To raise awareness of climate change, Brazilian street artist Mundano painted a giant mural in Sao Paulo using ashes collected from the scorched Amazon rainforest.
The giant 1,000-square meter fresco titled “The Forest Firefighter” – featuring a heroic figure who is helpless in the face of a raging fire – will be inaugurated on Tuesday.
“The idea came from impotence. We’ve been seeing for decades how the jungle has been burnt, and in the last few years that has reached record levels,” Mundano, who goes by one name and calls himself an “artivist,” told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Mundano, 36, collected 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of ashes from different areas affected by fires to create the mural on a building close to Avenida Paulista, the main avenue running through Brazil’s largest city.
The ashes came from the Amazon jungle, the Pantanal wetlands, the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado savannah.
“No one sees the fires, they’re very far away in the Amazon. The idea is to bring the ashes here to the people to create greater empathy,” said Mundano.
In June and July, Mundano felt the heat of the fires firsthand when he went to collect the ashes.
But what also caught his attention was the distress of the firefighters trying to extinguish the flames that do so much damage to Brazil’s flora and fauna.
Symbolizing the fauna in the mural is a crocodile skeleton painted next to the heroic firefighter.
The entire fresco is made in various shades of black and grey depending on how much water Mundano mixed in with the ashes.
The black and white artwork contrasts sharply with the colorful graffiti that adorns many buildings in Sao Paulo.
“We live in a city that is grey, or asphalt and grey. The pavement is grey, there’s pollution … and we’re becoming grey too.”
‘Negligent’
A graffiti artist during his teenage years, Mundano made a name for himself in 2012 by decorating the carts of the city’s recyclable materials collectors with bright colors and signs that read “My vehicle doesn’t pollute.”
In 2020, Mundano painted another giant mural using toxic mud from the Brumadinho dam that collapsed in 2019 leaving 270 people dead.
His current mural is a statement denouncing Brazil’s successive governments that Mundano calls “negligent” and incapable of protecting the environment.
Things only got worse under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
Since he took office in 2019, an average of 10,000 square kilometers (3861 square miles) of Amazon forest has been destroyed per year, compared to 6,500 square kilometers over the previous decade.
The fires that follow deforestation to prepare the land for agriculture and livestock farming have also reached alarming levels.
“The current government is promoting the dismantling of the environment and trampling on the basic rights of vulnerable populations” such as indigenous people, said Mundano.
His mural is based on a famous painting by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari titled “The Coffee Farmer.”
Like the 1934 painting, Mundano’s fresco shows a Black man with his face turned to the side and vegetation in the background.
Mundano used a real person to model for his painting, a volunteer fire fighter named Vinicius Curva de Vento, whom the artist saw battle the flames.
But while Portinari’s farmer wields a spade to dig the ground, the forest firefighter uses his shovel to smother the flames.
And the luxurious vegetation in Portinari’s painting contrasts with the mural’s scorched landscape that includes trucks piled high with felled tree trunks.
Subscribe to our channel! rupt.ly/subscribe The artist Mundano had created a mural from the ashes of burnt trees in the Amazon rainforest on a house facade in Sao Paulo, as seen on Saturday. The 1,000-square-metre (10,000 sq ft) mural showed a firefighter standing amidst deforestation, fires and dead animals, symbolising the more than 28,060 fires in the Amazon region. Mundano said he had travelled more than 10,000 kilometres through Brazil between June and July to collect ash from the Amazon rainforest, the Pantanal, the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest. #Mundano#SaoPaulo#Brazil Video ID: 20211016-035 Video on Demand: https://ruptly.tv/videos/20211016-035 Contact: cd@ruptly.tv Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ruptly Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruptly
PBS NewsHour Weekend Full Episode October 24, 2021
On this edition for Sunday, October 24 possible,signs of progress for smaller ‘Build Back Better’ bills stalled in Congress, putting the organizers of the deadly 2017 Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ rally on trial, and meet your new self – holograms are adding a new dimension to our online world. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
YouTube Originals presents the TED Countdown Global Livestream, an empowering event laying out a credible and realistic pathway to a net-zero future. Watch now and take action on climate change.
Biodiversity is the key to life on Earth and reviving our damaged planet, says ecologist Thomas Crowther. Sharing the inside story of his headline-making research on reforestation, which led to the UN’s viral Trillion Trees Campaign, Crowther introduces Restor: an expansive, informative platform built to enable anyone, anywhere to help restore the biodiversity of Earth’s ecosystems.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
Learn how you can help cut the world’s emissions in half by 2030, in the race to a zero-carbon world.
Today humanity produces more than 1,400 tons of carbon every minute. To combat climate change, we need to reduce fossil fuel emissions, and draw down excess CO2 to restore the balance of greenhouse gases. Like all plants, trees consume atmospheric carbon through photosynthesis. So what can trees do to help in this fight? Jean-François Bastin digs into the efforts to restore depleted ecosystems. [Directed by Lobster Studio, narrated by Addison Anderson, music by Fabrizio Martini].
MEET THE EDUCATOR
Jean-François Bastin · Educator
ABOUT TED-ED
TED-Ed Original lessons feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators.
Become a TED Member
Want to hear more great ideas like this one? Sign up for TED Membership to get exclusive access to captivating conversations, engaging events, and more!
Activism is a tough job, especially for young people yearning for immediate change — something climate activist Melati Wijsen has learned over ten years of pushing for environmental protection, starting at age 12 in her home on the island of Bali, Indonesia. How can young changemakers acquire the skills they need and keep from burning out? Wijsen offers three pieces of advice for anybody seeking to make lasting, sustainable progress.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
On this edition for Saturday, October 30, President Biden and other world leaders take on tax havens at the G20 summit, Facebook, Inc. changes its name to ‘Meta,’ as revelations from leaked internal documents continue, how flooding from climate change is putting critical infrastructure at risk, and how guaranteed income is changing many lives in Gary, Indiana. Hari Sreenivasan anchors. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
Climate change experts in Sicily, Italy are warning that rising sea waters are threatening some of the island’s most crucial heavy industrial plants. They are also forecasting food shortages because crops are being destroyed. The island endured record temperatures this summer. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Sicily for NewsHour’s climate change series. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
Alec Baldwin speaks out after ‘Rust’ movie set tragedy, Pfizer begins shipping vaccines for children aged 5-11, and deadline passes for New York City employees to get Covid vaccine. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC#NightlyNews#AlecBaldwin#CovidVaccine
FDA authorizes Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11, President Biden meets with Pope Francis ahead of G-20 summit, and the armorer speaks out after the fatal shooting on ‘Rust’ movie set. 00:00 Intro 01:23 FDA authorizes vaccines for kids 5-11 04:36 Covid vaccine mandate showdowns 06:55 Biden meets with Pope Francis 09:36 Cuomo investigation latest 10:28 Armorer speaks out on ‘Rust’ movie set 12:13 Queen Elizabeth’s health concerns 12:38 Rising lumber costs adding home renovation delays 14:27 Day of the Dead tradition 16:15 Runner set to make history on 50th anniversary of New York City Marathon » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews
Remembering former Secretary of State Colin Powell, FBI and State Dept. team in Haiti after 17 missionaries kidnapped, conflict over Covid vaccine mandates in Chicago and beyond. 00:00 Intro 02:15 Remembering Colin Powell 05:17 Americans Kidnapped In Haiti 07:53 Vaccine Mandate Showdown 11:00 Ahmaud Arbery Murder Trial 12:46 Former Miami Police Chief Speaks Out 14:51 School Lunch Shortages 16:36 China’s Major Global Infrastructure Push » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC#NBCNews#ColinPowell#VaccineMandates
The New York Times<nytdirect@nytimes.com>
October 19, 2021
Good morning. Colin Powell’s death highlights the continuing Covid risks to older Americans with medical conditions.
Colin Powell in 2002, when he was secretary of state. Brooks Kraft/Corbis, via Getty Images
The threat, in perspective
Colin Powell’s death at 84 underscores the continuing risk that Covid-19 presents to older people — even if they are fully vaccinated, as Powell was.
For vaccinated Americans in their 70s and 80s, Covid remains more dangerous on average than many other everyday risks, including falls, choking, gunshot wounds or vehicle accidents:
Covid data is an annualized rate from the week of Aug. 29 to Sept. 4, and is a sample from 16 U.S. jurisdictions. Data for other causes is from 2019.Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The numbers in this chart are averages, of course, covering a wide range of situations. They encompass both healthy older people and those with compromised immune systems (as was the case with Powell, who had multiple
myeloma and Parkinson’s disease). At every age, Covid presents considerably more danger to people with serious underlying medical conditions.
“Vaccines turn Covid into a mild disease,” Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, wrote yesterday. But mild infections can “kill vulnerable people,” he explained.
For older people with a medical condition, the vaccines both sharply reduce the dangers of Covid and still leave Covid as a meaningful threat, one that arguably justifies a different approach to day-to-day life. Spending time indoors with an unmasked, untested grandchild or eating a meal inside a restaurant may not be worth the risk, at least until case counts have fallen to low levels.
For older people who are healthy, the risks may be more tolerable. Covid is probably not vastly more dangerous than other activities that people do without thinking — like driving a vehicle or climbing a flight of stairs — but it is not zero risk, either.
“Getting vaccinated doesn’t deliver you into an entirely new category of pandemic safety — safer and more protected than anyone who hasn’t gotten vaccinated — but simply pushes you down the slope of mortality risk by the equivalent of a few decades,” David Wallace-Wells has written in New York Magazine.
As a country, what can we do to protect older people from Covid? The data points to at least three good answers.
1. Reduce caseloads
The main reason that Covid deaths surged in the U.S. recently is that cases surged. If cases return to their low levels of the spring and early summer, deaths among older adults will probably plummet as well. In June, only about one-tenth as many Americans over 65 were dying from Covid as in August, according to the C.D.C.
Chart shows data from a sample of 16 U.S. jurisdictions. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The most effective way to reduce caseloads is to continue raising the country’s vaccination rate, through workplace mandates and other measures. Vaccinating children under 12 can also save the lives of older people.
Cases in the U.S. have already fallen 50 percent since Sept 1. If the declines continue — and can be maintained — the risks for older Americans will be much more manageable than they were in the late summer.
2. Give booster shots
Scientists are still trying to figure out how quickly vaccine immunity wanes. But the bulk of the evidence suggests that it does wane at least somewhat in the first year after vaccination, which creates additional risks for older people. Among that evidence: Covid case counts are higher in Britain, where vaccinations tended to happen earlier, than in other parts of Europe, as John Burn-Murdoch of The Financial Times has noted.
Waning immunity, in turn, suggests that booster shots can protect vulnerable people.
In the U.S., the federal government has not yet authorized booster shots for any recipients of the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, although a scientific advisory panel has recommended them for people who are 65 and older, among others. Pfizer vaccine recipients 65 and older are already eligible for a booster once they are at least six months removed from their second shot.
Powell was set to receive a booster shot last week but had to postpone it when he became sick, a spokeswoman said.
3. Expand rapid testing
If rapid Covid tests were widely available, as they have been in much of Western Europe, they could help protect the elderly.
In a previous newsletter, I mentioned a woman in Germany who greeted visitors with a stash of rapid tests — allowing her husband, who has Parkinson’s disease, to stay safe and still have a social life. Imagine if American families could do the same. Grandma and grandpa are coming over for Sunday dinner? Everybody else takes a rapid test before they arrive.
The Biden administration has promised to make rapid tests widely available this fall. For now, they are still difficult to find, largely because the F.D.A. has been slow to approve them.
For most Americans, vaccination makes the risk of a serious form of Covid extremely rare. And for children, Covid tends to be mild even without vaccination. But until caseloads decline more, the situation remains frightening for many older people.
