unacceptable travesty” on social media.

“Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote,” Trump wrote.

The Justice Department and a coalition of private groups sued the state earlier in October, arguing that Virginia election officials, acting on an executive order issued in August by Youngkin were striking names from voter rolls in violation of federal election law.

The National Voter Registration Act requires a 90-day “quiet period” ahead of elections for the maintenance of voter rolls so that legitimate voters are not removed from the rolls by bureaucratic errors or last-minute mistakes that cannot be quickly corrected.

Youngkin issued his order on Aug. 7, the 90th day before the election. It required daily checks of data from the state Department of Motor Vehicles against voter rolls to identify people who are not U.S. citizens.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles said elections officials still could remove names on an individualized basis, but not through a systematic purge. Court records indicated that at least some of those whose registrations were removed are U.S. citizens.

Giles had ordered the state to notify affected voters and local registrars by Wednesday that the registrations have been restored.

Nearly 6 million Virginians are registered to vote.

In a similar lawsuit in Alabama, a federal judge this month ordered the state to restore eligibility for more than 3,200 voters who had been deemed ineligible noncitizens. Testimony from state officials in that case showed that roughly 2,000 of the 3,251 voters who were made inactive were actually legally registered citizens.

source https://time.com/7157613/supreme-court-allows-virginia-resume-purge-of-voters/

The Horror of the Pelicot Trial Goes Far Beyond This Case

The trial of Dominique Pelicot, the man in the South of France who pleaded guilty in September to charges of secretly drugging his wife of 50 years, Gisèle, and, over the course of about a decade, filming dozens of men as they had sex with her while she was sedated, would have been disturbing enough just as the story of an epically vile husband. But the even more puzzling and horrifying questions are about the other men. Who were they? How could they? How can there be so many men willing to rape an unconscious woman?

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Over the past five weeks of the trial, which began on Sept. 2 in Avignon, the five judges—and aghast onlookers from around the world—have had the chance to hear from several of Dominique Pelicot’s 50 codefendants, most of whom have been charged with aggravated rape. It would be comforting to think that there are more psychopaths and sexual deviants in that part of France than elsewhere, but it does not seem to be the case.

Clearly, Dominique Pelicot, 71, is a deranged, deceptive, and dangerous human. But most of the accused are unremarkable men with no criminal record who say they are not guilty of rape. Many have offered similar rationales for their behavior: they didn’t think it was nonconsensual. They thought they had license to have sex with Mrs. Pelicot, because they had permission from Mr. Pelicot.

One of the defendants, a 43-year-old carpenter, who went to the Pelicots’ home in October 2019 and again in January 2020, told the judges that after Dominique Pelicot told him Gisèle, now 72, was a consenting partner in a sex game, he hadn’t given the matter of her willingness much more consideration. He was “at a couple’s home, invited by the husband,” he said. “Now that I am being told how the events unfolded, yes the acts I committed would amount to rape,” he added, but still claimed he was innocent of the charge.

Another man, a 37-year-old unemployed agricultural laborer, who is accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot on New Year’s Eve in 2018, asserted he didn’t intend to rape her. “As the husband had given me permission, in my mind she agreed to it,” he said. A 40-year-old computer expert with two university degrees had a similar excuse for his alleged crime in June 2020. “I did not go there with the aim of committing a crime,” he said. “I had absolutely no idea that Mrs. Pelicot was not consenting.”

If we take these men at their word—and there are certainly reasons not to—they genuinely believed that if a husband allows someone to have sex with his wife, then his wife is available for sex. Given that Dominique Pelicot fooled many people, including his relatives, who have said they had always thought theirs was a happy family, it’s plausible that the men thought they were dealing with a normal spouse who had an unusual kink. But, and here’s the rub, that means they also thought that husbands can grant access to their wives’ bodies. In France. In 2023.

What does it say about society that men still accord husbands this kind of authority? If it were a woman’s brother or father or cousin, would the men still have proceeded? Unlikely. They’d have called the police. If the shoe were on the other foot, and a wife invited women to commit a lesser violation, such as stealing a husband’s car and taking it for a joyride while he slept in the backseat, claiming that her spouse enjoyed the adventure of waking up in a strange place, would the women have gone ahead without checking in with the husband first? OK, maybe some, but 50? 

