Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark (ret.) tells CNN’s John Berman what Russia may be hoping to achieve in their latest attacks against Ukraine.
Day: November 28, 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin, D-Va., died Monday after a battle with colorectal cancer, his office said. He was 61.
Tara Rountree, McEachin’s chief of staff, said in a statement late Monday: “Valiantly, for years now, we have watched him fight and triumph over the secondary effects of his colorectal cancer from 2013. Tonight, he lost that battle.”
McEachin represented Virginia’s 4th Congressional District, which includes part of Richmond and extends south to the North Carolina border. He was reelected to a fourth term earlier this month.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., released a statement saying: “Up until the very end, Don was a fighter. Even though he battled cancer and faced other trials in recent years, he never lost his focus on social and environmental justice. Tonight, Virginia has lost a great leader and I have lost a great friend.”
Rep. Gerry Connelly, D-Va., called McEachin an “environmentalist, civil rights advocate, faithful public servant, and a man of consequence. There was no better ally to have.”
Richmond TV station WTVR said McEachin is survived by his wife, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin, and their three adult children.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two deliberating jurors at the rape trial of former “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson were dismissed Monday because they have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo replaced the jurors with two alternates and told the panel to start over with deliberations.
The jurors were returning Monday from a week off after telling Olmedo on Nov. 18 that they were deadlocked and could not reach a verdict on any of the three rape counts against Masterson after nearly three days of deliberations.
The judge told them it was too soon to declare a mistrial and to keep deliberating when they returned from the holiday break.
Masterson, 46, is charged with the rape of three women, including a former girlfriend, in his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003.
He has pleaded not guilty, and the defense said the acts were consensual.
2022-11-29T04:06:26Z
Chinese police were out in force in Beijing and Shanghai on Tuesday to prevent more protests against COVID curbs which have disrupted the lives of millions, damaged the economy and briefly sparked rare calls for President Xi Jinping to step down.
At least one person in the city of Hangzhou was arrested late on Monday, according to social media videos, after reports a busload of demontrators were taken away by police during Sunday night protests in Shanghai.
Simmering discontent with COVID prevention policies three years into the pandemic ignited into broader protests in cities thousands of miles apart throughout the weekend.
Mainland China’s biggest wave of civil disobedience since Xi took power a decade ago comes as the number of COVID cases hit record highs daily and large parts of several cities face a new round of lockdowns.
COVID in China keeps spreading despite significant sacrifices made by most of the country’s 1.4 billion people to prevent its transmission, adhering to a zero-COVID policy of eradicating all outbreaks that has isolated China from the rest of the world.
The lockdowns have exacerbated one of the steepest growth slowdowns China has faced in decades, disrupting global supply chains and roiling financial markets.
In Hangzhou, the capital of the eastern Zhejiang province, videos on social media which Reuters could not independently verify showed hundreds of police occupying a large public square on Monday night, preventing people from congregating.
One video showed police, surrounded by a small crowd of people holding smartphones, making an arrest while others tried to pull back the person being detained.
Hangzhou police did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
In Shanghai and Beijing, police could be seen on Tuesday morning still patrolling areas of the cities where some groups on the Telegram social media app had suggested people should gather again. Their presence on Monday evening and throughout the night ensured no more gatherings took place.
Residents said police have been asking people passing through those areas for their phones to check if they had virtual private networks (VPNs) and the Telegram app, which has been used by weekend protesters, residents and social media users said. VPNs are illegal for most people in China, while the Telegram app is blocked from China’s internet.
A fire last week in the western city of Urumqi that authorities said killed 10 people appears to have been the catalyst for protests in other cities.
Some internet users said COVID lockdown measures hampered rescue efforts. Officials have denied that.
Although largely focused on COVID curbs, protesters sporadically took a swipe at the ruling Communist Party and at Xi, who has concentrated power into his own hands over the past decade and just recently secured another leadership term.
On Sunday, a large crowd gathered in the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu, chanted: “We don’t want lifelong rulers. We don’t want emperors.” Anti-Xi slogans were briefly heard in Shanghai on Sunday as well.