Colin Powell with Ronald Reagan in 1988. Barry Thumma/Associated Press
More on Powell’s life
Powell was a child of New York City (as he discussed in a PBS interview). He was born in Harlem, raised in the Bronx and graduated from City College.
After serving in the Vietnam War, he rose through the military and became the first Black national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state.
Heading into the 1996 presidential campaign, Powell was among the country’s most popular figures, but he chose not run (as Bob Woodward detailed at the time; Woodward also conducted Powell’s final interview).
In the prelude to war in 2003, Powell accused Iraq — falsely, it later became clear — of having weapons of mass destruction. He would describe it as a blot on his record. (Our colleague Robert Draper has told the back story.)
Powell, once a Republican, lamented the party’s move to the right, endorsing Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
Colin Luther Powell (/?ko?l?n/; born April 5, 1937) is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. About the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034… He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under U.S. President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, the first African American to serve in that position. During his military career, Powell also served as National Security Advisor (1987–1989), as Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989) and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993), holding the latter position during the Persian Gulf War. He was the first, and so far the only, African American to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was the first of two consecutive African American office-holders to hold the key Administration position of U.S. Secretary of State. Powell was born on April 5, 1937,[6] in Harlem, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, to Jamaican immigrant parents Maud Arial (née McKoy) and Luther Theophilus Powell. He also has Scottish ancestry.[7][8] Powell was raised in the South Bronx and attended Morris High School, a former public school in the Bronx, from which he graduated in 1954. While at school, he worked at a local baby furniture store where he picked up Yiddish from the shopkeepers and some of the customers.[9] He received his BS degree in geology from the City College of New York in 1958 and was a self-admitted C average student. He was later able to earn a MBA degree from the George Washington University in 1971, after his second tour in Vietnam. Powell married Alma Johnson on August 25, 1962. Their son, Michael Powell, was the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2001 to 2005. His daughters are Linda Powell, an actress, and Annemarie Powell. As a hobby, Powell restores old Volvo and Saab cars.[90][91] In 2013, he faced questions about a relationship with a Romanian diplomat, after a hacked AOL email account had been made public. He acknowledged a “very personal” email relationship but denied further involvement. Powell’s experience in military matters made him a very popular figure with both American political parties. Many Democrats admired his moderate stance on military matters, while many Republicans saw him as a great asset associated with the successes of past Republican administrations. Put forth as a potential Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in the 1992 U.S. presidential election[32] or even potentially replacing Vice President Dan Quayle as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee,[33] Powell eventually declared himself a Republican and began to campaign for Republican candidates in 1995.[34] He was touted as a possible opponent of Bill Clinton in the 1996 U.S. presidential election, possibly capitalizing on a split conservative vote in Iowa[35] and even leading New Hampshire polls for the GOP nomination,[36] but Powell declined, citing a lack of passion for politics.[37] Powell defeated Clinton 50-38 in a hypothetical match-up proposed to voters in the exit polls conducted on Election Day.[38] Despite not standing in the race, Powell won the Republican New Hampshire Vice-Presidential primary on write-in votes.[39] In 1997 Powell founded America’s Promise with the objective of helping children from all socioeconomic sectors. That same year saw the establishment of The Colin L. Powell Center for Leadership and Service. The mission of the Center is to “prepare new generations of publicly engaged leaders from populations previously underrepresented in public service and policy circles, to build a strong culture of civic engagement at City College, and to mobilize campus resources to meet pressing community needs and serve the public good.” [40] In the 2000 U.S. presidential election Powell campaigned for Senator John McCain and later Texas Governor George W. Bush after the latter secured the Republican nomination.[citation needed] Bush eventually won, and Powell was appointed Secretary of State. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Po…
General Colin Powell Former U.S. Secretary of State; Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Author, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership In conversation with Dan Ashley, News Anchor, ABC 7 TV; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors Throughout his decades of service to the country, General Powell has kept his private life out of the limelight. Now, in his new book, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, Powell is opening up to reveal the important principles that guided his journey from being the son of Jamaican immigrants to becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first African-American secretary of state. He will reveal the foundations for achievement and leadership that worked for him and can help make others’ dreams come true, too.
For marine biologists and photographers, a nighttime dive into the ocean offers an austere backdrop for capturing the myriad creatures that live below the surface: entirely devoid of light, black water creates a stark visual contrast to the iridescent, translucent, and tentacled organisms that float in the dark expanses, making rare sightings of cusk eels and or billowing blanket octopuses all the more striking. An expedition by Alexander Semenov (previously) near Ponza Island unveiled an array of marine life off the western coast of Italy, framing their unique forms and movements. The footage is part of an ongoing documentary project for Aquatilis, and you
Underwater world of the Mediterranean sea at the night time. Filmed near Ponza Island as part of a documentary project we are currently working on. Music by Cell – Switch Off (feat. Aes Dana) Shot with Panasonic Lumix GH5 & Subal underwater housing
The panel discussed former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s refusal to appear in front of the Jan. 6 committee, expanding political culture wars, and the nation’s economic challenges. Panel: Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC News, Eugene Daniels of POLITICO, Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Stephanie Ruhle NBC News
This week, William Shatner, Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, blasted into space on a Blue Origin rocket. The panel discusses the rise of space tourism and the simultaneous growth of economic inequality. Panel: Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC News, Eugene Daniels of POLITICO, Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Stephanie Ruhle NBC News Watch the latest full show and Extra here: https://pbs.org/washingtonweek Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2ZEPJNs Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/washingtonweek Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonweek
Police departments battle Covid vaccine mandates, Covid booster shot confusion after FDA panel recommendation, and former President Bill Clinton still hospitalized.
FDA panel recommends Johnson & Johnson booster shot, Covid vaccine mandates fueling showdowns nationwide, and former President Bill Clinton hospitalized with infection. 00:00 Intro 01:25 – FDA panel recommends J&J booster shot 04:33 – Covid vaccine mandate showdowns 06:53 – Fmr. President Bill Clinton hospitalized 10:19 – Capitol Police officer indicted 11:07 – U.K. lawmaker killed in knife attack 13:04 – Hollywood workers threaten to strike 15:00 – Toymakers struggle with supply chain shortages 16:56 – Heating costs on the rise this winter 19:01 – China’s historic mission to new space station » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC#NBCNews#NightlyNews#LesterHolt
FDA panel recommends Moderna booster for some Americans, thousands of John Deere workers go on strike, and Southlake teachers told to balance Holocaust books with “opposing” view. 00:00 Intro 02:11 Booster Shots 04:51 Nationwide Strikes 07:38 Alex Murdaugh Arrested 11:23 Michigan Water Emergency 13:22 Southlake Book Controversy 17:06 Early Black Friday 19:05 Inspiring America » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC#NBCNews#BoosterShots#JohnDeere
Meet The Press Broadcast (Full) – October 17th, 2021
Chuck talks with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on the supply chain crisis and Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ar.) on vaccine mandates. Kimberly Atkins Stohr, Garrett Haake, John Podhoretz and Amy Walter join the Meet the Press roundtable. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of politics headlines, as well as commentary and informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, Meet the Press Daily, The Beat with Ari Melber, Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace, The ReidOut, All In, Last Word, 11th Hour, and more. Connect with MSNBC Online Visit msnbc.com: http://on.msnbc.com/Readmsnbc Subscribe to MSNBC Newsletter: http://http://MSNBC.com/NewslettersYo… Find MSNBC on Facebook: http://on.msnbc.com/Likemsnbc Follow MSNBC on Twitter: http://on.msnbc.com/Followmsnbc Follow MSNBC on Instagram: http://on.msnbc.com/Instamsnbc#MeetThePress#ChuckTodd#NBCNews
Meet The Press Broadcast (Full) – October 10th, 2021
Chuck talks with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham about the former president’s final weeks in office. He also sits down with Nick Clegg, Facebook’s VP of Global Affairs, on the reform needed on the platform. Yamiche Alcindor, Donna Edwards and David French join the Meet the Press roundtable. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews
PBS NewsHour presents an in-depth look at how the lack of affordable, quality child care is affecting American families, which has plagued families in the U.S. for more than a century. Now the COVID-19 pandemic is transforming daily life for millions of working parents and pushing the nation’s childcare system to the brink of collapse. Out of that turmoil, a heated debate has emerged over what, if anything, can be done to better meet the needs of parents and preschool age children. In this hour-long documentary, the PBS NewsHour reveals how shifting societal values as well as decades of federal policy have shaped the U.S. child care system into what it is today. It explores the burden costly child care places on low and middle-income families, takes viewers to cities and states experimenting with new ways of providing childcare for working parents, and delves into the political battle brewing over the idea of federally funded, universal childcare. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
The first five years of a child’s life are crucial. If early childhood education is neglected, problems can arise that may never be overcome, leading to consequences for the individual and society as a whole. In the United States, there’s little public investment in early childhood education. Yet research shows that the support and education children receive in their first five years has a decisive influence on the course of their lives. A lack of early childhood education affects not only the child and the adult they become, but also the society in which they live. This documentary looks at the topic from several perspectives, including sociology, history, developmental psychology and neuroscience. But at its core are the personal stories of children and their love of learning, as well as families trying against all odds to give their kids a good start in life. It also spotlights preschool teachers – educators who are hardly recognized by society and whose salaries are barely above the poverty line, but whose work is essential. It’s a film that explores a dramatic problem using plenty of warmth and humor. #documentary#freedocumentary#education ______
Childcare needs a transformation — but rather than investing billions in new buildings and schools, what if we could unlock the potential of people already nearby? Entrepreneur Chris Bennett offers an innovative way to tackle the shortage of childcare worldwide and connect families to safe, affordable and high-quality options in their own communities.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
Could a small jolt of electricity to your gut help treat chronic diseases? Medical hacker and TED Fellow Khalil Ramadi is developing a new, noninvasive therapy that could treat diseases like diabetes, obesity, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s with an electronic pill. More targeted than a traditional pill and less invasive than surgery, these micro-devices contain electronics that deliver “bionudges” — bursts of electrical or chemical stimuli — to the gut, potentially helping control appetite, aid digestion, regulate hormones — and even stimulate happiness in the brain.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
This groundbreaking selection of talks from the TED Fellows are snapshots of influential, new ideas from leading voices in medicine, human rights, conservation, astrophysics, education and beyond. Dive in to discover what (and who) is shaping your future.
In four days, nearly 2 million Snapchat users checked out a new “Run for Office” module aimed at encouraging young candidates, Axios’ Alexi McCammond reports.
· Why it matters: The tech company — which claims to reach over 90% of the nation’s 18- to 34-year-olds — wants to expand the “Snapchat generation” in local and state offices.
The top five issues Snapchatters say they care about: civil rights, education, the environment, health care and jobs.
· A burst of interest came from six of the most populous states: Texas, Florida, Ohio, California, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
How it works: Snap is partnering with 10 candidate recruitment organizations, including ones that focus on helping young progressives, conservatives and immigrants to seek elected office.
· In the opening days, more than 24,000 Snapchat users expressed interest in working with one of those organizations to explore running for local positions, including school board or city council.
· Another 46,000 users nominated a friend to run.
