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An honorary member of Buckingham Palace has resigned and apologized after a Black charity founder said she was questioned about whether she was really British at a royal reception on Tuesday. The guest, Ngozi Fulani, is the CEO of Sistah_Space, an organization that provides specialist services to women of African and Caribbean heritage affected by abuse. Fulani was attending a royal function on domestic abuse organized by the Queen Consort on Tuesday evening when she said a member of staff began a line of questioning that the palace called “unacceptable and deeply regrettable.” Sistah_Space shared a rough transcript of the conversation on Twitter on Wednesday. Fulani said that, after identifying herself as British-born, the person asked her “where do you really come from;” “where do your people come from;” and “when did you first come here?”A Buckingham Palace spokesperson acknowledged the incident and said the palace was taking the situation “extremely seriously.” “Unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments have been made. We have reached out to Ngozi Fulani on this matter, and are inviting her to discuss all elements of her experience in person if she wishes,” the spokesperson said.News of the encounter came to light as the Prince and Princess of Wales traveled to the US ahead of the second iteration of the Earthshot Prize Awards later this week. A spokesman for William said: “Racism has no place in our society, these comments were unacceptable. It’s right that the individual concerned has stepped down.” The incident is likely to revive concerns that the palace is elitist and out of touch when it comes to issues of race and identity. The palace has, in recent years, faced allegations of racist behavior, including in its hiring practices decades ago and the treatment of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. A former counterterrorism police chief said Tuesday that Meghan and Harry had faced “disgusting and very real” threats from right-wing extremists. Meghan claimed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey last year that an unnamed member of the family made remarks about the skin color of their unborn baby while she was pregnant with Archie. Prince William later said the royal family was “very much not a racist family.” https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/30/uk/buckingham-palace-resignation-intl/index.html

An Algerian court has sentenced 49 people to death over the lynching of a man falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires during an extended heatwave last year, state media reported. The North African country has, however, maintained a moratorium on carrying out death sentences since the last executions in 1993, meaning the sentences will likely be reduced to life imprisonment. The court found that locals in Algeria’s Tizi Ouzou district had beaten 38-year-old Djamel Ben Ismail to death after he was accused of starting the fires that broke out last August and killed at least 90 people across northern Algeria. It later emerged that Ismail, an artist from Miliana (230 kilometres or 140 miles further west), had in fact headed to the region as a volunteer to help put out the fires. Algeria, Africa’s biggest country, was one of several Mediterranean nations to face devastating wildfires last year. The court in Dar el-Beida, east of the capital Algiers, on Thursday “sentenced 49 people to execution over [Ben Ismail’s] murder and mutilation of his body”, the official state news agency, APS, reported. The court handed 28 other defendants jail terms of two years to a decade without parole, APS said. Videos posted online after the lynching showed a crowd surrounding a police van and beating a man inside it, then dragging him out and setting him on fire, with some taking selfies. The shocking images were widely shared and sparked outrage in Algeria. The victim’s father, Noureddine Ben Ismail, was praised for calling for calm and “brotherhood” among Algerians despite his son’s murder. The fires were spurred by a blistering heatwave but authorities also blamed “criminals” for the outbreaks. Authorities also accused the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (MAK), which Algiers classifies as a “terrorist organisation”. MAK, an autonomy movement for the mostly Amazigh-speaking Kabylie region in northern Algeria, rejected the accusations. Although much of Algeria is desert, the north has more than four million hectares (10 million acres) of forest and suffers devastating fires every summer. Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that man-made global warming will bring higher temperatures and more extreme weather events across the world. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/25/algeria-court-sentences-dozens-to-death-over-forest-fire-lynching

Nick Movie: Emily in Paris Season 3 Time: / Netflix / Amazon / HBO?: Netflix Duration of the movie: / Trailer:

Live Performance Title: SiR “Nothing Even Matters” (Live Performance) | Open Mic Signer Name: SiR Live Performance Location: / Official YouTube Link: Your Opinion About the Track (Music Video): 7/10

v1, text & effect

Solved! T/C

Yea @-AndreeA maybe?