So sturdy is the reputation of husbands as protectors of wives and families that these men can claim they were fooled into raping Gisèle Pelicot, who has been at court observing their testimony during much of the proceedings and has testified. Many of the accused brought wives, girlfriends, sisters, and mothers to the court to attest to their character, to explain that these men were not real rapists, though their support is somewhat undercut by the fact that the men came in contact with Dominique via an online forum called “à son insu,” which means “without her knowledge.” Gisèle Pelicot, who has since divorced Dominique, addressed those women during her testimony on Oct. 23. She noted that she didn’t used to think her husband was a rapist either. “A rapist is not just someone you meet in a dark car park late at night,” she said. “He can also be found in the family, among friends.”

At least one of the defendants has argued that he was told Gisèle was pretending to be asleep because she was shy. Some claimed they had been manipulated by Dominique once they got to the home or suspected he had drugged them. Two said they were gay and had been hoping to sleep with Dominique. And a depressingly large number of them said they were sexually abused as minors. Nevertheless, “her husband said I could” has been a common theme in their testimonies, probably because their lawyers see it as the strongest legal defense they have. It is perhaps this, even as much as the psychopathic behavior of Dominique Pelicot, that is sending a chill down many women’s spines. This recognition of how vulnerable women are not just to husbands who have ill-intent, but to a community that holds husbands in such an exalted position that it does not question fundamentally sketchy situations if the man of the house is present.

So far, nobody has come forward to say they went to the Pelicots’ house and left in horror. Police have produced no reports from visitors who realized something was amiss and raised the alarm. Pelicot was unmasked only because he was caught photographing up women’s skirts by a security guard in 2020, and the cops found a cache of pornography on his devices, including videos of his wife in a folder marked “abuse.” There are no hero men in this story, except for those whose job it is to unearth crime. There is, of course, a hero woman: Gisèle Pelicot. If not for her determination to make this case public and her willingness to waive anonymity, it might have attracted very little attention.

Marriage has been a foundational institution for the organizing of society and raising of young children for hundreds of years. Many reports suggest that it is now in decline, despite the robust data that a good marriage improves health and happiness. Perhaps this case adds to the list of possible reasons why. The institution has become caught between two very different societal expectations. On the one hand, marriage is still viewed as a hierarchical power structure, with men at the head, rather than as an agreement between two equals to throw in their lot together. On the other hand, marriage no longer offers a robust assumption of monogamy, fidelity, or exclusivity. A wedding ring has less and less power as a repellent to other men’s sexual approaches. 

In other words, people hold Victorian ideals about the power in a marriage, but 1970s notions about the willingness of all people, including women, to be responsive to all sexual desires at all times, no matter the context. It is conservative and libertine at once. The combination of these two beliefs is uniquely treacherous for women, as this case has proved. When people believe that a husband calls the shots in marriage and can persuade themselves that anyone is available for sex in any situation, it leaves wide open the door for wives to be predated upon.

Women can now earn their own money. They can have children without a partner. There’s scant stigma attached to being single. Obviously, very few husbands are as diabolical as Dominique Pelicot and not all men are potential rapists, but one of marriage’s benefits for women used to be a measure of security: not just from poverty or physical attack, but from the expectations of other men. If marriage no longer makes women feel safer, maybe that’s one more reason to go it alone.

source https://time.com/7132718/gisele-pelicot-dominique-rape-trial-marriage/

What to Expect at an Annual Physical

If you already head to the doctor’s office once a year for an annual physical: good job. If you don’t, let this be your reminder to go ahead and book that appointment—and perhaps let go of some of your anxiety surrounding your check-up.

And yes, you should schedule an annual physical exam even if you feel relatively healthy. “Many of us may only visit a doctor when we are sick, but having a primary care doctor and an annual physical is important,” says Dr. Heather Viola, an assistant professor of medicine and primary care physician at Mount Sinai Doctors-Ansonia in New York City. “It’s important to establish a relationship with a physician that you trust, and this starts with yearly well visits.”

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Here’s who should schedule an annual physical, what to expect at the appointment, and how to ease anxiety leading up to your yearly exam.

Why should you get an annual physical?

One of the reasons doctors advocate so strongly for annual physicals is because they’re important for catching “silent” disease early and treating it before it leads to a bigger problem, says Dr. Erika Kalabacas, a family-medicine physician at Northwell Health Physician Partners in Greenlawn, N.Y. She can recount numerous appointments where she has caught high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, and even breast and skin cancer at early and treatable stages. 

Your annual physical is also essential as a mental-health screening tool. “Your mental health is a big part of your physical health, and this is why we have included anxiety and depression screenings into the annual,” says Kalabacas. Mental-health issues have a way of flying under the radar, Viola says, as they “may not otherwise be addressed or identified if not for the routine visit.”