LIVE: Lava still flowing one month after volcano erupted on La Palma Island
Started streaming 10 hours ago, 10.21.2021 Reuters
An erupting volcano on La Palma in the Spanish Canary Islands has forced authorities to evacuate hundreds of homes, as the lava gushes towards the sea. Local officials have warned the lava could trigger chemical reactions when it reaches the sea, causing explosions and the release of toxic gases. The BBC’s Dan Johnson reports on the latest stage of the evacuations from the ground in La Palma. Please subscribe HERE http://bit.ly/1rbfUog#CanaryIslands#LaPalma#BBCNews
More destruction feared in La Palma as lava pours from new volcano vent | DW News
As the eruption approaches two weeks of strong activity, there is no sign of it ending or fading soon. Powerful lava fountains continue from the main vent, and several lava flows are descending the slopes of El Paraiso. With the support of Civil Protection, the video was taken from near the vent area showing the activity as observed during the evening of 2 Oct 2021. Video copyright: Tom Pfeiffer / www.volcanodiscovery.com La Palma updates: https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/la-p…
The streets of cities can be quite boring and dull. That’s why it’s fun to see them being brought to life by amazing and creative street artists. Not all people love graffiti, but it’s difficult to not like these unique and magnificent creations by Pierrot (Scaf).
The artist creates amazing 3D graffiti illusions and they look like they’re about to jump off the wall. If someone didn’t expect to see a dinosaur or a lion around the corner, they would be in for the scare of their life. Pierrot often takes before and after pictures of the places he transforms and it’s amazing to see the transition from a simple wall to a work of art.
Pierrot started his own company where he paints his artwork for people. On his website, Pierrot writes: “Passionate about drawing, I founded my decoration company GrafoDeco. Addressing both individuals and professionals (public or private companies), event organizers, associations, or all those who are anxious to bring a touch of originality to their interior or exterior decorations. I paint all supports (walls, panels, canvases …) and of all sizes.”
Pierrot didn’t study in any art schools or anything similar. He started like most street artists—on the streets. He learned everything he knows on his own or from other artists. In a previous interview, Pierrot mentioned that he was inspired by a school friend to start creating art.
Pierrot doesn’t just do street art, he creates interactive optical illusions and they are very difficult to do. The level at which you have to understand perspective, light, and many other things is insane and requires a lot of experience. This shows perfectly that street art is not always just vandalism, it’s also an amazing and very technical art form.
Pierrot tops off his amazing graffiti by coming up with fun ways to photograph it. He makes his art interactive so that people can take fun and unique photos with all kinds of creatures, characters, and even animals that don’t exist anymore. Pierrot himself dresses and poses with his work, which often is one of the reasons his work goes viral.
We got an interview from Pierrot and asked what the goal of his street art is: “My primary goal is to make people laugh. For people to have fun and escape by looking at my paintings. I have been drawing since I was little, my cousin drew a lot, and I started vandal graffiti in 2001 with a school friend.”
“The hardest part is not repeating myself over time. I always try to create something new. Sometimes animals come back in my paintings, but I’m usually trying to find something that best suits the wall. I need to paint without always doing the same; it’s quite difficult over time.”
We asked Pierrot what topics he chooses for his graffiti: “I don’t have a particular subject or theme in mind. I don’t convey a specific message through my art. I just try to keep it childish and fun.”
“My style is mostly 3D and quite cartoon-like. It depends on the moment. However, the main goal is to make people smile. So that the people who discover my paintings will have a moment of lightness in a world where everything goes so fast and crazy. I watch a lot of cartoons. My goal is also to get away from the problems of everyday life and dream.”
Pierrot tells us how he chooses what to draw: “It also depends on the moment. I watch a movie or a cartoon and an idea comes to me. I also come up with ideas by looking at the wall I’m about to work on. The idea comes to me because the general shape of the wall is different (angles or wall superposition). I try to change the main subject of my art often. I don’t want to get stuck doing the same thing over and over again.”
“I started doing 3D designs 5 or 6 years ago, but I’ve been painting for 20 years. I still hope to paint even being old with a long white beard, young people will call me ‘the old fool of the village.'”
Pierrot shares what inspires him to keep on creating: “My friends and traveling motivate me to always be more detailed and complicated. I challenge myself constantly. I am never very happy with the final result of my paintings, so I always try to do better every time, when possible.”
We asked the artist if people ever get upset at his graffiti: “No, people mostly like it, or just don’t care. I live in a village in the northeast of France. People do not look too much at graffiti and are not always fond of art.”
Here is some advice from the artist for people who want to create art: “Always practice, don’t watch social networks and media, especially at the beginning. Paint, paint, and paint again. Especially for fun, not for the money or to be known. It’s a passion before it becomes a profession.”
Pierrot tells us more about himself: “I paint almost every day. I live very simply. My pleasure above all is to paint, find abandoned places and later find ideas for paintings for them. I do a lot of sports, like breakdance. However, I do less and less because I am getting older, it starts hurting everywhere over time.”
Pierrot has a message for our readers: “Keep your youthful soul alive, don’t be too serious and rigid in life. Remember when you were 10 years old and the world seemed like magic. This is my life philosophy and above all, be curious about everything.”
Fascinated by music, movies and sitcoms, I’m passionate about social media and can’t live without the internet, especially for all the cute dog and cat pictures out there. I wish the day had about 40 hours to be able to do everything I want.
As lockdowns loosen, people start venturing out into the streets. We can once again appreciate fresh air, open spaces, and hopefully, some good graffiti on a wall rather than bad ones. I know for sure that there’s at least one person that tips the balance of good-and-bad graffiti to the better side. He goes by the street name of scaf, or scaf_oner, on Instagram. What’s more, he isn’t a mere vandal: “I love to paint in all of these abandoned places. Above all, I like abandoned houses, manors, castles and factories.” By doing so, he transforms them and adds extra value to them, rather than the opposite.
The French street artist’s trademark is his extremely detailed and realistic style. He portrays all sorts of animals like dinosaurs and snakes, skulls and bones, robots, and other cool stuff. By the time scaf is done, his work looks picture-perfect, as if he glued a print of a photo. Everything is there: details, shadows, highlights, gloss, and flair.
It makes one wonder where he acquired sick skills like that. One would assume that he went to art school, or something similar. It turns out his background is “the school of street,” as he jokingly said in his exclusive interview for Bored Panda. “I did not study art. I started 18 years ago in abandoned factories and the street. It was a school friend who transmitted this passion to me,” he told us.
But wait, there’s more depth to it than that. Literally. His other signature skill is his ability to draw from a perspective to create an in-depth optical illusion where the object seemingly pops out of the wall. I, for one, would die of a heart attack if I saw a dinosaur of his in an abandoned building. His 3D drawings are so lifelike, it makes one forget that dinosaurs went extinct millions of years ago.
The artist even kicks it up an extra notch by striking often-hilarious poses that complement and play along with his drawings, making it real Instalicious eye-candy. It enhances the whole experience even more: it’s one thing to take a picture of your work, and another to have fun while doing it. He even dresses up accordingly for them.
Apart from his insane skills, this too must be the reason why his 120k followers on Instagram aren’t just an optical illusion. If you like them, check out his other works on his social media pages above. And if you go for a walk along the streets, make sure you appreciate all of the good works of art that are out there for everyone to see for free.
The artist has also opened up about what his quarantine experience was like: “Quarantine hasn’t changed my daily life much when I’m in my little town in france. Apart from the many staggered trips, I continued to paint alone in my abandoned factories. And if not I worked some painting on canvas, and I drew a lot. I am in my artistic bubble every day.”
Fascinated by music, movies and sitcoms, I’m passionate about social media and can’t live without the internet, especially for all the cute dog and cat pictures out there. I wish the day had about 40 hours to be able to do everything I want.
What’s Up – October 2021
What are some skywatching highlights in October? See several groupings of the Moon, planets, and stars at sunrise and sunset. Then get to know two bright stars that take turns with Polaris as North Star over thousands of years. Plus, Oct. 16 is International Observe the Moon Night! › Watch now
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASAJPL
4800 Oak Grove Dr
Pasadena, CA 91109
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Cameras Capture Mars Like Never Before
Sep 23, 2021
Using its WATSON camera, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie over a rock nicknamed “Rochette,” on Sept.10, 2021, the 198th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Two holes can be seen where the rover used its robotic arm to drill rock core samples.
Scientists tap into an array of imagers aboard the six-wheeled explorer to get a big picture of the Red Planet.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has been exploring Jezero Crater for more than 217 Earth days (211 Martian days, or sols), and the dusty rocks there are beginning to tell their story – about a volatile young Mars flowing with lava and water.
That story, stretching billions of years into the past, is unfolding thanks in large part to the seven powerful science cameras aboard Perseverance. Able to home in on small features from great distances, take in vast sweeps of Martian landscape, and magnify tiny rock granules, these specialized cameras also help the rover team determine which rock samples offer the best chance to learn whether microscopic life ever existed on the Red Planet.
Altogether, some 800 scientists and engineers around the world make up the larger Perseverance team. That includes smaller teams, from a few dozen to as many as 100, for each of the rover’s cameras and instruments. And the teams behind the cameras must coordinate each decision about what to image.
“The imaging cameras are a huge piece of everything,” said Vivian Sun, the co-lead for Perseverance’s first science campaign at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We use a lot of them every single day for science. They’re absolutely mission-critical.”
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has been hard at work using the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument to help determine the best rocks to sample and look for signs of ancient life. Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC is the only instrument that can directly detect organics, which are building blocks for life. Because it characterizes the chemical composition of rocks, SHERLOC can also help scientists understand whether any of the rocks formed in an ancient habitable environment. SHERLOC features spectrometers, a laser, and cameras, including WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering). WATSON is a color camera that takes close-up images of rock grains and surface textures. This video provides an instrument update by Eva Scheller, one of the science team members from Caltech. For more information on Perseverance, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/perseverance. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Watch as Caltech’s Eva Scheller, a member of the Perseverance science team, provides a snapshot of the rover’s SHERLOC science instrument. Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC features spectrometers, a laser, and cameras, including WATSON, which takes close-up images of rock grains and surface textures.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The storytelling began soon after Perseverance landed in February, and the stunning images have been stacking up as the multiple cameras conduct their scientific investigations. Here’s how they work, along with a sampling of what some have found so far:
The Big Picture
Perseverance’s two navigation cameras – among nine engineering cameras – support the rover’s autonomous driving capability. And at each stop, the rover first employs those two cameras to get the lay of the land with a 360-degree view.
Perseverance looks back with one of its navigation cameras toward its tracks on July 1, 2021 (the 130th sol, or Martian day, of its mission), after driving autonomously 358 feet (109 meters) – its longest autonomous drive to date. The image has been processed to enhance the contrast.
“The navigation camera data is really useful to have those images to do a targeted science follow-up with higher-resolution instruments such as SuperCam and Mastcam-Z,” Sun said.
Perseverance’s six hazard avoidance cameras, or Hazcams, include two pairs in front (with only a single pair in use at any one time) to help avoid trouble spots and to place the rover’s robotic arm on targets; the two rear Hazcams provide images to help place the rover in the context of the broader landscape.
Mastcam-Z, a pair of “eyes” on the rover’s mast, is built for the big picture: panoramic color shots, including 3D images, with zoom capability. It can also capture high-definition video.
Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera system to create this enhanced-color panorama, which scientists used to look for rock-sampling sites. The panorama is stitched together from 70 individual images taken on July 28, 2021, the 155th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Jim Bell at Arizona State University leads the Mastcam-Z team, which has been working at high speed to produce images for the larger group. “Part of our job on this mission has been a sort of triage,” he said. “We can swing through vast swaths of real estate and do some quick assessment of geology, of color. That has been helping the team figure out where to target instruments.”
Color is key: Mastcam-Z images allow scientists to make links between features seen from orbit by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and what they see on the ground.
The instrument also functions as a low-resolution spectrometer, dividing the light it captures into 11 colors. Scientists can analyze the colors for clues about the composition of the material giving off the light, helping them decide which features to zoom in on with the mission’s true spectrometers.