Happy birthday🤗

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An upcoming update to Microsoft Teams is looking to help the hard of hearing stay better engaged in online meetings. Similar to a recent Zoom update, the new Sign Language View feature allows Microsoft Teams users to choose up to two other video feeds to be centered in the app, making sign language interpreters much more visible throughout the whole meeting. Microsoft says(opens in new tab) that the feed becomes larger than the others and stays at a high resolution for the clearest view possible, and is client-side only, so users will be the only one who can see the view, as other participants will each have their own. If a someone shares content during the meeting, the signer’s video will be moved to the side along with everyone else, but will maintain a bigger aspect ratio. Other participants can still be spotlighted and it won’t take space away from the interpreter, either. Users can join the Teams' Public Preview program(opens in new tab) to try out the feature; however, be aware the preview is being done on a per-user basis, and if you are one of the lucky few, Microsoft has a set of instructions(opens in new tab) on how to turn on the view. Sign Language View can be enabled for all meetings or on a case-by-case. Interpreters who work in the same company as you can be pre-assigned before a meeting, something you can do via the Settings menu. This way, when you enter a meeting with an interpreter, the view will already be activated. Signers can be added mid-meeting with the “Manage signers” button found on the new Accessibility pane. Clicking the button allows you to designate a participant as an interpreter just by typing in their name. And through the pane, you can toggle both the Sign Language View and Live Captions mid-meeting, as well. Growing Teams Microsoft has been churning out tons of new features for Teams in recent months and it’s a little tricky to keep track of it all. For example, the company recently implemented games into the platform as a way to build camaraderie between team members. You have your basic titles like Solitaire and Minesweeper, but also more interactive games like Kahoot. As for what's coming next, we recommend looking through TechRadar’s coverage of future additions coming to Teams. There’s quite a lot. First, the platform is slated to get a performance boost, although it's unknown when exactly. And a Premium version of Teams will be entering its first preview in December 2022, adding AI to help transcribe meetings in 40 different languages and “advanced security features,” among other things. These are the best video conferencing services aroundCesar Cadenas has been writing about the tech industry for several years now specializing in consumer electronics, entertainment devices, Windows, and the gaming industry. But he’s also passionate about smartphones, GPUs, and cybersecurity. https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-teams-is-putting-sign-language-front-and-center

Nope :'3 just kidding .. @TAR3k

A review posted at EXPreview gives us our first look at Chinese GPU maker Moore Thread's new mid-range gaming competitor, the MTT S80 graphics card. This GPU is one of Moore Thread's most powerful graphics cards to date, packing a triple fan cooler setup and theoretically competing with Nvidia's RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti, some of the best graphics cards available, even close to two years after they first launched. For the uninitiated, Moore Thread is a Chinese GPU manufacturer that was established just two years ago, in 2020. The company has reportedly tapped some of the most experienced minds in the GPU industry, hiring experts and engineers from Nvidia, Microsoft, Intel, Arm and others. Moore Thread's aim is to produce domestic (for China) GPU solutions completely independent from Western nations. These are supposed to be capable of 3D graphics, AI training, inference computing, and high-performance parallel computing capabilities, and will be used in China's consumer and government sectors. The MTT S80 graphics card was developed with Moore Thread's 'Chunxaio' GPU architecture, which supports FP32, FP16, and INT8 (integer) precision compute, and is compatible with the company's MUSA computing platform. The architecture also employs a full video engine with H.264, H.265 (HEVC), and AV1 codec support, capable of handling video encoding and decoding at up to 8K.The MTT S80 comes with a fully unlocked Chunxaio GPU core, featuring 4096 MUSA cores, and 128 tensor cores, and clocked at 1800 MHz. The memory subsystem uses 14 Gbps GDDR6 modules operating on a 256-bit wide bus, with a 16GB capacity. As far as specs go, it at least looks decent on paper. The GPU operates with a target board power rating of 255W, powered by both a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, and a single 8-pin EPS12V power connector — yes, it's using a CPU EPS12V rather than an 8-pin PEG (PCI Express Graphics) connector. That's because the EPS12V can deliver up to 300W, and for users that lack an extra EPS12V connector the card includes a dual 8-pin PEG to single 8-pin EPS12V adapter. And for the record, that's more power than even the RTX 3070 requires. Display outputs consist of three DisplayPort 1.4a connectors and a single HDMI 2.1 port, the same as what you'll find on most Nvidia GeForce GPUs from the RTX 40- and 30-series families. The graphics card has a silver colored shroud, accented by matte black designs surrounding the right and left fans. The cooler features a triple-fan cooler design, with two larger outer fans and a smaller central fan in the middle. The card dimensions are 286mm long and two slots wide. Earlier reports on the Chunxaio GPU suggest it can achieve FP32 performance similar to that of an RTX 3060 Ti. The 3060 Ti has theoretical throughput of 16.2 teraflops, while the Chunxaio has a theoretical 14.7 TFLOPS. That's a bit lower than Nvidia, but it does have twice the VRAM capacity, so the hardware at least appears capable of competing with Nvidia's RTX 3060 Ti. Unfortunately, according to EXPreview, the MTT S80 suffers from very poor driver optimizations. While the MTT S80 is aimed at the RTX 3060 Ti in terms of raw compute performance, in gaming benchmarks Nvidia's RTX 3060 reportedly outpaces the MTT S80 by a significant margin. The problem with the testing is that no comparative charts are provided for the games with RTX 3060 or other GPUs; only text descriptions of the actual gaming performance are provided, while the charts are for an odd mix of titles. EXPreview ran its benchmarks on an Intel test rig with a Core i7-12700K, Asus TUF B660M motherboard, RTX 3060 12GB Strix, 16GB of DDR4 memory, and an 850W PSU running Windows 10 21H2. The best potential example of actual gaming performance was Unigine Valley, where the RTX 3060 12GB was anywhere between 2x and a whopping 7.6x faster than the MTT S80 in the DX9 and DX11 tests at 1080p and 4K resolutions. The MTT S60 averaged 26.1 FPS in the 4K DX9 test, while the RTX 3060 spat out a whopping 197.9 FPS. Note also that Unigine Valley was developed and first released in 2009. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/moore-thread-mtt-s80-cant-match-rtx-3060-driver-issues