Xi had claimed personal responsibility for leading the “war” against COVID. Chinese officials say the policy has kept the death toll in the most populous country on earth at thousands, avoiding the millions of deaths seen elsewhere.
Many analysts say easing the policies could lead to widespread illness and deaths, overwhelming the country’s hospitals. A strong push on vaccinating the elderly is required before China could even contemplate re-opening, they say.
In an editorial which did not mention the protests, People’s Daily, the Party’s official newspaper, urged citizens on Tuesday to “unswervingly implement” zero-COVID policies, which put people’s “lives first,” saying victory will come through “perseverance through thousands of hardships.”
“The harder it is, the more you have to grit your teeth,” it said.
Related Galleries:
Epidemic-prevention workers in protective suits stand guard at a residential compound as outbreaks of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue in Beijing, China November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Men in protective suits walk in the street as outbreaks of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continue in Beijing, China November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A man gets tested at a nucleic acid testing site, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China, November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song
NEW YORK (AP) — “Gaslighting” — mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year.
Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn’t a single event that drove significant spikes in the curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year.
The gaslighting was pervasive.
“It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s unveiling.
“It was a word looked up frequently every single day of the year,” he said.
There were deepfakes and the dark web. There were deep states and fake news. And there was a whole lot of trolling.
Merriam-Webster’s top definition for gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person, usually over an extended period of time, that “causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.”
Gaslighting is a heinous tool frequently used by abusers in relationships — and by politicians and other newsmakers. It can happen between romantic partners, within a broader family unit and among friends. It can be a corporate tactic, or a way to mislead the public. There’s also “medical gaslighting,” when a health care professional dismisses a patient’s symptoms or illness as “all in your head.”
Despite its relatively recent prominence — including “Gaslighter,” The Chicks’ 2020 album featuring the rousingly angry titular single — the word was brought to life more than 80 years ago with “Gas Light,” a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton.
It birthed two film adaptations in the 1940s. One, George Cukor’s “Gaslight” in 1944, starred Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist and Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton. The two marry after a whirlwind romance and Gregory turns out to be a champion gaslighter. Among other instances, he insists her complains over the constant dimming of their London townhouse’s gaslights is a figment of her troubled mind. It wasn’t.
The death of Angela Lansbury in October drove some interest in lookups of the word, Sokolowski said. She played Nancy Oliver, a young maid hired by Gregory and told not to bother his “high-strung” wife.
The term gaslighting was later used by mental health practitioners to clinically describe a form of prolonged coercive control in abusive relationships.
“There is this implication of an intentional deception,” Sokolowski said. “And once one is aware of that deception, it’s not just a straightforward lie, as in, you know, I didn’t eat the cookies in the cookie jar. It’s something that has a little bit more devious quality to it. It has possibly an idea of strategy or a long-term plan.”
Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site, chooses its word of the year based solely on data. Sokolowski and his team weed out evergreen words most commonly looked up to gauge which word received a significant bump over the year before.
They don’t slice and dice why people look up words, which can be anything from quick spelling and definition checks to some sort of attempt at inspiration or motivation. Some of the droves who looked up “gaslighting” this year might have wanted to know, simply, if it’s one or two words, or whether it’s hyphenated.
“Gaslighting,” Sokolowski said, spent all of 2022 in the top 50 words looked up on merriam-webster.com to earn top dog word of the year status. Last year’s pick was “vaccine.” Rounding out this year’s Top 10 are:
— “Oligarch,” driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
— “Omicron,” the persistent COVID-19 variant and the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.
— “Codify,” as in turning abortion rights into federal law.
— “Queen consort,” what King Charles’ wife, Camilla is newly known as.
— “Raid,” as in the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
— “Sentient,” with lookups brought on by Google canning the engineer who claimed an unreleased AI system had become sentient.
— “Cancel culture,” enough said.
— “LGBTQIA,” for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual, aromantic or agender.
— “Loamy,” which many Wordle users tried back in August, though the right word that day was “clown.”
