All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Good People Doing Good Things — Maggie MacDonnell

Filosofa's Word

I first wrote about Maggie MacDonnell in August 2017, long before many of you had ever heard of Filosofa’s Word, but she was one of my readers’ favourite good people that year and her story still resonates, is well worth highlighting a second time!

Today’s good person is a teacher … the winner of this year’s Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize of $1 million.  I did not know there was such a prize, did you?  Well, allow me to introduce this year’s most-deserving winner, Ms. Maggie MacDonnell!

Imagine, if you will, that you have just earned your college degree and are now a certified teacher.  The world is your oyster; you can teach anywhere in the world.  Where would you go?  I am betting not too many would choose a town of only 1,347 people, accessible only by air, in the Canadian Arctic, but that is exactly where Maggie MacDonnell…

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Masks mandate staying for Chicago Public Schools – Chicago Tribune

“Yesterday, the Chicago Department of Public Health eliminated the mask mandate for the city of Chicago, effective Feb. 28. It’s great to see the metrics are going in the right direction,” he said. “However, on behalf of the board, I want to reiterate our commitment to masking at this time. While CPS’ numbers are also improving, we know our student vaccination rate is significantly below that of the city and varies greatly by community. So for the time being, we will continue to require masks of all students and employees.” Though del Valle didn’t mention it, universal masking is also a provision in CPS’ COVID-19 safety agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union. That was forged at the end of a January work stoppage that led to five days of canceled classes, and runs through August.

Source: Masks mandate staying for Chicago Public Schools – Chicago Tribune

COVID digest: South Korea cases hit new record, PM calls for calm | News | DW | 23.02.2022

South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum has urged calm amid a massive increase in coronavirus cases as new daily infections in the country crossed 170,000 for the first time.

“Although our awareness and implementation of anti-COVID rules should not be loosened, there is no reason at all to fear or panic about the numbers of new cases as in the past,” the prime minister said at a pandemic response meeting on Wednesday.

South Korea saw a record 171,452 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday compared to 99,573 infections the day before, data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency showed.

However, serious infections and deaths remain at manageable levels despite the record spike fueled by the omicron variant.

Meanwhile, the country has greenlighted the use of BioNTech-Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11, South Korea’s Ministry for Food and Drug Safety said in a statement on Wednesday.

Children are advised to get one-third of the regular dose, twice with a three-week interval, the ministry said.

Source: COVID digest: South Korea cases hit new record, PM calls for calm | News | DW | 23.02.2022

Quem é o amigo surpresa do menino Yanomami na selva? – Às vezes perdemos os melhores momentos – NÃO PERCA ESSE!

Crianças Yanomami olhando para o livro «La Magia de la Amazonia» Meu filme de 38 segundos com Namowë, um menino Yanomami da região do Alto Orinoco, …

Quem é o amigo surpresa do menino Yanomami na selva? – Às vezes perdemos os melhores momentos – NÃO PERCA ESSE!

Boris Johnson Refuses to Extend Russian Money ‘Clampdown’ to Conservative Donors – Byline Times

Johnson’s own ties to Russian money have also come under scrutiny. He has long had a close relationship with the newspaper mogul Evgeny Lebedev, who is the son of the Russian oligarch and former KGB agent, Alexander Lebedev.

Johnson was repeatedly hosted by Evgeny Lebedev at his Italian villa, while he was Mayor of London, for what his spokesman described as “purely personal” trips. As Byline Times has previously documented, Italian newspaper reports suggested that Johnson shook off his accompanying police protection officers in order to attend what were described as “X-rated” parties at the villa.

Following this hospitality from Lebedev, whose newspaper the Evening Standard, supported his re-election as London Mayor, Johnson then overruled advice from the House of Lords Appointments Commission in order to hand him a peerage.

Lebedev has since failed to take part in a single vote in the House of Lords, Insider’s Cat Neilan reported on Tuesday.

Johnson’s new-found commitment to revealing the influence of Russian money in the UK was also missing when he decided to block the publication of a report on Russian interference in the UK.

The Prime Minister repeatedly refused to allow publication of the report by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee in the run-up to the 2019 General Election. The Times quoted sources suggesting that his resistance was due to “embarrassing” links the committee had discovered between Conservative Party donors and the Kremlin.

Source: Boris Johnson Refuses to Extend Russian Money ‘Clampdown’ to Conservative Donors – Byline Times