The crypto exchange FTX collapsed into bankruptcy last week(opens in new tab), after a liquidity crisis exposed a financial black hole that no-one yet knows the full extent of. As the recriminations begin in the crypto world, the man who's been charged with overseeing FTX's bankruptcy, and working out just what this company has been up to, reckons this is even worse than Enron. And he should know. John Ray III has over 40 years' experience of legal restructuring, including being CEO of Enron during its liquidation, and working on huge corporate bankruptcies like Nortel, Residential Capital, and Overseas Shipholding. He's now filed a declaration to Delaware bankruptcy court(opens in new tab) about his initial findings with FTX, which begins with the assertion that "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here." The filing goes on to outline FTX's "compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad", and the concentration of power in the hands of "a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals", before adding "this situation is unprecedented".Let's just pause to fully put that in context. The Enron scandal was, in 2001, the largest bankruptcy in US history. It remains to this day the emblematic corporate scandal, the ultimate example of what can happen when regulators are asleep at the wheel. So when the guy who took charge of restructuring Enron is blanching at the state of FTX, you know this is incredible. There is a chart at the end of this filing that lists more than 100 companies associated with FTX spread across 27 countries(opens in new tab). This is how the firm's leaders were allegedly funneling money around and using customer cash to make financial bets, without it seeming to affect the balance sheet of FTX. Going hand-in-hand with this, Ray notes "the absence of lasting records of decision-making", and that former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried "often communicated by using applications that were set to auto-delete after a short period of time, and encouraged employees to do the same." Tell me you're up to no good without telling me you're up to no good. Other eyebrow raising moments include that company money was used "to purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors" in the Bahamas. There is no documentation suggesting that these were loans, and "certain real estate was recorded in the personal name of these employees and advisors" in Bahamian records. If only all jobs came with a free holiday home in the Bahamas, eh. Ray said a "substantial portion" of FTX's supposed assets are either "missing or stolen". The bankruptcy process has so far secured around $740 million of cryptocurrency, though the filing notes that "at least $372 million of unauthorized transfers" took place on the same day FTX filed for bankruptcy. These transfers are being investigated. Ray notes several times that he does not trust this company's accounts, now or historically, and warns creditors not to take FTX's information as accurate. The filing ends on a withering note as regards FTX's former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the man more responsible than any other for this company, who's been giving interviews and saying he regrets filing for bankruptcy(opens in new tab). Ray emphasises that Bankman-Fried is no longer in control and doesn't speak for FTX. He says that Bankman-Fried is currently in the Bahamas (naturally), and "continues to make erratic and misleading public statements." Ray says Bankman-Fried's "connections and financial holdings in the Bahamas remain unclear to me", and that the former CEO "recently stated to a reporter on Twitter: 'F*** regulators they make everything worse' and suggested the next step for him was to 'win a jurisdictional battle vs. Delaware'." Which of course is exactly the kind of thing a Delaware court wants to hear. The collapse of FTX is another low point in what has been a terrible year for crypto, and cynics may well be wondering what's next. One of the things about these assets is how interconnected they all are, and the domino effect of FTX is still playing out. FTX is expected to have more than a million creditors (good luck to them) and, as well as the bankruptcy process, regulators globally are looking closely at the smoking ruins of what was until recently one of the biggest crypto exchanges on the planet. In case you're wondering, yes: the Bahamas does have an extradition treaty with the United States. https://www.pcgamer.com/never-in-my-career-have-i-seen-such-a-complete-failureman-in-charge-of-ftxs-bankruptcy-bewildered-by-unprecedented-mismanagement/