___
Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie
2022-11-29T03:36:24Z
China’s military said on Tuesday it drove away a U.S. guided-missile cruiser that “illegally intruded” into waters near the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands.
“The actions of the U.S. military seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security,” said Tian Junli, spokesman for the Southern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army.
The ship in question, the USS Chancellorsville guided missile cruiser, had recently sailed through the Taiwain Strait.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.
Tian said the U.S. cruiser’s intrusion showed that the United States was a “security risk maker” in the South China Sea and “is another iron-clad proof of its hegemony in the navigation and militarization of the South China Sea”.
China’s military said its troops would remain on high alert, the Southern Theatre Command said on its WeChat social media account.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea and it has become one of many flashpoints in the testy relationship between it and the United States.
The United States rejects what it calls China’s unlawful territorial claims in the resource-rich waters.
U.S. warships have passed through the South China Sea with increasing frequency in recent years, in a show of force against the Chinese claims.
The Senate on Monday brought a bill to codify same-sex marriage protections one step closer to passage, voting to end debate on an amendment that features religious liberty protections sought by Republicans.
The process wasn’t without hiccups, however.
Senators ultimately voted 61-35 to advance the amendment to the Respect for Marriage Act that includes language related to religious liberty and conscience protections under the Constitution and federal law. It would also continues to prohibit polygamous marriage.
But the voting was held open for almost two-and-a-half hours as senators wrangled over whether additional amendments could come up for a vote and waited on the votes of three Republicans who had earlier this month voted to advance the broader bill. Sixty votes were needed to limit debate.
According to the time agreement struck, votes on three amendments proposed by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will be held on Tuesday afternoon, with a vote on final passage expected to take place immediately following. The vote series will start at 3:45 p.m.
Lee’s amendment will need 60 votes to be attached, while Lankford’s and Rubio’s will each need a simple majority of senators to win inclusion on the final bill. All three are aimed at protecting religious liberty amid concerns that an amendment negotiated that is already attached to the legislation does not go far enough to protect religious entities.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a leading GOP proponent of the Respect for Marriage Act, told reporters after the deal was struck that while he supports Lee’s amendment, it is “far more expansive” than the narrow bill that negotiators cobbled together.
“I think one of the things that make it very difficult for getting people to come to an agreement is just giving everyone the Heisman instead of listening to them and trying to give them an opportunity to get a vote. I’ve got no problem with it,” Tillis said. “I wish we’d do more amendment votes around here. It was an earnest effort on our part to let them have their amendments be heard and let the vote go where the vote goes tomorrow.”
Monday’s vote puts lawmakers another step closer to sending the bill to President Biden’s desk. The measure has already passed the House, but because of the narrow amendment it would have to go back to the lower chamber for another vote. The House passed the bill in July with the support of 47 Republicans.
The absence of Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who is competing in a runoff election on Dec. 6, also complicated the path to 60 votes. Ultimately, all 12 GOP senators who voted earlier this month to advance the measure voted in the affirmative Monday: Susan Collins (Maine), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Todd Young (Ind.) and Tillis.
“We all know that for all the progress that we’ve made on same-sex marriage, the rights of all married couples will never truly be safe without the proper protections under federal law, and that’s why the Respect for Marriage Act is necessary,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor on Monday.
Some Republicans who supported the measure have received blowback for backing the legislation. More than 40 Christian leaders called on Lummis to “reverse course” and change her vote unless the final version includes Lee’s amendment.
“[The bill] labels people of good faith as bigots and subjects them to endless harassing litigation and discrimination and threats by that same government that was founded to protect their religious liberty,” Lee said on the Senate floor before the Thanksgiving recess. “We need to protect religious freedom. This bill doesn’t do that. It places it in grave jeopardy.”
Updated at 8:44 p.m.
2022-11-29T03:02:30Z
China’s military said on Tuesday a U.S. cruiser “illegally intruded” into waters near the South China Sea Spratly Islands and that it monitored and then drove away the guided missile cruiser.