Read More: The Surprising Health Benefits of Pain

Another important vital that’s measured and tracked at your annual physical exam is your weight. While Kalabacas concedes this can be a sensitive topic for many, she explains that by taking this measurement your doctor can help identify if there are any underlying causes for weight issues, such as thyroid irregularities, medications, side effects, or hormonal changes due to menopause. “Your primary care physician can discuss important diet and exercise recommendations, medications, or referrals to dietitians,” she says—stressing that since obesity is on the rise, and is the leading cause of almost all chronic diseases, it’s essential to make every effort to get ahead of it. 

Doctors caution against skipping annual physicals just because you consider yourself healthy. Viola believes these once-a-year visits—especially for young, healthy patients—are a great way to get to know your doctor better. Plus, they allow your provider to get to know you so that they can best help you stay healthy going forward, she says.  

What happens at an annual physical?

Sometimes called an “annual” or “yearly physical,” these appointments are essential for monitoring your health and taking proactive steps towards safeguarding it. During the appointment, a primary-care provider evaluates your overall health and your risk factors for chronic disease. 

The visit, which takes about 30 minutes, typically includes a blood draw, physical examination by your physician, an evaluation of your vital signs such as blood pressure and weight, and a review of your medical history and medications. Your doctor may also conduct age-appropriate screening tests for certain cancers and administer vaccines as necessary, as well as administer mental-health questionnaires—and, if necessary, provide you with resources such as therapy referrals or medications to treat anxiety or depression. You’ll also have the chance to ask your doctor any questions you may have regarding your health.

Read More: 5 Gastroenterologists on the 1 Thing You Should Do Every Day

A physical isn’t only about unearthing new problems. Rather, annual physicals are an important time to discuss preventive health: what you can do to stay healthy based on your individual risk factors and family history, says Viola. “By regularly monitoring your health, your doctor can identify and address any changes in your health and take steps to prevent chronic illnesses from developing or worsening,” she says.

“I generally recommend everyone meet with their doctor once a year for a well visit,” Viola says. “You can talk to your doctor about how often they should see you. For most adults, it’s once a year. For some younger, healthy adults, it may be less.”

How to prepare for a physical

Kalabacas and Viola share that you should do the following before your physical exam. 

• If your blood draw will happen at or after your visit, you may want to fast from eating for at least eight hours before your appointment. You’ll also want to avoid alcohol the night before to get the most accurate results, and you may be instructed to abstain from caffeine. However, it’s important to drink water and take your medications without pause, says Kalabacas. If the office doesn’t contact you in advance with specific fasting directions, check with administrative staff about the proper protocol leading up to your appointment. 
• If you are a new patient, come prepared with your health history. Viola advises bringing a list of your medical history, family history, medications, supplements, and allergies. Include any specialists you see, your last blood work result, and your vaccination record, Kalabacas says. 
• Get records from other specialists forwarded to your primary care physician’s office. “It’s also helpful to bring records from other specialists if you have them,” says Viola. These may include recent mammograms, colonoscopies, and bone density reports. “If you don’t have access to the reports, let us know at which facility you had the testing done so we can obtain the results for you,” says Kalabacas.
• Write down your key issues. “Before your appointment, prioritize your concerns and identify the things most important to you to cover so time can be used efficiently,” suggests Viola.  “Tell your doctor your concerns at the beginning of the appointment to ensure they know what is most important to you.” 
• Get familiar with your family history. Your provider will ask you questions about your family history of medical conditions, says Kalabacas. “So if you are a younger patient, knowing your mom’s, dad’s, and grandparents’ medical conditions is important to help evaluate your genetic risks,” says Kalabacas. Doctors use this info o best determine next steps.  
• Find out if there are any special instructions to follow. If you are a male over age 50, for instance, it is recommended to refrain from sexual intercourse or masturbation for 24 hours before prostate blood testing, which can sometimes happen at a physical, says Kalabacas.
• Write notes down during your visit, advises Viola. “This can help you keep track of your doctor’s recommendations so that you can refer to them later,” she says.
• Arrive early. Doing so will allow some time to sit quietly for a few moments to help you relax, says Viola.

After your exam, what’s next?

Before you even leave the office, there are some steps you can take to make the most of your visit. At the conclusion of your appointment, Viola always recommends asking for a recap of the visit if one hasn’t been provided. “Ask the doctor to repeat the instructions you’re supposed to follow, and ensure that you are on the same page,” she says.