A panda given to Taiwan by China 14 years ago as a symbol of what were then warmer ties died on Saturday, after suffering seizures, Taipei zoo said. Tuan Tuan and his breeding mate Yuan Yuan were given to Taiwan by Beijing in late 2008, at a time when relations between the two were more cordial. China views Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to one day bring the self-ruled democratic island into its fold, by force if necessary. “Our medical team has confirmed that Tuan Tuan’s heart stopped beating at 13.48 (0548 GMT),” the zoo said in a short statement. The panda was put under deep anaesthesia for CT scans earlier on Saturday, and the team decided to “let Tuan Tuan continue to sleep” after the results indicated his condition was “irreversible” and that he could no longer “live a quality life”, zoo officials said.“It would have been extremely painful and risky for Tuan Tuan to resuscitate him from the anaesthesia,” said spokesperson Eric Tsao. Vets first noticed Tuan Tuan, 18, was ill in August, when he began suffering seizures and appeared increasingly unsteady and lethargic. Scans showed he had a brain lesion and he was placed on anti-seizure medication. The zoo suspected Tuan Tuan had a tumour and he was moved into palliative care last month. The seizures returned in the past few days, more frequent than before, and medicine could not ease the symptoms. Fans mourned Tuan Tuan’s death on social media, while the Taipei mayor, Ko Wen-je, thanked the panda in an Instagram post for “bringing happiness to Taiwanese people and making Taipei zoo more wonderful”. Taiwan’s top China policymaking body, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), hailed the panda’s role in improving ties with Beijing. Tuan Tuan “let everyone know more about giant pandas and help promote exchanges between the two sides … MAC is saddened that he has passed away”, it said. The panda couple – whose names combined mean “reunion” or “unity” – had become huge stars in Taiwan. Yuan Yuan has given birth to two female cubs. Advertisement China has long deployed “panda diplomacy” and the donation of Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan was seen as endorsing the presidency of then Beijing-friendly leader Ma Ying-jeou. Beijing usually only loans pandas to foreign zoos, which must usually return any offspring within a few years of their birth to join the country’s breeding programme. But Taiwan was granted an exception as part of a brief charm offensive China launched in the late 2000s, with Beijing fully gifting both Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan and any offspring. Relations between China and Taiwan have been on ice since 2016 with Beijing severing official communications and government visits between the two sides scrapped.The world’s oldest male giant panda in captivity has died in a Hong Kong zoo on Thursday. The panda, named An An, was euthanised at the age of 35, the equivalent of 105 years for humans. He was born in the wild in the south-western Chinese province of Sichuan in 1986. Ocean Park Hong Kong, where An An had lived since 1999, said on Thursday that his health had showed steady signs of deterioration over the past few weeks, with his food intake declining, until he finally stopped eating. “Ocean Park is deeply saddened to announce the loss of An An,” Ocean Park said in a statement. “An An is an indispensable member of our family and has grown together with the park. He has also built a strong bond of friendship with locals and tourists alike,” it added. Advertisement Ocean Park shared the news of An An’s death on Facebook and called on the public to send their condolences. Thousands have commented and posted photos. An An and Jia Jia, the world’s oldest female giant panda, who died in 2016 aged 38 years, were gifts from the Chinese mainland. Two more pandas – Ying Ying and Le Le – remain at the same Hong Kong zoo. In China, pandas are a symbol of harmony, friendship and peace. Outside China, they have been used as a part of Beijing’s international diplomacy since the 1950s. For many years, experts had worried that the animal was on the verge of extinction. Last year, Chinese officials said giant pandas were no longer endangered in the wild, but they were still vulnerable with a po[CENSORED]tion outside captivity of 1,800. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/19/beloved-giant-panda-given-to-taiwan-by-china-dies-aged-18-after-seizures-tuan-tuan

