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The ACC power rankings have Virginia Tech and Virginia at second and third. Louisville, meanwhile, has moved up again.
November 26, 2019Read More
The House Judiciary Committee is taking the baton from the Intelligence Committee for a new phase in the impeachment inquiry. The White House now must decide whether to participate.
November 26, 2019Read More
It’s believed to be the highest single loss for the French military since 1983. “These 13 heroes had only one goal: to protect us,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.
November 26, 2019Read More
Alabama moved past Georgia for the No. 2 spot in the SEC power rankings, while its College Football Playoff hopes were helped by Oregon’s loss.
November 26, 2019Read More
Everyone’s waiting for former Vice President Joe Biden to fall, but it just hasn’t happened.Former Obama adviser David Axelrod, who has been critical of Biden’s Democratic presidential campaign from time to time, acknowledged he’s just not convinced the former vice president will tumble as anticipated.”So many scenarios here are dependent on this idea that Biden is going to collapse,” he told Politico. “But he continues to have pretty strong appeal to African Americans and to working-class whites.”Axelrod mentioned Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D), and billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as candidates who could theoretically take some of the middle ground in the Democratic Party away from Biden, but he ultimately dismissed all three as serious contenders.”So the Biden thing is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in politics because the guy is up there in the air and everybody is just assuming he’s going to come down,” he said. “There is kind of a Mr. Magoo kind of quality to the whole thing but he’s still driving, you know? He’s still moving forward.” Read more at Politico.More stories from theweek.com U.N. report: Global greenhouse gas emissions must fall dramatically to avoid climate crisis Melania Trump booed throughout speech at Baltimore youth summit Trump wonders why the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage wasn’t celebrated ‘a long time ago’
November 26, 2019Read More
Four years after countries struck a landmark deal in Paris to rein in greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to avert the worst effects of global warming, humanity is headed toward those very climate catastrophes, according to a U.N. report issued Tuesday, with China and the United States, the two biggest polluters, having expanded their carbon footprints last year.”The summary findings are bleak,” the report said, because countries have failed to halt the rise of greenhouse gas emissions even after repeated warnings from scientists. The result, the authors added, is that “deeper and faster cuts are now required.”The world’s 20 richest countries, responsible for more than three-fourths of emissions, must take the biggest, swiftest steps to move away from fossil fuels, the report emphasized. The richest country of all, the United States, however, has formally begun to pull out of the Paris accord altogether.Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by 1.5% every year over the past decade, according to the annual assessment, the Emissions Gap Report, which is produced by the U.N. Environment Program. The opposite must happen if the world is to avoid the worst effects of climate change, including more intense droughts, stronger storms and widespread food insecurity by midcentury. To stay within relatively safe limits, emissions must decline sharply, by 7.6% every year, between 2020 and 2030, the report warned.Separately, the World Meteorological Organization reported Monday that emissions of three major greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — have all swelled in the atmosphere since the mid-18th century.Under the Paris agreement, reached in November 2015, every country has pledged to rein in emissions, with each setting its own targets and timetables. Even if every country fulfills its current pledges — and many, including the United States, Brazil and Australia, are currently not on track to do so — the Emissions Gap Report found average temperatures are on track to rise by 3.2 degrees Celsius from the baseline average temperature at the start of the industrial age.According to scientific models, that kind of temperature rise sharply increases the likelihood of extreme weather events, the accelerated melting of glaciers and swelling seas — all endangering the lives of billions of people.The Paris agreement resolved to hold the increase in global temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit; last year, a U.N.