Often, people won’t ask questions when their doctor is right in front of them, she says. Instead of this missed opportunity, advocate for yourself and don’t be afraid to make inquiries, says Viola. “If you are concerned or confused about a diagnosis or proposed treatment, always ask your provider to explain why they are choosing this path,” she says.

Read More: 9 Things You Should Do for Your Brain Health Every Day, According to Neurologists

One last thing to do before you wrap up your physical is to ask for a referral if needed. “If you would like to see a specialist, ask your provider who they recommend. It can be really helpful to see a specialist that your primary care physician works closely with and can improve coordination of your care,” says Viola.

Once the appointment is over, ask the front desk staff what the best way to contact your provider is if you have any follow-up questions. Many doctors use an electronic health system where they share blood work results via the patient portal. 

The timeline for receiving your lab results and having your doctor review them may be a few days to a few weeks. “Most doctors will call or write you a message within a few days with their recommendations,” says Viola. “Ask your doctor what to expect in regard to your results: ‘Should I expect a phone call to review?’ ‘Will you write to me through the patient portal?’”

What to do if you’re anxious about your physical

If you’re feeling anxious or nervous leading up to your exam, you’re not alone. Both Viola and Kalabacas share that it’s common to be nervous about visiting your doctor, especially a new one. “But remember, they are here to help you,” says Viola.

To quell nerves, Kalabacas says having a list of questions to “direct the appointment towards your needs,” bringing a friend or family member for support, and choosing a primary care physician that you are comfortable with can all help. (To that last point, Kalabacas says some of the best referrals for primary care providers come from loved ones; Zocdoc is another great option to find a local physician that accepts your insurance.)  

“The most important thing is to show up. We know it’s hard, and we do our best to make you feel comfortable,” says Kalabacas. “We are here to educate and guide you; you ultimately make the decisions.”

The goal is to become more proactive about your health instead of reactive. “You should feel empowered by knowing more about your health, because then you can control your health outcome,” Kalabacas says.

source https://time.com/7098720/annual-physical-what-to-expect-doctors-appointment/

We Had Martha Stewart Wrong All Along

Long before Instagram and TikTok existed as places for us to stoke our insecurities, there was Martha Stewart. Martha, circa 1995, smiling from the pages of her namesake magazine as she put the finishing touches on a Versailles-worthy pastel cake. Martha, again in the mid-1990s, ably demonstrating the only proper way to prune an unruly tree. Martha, in early 2004, the picture of quiet luxury in her downy, twig-colored woolens as she strode into the Manhattan federal courthouse during her trial on nine criminal counts associated with the ImClone insider-trading scandal. You could love her, you could hate her, you could love to hate her or vice versa. Her mission, it seemed, was twofold: to teach you how to do seemingly unachievable things around the home, and to make you feel inadequate.

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But if Martha Stewart gave many of us our first taste of feeling terrifically ill-suited to any domestic task or even just to basic living, she also inadvertently reminded us that when it comes to nurturing self-confidence, we’re our own worst enemies. Her confidence and drive for perfection made us feel bad; we decided our hurt feelings were her fault. But now—when our social media feeds are filled with beautiful people doing remarkable things that most of us will never be able to pull off, or afford—it’s time to reconsider the rise, fall, and rise of Martha Stewart. The degree to which she both inspired and angered so many of us is still something to reckon with. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

If you still need convincing that Martha Stewart is a human being much like the rest of us—albeit one who can cook a turkey inside a puff pastry without once bursting into tears—R.J. Cutler’s documentary Martha, streaming on Netflix, should do the trick. Stewart has done some remarkable things: She worked as a teenage model. She was a stockbroker in the late 1960s, a rarity for a woman at the time. She launched a successful catering business in 1973. That spurred the release of her first cookbook, 1982’s Entertaining, which led to television appearances and more books. By the late 1990s, she had built herself into a juggernaut of a brand; she was the first woman in the United States to become a self-made billionaire.

But her background was hardly privileged. Martha introduces us to young, fresh-faced Martha Kostyra, one of a family of six kids growing up in Nutley, N.J., in the 1940s and ’50s. Her mother taught her about home-making; her perfectionist father passed his love of gardening on to her. Stewart acknowledges she was her father’s favorite; like him, she was a stickler for details. But her childhood and youth weren’t easy. The family was often broke, so Stewart needed that modeling money: the $15 per hour it brought in made a world of difference. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at Barnard and began dating Andy Stewart, the brother of a fellow student. The two married in 1961. They had a daughter, Alexis, and eventually bought and restored an old farmhouse in Westport, Conn. The property became both proof of Stewart’s homemaking-skills-in-overdrive and an inspiration to millions of others who hoped to work the same magic in their own homes.