Porsche is cashing in on its illustrious rally history with the new 2023 911 Dakar. The latest 911 variant, rolled out this week, honors the German automaker's 1984 Paris–Dakar rally victory with a modified 911 called the 953. That car later morphed into the iconic 959, which triumphed at the 1986 running. While the 2023 911 Dakar won't go into competition like its ancestors, it features a host of meaningful upgrades designed to help it conquer gnarly landscapes, with a 2.0-inch suspension lift, chunky Pirelli Scorpion All-Terrain Plus tires, and stainless steel skid plates. Porsche is only building 2500 examples, and with a starting price of $223,450, the go-anywhere 911 will likely be quickly snapped up by collectors, if it isn't already sold out. Still, Porsche added it to its configurator, allowing us to enter the world of make-believe and design our dream rally 911. Here's what our editors came up with:The first time I saw a safari 911, I was 15 and walking through the pit lane at Road America. I couldn't quite wrap my head around what I was seeing. Is that Porsche lifted? Does it have extra headlights and a roof rack? I knew it was beautiful, and hoped that whoever owned it actually made use of their modifications. I kept that car in mind as I waded through Porsche's intricate configurator for the 911 Dakar. For my paint option, I went for the $12,830 Paint to Sample British Racing Green, complete with color-matched wheels. I spent $660 to get the base of my exterior mirrors paint matched, and a further $370 for the Dakar puddle lamps, as well as $2700 to PPF the entire front end. Since I wasn't digging the Christmas vibe the red brake calipers were giving against the green body, I paid $900 to have them painted black. I added the Surround View cameras, which should be equal parts helpful in tight parking lots as well as navigating off-road. The only options I chose for the interior were the $3980 Burmester sound system so I can blast the Proclaimers in high def, as well as a $180 fire extinguisher for safety. My additional equipment tallied up to $23,050 at the end. Considering the number and price of options available, I'm happy with that. It's just a shame that Porsche doesn't offer a factory-installed roof rack and rally headlamps. If only I had picked better Powerball numbers. . . —Jack FitzgeraldGiven the 911 Dakar's lofty starting price, I knew I had to splurge on Porsche's Paint to Sample program, because what's another $12,830 when you're already spending more than 200 grand? I chose Viola Purple Metallic, along with color-matched wheels and side-view mirrors ($660). The standard red brake calipers clashed with the paint job, so I spent $900 to paint them black and an additional $430 on silver tailpipes. I wrapped the entire front end in protection film ($2700) to avoid paint chips from semi-trucks kicking up pebbles, and the $1430 Surround View camera system was a must for protecting my Dakar from unwanted scrapes. I also dropped $370 on the puddle lights and $1350 on bespoke illuminated aluminum doorsills—I made the driver's-side sill display a 911 silhouette while the passenger's sill says"Porsche," with white backing light—because I love those sorts of silly gizmos. Inside, I swapped out the bucket seats for the 18-way adjustable memory sports seats, because I value comfort and, let's be honest, most of the car's life will be spend tootling around the suburbs running errands. I threw in heated seats and a heated steering wheel, no-cost options, to help me survive the frigid Michigan winters. I also spent $1120 on the Porsche Design Subsecond clock, an analog piece mounted in the dashboard, since, well, it looks super cool. Then, to add some flavor to the interior I specced the tachometer in white ($420) and got the center console lid embossed with the Porsche crest ($340). I also had the air vents outfitted in silver-painted leather ($1800) along with the door panels ($1910) and the sun visors (somehow a no-cost option) so that everything I touch feels soft and supple. Since I hadn't gone for any carbon-fiber accents on the outside, I had the interior dashboard trim replaced with matte carbon fiber ($390) and added the $3980 Burmester surround sound system. All told, $30,630 worth of options took my 911 Dakar to a grand total of $254,080—not as egregiously expensive as I expected but still is an appropriately absurd amount of money for this special 911. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a42007958/2023-porsche-911-dakar-build-spec-price/