-backed panel of scientists said the safer limit was to keep it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.There are many ways to reduce emissions: quitting the combustion of fossil fuels, especially coal, the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel; switching to renewable energy like solar and wind power; moving away from gas- and diesel-guzzling cars; and halting deforestation.In fact, many countries are headed in the wrong direction. A separate analysis released this month looked at how much coal, oil and natural gas the world’s nations have said they expect to produce and sell through 2030. If all those fossil fuels were ultimately extracted and burned, the report found, countries would collectively miss their climate pledges, as well as the global 2 degree Celsius target, by an even larger margin than previously thought.A number of countries, including Canada and Norway, have made plans to reduce emissions at home while expanding fossil-fuel production for sale abroad, that report noted.”At a global level, it doesn’t add up,” said Michael Lazarus, a lead author of the report and director of the Stockholm Environment Institute’s U.S. Center.To date, he noted, discussions on whether and how to curb the production of fossil fuels have been almost entirely absent from international climate talks.The International Energy Agency recently singled out the proliferation of SUVs, noting that the surge of SUVs, which consume more gasoline than conventional cars, could wipe out much of the oil savings from a nascent electric-car boom.Diplomats are scheduled to gather in Madrid in December for the next round of negotiations over the rules of the Paris agreement. The world’s biggest polluters are under pressure to raise their pledges.”This is a new and stark reminder,” Spain’s minister for ecological transition, Teresa Ribera, said of the Emissions Gap Report in an email. “We urgently need to align with the Paris agreement objectives and elevate climate ambition.”If there is any good news in the report, it is that the current trajectory is not as dire as it was before countries around the world started taking steps to cut their emissions. The 2015 Emissions Gap Report said that, without any climate policies at all, the world was likely to face around 4 degrees Celsius of warming.Coal use is declining sharply, especially in the United States and Western Europe, according to an analysis by Carbon Brief. Renewable energy is expanding fast, though not nearly as fast as necessary. And city and state governments around the world, including in the United States, are rolling out stricter rules on tailpipe pollution from cars.Those who have followed the diplomatic negotiations say they are confronted by something of a cognitive dissonance when they think about this moment. The world’s biggest polluters are nowhere near where they should be to draw down their emissions at a time when the human toll of climate change is near impossible to ignore.And yet, renewable energy is spreading faster than could have been anticipated even a few years ago; electric buses and cars are proliferating and young people are protesting by the millions in rich and poor countries alike. Even in the United States, with its persistent denialist movement, how to deal with climate change is a resonant issue in the presidential campaign.”There’s a bit of a best of times, worst of times about this,” said David Waskow, director of the international climate initiative at the World Resources Institute, a research and advocacy group.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
November 26, 2019Read More
KABUL, Afghanistan — The 14-year-old Afghan boy said his teacher had asked him for “a little favor” in return for not failing him on his final exams. Then the man took him to the school library, locked the door and raped him, the boy said.At the same school, a 17-year-old boy reported similar treatment from the school’s principal. He said the man had threatened to kill him if he told anyone.But the boys did talk, giving their accounts to a child advocacy group in their province and repeating them later in interviews with The New York Times. The advocacy group discovered that those two boys were not the only victims. From just three schools in one area of Logar province, south of the Afghan capital, the group said it had taken statements from 165 boys who said they had been sexually abused at their schools or by local officials they went to for help.Now, Afghanistan is again caught up in discussion of rampant sexual abuse of children and of a deep reluctance by many officials to deal with the issue at all.After talking with the TOLO news channel about the investigation, the leader of the Logar advocacy group, Mohammad Musa, and a colleague, Ehsanullah Hamidi, were detained by Afghanistan’s national intelligence agency late last week, the group says.On Monday, former President Hamid Karzai said that if verified, the detention of Musa by the intelligence agency was “a very wrong thing.”A spokesman for the National Directorate of Security declined to comment Monday. Musa has not been reachable for comment since late Thursday.Robert A. Destro, the assistant secretary of state, said on Twitter that the United States was closely following the case and was “greatly concerned.” He called on the Afghan government “to take action to protect survivors and