For instance, there’s a well-known series of images from March 17. It shows a wide escarpment, aka the “Delta Scarp,” that is part of a fan-shaped river delta that formed in the crater long ago. After Mastcam-Z provided the broad view, the mission turned to SuperCam for a closer look.
The Long View
This image of an escarpment, or scarp – a long, steep slope – along the delta of Mars’ Jezero Crater was generated using data from the Perseverance rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument. The inset image at top is a close-up provided by the Remote Microscopic Imager, which is part of the SuperCam instrument.
Scientists use SuperCam to study mineralogy and chemistry, and to seek evidence of ancient microbial life. Perched near Mastcam-Z on Perseverance’s mast, it includes the Remote Micro-Imager, or RMI, which can zoom in on features the size of a softball from more than a mile away.
Once Mastcam-Z provided images of the scarp, the SuperCam RMI homed in on a corner of it, providing close-ups that were later stitched together for a more revealing view.
To Roger Wiens, principal investigator for SuperCam at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, these images spoke volumes about Mars’ ancient past, when the atmosphere was thick enough, and warm enough, to allow water to flow on the surface.
“This is showing huge boulders,” he said. “That means there had to have been some huge flash flooding that occurred that washed boulders down the riverbed into this delta formation.”
The chock-a-block layers told him even more.
“These large boulders are partway down the delta formation,” Wiens said. “If the lakebed was full, you would find these at the very top. So the lake wasn’t full at the time the flash flood happened. Overall, it may be indicating an unstable climate. Perhaps we didn’t always have this very placid, calm, habitable place that we might have liked for raising some micro-organisms.”
In addition, scientists have picked up signs of igneous rock that formed from lava or magma on the crater floor during this early period. That could mean not only flowing water, but flowing lava, before, during, or after the time that the lake itself formed.
These clues are crucial to the mission’s search for signs of ancient Martian life and potentially habitable environments. To that end, the rover is taking samples of Martian rock and sediment that future missions could return to Earth for in-depth study.
The (Really) Close-up
Perseverance took this close-up of a rock target nicknamed “Foux” using its WATSON camera on July 11, 2021, the 139th Martian day, r sol, of the mission. The area within the camera is roughly 1.4 by 1 inches (3.5 centimeters by 2.6 centimeters).
A variety of Perseverance’s cameras assist in the selection of those samples, including WATSON (the Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering).
Located at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, WATSON provides extreme closeups of rock and sediment, zeroing in on the variety, size, shape, and color of tiny grains – as well as the “cement” between them – in those materials. Such information can lend insight into Mars’ history as well as the geological context of potential samples.
WATSON also helps engineers position the rover’s drill for extracting rock core samples and produces images of where the sample came from.
The imager partners with SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), which includes an Autofocus and Contextual Imager (ACI), the rover’s highest-resolution camera. SHERLOC uses an ultraviolet laser to identify certain minerals in rock and sediment, while PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), also on the robotic arm, uses X-rays to determine the chemical composition. These cameras, working in concert with WATSON, have helped capture geologic data – including signs of that igneous rock on the crater floor – with a precision that has surprised scientists.
“We’re getting really cool spectra of materials formed in aqueous [watery] environments – for example sulfate and carbonate,” said Luther Beegle, SHERLOC’s principal investigator at JPL.
Engineers also use WATSON to check on the rover’s systems and undercarriage – and to take Perseverance selfies (here’s how).
Beegle says not just the strong performance of the imaging instruments, but their ability to endure the harsh environment on the Martian surface, gives him confidence in Perseverance’s chances for major discoveries.
“Once we get over closer to the delta, where there should be really good preservation potential for signs of life, we’ve got a really good chance of seeing something if it’s there,” he said.
More About the Mission
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Mars Perseverance Team Members to Be Recognized at Hispanic Heritage Awards
Sep 08, 2021
From left to right: Diana Trujillo, Christina Hernandez, and Clara O’Farrell are engineers with NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover team.
Credit: Hispanic Heritage Foundation
The three award recipients – Diana Trujillo, Christina Hernandez, and Clara O’Farrell – are engineers from the NASA rover team.
Three Latina engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California are the 2021 recipients of STEM Awards from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. They will be honored for their significant roles in the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission during the 34th Hispanic Heritage Awards broadcast on PBS Oct. 8, joined by Carlos Santana, Ivy Queen, and others.
NASA JPL recipients are:
Christina Hernandez began her work at JPL in the Natural Space Environments group and as mission assurance manager on STABLE (Sub arcsecond Telescope and Balloon Experiment). Her Mars-related work began with impact assessment to keep Mars spacecraft safe during the Comet Siding Spring event. As a payload systems engineer for Perseverance, she has worked on three of its seven science instruments. Her work on the rover’s PIXL (short for Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry) will help scientists hunt for signs of ancient microbial life by taking super-close images of rock and soil textures and using its X-ray spectrometer to identify chemical elements within them.
Clara O’Farrell, who is originally from Argentina, moved to the U.S. on her 19th birthday to start college. She studied aerospace engineering at Princeton and completed a doctoral degree at Caltech with research on fluid dynamics of jellyfish swimming. After joining JPL in 2013, she began her work on parachutes, aerodynamics, and trajectory simulation for Mars entry, descent, and landing. Her accomplishments as a guidance and control engineer include certifying a supersonic parachute to land Perseverance via supersonic sounding rocket tests.
Diana Trujillo, an aerospace engineer, is currently Technical Group Supervisor for Sequence Planning and Execution and a Tactical Mission Lead for Perseverance. Born and raised in Colombia, Trujillo immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 17 to pursue her dream of working for NASA. While enrolled in English-as-a-second-language courses, she also worked full time to support her studies in community college and later the University of Florida and University of Maryland. Diana has held several roles for NASA and JPL, including Mars Curiosity Mission Lead, Deputy Project System Engineer, and Deputy Team Chief of Engineering Operations on Curiosity. Trujillo has also been active in sharing the excitement and opportunities of STEM with the public. She created and hosted #JuntosPerseveramos, NASA’s first-ever Spanish-language live broadcast of a major mission milestone (Perseverance landing on Mars), attracting millions of viewers worldwide.
“Congratulations to Christina, Clara, and Diana on receiving this prestigious STEM award,” said Dr. Jim Green, NASA’s chief scientist. “Each of them was integral to the planning, development, and successful landing of our Mars Perseverance rover. Our Mars Perseverance mission will advance NASA’s quest to explore past habitability of the Red Planet. Because of the hard work and dedication of our team, we can now look for past microbial life through the collection of core rock and soil samples and test technologies that will pave the way for future human exploration of Mars. Thank you to the Hispanic Heritage Foundation for their consideration and for this outstanding recognition of our extremely talented, diverse, and inspirational NASA workforce.”
In the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s news release, the organization’s president and CEO, Jose Antonio Tijerino, said, “As leaders in the STEM space, these inspirational Latinas demonstrate the great vision and value proposition our community presents America. These engineers also represent role models for aspiring Latinx engineers in expanding human knowledge and scientific discovery.”
The Hispanic Heritage Awards are produced by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and were created by the White House in 1988 to commemorate the establishment of Hispanic Heritage Month in America. The awards are among the highest honors by Latinos for Latinos and are supported by 40 national Hispanic-serving institutions. The Foundation’s programs focus on education, workforce, and social impact through the lens of leadership.
An oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Ida – a high-end Category 4 when it made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, on Aug. 29, 2021 – appears as a green trail in the inset false-color graphic provided by NASA’s Delta-X project, while the surrounding seawater appears orange. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regularly monitors U.S. coastal waters for potential spills and noticed slicks that appeared just off the coast after the hurricane. They were able to use this information from Delta-X to corroborate other data they had about oil slicks in the area (satellite image in the second inset picture). The blue-green swath crossing from the Gulf of Mexico over the Louisiana coast denotes the flight path of the Delta-X radar instrument on Sept. 1, just before 11:30 a.m. CDT.
Charged with studying the Mississippi River Delta, Delta-X was gearing up to collect data on Louisiana’s coastal wetlands when Hurricane Ida barreled ashore in late August. The storm damaged buildings and infrastructure alike, resulting in power outages, flooding, and oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil tends to smooth out the bumps on the ocean’s surface, which results in a distinct radar signal that the Delta-X mission was able to pick out of their data. Delta-X added flight paths to their planned schedule – with the support of NASA’s Applied Science Disaster Program – in order to collect information over the gulf in areas of interest to NOAA.
Delta-X is studying two wetlands – the Atchafalaya and Terrebonne Basins – by land, boat, and air to quantify water and sediment flow as well as vegetation growth. While the Atchafalaya Basin has been gaining land through sediment accumulation, Terrebonne Basin, which is right next to the Atchafalaya, has been rapidly losing land. The data collected by the project will be applied to models used to forecast which areas of the delta are likely to gain or lose land under various sea level rise, river flow, and watershed management scenarios.
The mission uses several instruments to collect its data. Affixed to the bottom of a Gulfstream-III airplane, one of those instruments, the all-weather Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), bounces radar signals off of Earth’s surface, forming a kind of image of a particular area. Repeated images of the same regions, captured at different times, enable researchers to detect changes in those areas, such as fluctuating water levels beneath the vegetation as the tides move in and out of these wetlands. In addition to radar measurements, teams from Caltech, Louisiana State University, Florida International University, and other collaborating institutions gather water and vegetation samples – among other data – by boat, other airborne sensors, and from instruments on the ground.
Funded by NASA’s Earth Venture Suborbital (EVS-3) program, Delta-X is managed by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. Fall 2021 was Delta-X’s last scheduled field campaign, although the five-year mission will run through the end of 2023.
On August 27, 2021 Ida crossed over Cuba as a Category 1 Storm. 48 hours later the storm intensified to a Category 4 before making landfall on the coast of Louisiana. The storm was the second most destructive storm to ever make landfall on the Louisiana coast with sustained winds over 150 mph (240 km/h).
The rapid intensification process that the storm system underwent is not well understood. Satellite images such as this are helpful as scientists attempt to understand new weather patterns that are emerging with Global Climate Change.
Tasked with detecting plant water use and stress, ECOSTRESS’s primary mission is to measure the temperature of plants heating up as they run out of water. But it can also measure and track heat-related phenomena like wildfires, heat waves, and volcanoes. ECOSTRESS observations have a spatial resolution of about 77 by 77 yards (70 by 70 meters), which enables researchers to study surface-temperature conditions down to the size of a football field. Due to the space station’s unique orbit, the mission can acquire images of the same regions at different times of the day, as opposed to crossing over each area at the same time of day like satellites in other orbits do. This is advantageous when monitoring plant stress in the same area throughout the day, for example.
The ECOSTRESS mission launched to the space station on June 29, 2018. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages the mission for the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ECOSTRESS is an Earth Venture Instrument mission; the program is managed by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
Collecting temperature readings in the atmosphere and at the surface, NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard the agency’s Aqua satellite captured the progression of a slow-moving heat dome across the southwestern U.S. from July 1 to July 12, 2021. The animation of the AIRS data shows surface air temperature anomalies – values above or below long-term averages. The hottest areas, shown in pink, experienced surface air temperatures more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5.6 degrees Celsius) above average. Surface air temperature is something that people directly feel when they are outside.
AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), senses emitted infrared and microwave radiation from Earth to provide a three-dimensional look at the planet’s weather and climate. Working in tandem, the two instruments make simultaneous observations down to Earth’s surface. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, three-dimensional map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations, and many other atmospheric phenomena. Launched into Earth orbit in 2002, the AIRS and AMSU instruments fly aboard NASA’s Aqua spacecraft and are managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of Caltech.