Born in Surrey in 1987, actor Tom Felton is best known for his role as peroxide-blond baddie Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. Before scoring his major role in the fantasy franchise at the age of 12, he appeared in The Borrowers and Anna and the King. He went on to star in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, has released five EPs and most recently appeared on stage in 2:22: A Ghost Story. His memoir, Beyond the Wand, is out now. This is me, eight years old and in Malaysia shooting my second film, Anna and the King. As the only English-speaking kid on set, I would have been bored, which is why my mum, who was my chaperone, bought me the book The Art of Getting Even. I have three older brothers, so this was research for when I got back home. Not that I would have put any of it into practice, but you can see from the smirk on my face I enjoyed thinking about it. Jodie Foster was playing my mum. Instead of being familiar with her oeuvre – I’d watched Terminator 2 by the time I was five, but Mum drew the line at The Silence of the Lambs – I was just a fan of Jodie as a person. Not only for her acting, but her patience while working with so many animals and children. Growing up, I was the runt of the pack – or “maggot”, as my brothers affectionately called me. Mixing with older people made me confident, but I was still pretty naive and extremely cheeky, which is quite cute for a while but can turn into arrogance as you get older. Nevertheless, it came in handy when I went to my first audition for Potter. In the queue, I was bored. It was very different from the auditions I’d done before – which had been: get in and get out. This was an entire nation of kids who were major fans of the book wanting to have a go. Hundreds of us were lined up and asked about the part of the book we were most excited about seeing in the film. Every one of them had an excited answer, such as “Quidditch!”, while I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, as I hadn’t read the book. What was Hogwarts? I decided to steal the line from the kid next to me – quite poorly, apparently, because the director looked at me like: “Uh-huh, you wanna see Gringotts the most? A bank?” Still, that cockiness might have helped me get the part of Draco.While I initially auditioned for the role of Potter, Draco is the best role I could have got, because he’s a slimy git and so vastly different from who I am. He’s an only child with a huge sense of entitlement and crap parents. While we never went without, we certainly weren’t rich. My mum was very supportive of whatever my latest fad was: if I wanted to be a football player for United, then she’d get me the kit, then she’d get me a new kit when I changed to Chelsea the year after. I wanted to be a yo-yo master and a violinist and an ice-hockey player; my mum worked a third job so I could do all of that. When I moved on to the next thing – which was acting – she wouldn’t berate me, she’d just ask what I needed. I never felt as if I had any underlying talent, but within a few weeks of getting an agent my life had changed for ever. I did an advert and The Borrowers film came a few weeks after that and then Potter. My school experience was pretty poor as a result. I was used to having a whole class to disrupt, and I hated that I couldn’t be the class clown as it was just me and one tutor doing school work in my breaks on set. When I did go back to normal school, I’d get teased for my bleach-blond hair, but I also got to see my best friends. I got straight Cs in my GCSEs, which I attributed to working too hard on the films. When I found out Daniel [Radcliffe] and Emma [Watson] got nine A*s I thought, you bastards! https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/nov/19/tom-felton-harry-potter-draco-malfoy-looks-back