But the marriage fell apart, and even Martha Stewart—poised, sometimes, to the point of frostiness—has a heart to break. Perfectionists are also often idealists; dashed expectations can crush them. “I always said I was a swan,” she says on camera, noting that swans are monogamous. “I thought monogamy was admirable … but it turned out it didn’t save the marriage.” She pauses. Her expression shifts from wistfulness to something more resolute before she says, “Can we get on to a happier subject?”

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But then, Stewart—not as perfect as we may have thought—also admits on camera to having had an adulterous affair herself, though she notes that it was fleeting. As a documentarian, Cutler knows how to nudge his subjects into being perhaps a little more revealing than they’d like. His superb 2009 documentary The September Issue pulled back the curtain on the inner workings of Vogue magazine, as orchestrated by the indomitable Anna Wintour. Stewart is an even better subject for Cutler, because she, unlike Wintour, fell from a very high perch—and not only recovered but also managed to transform into a better version of her old self. In 2005, Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison, for lying to the FBI when she was questioned about her involvement in the ImClone case. Her early days at West Virginia’s Alderson Federal Prison Camp were bleak. Her compatriots found her aloof, and some wanted to hurt her. She spent a day in solitary confinement for inadvertently touching a prison officer. The food was the opposite of fresh. Her boyfriend at the time, software billionaire Charles Simonyi, visited her only once. (Not long after her release, he abruptly dropped her.) “I feel very inconsequential today,” she wrote in her journal, in the early days of her incarceration. “As if no one would miss me if I never came back to reality.”

There’s probably someone out there who delights in knowing that the always perfect Martha Stewart ever felt this low. But would you really want to meet that person? In the 1980s and ’90s, Stewart was an easy target for mass derision and mockery, on Saturday Night Live and everywhere else. And in some ways, she invited it: she really did come off as smug. But no one in her 80s is the same person she was in her 20s, 50s, or 60s. And not even Martha Stewart is still the Martha Stewart we knew from her earlier books, magazines, and television shows. In Martha, she appears on camera in a silky black blouse trimmed with a simple neckband of tiny, discreetly sparkly stones. Her fair, dewy skin looks better than just “young.” Rather, it’s ageless in a suitably age-appropriate way. This is also a woman who graced the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue at age 81, wearing only a simple white bathing suit and a drape made of apricot taffeta. Her smile is both daring and darling, as if she’s harboring a valuable secret gleaned from years of experience—though she’s not giving it away for nothing.

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Cutler’s documentary, though, spills some of those secrets for her. It shows us, through re-enactments rendered in drawings, how Stewart made the most of her time in prison. She gave talks, advising the other women on how they might start their own businesses after their release. She cleaned bathrooms. She made sure she learned something new every day. And when her sentence was complete, she stepped back into the world wearing a swingy-chic poncho that a friend and fellow inmate had hand-crocheted for her. DIY devotees grabbed their hooks and eagerly made their own versions.

That poncho was a symbol of something Stewart had always stood for, even though many had over the years misread—and even been angered by—her message. Stewart believed in the democracy, and the pleasure, of the “domestic arts,” historically the province of women. She wanted us to know that those skills, long considered inferior to manly pursuits, had value. You could learn to crochet. You could use gold leaf to make an Easter egg worthy of a king. You could assemble a bunch of garden flowers in an earthenware vase and make it look like a million bucks. Your results might not be as perfect as Martha’s, and she probably knew that as well as you did. But maybe setting the bar high was a sign of respect for her audience, rather than condescension. Really, she just wanted you to try.

The subtext of Martha is that Stewart has been punished enough. She’s earned her day in the sun. And sure enough, today, almost everyone loves her. Her Instagram account—complete with “thirst trap” selfies and photos taken with one of her besties, Snoop Dogg—is a delight. Her 100th cookbook will be published this month. And maybe now those of us who once snickered at her dogged pursuit of perfection, or delighted in hearing that she wasn’t a particularly nice person—I confess I used to be one of them—can see that we were participating in an insidious form of misogyny. As her son-in-law, lawyer John Cuti, puts it in Martha, “She was a tough boss, but some of the behavior that she would be taken to task for would be applauded if a man did it in the business world. That’s a cliché at this point, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t true.”