bring perpetrators to justice.”It is unclear whether the cases at the three schools are related. But the prevalence of systematic sexual abuse of boys in Afghanistan has been a problem for generations. Bacha bazi — it means boy play — is common among men in powerful positions who keep boys as sex slaves. Bacha bazi boys are forced to dress as girls and to dance for men before being raped. Sometimes the boys are prostituted to the highest bidder.In an interview with The New York Times this month, Musa said that his group — the Logar Youth, Social and Civil Institution — began intensively investigating after a troubling Facebook post in May that showed men with boys in sexual positions. One video provided by the group shows a teenage boy dancing barefoot for about two dozen men who stand or sit in a circle around him.The post came down quickly, Musa said, but the group was able to preserve many of the images. Some of the boys were recognizable and had complained of sexual abuse before, he said.The Logar group began methodically talking to students in the area, finding dozens who said they had been raped. Many of their accounts were confirmed by teachers or other people in the area, who along with four of the boys were also interviewed by The Times.As the accounts unfolded, at least seven boys who said they had been raped were found dead, Musa said, most likely at the hands of their own families.Musa said that the advocacy group took the boys’ statements to Logar provincial police but that no action was taken. He said several boys who had agreed to be questioned by police were subsequently raped by officers.Shapoor Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the Logar provincial police, said the accusations were false. “Nobody has come to the police for rape cases,” he said. “It’s just rumors.”The Logar provincial governor, Mohammad Anwar Ashaqzai, said officials were examining boys’ statements provided by the advocacy group. He said he was not aware of any rapes in the province’s schools.”If we find these documents are incomplete and they are fake, then those who are involved will face the law and should be punished,” Ashaqzai said.Still, in response to the group’s accusations, the Ministry of Education in Kabul said Nov. 14 that it was sending a delegation to the province to investigate.In Logar, Shafiullah Afghanzai, the executive officer of Hamid Karzai high school, where the 14-year-old and the 17-year-old said they had been raped, told The Times that the school’s headmaster had been transferred to another district earlier this year after he was accused of sexually assaulting a boy.Afghanzai said boys had also been raped by teachers at two other schools in the province. He said three boys who had reported rapes were later killed by the Taliban, who condemn the sexual abuse as anti-Islamic.”If they get evidence that teachers were involved, they will hang them,” Afghanzai said of the militants.A Taliban spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.Hassibullah Stanikzai, head of the Logar provincial council, said the bodies of several boys had been found in areas of Logar under Taliban control. But he said there was no evidence that their deaths were related to sexual assault.A teacher at one school in Logar, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Hamid, said he had spoken to 13 boys who said they had been raped by teachers there. He said the families of three of those boys had moved away to avoid the social stigma of rape, especially after images were posted on Facebook.”It’s a crisis,” Hamid said. “We want to do something to stop this mafia, but we don’t know what to do.”Musa, of the advocacy group, said 25 families abandoned their homes in shame after their sons said they had been raped. In some cases, he said, the boys’ faces had been visible in images on the anonymous Facebook page before it was taken down.In several cases, boys had been banished from home by their fathers, Musa said.”We don’t trust anyone, neither the Taliban nor the government,” Musa said. One school is in an area contested by the Taliban, and two are in government-controlled areas. Wakil Kaliwal, head of the education department in Logar, said there were perhaps one or two cases of student rape in the province’s schools but no epidemic of sexual assault. He said the principal at Hamid Karzai high school had been transferred for beating a boy but also had been accused of raping another boy.Kaliwal added, referring to sexual assaults of boys: “It is an issue across the country, and Logar isn’t exceptional.”Mohammad Qasim Sediqqi, a member of the Logar provincial council, said there was no evidence of widespread rape in schools. “Maybe there are one or two cases, because this is Afghanistan, and crime exists everywhere,” he said.President Ashraf Ghani, who is from Logar, promised in 2015 to crack down on bacha bazi. But pederasty is still widely tolerated in Afghan culture, and prosecutions of men who sexually assault boys are rare.An investigation by The New York Times in 2015 found widespread sexual assault