NASA’s ECOSTRESS captured data over Northern California’s Dixie Fire, which had ballooned to over 220,000 acres as of July 29, 2021. In the data visualization, the red areas show the hottest pixels – and fire movement – from July 15 to July 24. The most heavily affected areas are south of Lake Almanor in Plumas County.
Tasked with detecting plant water use and stress from the vantage point of the International Space Station, ECOSTRESS’s primary mission is to measure the temperature of plants heating up as they run out of water. But it can also measure and track heat-related phenomena like wildfires, heat waves, and volcanoes. ECOSTRESS observations have a spatial resolution of about 77 by 77 yards (70 by 70 meters), which enables researchers to study surface-temperature conditions down to the size of a football field. Due to the space station’s unique orbit, the mission can acquire images of the same regions at different times of the day, as opposed to crossing over each area at the same time of day like satellites in other orbits do. This is advantageous when monitoring plant stress in the same area throughout the day, for example.
The ECOSTRESS mission launched to the space station on June 29, 2018. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages the mission for the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ECOSTRESS is an Earth Venture Instrument mission; the program is managed by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
NASA’s ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) is aiding in the fight against fires in the Western U.S. As of July 27, 2021, the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon had ballooned to more than 410,000 acres, damaging hundreds of buildings and vehicles in its path.
ECOSTRESS measures surface temperature from the vantage point of the International Space Station. Researchers of the RADR-Fire team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been experimenting with ECOSTRESS data as part of a new tool now being implemented for first responders like the U.S. Forest Service.
In the visualization, ECOSTRESS is tracking the movement of the Bootleg Fire between July 7 and July and identifying its proximity to critical infrastructure — areas in red represent the hottest pixels ECOSTRESS detected. The extreme heat in those areas indicates the fire front, or where resources are most needed.
Tasked with detecting plant water use and stress, ECOSTRESS’s primary mission is to measure the temperature of plants heating up as they run out of water. But it can also measure and track heat-related phenomena like wildfires, heat waves, and volcanoes. ECOSTRESS observations have a spatial resolution of about 77 by 77 yards (70 by 70 meters), which enables researchers to study surface-temperature conditions down to the size of a football field. Due to the space station’s unique orbit, the mission can acquire images of the same regions at different times of the day, as opposed to crossing over each area at the same time of day like satellites in other orbits do. This is advantageous when monitoring plant stress in the same area throughout the day, for example.
The ECOSTRESS mission launched to the space station on June 29, 2018. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages the mission for the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ECOSTRESS is an Earth Venture Instrument mission; the program is managed by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
PBS News, NBC News, NOVA PBS, National Geographic, and DW Documentary
PBS NewsHour full episode, Oct. 8, 2021
NBC News: Nightly News Full Broadcast – October 8th
NOVA PBS: Nikon Small World 2021 Photo Competition winners announced
From neurons to tick heads to louse claws, here are the top 10 images from the competition.
National Geographic: COVID-19 is linked to new diabetes cases—but long-term problems could be more severe
DW Documentary: Great apes – How intelligent are our closest relatives?, Can viruses be beneficial? and Extreme weather, rising sea levels, devastating floods – The global climate crisis
U.S. added 194,000 jobs in September, unemployment rate down, two parents convicted in college admissions scandal trial, and combat medics unite after forming special connection a decade ago. 00:00 Intro 02:01 Major Jobs Setback 04:36 Mandate Battles 07:36 College Admissions Conviction 10:04 Biden – Trump Showdown 14:05 Travel Price Warning 18:28 Those Who Serve » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews
NOVA PBS: Nikon Small World 2021 Photo Competition winners announced
From neurons to tick heads to louse claws, here are the top 10 images from the competition.
The winning image of the Nikon Small World 2021 Photo Competition shows a southern live oak leaf’s trichomes, stomata, and vessels. Image credit: Jason Kirk, Baylor College of Medicine
The winners of the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition, which aims to showcase “the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope,” were announced today.
This is the 47th year of the photo competition, which is open to anyone with an interest in microscopy—the use of microscopes to view samples and objects—and photography. This year the contest received almost 1,900 entries from 88 countries. A panel of five judges* evaluated the entries for originality, informational content, technical proficiency, and visual impact, Nikon reported. The results of the sister video competition, Small World In Motion, were announced last month.
Here are this year’s top 10 images:
A southern live oak leaf’s trichomes, stomata, and vessels photographed by Jason Kirk, a professional imager and core director of Baylor College of Medicine’s Optical Imaging & Vital Microscopy Core. Kirk used a custom-made microscope system to take around 200 individual images of the leaf, which he stacked together to create this image, Nikon reports.
Trichomes, stomata, and vessels are all “essential to plant life,” Nikon writes. Trichomes, fine outgrowths that protect a plant from extreme weather and insects, are featured in white. “In purple, Jason highlights the stomata, small pores that regulate the flow of gases in a plant. Colored in cyan are the vessels that transport water throughout the leaf,” Nikon said in a statement.
Networking neurons in microfluidic device
Image credit: Esmeralda Paric and Holly Stefen, Dementia Research Centre, Macquarie University, New South Wales, Australia
This image is of a microfluidic device, which contains 300,000 networking neurons divided into two isolated populations (left and right) bridged by axons (center). The isolated populations were each treated with a unique virus, Nikon reports. The image was taken at 40X magnification by Esmeralda Paric and Holly Stefen of Macquarie University’s Dementia Research Centre in New South Wales, Australia, using fluorescence imaging, which uses high-intensity illumination to excite fluorescent molecules in a sample. “When a molecule absorbs photons, electrons are excited to a higher energy level,” Nikon writes. “As electrons ‘relax’ back to the ground-state, vibrational energy is lost and, as a result, the emission spectrum is shifted to longer wavelengths.”
Rear leg, claw and respiratory trachea of a louse
Image credit: Frank Reiser, Nassau Community College, New York
A rear leg, claw, and respiratory trachea of a louse, a wingless parasitic insect, at 5X magnification taken by Frank Reiser, a biologist at Nassau Community College in New York. Reiser used darkfield micrography, which “creates contrast in transparent unstained specimens” and “depends on controlling specimen illumination so that central light which normally passes through and around the specimen is blocked,” Nikon writes, and image stacking to produce this image.
Embryonic rat neuron
Image credit: Paula Diaz, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
A sensory neuron from an embryonic rat taken by Paula Diaz, a physiologist at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, Chile. Diaz took the image at 10X magnification and used fluorescence imaging to produce it.
Housefly proboscis
Image credit: Oliver Dum, Medienbunker Produktion, Bendof, Rheinland Pfalz, Germany
A proboscis of a housefly (Musca domestica) taken by Oliver Dum of Medienbunker Produktion in Bendof, Rheinland Pfalz, Germany. Dum took the image at 40X magnification and assembled it using image stacking.
Mouse brain vasculature
Image credit: Dr. Andrea Tedeschi, Wexner Medical Center, Ohio State University
3D vasculature of an adult mouse brain taken by Dr. Andrea Tedeschi of Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. Tedeschi took the image at 10X magnification and used confocal imaging, which involves scanning a specimen to create extremely thin (down to 250 nanometer thickness) computer-generated optical sections using visible light, to create it.
Image credit: Drs. Tong Zhang and Paul Stoodley, Ohio State University’s Campus Microscopy & Imaging Facility
Head of a tick taken by Drs. Tong Zhang and Paul Stoodley of Ohio State University’s Campus Microscopy & Imaging Facility in Columbus, Ohio. Zhang and Stoodley took the image at 10X magnification and used confocal imaging to produce it.
Mouse intestine
Image credit: Dr. Amy Engevik, Medical University of South Carolina
Cross section of a mouse intestine taken at 10X magnification using fluorescence imaging by Dr. Amy Engevik of the Medical University of South Carolina’s Department of Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology in Charleston, South Carolina.
Water flea
Image credit: Jan van IJken, Jan van IJek Photography & Film, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
A water flea (Daphnia) carrying embryos and ciliated vase-shaped protozoans called peritrichs taken at 10X magnification using image stacking and darkfield microscopy by Jan van IJken of Jan van IJek Photography & Film in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Butterfly wing
Image credit: Sebastien Malo, Saint Lys, Haute-Garonne, France
Vein and scales on a Morpho didius butterfly wing taken at 20X magnification using image stacking and reflected light photography by Sebastien Malo of Saint Lys, Haute-Garonne, France.
*NOVA Science Editor Robin Kazmier was a judge in this year’s competition.
For more information, please visit the following link:
A medical student gives a woman a blood glucose test to check possible diabetes at a screening post in Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques during the COVID-19 pandemic on May 29, 2021 in Lisbon, Portugal.
PHOTOGRAPH BY HORACIO VILLALOBOS, CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES
COVID-19 is linked to new diabetes cases—but long-term problems could be more severe
In addition to driving new cases of diabetes, the virus may be directly damaging the pancreas in ways that could lead to chronic inflammation and even cancer.
BYAMY MCKEEVER
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 8, 2021
Almost daily microbiologist Peter Jackson receives emails from people who recovered from COVID-19 only to discover that their health troubles have just begun.
Recently, a mother of two in her 30s wrote to the Stanford University professor to say that she now takes a slew of diabetes medications every day—even though she hadn’t been at risk for the disease before her coronavirus infection.
Experts have known since the beginning of the pandemic that having diabetes—a condition when the body doesn’t make enough insulin or use it well enough to counteract a rise in blood sugar—is a risk factor for more severe COVID-19 infections. But they have also long suspected that the inverse might be true as well. In May, Jackson published a study in the journal Cell Metabolism showing that SARS-CoV-2 infects cells in the pancreas that produce insulin and may even target and destroy them—suggesting that the virus may also cause diabetes. (Why scientists began investigating the link between COVID-19 and diabetes.)
“This is a real thing,” Jackson says of the complaints from newly diabetic people that have flooded his inbox. Although some experts argue that the condition is rare, Jackson says the data suggests that in 2020 as many as 100,000 people were diagnosed with an unexpected case of diabetes.
He is one of many scientists who worry there could be a new wave of diabetes patients who will have to monitor their blood sugar levels for the rest of their lives. But he and his colleagues are also concerned that the virus may be harming the pancreas in ways that may not be visible now but could one day have troubling implications for the organ itself and for the rest of the digestive system.
“This could be a pandemic in a pandemic,” says Paolo Fiorina, a professor of endocrinology at the University of Milan and lecturer at Harvard Medical School, who has also spearheaded investigations into the connection between COVID-19 and diabetes.
For more information, please visit the following link:
What can animals’ emotions tell us about ourselves? This documentary takes us on a fascinating journey into the lives of the great apes. Did you know that chimpanzees wage war? Not only that, but they also show compassion, engage in cooperative behavior, and value fairness and reciprocity. Chimpanzees reconcile after fights, and comfort each other. Chimpanzee communities also have customs and traditions that vary from tribe to tribe. All this begs the question: are things like morality and culture solely human achievements? This documentary takes us into one of the last great wildernesses of West Africa – the mountainous jungles of Nigeria – and shows footage of chimpanzees in the wild. What is the significance of the mysterious stone piles left by chimpanzees near trees or in hollows? Are they a form of religion? How intelligent are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom? In what kinds of societies did our common ancestors live? And where does the phenomenon of xenophobia come from? #documentary#freedocumentary#chimpanzees ______
Viruses can be fatal, but some viruses can in fact be life-sustaining. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has killed large numbers of people during the current pandemic. But humans wouldn’t exist without viruses. How can they benefit us? Viruses aren’t living beings, yet they have had a great influence on evolution. Some viral elements have embedded themselves into the human genome and reproduce along with us – so-called endogenous retroviruses. One type of virus helps form the placenta, for example, while other viruses attack harmful bacteria. Viruses also maintain balance in marine ecosystems, curbing the growth of algae and attacking bacteria that are harmful to sea animals. Soon, viruses may even replace antibiotics in fish farming. Thousands of viruses have already been sequenced, including Ebola, Zika and bird flu. Ebola is one of the deadliest viruses in the world, with a mortality rate of up to 90%. But experts see greater danger in the less deadly diseases like Spanish flu and COVID-19: Because they spread much further, they kill more people overall. Viruses can also be used to create vaccines. In Rome, the shell of a virus found in gorilla feces has been used as a vector for the COVID-19 vaccine, turning a pathogen into a life-saving drug. __
Extreme weather, rising sea levels, devastating floods – The global climate crisis | DW Documentary
Extreme weather is occurring more frequently worldwide. Rising sea levels and heavy rain are causing devastating floods. Most researchers agree that these are the consequences of climate change. But what can we do to protect ourselves? In July 2021, the Ahr Valley in western Germany was hit by a flash flood after heavy rainfall. Over 100 people were killed, thousands of homes were severely damaged. Experts are calling it the ‘flood of the century’. Yet extreme weather events such as the Ahr Valley floods have become more frequent in recent years – not only in Germany but worldwide. Mozambique has been hit by devastating cyclones for the third year running. In Bangladesh, the monsoon season has become heavier and more unpredictable due to climate change. More and more land has been flooded as a result. At the same time, heavy storms that cause flooding and rising sea levels threaten the south of the country. Experts estimate that 30 per cent of Bangladesh will be permanently flooded in a few years, making millions of people climate refugees. Wealthy countries such as Germany are now investing billions in the battle against the floods. The Netherlands have long pioneered in flood management, building powerful pumping stations, ever higher dikes and flood barriers. None of these options are available to poor countries. All they can do, along with improving early flood warning systems, is to resettle the people affected. The film ‘Global Climate Crisis – How to Tackle the floods?’ shows the unequal fight against the consequences of climate change with examples from Germany, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, and Mozambique. #documentary#flooding#climatechange#extremeweather ______
Ing’s Street Art, “My Little Red Shoes”, “Elephant Bath”, “In the Midst of Troubles, I Seek Peace”, and “U.S. Supreme Court Justices on Eviction”
Halsey Street, Newark, New Jersey, USA
Part 2
In the Midst of troubles, I Seek Peace
In the midst of trouble
Global warming
Causes the fires in California and elsewhere
The weather turns more violence
Hurricane Ida caused destruction in Haiti
Louisiana and other places in its path to the North East
Strong winds, rain and floods
Whole cities had to evacuate
Millions homeless caused by the nature
What causes nature to be violent?
Who causes Global warming?
Humans blame nature
Causing the destruction
No one can be blamed but ourselves
Let us start again
To care for Nature
for our lives now
And generations to come
Where can I Find Peace Street?
I got lost.
Where do you want to go?
I want to go to Peace Street
Where I can find my mother
Father and my family
I want to go to Peace Street
Where I am happy
To see a peaceful Village
I want to go to Peace Street
Where children have a joyful time
With parents and family
I want to go to Peace Street
Where children are not afraid
Or cry for food
And no place to stay
I want to go to Peace Street
where everyone is happy
No fighting
No disaster
I want to go to Peace Street
Where there are no weapons produced
And sold to kill each other
For profit and wealth
I want to go to Peace Street
Where there are no corrupt politicians
And greedy rich people who keep
Everything for themselves
Leaving non for the poor
I want to go to Peace Street
Where people are kind
And helpful to one another
I want to go to Peace Street
To see beautiful nature
With no pollution
Clean oceans
With all the creatures
Living happily
Can you direct me to Peace Street?
I got lost
I am hungry
Where are my mother, father,
my husband, my daughter, my grandsons
and the others in my family?
I miss them
I am lonely
Please help to direct me to Peace Street
My life is short
I am lost
Where I can find Peace Street on Earth
I woke up this morning. I felt sad, thinking about my family and other unfortunate people. Biden had a policy to deport Haitian people who suffered in their country. Most immigrants want to have an opportunity to work for survival of their families. It is cruel to send people back to suffer and die while politicians try to find a way to gain credit for their future election to office.
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Saturday, September 25, 2021
U.S. Supreme Court Justices on Eviction
Low-income people have difficulty to survive
Even to have enough money to buy food
To feed themselves and their children
A few days ago, a report from the news media stated that
700,000 people in the US died from COVID-19
The epidemic of the virus may cause some people not to get jobs
Especially families that have children
No money to pay rent
Thanks to an eviction moratorium policy
From Biden’s administration
Landlords were prevented from evicting families
This policy to help the poor
Is just a drop of water to quench the thirst
Of dying families
Now! Six Republican Supreme Court Justice Appointees
Declared that landlords can evict poor families
That cannot pay rent
Millions of poor families
With children are going to be homeless
In the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic
Powerful people receive
Benefits and salary from the tax payers of the country
These people use their power to cause the poor
Who cannot get jobs because the COVID-19 epidemic
To suffer even more than they were facing before
“Where is the justice?”
I want to ask these six Justices of the Supreme Court
If it makes you happy to see children and their parents suffer?
These poor families who have difficulty to feed children and themselves
Now have no home to stay
Where is your humanity?
Where is your empathy toward the poor?
Where is your kindness for the poor?
Where is your morality toward these citizens?
We, the citizens of the country
Especially the unfortunate poor and homeless
Who has no voice
Ask the Six Republican Appointed Justices of the Supreme Court
The above questions
What were you thinking when you made your decision?
You represent the Supreme Court of the land
Are happy now that you have
Paid back the favor to billionaires that appointed you
To the Throne of Justice?
It is sad to see these humans
These so-called Supreme Court Justices walk the earth
“In the Midst of Troubles, I Seek Peace”
Where I can find Peace?
I could not control my tears for the evicted families
My heart is aching to hear such an order from this group of
United State Supreme Court Justices
Let me calm down
At least for my recording of the event
Let it be etched into history for future
Generations to learn
To cultivate the next generation
To be kind human beings
helping the unfortunate who
Suffer more than they
“In the Midst of Troubles, I Seek Peace”
I will calm myself
Get back to my garden
And continue doing my artwork
At least my minuscule contributions
Brings happiness to the others
Hearing people pass my little garden
And artwork saying
“The flowers are beautiful”
And commenting
“You changed your artwork.
I like the children in your painting”
“The painting is called, My Little Red Shoes”
I respond
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Saturday, October 2, 2021
Artwork by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, “My Little Red Shoes” in 1996.
Daily Mail:
Supreme Court says letting the Biden administration keep the eviction moratorium in place could open the door to mandates for ‘free grocery delivery for the sick and vulnerable and free computers to let Americans work from home’
Conservatives on the Supreme Court said extending eviction moratoriums could lead to government mandates on ‘free grocery delivery and free computers’
‘Could the CDC mandate free grocery delivery to the homes of the sick or vulnerable?’ the majority opinion reads from the six conservatives on the court
‘Require manufacturers to provide free computers to enable people to work from home? Order telecommunications companies to provide free Internet?’
The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to block the eviction moratorium, allowing landlord to kick out renters who haven’t paid rent in the midst of the pandemic
Argued that preventing landlords from evicting tenants who breach their leases strips them of their ‘right to exclude’
The six conservative justices elected to end the eviction freeze from the CDC and the three liberals justices voting it should stay
Said the CDC overextended its authority in imposing the moratorium
Conservatives on the Supreme Court said that allowing the eviction moratorium to continue could set a precedent for government mandated ‘free grocery delivery’ and ‘free internet’ for people to work from home.
‘Preventing [landlords] from evicting tenants who breach their leases intrudes on one of the most fundamental elements of property ownership—the right to exclude,’ the majority opinion reads from the Thursday decision.
The court’s decision will allow for landlords to evict tenants who have not paid rent in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Questioned in the unsigned opinion from the six conservative justices was hypothetical situations for how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could overreach its authority in the future, as they claim it did so in extending the moratorium.
‘Could the CDC, for example, mandate free grocery delivery to the homes of the sick or vulnerable?’ the majority opinion reads. ‘Require manufacturers to provide free computers to enable people to work from home? Order telecommunications companies to provide free high-speed Internet service to facilitate remote work?’
All this to say, the court feels that the CDC cannot decide for the sake of public health that other aspects of business can be impacted, like preventing landlords from collecting rent.
They also claim that congressional action is needed to extend the moratorium.
The Supreme Court elected to end the national eviction moratorium in a 6-3 vote on Thursday, claiming it would lead to a precedent of mandated ‘free grocery delivery for the sick’ or ‘free computers and internet’ to work from home
The decision again exhibited the power Republicans have with the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, which is now allowing evictions to resume across the U.S. as it blocks the Biden administration from continuing to enforce a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The vote was split by party line with conservatives John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett voting to end the eviction moratorium, and liberals Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan voting to keep it.
The justices said in an unsigned opinion Thursday that the CDC, which reimplemented the moratorium on August 3, lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization.
‘It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken,’ the court wrote. ‘But that has not happened. Instead, the CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination. It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts.’
Real estate groups in Georgia and Alabama had argued this point and told the high court that the moratorium caused property owners across the nation significant financial hardships, USA Today reports.
Property owners had to continue to pay expenses while not receiving payments from renters. They were also banned from evicting nightmare tenants, who were given free reign to make their neighbors’ lives a misery.
Court said the CDC did not have the power to extend the moratorium. Housing advocates protest on August 4 to allow the eviction moratorium to continue in New York
As of August 25, nearly 90 per cent of the federal funds meant to help landlords make up for the loss of funds had not been distributed, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
Roughly 3.5 million people in the United States said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August.
After the Thursday ruling, several progressive lawmakers pleaded with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to act with the ‘highest levels of urgency’ to combat evictions.
The lawmakers asked the leaders in a Friday letter to work to revive the national eviction moratorium after the Supreme Court ruled congressional action is needed.
‘Millions of people who are currently at risk for eviction, housing insecurity, or face becoming unhoused desperately look to their elected representatives to implement legislation that will put their health and safety first and save lives,’ the letter reads.
The effort was led by Representative Ayanna Pressley and signed on by more than 60 Democrats, including fellow ‘squad’ members Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush.
Bush, who was once homeless before running for office, led protesters in sleeping outside the Capitol earlier this summer when the moratorium faced its end before the CDC expanded it.
The Supreme Court had originally allowed the eviction freeze to continue to July in a 5-4 vote, but Kavanaugh, who voted to keep it, indicated that he would vote against any further extension.
Roberts followed suit and voted against the moratorium with Kavanagh on Thursday.
In his dissenting opinion, Breyer asserted that the court should not end the moratorium on an expedited basis.
‘Applicants raise contested legal questions about an important federal statute on which the lower courts are split and on which this court has never actually spoken,’ Breyer wrote. ‘These questions call for considered decision making, informed by full briefing and argument. Their answers impact the health of millions.’
The national eviction freeze was set in place at the start of the pandemic and continued on until July, when the Supreme Court previously upheld it in a 5-4 vote
The Biden administration’s extension of the eviction moratorium was heralded by members the ‘the Squad,’ including U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who had celebrated the announcement earlier this month.
She and fellow Democratic congress woman Cori Bush had demonstrated outside the Capitol in protest of the moratorium’s original deadline at the start of August.
Bush was hailed as a key figure who pushed Biden and his administration to extend the deadline after five continuous days of protest, tweeting about her accomplishment.
‘Squad’ member Ilhan Omar also acknowledged Bush’s efforts in spearheading the moratorium extension, The Hill reported.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, a fellow democrat from California who sponsored a House bill to extend the eviction freeze, also thanked Biden ‘from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of millions of renters.
‘This extension of the moratorium is the lifeline that millions of families have been waiting for. From the very beginning of this pandemic, it was clear that eviction moratoriums not only kept people housed, but also saved lives,’ Waters said in a statement.
A group of Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer urging them to act congressionally to extend the moratorium after the Supreme Court said the CDC overreached
This was the second high court loss for the administration this week at the hands of the court’s conservative majority.
On Tuesday, the court effectively allowed the reinstatement of a Trump-era policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings.
The new administration had tried to end the Remain in Mexico program, as it is informally known.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court voted the same way to strike down part of New York’s eviction moratorium.
In the same 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled against allowing COVID-19 hardships to stand as a reason to ban landlords from kicking out tenants. The state’s rules allowed renters to simply state they’d suffered financial hardship and avoid eviction without providing any evidence.
New Yorkers renting apartments will also now no longer be able to stay in homes they’ve stopped paying rent on by claiming that doing so would endanger their health.
The pause on evictions expires at the end of August, meaning people could start getting kicked out of their apartments by the end of this month.
Incoming Governor Kathy Hochul criticized Thursday’s ruling, saying that she and state lawmakers would work to try and reinforce the moratorium.
Both parts of the law that have been cut were enacted when COVID decimated many of New York’s biggest industries – including hospitality and travel – leaving people who worked in them fearful of being made homeless.
The state has since largely reopened, and its economy appears to be on the path to recovery.
Demonstrators protesting evictions are arrested by NYPD
Eviction moratorium finally set to expire 18 months after it was created amid COVID first wave
The national eviction moratorium was put in place last September by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide aid for those struggling from the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.
The moratorium was supposed to end in December, but Congress voted to extend it until January 2021.
The Biden administration then pushed the deadline further, once in January and then again in March.
Although the moratorium was set to expire at the end of July, the spread of the delta variant and summer spikes in COVID-19 cases continued to leave millions vulnerable.
Data showed that in July, roughly 3.6 million people would face evictions by September if the moratorium was halted, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.
The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision to allow the deadline to extend one final time until the end of July.
The pressure came as landlords and property owners grieved over the loss of income rent while the federal aid set aside for them trickled in at a snail’s pace.
Of the $47 billion in rental assistance that was supposed to go to help tenants pay off months of rent, only about 10% has been distributed as of Aug. 25.
Some states like New York have distributed almost nothing, while several have only approved a few million dollars.
After weeks of protests to extend the eviction moratorium were held at the Capitol, the Biden administration extended the deadline one more time into August.
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who voted to extend the deadline to July, had warned that he would switch his vote if the administration tried extending it again.
True to his word, Kavanaugh voted against the order on August 26, with Chief Justice John Roberts following suit.
The Supreme Court ultimately banned the eviction moratorium in a 6-3 decision.
For more information, please view the following link:
Supreme Court says extending eviction moratorium could open the door to ‘free grocery delivery’
In dissent, Justice Breyer wrote that “the public interest is not favored by the spread of disease or a court’s second-guessing of the C.D.C.’s judgment.”
The Biden administration and other moratorium proponents predicted that the decision would set off a wave of dire consequences.
“As a result of this ruling, families will face the painful impact of evictions, and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to Covid-19,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said in a statement.
The ruling also renewed pressure on congressional Democrats to try to extend the freeze over the opposition of Republicans.
“Tonight, the Supreme Court failed to protect the 11 million households across our country from violent eviction in the middle of a deadly global pandemic,” said Representative Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat who slept on the steps of the Capitol this month to protest the expiration of the previous moratorium. “We already know who is going to bear the brunt of this disastrous decision: Black and brown communities, and especially Black women.”
But landlords, who have said the moratoriums saddled them with billions of dollars in debt, hailed the move.
“The government must move past failed policies and begin to seriously address the nation’s debt tsunami, which is crippling both renters and housing providers alike,” said Bob Pinnegar, the president of the National Apartment Association, a trade association representing large landlords.
It will most likely take a while for the backlog of eviction cases in many states to result in the displacement of renters. But tenant groups in the South, where fast-track evictions are common, are bracing for the worst.
In recent days, Mr. Biden’s team has been mapping out strategies to deal with the likely loss of the moratorium, with a plan to focus its efforts on a handful of states — including South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio — that have large backlogs of unpaid rent and few statewide protections for tenants.
The administration had at first concluded that a Supreme Court ruling in June had effectively forbidden it from imposing a new moratorium after an earlier one expired at the end of July. While the administration had prevailed in that ruling by a 5-to-4 vote, one member of the majority, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, wrote that he believed the moratorium to be unlawful and that he had cast his vote to temporarily sustain it only to allow an orderly transition. He would not support a further extension without “clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation),” he wrote.
Congress did not act. But after political pressure from Democrats, a surge in the pandemic and new consideration of the legal issues, the administration on Aug. 3 issued the moratorium that was the subject of the new ruling.
The administration’s legal maneuvering might have failed, but it bought some time for tenants threatened with eviction. In unusually candid remarks this month, President Biden said that was part of his calculus in deciding to proceed with the new moratorium, which was set to expire Oct. 3.
Congress declared a moratorium on evictions at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but it lapsed in July 2020. The C.D.C. then issued a series of its own moratoriums, saying that they were justified by the need to address the pandemic and authorized by a 1944 law. People unable to pay rent, the agency said, should not be forced to crowd in with relatives or seek refuge in homeless shelters, spreading the virus.
The last moratorium — which was put in place by the C.D.C. in September and expired on July 31 after being extended several times by Congress and Mr. Biden — was effective at achieving its goal, reducing by about half the number of eviction cases that normally would have been filed since last fall, according to an analysis of filings by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.
The challengers in the current case — landlords, real estate companies and trade associations led by the Alabama Association of Realtors — argued that the moratorium was not authorized by the law the agency relied on, the Public Health Service Act of 1944.
That law, the challengers wrote, was concerned with quarantines and inspections to stop the spread of disease and did not bestow on the agency “the unqualified power to take any measure imaginable to stop the spread of communicable disease — whether eviction moratoria, worship limits, nationwide lockdowns, school closures or vaccine mandates.”
What to Know About the Supreme Court Term
A blockbuster term begins. The Supreme Court, now dominated by six Republican appointees, returns to the bench to start a momentous term this fall in which it will consider eliminating the constitutional right to abortion and vastly expanding gun rights.
The big abortion case. The court seems poised to use a challenge to a Mississippi law that bars most abortions after 15 weeks to undermine and perhaps overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling could effectively end legal abortion access for those living in much of the South and Midwest.
A major decision on guns. The court will also consider the constitutionality of a longstanding New York law that imposes strict limits on carrying guns outside the home. The court has not issued a major Second Amendment ruling in more than a decade.
A test for Chief Justice Roberts. The highly charged docket will test the leadership of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who lost his position at the court’s ideological center with the arrival last fall of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
A drop in public support. Chief Justice Roberts now leads a court increasingly associated with partisanship. Recent polls show the court is suffering a distinct drop in public support following a spate of unusual late-night summer rulings in politically charged cases.
The C.D.C. responded that the moratorium was authorized by the 1944 law. Evictions would accelerate the spread of the coronavirus, the agency said, by forcing people “to move, often into close quarters in new shared housing settings with friends or family, or congregate settings such as homeless shelters.”
The moratorium, the administration told the justices, was broadly similar to quarantine. “It would be strange to hold that the government may combat infection by prohibiting the tenant from leaving his home,” its brief said, “but not by prohibiting the landlord from throwing him out.”
The case was complicated by congressional action in December, when lawmakers briefly extended the C.D.C.’s moratorium through the end of January in an appropriations measure. When Congress took no further action, the agency again imposed moratoriums under the 1944 law.
In its Supreme Court brief, the government argued that it was significant that Congress had embraced the agency’s action, if only briefly.
The central legal question in the case was whether the agency was entitled to act on its own. In June, with the earlier moratorium about to expire, the court voted 5 to 4 in favor of the administration, allowing that measure to stand.
But that victory was distinctly provisional. Justice Kavanaugh, who voted with the majority, wrote that he had cast his vote reluctantly and had taken account of the then-impending expiration of the earlier moratorium.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its existing statutory authority by issuing a nationwide eviction moratorium,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote. “Because the C.D.C. plans to end the moratorium in only a few weeks, on July 31, and because those few weeks will allow for additional and more orderly distribution of the congressionally appropriated rental assistance funds, I vote at this time to deny the application” that had been filed by the challengers.
The other members of the court did not give reasons for their votes in the June ruling. But four of them — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett — voted to lift the earlier moratorium. Taken together with Justice Kavanaugh’s statement, that distinctly suggested that a majority of the justices would not look favorably on another extension unless it came from Congress.
The Biden administration initially seemed to share that understanding, urging Congress to act and saying it did not have the unilateral power to impose a further moratorium through executive action. When Congress failed to enact legislation addressing the issue, the moratorium expired.
Under pressure from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats and wary of the rise of the Delta variant, the administration reversed course a few days later.
The new moratorium was not identical to the earlier one, which had applied nationwide. It was instead tailored to counties where Covid-19 was strongest, a category that currently covers some 90 percent of counties in the United States.
Mr. Biden was frank in discussing his reasoning, saying the new measure faced long odds but would buy tenants some time.
“The bulk of the constitutional scholarship says that it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster,” he said on Aug. 3. “But there are several key scholars who think that it may — and it’s worth the effort.”
Many states and localities, including New York and California, have extended their own moratoriums, providing another layer of protection for some renters. In some places, judges, aware of the potential for large numbers of people to be put out on the street even as the pandemic intensifies again, have said they would slow-walk cases and make greater use of eviction diversion programs.
Adam Liptak covers the Supreme Court and writes Sidebar, a column on legal developments. A graduate of Yale Law School, he practiced law for 14 years before joining The Times in 2002. @adamliptak • Facebook
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 27, 2021, Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: Justices End Biden’s Eviction Moratorium, Leaving Thousands at Risk. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Boston, MA – August 12: Homes for All Massachusetts hosted a rally outside the State House in Boston on August 12, 2021 to voice support for a bill (H 1434 / S 891) up for a hearing later in the day that would temporarily pause evictions and foreclosures for 12 months following the end of the state of emergency. (Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Tenants rights groups block the north entrance to the Los Angeles County Superior Courthouse in protest of the coming mass evictions if Gov. Gavin Newsom does not replace the Judicial Council’s eviction moratorium Rule 1 and if AB 1436 is not passed on Friday, August 21, 2020. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)
Tenants’ right advocates march down the Alameda to the offices of the California Apartment Association in San Jose, Calif., Thursday, April 6, 2017. They are protesting against no-cause evictions, which allows landlords to evict tenants in retaliation without giving a reason, displacing families and destabilizing communities. (Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group)U.S. Supreme Court on Eviction
On the eviction moratorium, the Supreme Court turns the law on its head | Opinion
Published: Oct. 04, 2021, 5:15 p.m.
Patrick Hill, an author and associate professor at Rutgers University, says that since judicial review by the U.S. Supreme Court is based on an impoverished understanding of the law, its thoroughly confused decision against the eviction moratorium is not surprising. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File)AP
When the U.S. Supreme Court, on Aug. 26, ruled against President Biden’s extension of the moratorium on evictions, it sacrificed the safety and quite possibly the lives of hundreds of Americans to a legal ideology known as legal positivism or the understanding of law as justified simply because it is law, no matter its consequences.
In an eight-page unsigned decision, made with the concurrence of the six conservative justices and the dissent of the three liberal justices, the Court concluded that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) which is responsible nationally for the public’s health, had exceeded its statutory authority by issuing the moratorium.