“The actions of the U.S. military seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security,” said Tian Junli, spokesman for the Southern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army.
2022-11-29T03:23:54Z
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol warned of an unprecedented joint response with allies if North Korea goes ahead with a nuclear test, and urged China to help dissuade the North from pursuing banned development of nuclear weapons and missiles.
In a wide-ranging interview with Reuters on Monday, Yoon called on China, North Korea’s closest ally, to fulfil its responsibilities as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. He said not doing so would lead to an influx of military assets to the region.
“What is sure is that China has the capability to influence North Korea, and China has the responsibility to engage in the process,” Yoon said in his office. It was up to Beijing to decide whether it would exert that influence for peace and stability, he added.
North Korea’s actions were leading to increased defence spending in countries around the region, including Japan, and more deployment of U.S. warplanes and ships, Yoon noted.
It is in China’s interest to make its “best efforts” to induce North Korea to denuclearise, he said.
When asked what South Korea and its allies, the United States and Japan, would do if North Korea conducts a new nuclear test, Yoon said the response “will be something that has not been seen before”, but declined to elaborate what that would entail.
“It would be extremely unwise for North Korea to conduct a seventh nuclear test,” he told Reuters.
Amid a record year for missile tests, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this week his country intends to have the world’s most powerful nuclear force. South Korean and U.S. officials say Pyongyang may be preparing to resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time since 2017.
North Korea’s tests overshadowed multiple gatherings this month of international leaders, including the Group of 20 conference in Bali, where Yoon pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations. Xi urged Seoul to improve relations with Pyongyang.
Ahead of the G20, U.S. President Joe Biden told Xi that Beijing had an obligation to attempt to talk North Korea out of a nuclear test, although he said it was unclear whether China could do so. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said before the meeting that Biden would warn Xi that North Korea’s continued weapons development would lead to an enhanced U.S. military presence in the region, something Beijing is not eager to see.
South Korea and the United States have agreed to deploy more U.S. “strategic assets” such as aircraft carriers and long-range bombers to the area, but Yoon said he did not expect changes to the 28,500 American ground forces stationed in South Korea.
“We must respond consistently, and in lockstep with each other,” Yoon said, blaming a lack of consistency in the international response for the failure of three decades of North Korea policy.
China fought beside the North in the 1950-53 Korean War and has backed it economically and diplomatically since, but analysts say Beijing may have limited power, and perhaps little desire, to curb Pyongyang. China says it enforces the UNSC sanctions, which it voted for, but has since called for them to be eased and, along with Russia, blocked U.S.-led attempts to impose new sanctions.
Boosting ties and coordination with Washington is the core of Yoon’s foreign policy, a focus highlighted by the main item on his desk: a sign saying “The Buck Stops Here”, a gift from Biden.
Like his predecessor, Moon Jae-in, Yoon has treaded cautiously amid the rising U.S.-China rivalry. China is South Korea’s largest trading partner, as well as a close partner of North Korea.
On rising tensions between China and Taiwan, Yoon said any conflict there should be resolved according to international norms and rules.
Democratic Taiwan, which China claims as its own, has come under increasing military and political pressure from Beijing, which has said it would never renounce the use of force against the island.
“I am firmly opposed to any attempt to change the status quo unilaterally,” Yoon said.
When asked about a role in a Taiwan conflict for South Korea or the U.S. troops stationed there, Yoon said that the country’s forces would “consider the overall security situation” but that their most imminent concern would be North Korean military attempts to take advantage of the situation.
“What is important is responding to the imminent threat surrounding us and controlling the possible threat,” he said.
Yoon has also made increasing cooperation with Japan a core goal, despite lingering legal and political disputes dating to Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
South Korea, Japan, and the United States have agreed to share real-time information for tracking North Korean ballistic missile tests.
As part of its biggest military expansion since World War Two, Japan is expected to procure fresh munitions, including longer-range missiles, spend on cyber defences and create a combined air, sea and land command headquarters that will work more closely with U.S. forces in Japan.