of boys by the Afghan security forces or others in power and that the U.S. military was reluctant to intervene. The article reported that an American captain was relieved of command and a first sergeant was pressured to retire after they confronted and shoved an Afghan militia commander who had raped a boy. That article led to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction on the military’s reticence to confront the abuse.Afghanistan made bacha bazi and related offenses violations of the national criminal code in May 2017. The penalty for violating the code is up to three years in prison — three to five years if the dancing is “a public event.” If a teacher, instructor or “superior in any way is involved,” the penalty is five years in prison.But Charu Lata Hogg, executive director of All Survivors Project, a human rights group based in Liechtenstein, said the group interviewed 24 male rape victims in four Afghan provinces, not including Logar.”We found that sexual violence against boys and young men is pervasive and happens within communities, police checkpoints and in detention settings,” Hogg said.She said her group welcomed the 2017 laws, but she added that authorities must “apply the law and hold perpetrators to account.”In a 2018 report, the United Nations documented 78 cases of sexual assault against boys in Afghanistan, adding, “Impunity for perpetrators remains a serious challenge.”Shaharzad Akbar, chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, called on authorities to investigate the Logar allegations and prosecute anyone involved. She asked government officials to protect members of the advocacy group and refrain from “the language of fear and intimidation.”Amnesty International warned that the two detained rights activists were at risk of torture “and other ill treatment” as long as they remained in custody.Lyla Lynn Schwartz, who counsels victims of trauma in Afghanistan, including rape, said Afghan boys raped by men often suffer extreme emotional and psychological distress, often for the rest of their lives. The victims are often ostracized, or even attacked, by their family members over a perceived dishonor.The 17-year-old from Hamid Karzai high school said in an interview that he was left homeless after his father banished him. He said he no longer attends school.”My father says if he sees me again,” he said, “he will kill me.”This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
November 26, 2019Read More
Former President Barack Obama is keeping quiet about the Democratic presidential primary, but some of his opinions have come to light anyway, thanks to a new report from Politico. And there are at least two frontrunners who he might not want to see snag the nomination.Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) especially doesn’t appear to have a big fan in Obama. Per Politico, when Sanders seemed to have a greater chance of winning (though some disagree with the characterization that he’s trending downward), Obama privately said he would speak up to stop Sanders if he was running away with the nomination.It’s unclear if Obama stills feels this way — a spokesperson for Obama noted the former president said he would support and campaign for whoever the party’s nominee is. But a closer adviser, while not confirming Obama’s comments, added that “if Bernie were running away with it, I think maybe we would all have to say something.”Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), meanwhile, also has a complicated relationship with Obama, Politico reports. While there’s no indication Obama would speak out against Warren, he reportedly did once say privately in 2015 (when Warren was thinking about jumping into the 2016 presidential race) that Democrats rallying around her would be a “repudiation” of him and his economic policies. Read more at Politico.More stories from theweek.com U.N. report: Global greenhouse gas emissions must fall dramatically to avoid climate crisis Melania Trump booed throughout speech at Baltimore youth summit Trump wonders why the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage wasn’t celebrated ‘a long time ago’
November 26, 2019Read More
Canadian data firm AggregateIQ broke privacy laws with some of the work it did for a leading pro-Brexit group in Britain and a number of U.S. political campaigns, according to a report of an official probe released on Tuesday. Federal privacy commissi…
November 26, 2019Read More
A Saudi-led military coalition said Tuesday it will release 200 Yemeni rebels and permit some flights from the insurgent-held capital Sanaa, as efforts to end the nearly five-year conflict gain momentum. The initiatives coincide with a lull in Huthi a…
November 26, 2019Read More
The Israeli military says its missile defenses intercepted a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel. It was the second incident this week, and rattled the shaky cease-fire brokered by Egypt and the U.N. two weeks ago that ended two days o…
November 26, 2019Read More
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