We also see vintage 1990s footage of Owen J. Lipstein, the editor in chief of the ever sardonic Spy magazine, making this lofty pronouncement: “The more you know about this woman, the less you like her.” Being liked: it’s what every woman wants. Right? Yet maybe Stewart—particularly the younger, bolder, world-conquering Stewart, who asked for everything she wanted even as men in power tried to block her—didn’t care so much. And today, the more we know about this woman, the more we like her. She no longer makes us feel bad about ourselves. Because after all, it has always been our job, not hers, to guard our self-worth. And if, along the way, we learned something about how to make exceptionally lifelike fondant butterflies, daisies, or forget-me-nots? That was just the icing on the cake.

source https://time.com/7097438/martha-stewart-netflix-documentary/

We Must Restore Nature to Keep Our Planet Habitable For Future Generations

“As the planet heats up, we are facing growing problems of either too much or too little water.” That was the warning from Celeste Saulo, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, this month. From major rivers like the Ganges, Amazon, Mekong, and Mississippi dropping to historically low levels, to the U.S., Mexico, and much of Europe being repeatedly hit by catastrophic storms and flooding, the world is facing unprecedented climate extremes. Either way—too wet or too dry—we all feel the consequences of this environmental degradation. As U.N. Secretary General António Guterres once put it: “Humanity is waging a war on nature. This is senseless and suicidal.”

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The urgency of this moment cannot be overstated. We have no choice but to act now or face even worse devastation. In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we must restore nature and the health of our land if we want to keep our planet inhabitable for future generations. This work cannot be done by individual nations alone; it requires a coordinated global effort to meet these existential threats.  

The root cause of nature and biodiversity loss lies in how we use land. And agriculture is one of the main drivers. Over 70% of ice-free land on earth has been altered by human activity, primarily for food production. As we continue to convert wildlands to agriculture, we degrade ecosystems, pushing countless species to the brink of extinction and devastating livelihoods for local and Indigenous communities. Unsustainable agricultural practices further exacerbate biodiversity loss and the decline of ecosystems that provide the basics for sustaining life like clean air and water, and fertile soils. But we can produce healthy and nutritious food in a sustainable way by managing and restoring our productive lands. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has put it quite simply, saying in a speech at the World Economic Forum earlier this year, “without good soil, crops fail, prices rise, people go hungry.”

There are important global meetings this fall—known as Conferences of the Parties (COP)—which will provide global leaders critical opportunities to unite around the important cause of bringing our earth’s systems back into balance—and find the funding to do it. In November, the COP climate conference in Azerbaijan will focus on financing for climate mitigation and adaptation. Meanwhile, the Biodiversity COP currently underway in Colombia centers on halting the loss of nature and finding financing to achieve the ambitious global goal of conserving 30% of the planet by 2030.  

A third key event, the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), will spotlight the restoration of degraded lands and the need of building drought resilience working with communities, companies and citizens in rural and urban landscapes around the globe. The UNCCD is a critical global voice for conserving and restoring land, and one of the three major U.N. treaties known as the Rio Conventions, alongside climate and biodiversity. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is leading the way to make this UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh “a moonshot moment to raise global ambition and accelerate action on land and drought resilience through a people-centered approach.” 

The benefits of restoring degraded lands are vast. Roughly $44 trillion of economic output—more than half of global GDP—depends on functioning natural systems. Restoring land is not just an environmental issue; it is key to addressing global challenges such as food and water insecurity, human migration, and poverty. As UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw emphasized: “By restoring land, we restore life, restore our economies, restore our communities, and so much more. We cannot stop the climate crisis today, biodiversity loss tomorrow, and land degradation the day after. We need to tackle all these issues together.” As former environmental ministers from countries across the globe—North and South, developed and developing—and part of the Nature Now Commission, we could not agree more. The time to act for nature and healthy land, and the people who depend on it, is now.

Andrea Meza is Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

The Nature Now Commission is an informal collaboration of former government officials and international leaders from across the world who support the ambitious implementation of the three Rio Conventions and advocate collectively and individually for global actions that safeguard the well-being of people and planet. Current members include: Andrea Meza, Cynthia Barzuna, Carlos Correa, Alfredo Giron, Zac Goldsmith, Gustavo Manrique Miranda, Monica Medina, and Mohamed Nasheed.

source https://time.com/7130427/restore-nature-to-keep-our-planet-habitable/