Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Streetart – The Zookeeper + Drapl @ Cobar, Australia

Location: Cobar, Australia Artists: Joel Fergie aka The Zookeeper + Drapl Year: 2024 Photo Credits: The Zookeeper “Last month Drapl and I stayed on …

Streetart – The Zookeeper + Drapl @ Cobar, Australia

Think Tories are Islamophobic? You don’t know the half of it – we have the figures | Nick Lowles | The Guardian

…A clear majority of 521 Conservative party members (58%) surveyed by Opinium think Islam is a threat to the British way of life, while only 18% believe the two are compatible. Over half think it’s true that “Parts of many European cities are under the control of Sharia Law and are ‘no-go’ zones for non-Muslims”, with only a fifth thinking that statement is false. Twice as many party members have a negative view of Muslims as those who have a positive view.

These statistics are depressing but sadly unsurprising…

Source: Think Tories are Islamophobic? You don’t know the half of it – we have the figures | Nick Lowles | The Guardian

Pitting the border against aid for Ukraine is a fool’s choice – UPI.com

The oath of office for Congress shows why this political standoff is based on a fool’s choice. Specifically members “solemnly swear (or affirm) …to… support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” While no priorities are set between foreign and domestic, it was no accident which came first.

The border will not be “fixed” in the short term, no matter the legislation. The last major immigration reform was made in 1986. And dealing with the many millions of migrants in the United States, legally or not, and so-called “sanctuary cities,” where crowding due to migrants has reached crisis proportion, must take time.

About Ukraine, the return to isolationism, reminiscent of the 1930s, has broken out within the Trump-dominated Republican Party. The quaint and misguided thinking is that Europe should be able to defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Despite the European Union and NATO, there is no “Europe.” The presence of the United States has indeed given “Europe” a leader about which to band…

Source: Pitting the border against aid for Ukraine is a fool’s choice – UPI.com

The Haudenosaunee Nationals’ quest to play under their own flag at the Olympics | Olympic Games | The Guardian

Joe Biden has backed a Native American lacrosse team’s bid to compete at the Los Angeles Games in 2028. But IOC rules stand in their way

Lacrosse is returning to the Olympics in 2028, and the Haudenosaunee Nationals have no intention of watching from the sidelines. The team represents the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the sport’s birthplace, which straddles the US-Canadian border and is made up of the Mohawk, Oneida, Tuscarora, Seneca, Onondaga and Cayuga people. The Haudenosaunee Nationals’ Olympic campaign in 2028 wouldn’t be a first. In 1904 a team of Mohawk players took part in the St Louis Olympics, but they were officially representing Canada. Now these longtime contenders on the international scene seek to make history and play under their own flag at Los Angeles 2028, making them the first North American Indigenous nation to do so.

“[Lacrosse] is part of our existence,” says Leo Nolan, executive director of the Nationals. “It’s us, so it’s as important as anything else in our lifestyle, who we are. It’s about who we are, so it’s absolutely important for us to contribute this game to the rest of the world.”

Source: The Haudenosaunee Nationals’ quest to play under their own flag at the Olympics | Olympic Games | The Guardian

Editorial: Florida shows how to bungle a measles outbreak – Los Angeles Times

As life-saving as the COVID-19 vaccines have been, the measles vaccine has been an even greater success story. Before the vaccine was developed in 1963, outbreaks that occurred every two to three years were killing 2.6 million people worldwide a year, most of them children. Others developed pneumonia, or suffered brain injury and deafness from measles-associated encephalitis.

It’s an incredibly contagious airborne disease. Put a person with measles in a room with 100 other people and 90 of them will be infected. But the vaccine is even more effective than the disease is transmissible. If all 100 people in that room were vaccinated, only four would be infected…So it’s especially disheartening to observe the new measles cases in Florida — eight and growing at last count. It’s not the biggest measles outbreak in recent years, but the ho-hum attitude of the state’s top public health official, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, is deeply troubling.

Source: Editorial: Florida shows how to bungle a measles outbreak – Los Angeles Times