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reaffirmed NATO’s commitment to Ukraine and warned about the potential for nuclear proliferation. “Russia’s invasion offers a preview of a possible world of tyranny and turmoil that none of us want to live in, and it’s an invitation to an increasingly insecure haunted by the shadow of nuclear proliferation. Because Putin’s fellow autocrats are watching. And they could well conclude that getting nuclear weapons would give them a hunting license of their own. And that could drive a dangerous spiral of nuclear proliferation,” he said during remarks in Halifax, Canada. When speaking about Russia’s “deliberate cruelty” in attacking civilian infrastructure, Austin said, “There are still rules in war. And if a big power can flaunt those rules, it encourages others to defy international law and international norms.” “Russia isn’t just waging a war of aggression. It’s also deliberately attacking civilian targets and civilian infrastructure with no military purpose whatsoever. Now, these aren’t just lapses. These aren’t exceptions to the rules. These are atrocities,” he said. “The tragic and troubling explosion in Poland this week reminded the whole world of the recklessness of Putin’s war of choice," he added, referring to a missile that fell in Poland near the Ukraine border, killing two people. Some background: While NATO, the US and Poland said the missile was most likely fired by Ukrainian forces defending their country against a barrage of Russian strikes, officials have said Russia bears ultimate responsibility due to Moscow's continued attacks on Ukraine.UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a $60 million air defense package for Ukraine during his first visit to Kyiv on Saturday, according to Downing Street. During his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sunak "confirmed that the UK will provide a major new package of air defense to help protect Ukrainian civilians and critical national infrastructure from an intense barrage of Russian strikes," according to a Downing Street press release. "The £50 million package of defense aid comprises 125 anti-aircraft guns and technology to counter deadly Iranian-supplied drones, including dozens of radars and anti-drone electronic warfare capability," the statement continued. During his surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital, Sunak laid flowers at a memorial for Ukraine's war dead and lit a candle at a memorial for victims of the 1930s Holodomor famine, according to the statement. The prime minister also met with Ukrainian first responders who recounted their "harrowing work" rescuing survivors from the rubble and fighting fires caused by Russian airstrikes and mortar attacks. "It is deeply humbling to be in Kyiv today and to have the opportunity to meet those who are doing so much, and paying so high a price, to defend the principles of sovereignty and democracy,” Sunak said, according to the statement. He expressed his pride that the UK has "stood with Ukraine from the very beginning," saying his visit signified the UK's commitment to "continue to stand with Ukraine, as it fights to end this barbarous war and deliver a just peace." In addition to the air defense package, Sunak also committed $14 million (12 million pounds) in funding for the World Food Programme's Ukraine response as well as $5 million (4 million pounds) for the International Organization for Migration's Ukraine response. Correction: This post has been updated to correct the amount of the air defense package. It is worth $60 million. https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-11-19-22/index.html

It's a longstanding mystery: how Mars lost the water that flowed across its surface billions of years ago. Scientists now think they have an answer: much of it became trapped in the planet's outer layer - its crust. The ancient water exists in the form of minerals contained within Martian rocks. The findings have been discussed at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference and are published in Science journal. The study used measurements gathered from Mars-orbiting spacecraft, rovers and meteorites. Researchers then developed a computer simulation of how water was lost from the planet over time. More than four billion years ago, Mars was warmer and wetter - possibly with a thicker atmosphere. Water coursed through rivers, cutting channels in the rock, and pooled in impact craters. Nasa shows dramatic video of Mars rover's landing Key questions about Perseverance Mars rover Buried lakes of water discovered on Mars The Red Planet could have held enough water to cover its entire surface in a layer measuring between 100m and one kilometre deep. Around a billion years later, Mars had made the transition to the colder, desolate planet we recognise today. "We have known for a long time that Mars was much wetter in its early history. But, the exact fate of that water has been an ongoing problem," said planetary scientist Dr Peter Grindrod, who was not involved with the latest study. Dr Grindrod, from London's Natural History Museum, told BBC News: "We already know from studies of the atmosphere of Mars that some of that water was lost to space, and ice deposits on and just below the surface tell us that some water became frozen." Escape to space Earth has a magnetic shield, or magnetosphere, that helps prevent the atmosphere from escaping. But Mars' magnetic shield is weak and could have allowed elemental components of water to escape from the planet. But the rate at which hydrogen - one chemical constituent of water - escapes from that atmosphere today suggests this can't be the whole story. If it's assumed that the current loss rate for hydrogen was the same in the past, "it's a pretty small amount of water that you would have lost through this escape process", said co-author Eva Linghan Scheller, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. In other words, most of the water must have gone elsewhere.The results of the team's computer modelling work show that between 30% and 99% of Mars' initial water was incorporated into minerals and buried in the planet's crust. Co-author Prof Bethany Ehlmann, also from from Caltech, explained that, "by studying data from Mars missions, It became clear that it was common - and not rare - to find evidence of water alteration". She continued: "When the crust becomes altered, it takes water - like liquid water - and sequesters it in a hydrated mineral that has water in its structure so that it is effectively trapped." The authors suggest that most of the water was lost between about 4.1 and 3.7 billion years ago - during a stretch of Martian history known as the Noachian Period. Martian climate change Dr Michael Meyer, lead scientist for Nasa's Mars exploration program, said: "The original overarching role of Mars exploration has been to follow the water, since it plays such a central role in the geology, climate and life of the planet. "This is a very important paper to understand how much water was on Mars, how it might have been lost and where it might be today." Dr Grindrod added: "What this new study tells us is that a lot of that water, possibly the majority, could have actually been locked into the rocks on Mars. This process of hydration is capable of storing large volumes of water, up to an amount equivalent to a global layer a kilometre deep." "Although most of the liquid water had probably disappeared after about one and a half billion years after Mars formed, we see evidence of hydrated minerals at the surface today, in areas like Jezero Crater, which is currently being explored by the Perseverance rover. "The early climate of Mars remains one of the most important topics in planetary science, and this study will help our understanding of the processes responsible for water loss." https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56400227