Japan’s military ambitions have long been a sensitive issue in neighbouring countries, many of which were invaded before or during World War II.
Yoon’s predecessor stopped many of the trilateral exercises and nearly left an intelligence sharing deal with Tokyo as relations soured.
Now Japan faces more and more threats from North Korea’s missile programme, including tests that overfly Japanese islands, Yoon said.
“I believe the Japanese government cannot be asleep at the wheel with the North Korean missile flights over their territory,” he said.
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South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Daewoung Kim
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Daewoung Kim
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol smiles during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Daewoung Kim
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Daewoung Kim
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Daewoung Kim
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol holds his first official news conference, after taking office in May, to mark 100 days in office, in Seoul, South Korea August 17, 2022. Chung Sung-Jun/Pool via REUTERS
A dozen members of the New York City Council departed Monday on a five-day educational trip to Israel. But unlike previous trips sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the delegation is not led by the chamber’s speaker. That office, the second-most powerful government position in America’s largest city, is now held by Councilwoman Adrienne Adams.
Prior heads of the City Council, going back to the body’s first speaker, Peter Vallone Sr., selected the members of the delegation and led the mission. Two members of the Council who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Adams (not related to Mayor Eric Adams), who was elected after a hard-fought contest in January, declined to take part in the planning and wasn’t interested in leading the trip. That job has fallen to Councilmember Eric Dinowitz, chair of the New York City Jewish Caucus.
The annual JCRC trip was a contentious issue in the 2021 city elections. The Democratic Socialists of America then required candidates who sought their endorsement to pledge not to travel to Israel if elected. The DSA later clarified that it referred specifically to the annual JCRC trips. The City Council now has four members who are affiliated with the DSA and another dozen who came to electoral politics from progressive social movements.
A Forward survey last year, in partnership with New York Jewish Agenda, showed that a majority of candidates pledged to continue the tradition of traveling to Israel and the occupied West Bank if elected and oppose the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
The office of Speaker Adams did not reply to an inquiry about whether she did not participate in the trip because she was concerned about backlash from some progressive members of the council. But a Council spokesperson said Adams determined it was “prudent” to remain in New York to focus on budget issues amid “multiple crises” caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The official added that after the mayor issued an updated financial plan earlier this month to balance the 2023 budget passed in June, and the speaker wanted to ensure city government maintained adequate services for all communities across the city, “including our more than one million Jewish New Yorkers.”
Mayor Adams is traveling abroad this week — to Athens to attend a global gathering on combating antisemitism.
The JCRC trips have a three-decade history with the City Council. Each year the group takes Council members and other local politicians on an educational mission in which they meet with top officials, Jewish and Arab community leaders and journalists, and tour historical and strategic sites. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a pro-Israel progressive from New York and a former councilman from the South Bronx, said that his first trip to Israel in 2015, with the JCRC, helped him form his views of the Jewish state.
This year’s delegation includes 12 members — about the number that usually sign up. Most have never been to Israel before. The 51-member chamber includes 32 first-term lawmakers.
Gideon Taylor, JCRC’s chief executive, said the group seeks to “show Israel from all perspectives and hope for a deeper understanding of the complex situation in that region.”
A City Council staffer who requested anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations said Adams’ style is simply different from her predecessors’ and that she often prefers to empower others, such as entrusting leadership of the Israel trip to the Jewish Caucus.
The JCRC did not immediately provide a list of names of members on the trip. However, according to an initial list shared with the Forward, none of the members of the Jewish Caucus, except Dinowitz, are part of the trip.
Dinowitz wrote on Twitter as the group departed on Monday afternoon: “With NYC having the largest Jewish population in the world, outside of Israel, I am so thankful for this amazing opportunity to travel, learn and share experiences with each other.”
The Council spokesperson said Adams will hold a roundtable with the members on the trip when they return “and believes their representation — that includes members of her leadership team — allows the body to fulfill its multiple priorities.”
The post In a break with tradition, NYC council members headed to Israel without their speaker appeared first on The Forward.