The statute, the Court correctly notes, is the 1944 Public Health Service Act which authorizes the Health and Human Services secretary (HHS) to “make and enforce such regulations as in his (sic) judgment are necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases … from one State or possession into any other State or possession.” Subsequently, this authority was placed in the hands of the CDC.
But from this point, the Court’s reading of the statute goes from bad to worse. Inexplicably, the statute appears to be suspect because, since enactment, it has rarely been used, and certainly not used to justify an eviction moratorium. Are we to conclude from this that the Court considers rarely invoked statutes as something less than law? But even when invoked, the statute has been confined, the Court insists, to measures like quarantining infected individuals, for example. But why should that logically justify the inference that an eviction moratorium exceeds the purposes of the statute?
And just because the statute has specifically included measures like fumigation, disinfection and pest extermination, that cannot be thought logically to mean it has specifically excluded other measures, such as an eviction moratorium. If the statute authorizes something as extreme as quarantining infected individuals in the interests of the public’s safety, why is it, as the Court puts it, a stretch to think an eviction moratorium would also be authorized?
Like any legislation, the statute may be thought to acknowledge that since we may not know, at any particular moment, everything there is to be known about controlling infectious disease, it is prudent to provide reasonably broadly for that inevitable moment when an infectious disease presents itself in radically unprecedented features.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in more than 701,000 deaths in the U.S. so far. Yet, what is a major concern for the Court in its decision? The moratorium, it emphasizes, encroaches on “an area that is the particular domain of state law: the landlord-tenant relationship,” adding that earlier decisions of the Court have insisted on exceedingly clear language when congressional legislation might change the balance between state and federal power, in particular, governmental power over private property.
It is surely curious how, for the Court, the language of the 1944 statute is not sufficiently clear that it might be thought to include an eviction moratorium, but it is indeed sufficiently clear to exclude it. More curious is how, in the estimation of the Court, measures to control a raging pandemic, that is no respecter of state borders, are to play second fiddle to a narrow state-based interest.
Bottom of Form
The best that the Court can bring itself to acknowledge how indisputable the strong interest of the American public is in resisting the spreading threat of COVID-19, but not so strong as to justifiably override the private property interests that make up the landlord-tenant relationship. These are the calculations of justices, like Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who believe so much in what they do but understand so little of what that is, and, as a consequence, bring down upon our heads a perfect storm of irrationality that undermines the very essence of law and its purpose in society.
There can be no clearer demonstration of this than the Court’s declaration, upon closing its argument, that “… our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends.” With what understanding of the law can it be said that to act, simply as one should, to protect human life from disease and even death is to act unlawfully? That can be only when the law is understood as a law unto itself, as self-justifying, and in no way accountable for its justification to ethics, from which all human law is ultimately derived.
Since judicial review by the U.S. Supreme Court is based on this impoverished understanding of the law, its thoroughly confused decision against the eviction moratorium is not surprising. Nevertheless, how mistaken to think that acting for the good of the public is to act unlawfully when actually it is to act ethically and must therefore be to act lawfully.
Patrick Hill is an associate professor at Rutgers University and the author of the book, No Place for Ethics:Judicial Review, Legal Positivism and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
For more information please visit the following link:
#EvictionMoratorium#moratoriumeviction#Biden Yahoo Finance’s Dani Romero reports on the U.S. Supreme Court blocking the Biden administration’s eviction moratorium. Watch the 2021 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gx-OzwHpM9k Subscribe to Yahoo Finance: https://yhoo.it/2fGu5Bb About Yahoo Finance: At Yahoo Finance, you get free stock quotes, up-to-date news, portfolio management resources, international market data, social interaction and mortgage rates that help you manage your financial life. Yahoo Finance Plus: With a subscription to Yahoo Finance Plus get the tools you need to invest with confidence. Discover new opportunities with expert research and investment ideas backed by technical and fundamental analysis. Optimize your trades with advanced portfolio insights, fundamental analysis, enhanced charting, and more. To learn more about Yahoo Finance Plus please visit: https://yhoo.it/33jXYBp Connect with Yahoo Finance: Get the latest news: https://yhoo.it/2fGu5Bb Find Yahoo Finance on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2A9u5Zq Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2LMgloP Follow Yahoo Finance on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2LOpNYz Follow Cashay.com Follow Yahoo Finance Premium on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3hhcnmV
CDC Announces Targeted Eviction Moratorium After Protests
The CDC has announced a new targeted eviction moratorium after the previous moratorium expired, leaving more than 10 million Americans at risk of losing their homes. NBC News’ Leigh Ann Caldwell explains how the new moratorium differs from the expired one and how Democrats were able to influence the CDC’s decision. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://smart.link/5d0cd9df61b80 Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC Follow NBC News on Instagram: http://nbcnews.to/InstaNBC#Eviction#Housing#CDC
For the last 1 ½ years, renters across New Jersey have been able to keep a roof over their head regardless of nonpayment of rent, thanks to an eviction moratorium in the state. But a new law is ending that protection as of Aug. 31 for people who make more than 80% of their county’s area median income. For those who make less than 80% of the area median income, the moratorium will be extended through Dec. 31.
Tenants who make more than 80% of the area median income and who are still struggling to pay rent will have to certify under penalty of law that their failure to pay is related to COVID-19. If they can prove that, the moratorium will be extended for them.
While housing advocates say the measure will provide some relief, landlords say it continues to put the brunt of the financial weight on them.
What to know about the eviction moratorium as it nears expiration again
The clock is ticking away again for those who could face eviction this fall. The CDC’s pandemic moratorium on evictions is set to expire in early October — or possibly even sooner. The Biden administration is pushing states, cities, and counties to tap into more federal aid, and get it to those who need it. But as John Yang reports, new data shows those efforts are moving much slower than needed. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
The “Pandora Papers,” written by a worldwide consortium of journalists, reveal how world leaders and the mega-rich can hide billions of dollars in secret offshore accounts, which investigators say drain money from government treasuries and can undermine national security. Nick Schifrin talks to Drew Sullivan, co-founder and editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6 Follow us: Facebook: http://www.pbs.org/newshour Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/newsho
In a major international investigation, Four Corners reveals the secrets of the Pandora Papers. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/abcnewsindepth For months, more than 600 journalists from around the world, including the ABC, the Washington Post and the BBC, have been working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on this top-secret investigation. One of the biggest data leaks in history, the papers reveal how the wealthy and powerful are continuing to use offshore tax havens to hide their ownership of assets and stash their cash – despite attempts to rein the industry in. _________
Political Divisions Threaten President Biden’s Agenda | Washington Week | October 1, 2021
Democrats clashed over the size of President Biden’s infrastructure package, as Congress passed a bill to avoid a federal government shutdown before the deadline. The panel also discussed America’s continued division over COVID vaccines and mandates, plus a look into the testimony from military leaders on the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Panel: Laura Barrón-López of POLITICO, Natasha Bertrand of CNN, Garrett Haake of NBC News, Carl Hulse of The New York Times
Ing’s Street Art “My Little Red Shoes”, “Elephant Bath” and
“In the Midst of Troubles, I Seek Peace”
Halsey Street, Newark, New Jersey, USA
Part 1
Thanks to the sun for giving life to my plants, provided it is the optimum condition for my plants grow beautifully. The colorful full flowers give a pleasant sight for the people who pass by.
I appreciate everyone who is helpful to others. In this case I am very lucky and thankful to my husband, John Watts who helped me stretch the canvas and hang up my painting.
I produced the original painting, “My Little Red Shoes” in 1996.
In the Midst of troubles, I Seek Peace
Cultivating my gardens
To show their beauty
Green leaves of different shapes
Extend out to obtain the sun
I water them every day
In the extreme hot, hot sun
I spray water on the plants
The mist of water
Reaches over the leaves
And colorful variety of flowers
Yellow, red, pink, purple, Orange
In the green ocean of light
And dark green leaves
As I spent my time
With my plants in the gardens
Either in front of our shop
Or at the backyard garden
It is a utopian time
When I seek my Peace with Nature
The plants in our backyard garden, 2021
I produced “Elephant Bath” in 1999.
In the Midst of troubles, I Seek Peace
“This is very beautiful”
“And feels very peaceful”
A voice spoke from a man who walked by me
As I looked back
Seeing two eyes
Showing the only part of his face
Still visible beyond the mask
COVID –19 Is
“In the Midst of our Troubles”
With his focus on plants
He seeks Peace in the beauty of nature
In the Midst of troubles, I Seek Peace
“Do you sell the flowers”
A pretty lady asked me
The flowers are for everyone who
Passes by to see something pleasant
The pretty lady smiles happily
Noticing the flowers
My wish has come true
We are seeking peace with nature
In the Midst of troubles, I Seek Peace
“Is that your painting?”
A young man asked me
“Yes! Are you an artist too?”
I asked
“I did some drawing, but not like this.”
He responded
“The plants are beautiful!”
The young man commented
I smile with happiness
Sharing with others
With my best ability
One human being to another
We are seeking peace with nature
In the Midst of troubles, I Seek Peace
The car door opens
Appear a woman with a child”
“Look! Beautiful flowers.”
She points at the flowers
The child’s big eyes wild open
Smiles responding to his mommy
“See yellow flowers!”
I point at a group of marigold flowers
“How old is he?” I ask
“Two years old” She replies
“Our two grandsons come to stay with us twice a week”
“One is going to be six years old next month”
“One and a half years old,
The young one who is very busy bee”
“He is very busy bee too”
She responds to our conversation
Parents and grandparents understand
The lives around the little ones
Our grandsons give me joy
Seeing them healthy and playful
Visualizing the young ones in my mind
As I lay down sleep at night
Smiling with peaceful sleep
Tomorrow my two little ones will be here
A Black yellow spotted swallowtail butterfly on very large pink flowers.
A Black light blue spotted swallowtail butterfly on a very large pink flower.
A golden swallowtail butterfly on an orange flower.
A monarch butterfly on very large yellow flowers.
A monarch butterfly on jade plant flowers.
A monarch butterfly on golden rods flowers.
A golden swallowtail butterfly on mixed colorful flowers and golden rods flowers.
I miss doing my artwork. I do not have a quiet time to be able to concentrate on composing the artwork. This may be due to worry about the COVID-19 virus epidemic, especially during the last administration that caused about 500,000 (Five hundred thousand) people to die. Almost every day there was some controversial news that came from the presidential twitter account, from the White house. I had to listen to the news carefully in order to be aware of the circumstances. There was no peaceful time to contemplate doing my artwork. But now that the Biden administration has far less controversy, I can begin to have some time to think and even feel affect of missing doing the artwork.
This year my Butterfly bush trees have more beautiful large purple and white flowers than in past years. I saw more butterflies came to drink the nectar from the flowers. Three weeks ago, I saw six monarch butterflies drinking the nectar from one of the butterfly bush trees and more on the other trees. I could not get a good picture because they were very busy, flying here and there. Not one of them stayed still long enough for me to capture the image. In previous years, I was lucky to be able to capture photographs different types of butterflies. I also found some of the older flower photographs that I like. So, I combined the butterfly photographs with the flower photographs. The result is the above pictures of different butterflies and flowers in our garden that I was enjoyed capturing in photographs, in previous years.
Bringing ‘ashes to the people’
Since he took office in 2019, an average of 10,000 square kilometers (3861 square miles) of Amazon forest has been destroyed per year, compared to 6,500 square kilometers over the previous decade.
A mural by Brazilian artist and activist Mundano, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 15, 2021. 
Brazilian artist and activist Mundano, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 15, 2021.
A mural by Brazilian artist and activist Mundano, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 15, 2021. 