A former evangelical activist claimed in a letter to the Chief Justice of the United States that he knew about the outcome of a 2014 Supreme Court decision involving contraception and the Affordable Care Act by the court prior to the formal announcement, according to The New York Times. Rev. Rob Schenck wrote in the letter this summer to Chief Justice John Roberts, which was originally obtained by the Times, that he was informed by a wealthy political donor, Gayle Wright, about the verdict of the ruling prior to it coming out. According to the letter dated in June of this year but not sent until the following month, Wright had dinner with Justice Samuel Alito and his wife and spoke of the upcoming ruling at the time. “She suggested that in their table conversation, she might be able to learn the status of the case, something she knew I had an interest in knowing. I received a follow-up message from her notifying me she has indeed obtained the information during that visit. We spoke on the phone, and she detailed the revelation,” Schenck wrote, according to the Times. A source close to Schenk confirmed the letter to CNN. “Mr. Schenck confirms the extensive details and facts he provided regarding these events.” the source told CNN.The 2014 ruling involved the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. A 5-4 court held that closely held family-owned corporations like Hobby Lobby could not be required to pay insurance coverage for certain types of contraception under the Affordable Care Act without violating a federal law aimed at protecting religious freedom. Alito authored the opinion. Alito, in a statement provided to CNN by the Supreme Court on Saturday, called the allegations concerning the dinner conversation “completely false.” “My wife and I became acquainted with the Wrights some years ago because of their strong support for the Supreme Court Historical Society, and since then, we have had a casual and purely social relationship. I never detected any effort on the part of the Wrights to obtain confidential information or to influence anything that I did in either an official or private capacity, and I would have strongly objected if they had done so,” Alito said. Wright vehemently denied Schenck’s claims in an interview with CNN on Saturday.“This whole thing is unbelievably misconstrued,” she said, adding that Alito would never have discussed a specific case and she would never have asked about one. “Cases are never discussed, everybody knows that,” she said. Wright confirmed to CNN the she and her husband had dined with the Alitos at their home and she remembered falling ill during the dinner and Alito offering to drive her home. It was the only time she had dined at the justice’s home, but she said she has seen him occasionally over the years. She called any allegation that they had discussed the outcome of a case “patently not true.” A source told CNN on Saturday that Schenk never heard back from the court about his letter.Schenck said in the letter that he was sharing the information now to assist in the ongoing investigation into the leaked draft of the opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade. The Times report said that “Mr. Schenck’s account of the breach has gaps” but that a series of emails and conversations imply he knew the outcome of the case ahead of the public ruling. “Considering there may be a severe penalty to be paid by whoever is responsible for the initial leak or the recent draft opinion, I thought this previous incident might bear some consideration,” he wrote. The draft opinion in this year’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case was written by Alito and appeared to have a five-justice majority to reverse the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Politico obtained and reported on the draft opinion in early May, and the leak that rocked the court was the cause for protests around the nation. The official Dobbs ruling overturning Roe came out in late June. The unprecedented investigation into the breach of confidentiality at the nation’s highest court prompted sudden requests for private cell data from law clerks but there has been a lack of transparency about where things currently stand, and the possibility of a previous leak could be damaging to the court for which public trust is already at a record low. Brian Fallon, the executive director of the liberal group Demand Justice, called Saturday for the Senate Judiciary Committee “to investigate the apparent leak.” “The whistleblower in this report, Rev. Rob Schenck, should be called to testify about both the leak and the yearslong lobbying effort he once led to cultivate Alito and other Republican justices,” Fallon said in a statement. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/19/politics/2014-supreme-court-decision-leak-hobby-lobby-samuel-alito/index.html

Nick Movie: The Recruit Time: / Netflix / Amazon / HBO?: Netflix Duration of the movie: / Trailer: