| |  | | First-generation Mexican American Nicte Aguillon Jimenez, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, experienced firsthand how language barriers could impede access to crucial educational information. Nicte’s experiences inspired her to assist young people facing the hurdles of language acquisition in navigating personal and social issues, especially in communities where topics like reproductive health are taboo. In partnership with African Languages Lab (All Lab), Nicte designed and implemented All Voices, a conversational chatbot that answers health-related questions in several African languages so young people can gain access to the information they need to make the best decisions for their reproductive health. |
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IMPORTANT
|  | Show Us the Money! | House Committee Votes to Release Trump Tax Returns Former President Donald Trump has long resisted releasing tax information, but after his last-ditch plea to the Supreme Court failed, six years of his returns were released to the House Ways and Means Committee. On Tuesday committee members voted 24-16 to make those documents public. They also revealed that in his first two years in office, Trump dodged the mandatory IRS audits for sitting presidents — and the agency only launched his first presidential audit in 2019 on the same day Committee Chairman Richard Neal sent a formal request. Trump’s 2015-2020 returns are expected to be made public in the coming days. (Sources: WaPo, The Hill) |
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| | |  | School’s Out | Taliban Bars Women From Afghanistan’s Universities “They destroyed the only bridge that could connect me with my future,” one Kabul University student said. The Taliban said the ban, which follows the decision in March to bar girls from secondary school, would take immediate effect. It’s the latest curb on women’s freedoms since the group seized power last year and women have all but disappeared from public life. Condemnation from within Afghanistan and abroad has been swift: The ban “will come with consequences for the Taliban,” the U.S. warned, while a United Nations representative called it “a new low further violating the right to equal education.” (Sources: BBC, The Guardian) |
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|  | Hero’s Welcome | Zelenskyy Is Coming: Ukraine President Set to Address US Congress It will be President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first known trip outside of Ukraine since Russia launched the invasion in February. He’ll visit Washington, D.C., for just “a few short hours” Wednesday, but it’s likely to be a lucrative stopover for the Ukrainian war effort. President Joe Biden is expected to allocate another $2 billion in military aid — including the much-anticipated Patriot missile defense system. Zelenskyy hinted at the trip in a surprise visit to troops on the front line. In the strategic Donetsk province city of Bakhmut, Zelenskyy collected a Ukrainian flag and vowed to deliver it to Washington. (Sources: AP, Axios) |
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|  | Hair-Splitting | No Official New COVID Deaths, but China Is Struggling Beijingers are waiting days for crematorium services or paying premium rates to send off lost loved ones as the city faces a major challenge following the end of China’s zero-COVID policy. But according to the National Health Commission’s narrow definition of what is considered a COVID-related cause of death — only pneumonia and respiratory failure are included in the statistic — the impact of the change has been minimal. One U.S.-based health expert calls it a “March 2020 mindset.” Still, factories and other workplaces have dropped stay-at-home requirements for sick workers, sparking fears that an explosion in cases is now unavoidable. (Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg) |
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|  | Briefly | Here are some things you should know about today: He’s out. Nearly 16 years after Frank Bainimarama seized power in Fiji in a coup and named himself prime minister, he lost the top job. Sitiveni Rabuka will be named the new leader after elections last week returned a minority government. (Source: AAP) Bring it forward. After nearly two weeks of demonstrations following the ousting of Peru’s President Pedro Castillo, Congress will vote again on bringing the presidential election forward to next year at the urging of Castillo’s unpopular successor, Dina Boluarte. (Source: Al Jazeera) Big freeze. Weather watchers are warning Americans traveling this holiday period to expect biting winds and snow as the mercury plunges amid a cold snap across much of the country. (Source: NPR) |
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INTRIGUING
| | | Light Up | The Future of Observatories Is Bright — a Little Too Bright Three-quarters of all major astronomical observatories are surrounded by light pollution and that could soon become a disaster. Researchers from Italy, Chile and Galicia teamed up to look at 50 of the world’s largest observatories, both professional and amateur, and measured how much artificial light was influencing their views. Of 28 major observatories — those with telescopes measuring a diameter of 3 meters or larger — just seven had sky brightness under 1%, a level low enough to be considered uncontaminated. Lead researcher Fabio Falchi said a site in Namibia, used frequently for night photography, was the least contaminated site in the world. (Source: Phys) |
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| | | Help Wanted | Elon Musk Is On the Lookout for a Twitter CEO Successor Musk is out of the C-suite “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” That’s what the billionaire tweeted after his poll of Twitter users resoundingly said he should stand aside — though Musk said he’d continue to “run the software & servers teams.” The about-face follows a bumpy few weeks, including an investigation into a member of his security team. Southern California police confirmed an unidentified employee is a “suspect” in a traffic incident that Musk initially blamed on a “stalker” using information provided by @ElonJet, an account that shared flight details of Musk’s private plane. (Sources: CNN, NBC) |
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| | | Who Owns It? | Nearly a Century Later, This Family Wants Its Van Gogh Back German Jewish banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was forced to sell his art collection in the mid-1930s under pressure from the Nazis. Now his descendants are suing Japanese insurance firm Sompo Holdings, the current owner of one piece, in an Illinois court, saying Vincent Van Gogh’s 1888 Sunflowers rightfully belongs to them. Sompo, under a previous name, bought the painting in 1987 for a record $39.9 million. While the suit agrees Sompo didn’t “purposefully” seek out looted art, it says the company knew the painting was a “casualty of Nazi policies.” The family is seeking the painting or $750 million in punitive damages. (Source: Artforum) |
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| | | Hit the Road | Italian Police Zoom in Lamborghinis to Make Organ Deliveries “Traveling on the motorway to deliver the most beautiful Christmas present: life,” Italian police said in a Facebook post showing off their custom Lamborghini Huracan. Lucky police drivers delivered two kidneys from Padua, in the northeast, to hospitals in Modena and Rome — a drive of hundreds of miles that normally takes many hours. Lamborghini gifted the Huracan supercar to police in 2017 for use in normal operations and high-speed deliveries. It has a top speed of 190 miles per hour and can go from 0 to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds, making it ideal for precious cargo like organs. (Source: CBS) |
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| | | | | Tough Road | F1 Drivers Can’t Take a Stand Without Written Permission The International Automobile Federation, Formula One’s governing body, is demanding that drivers have written permission before making political statements. A new clause in its International Sporting Code, which comes into effect next year, prohibits “the general making and display of political, religious and personal statements or comments notably in violation of the general principle of neutrality” of the organization. Rob Koehler of international athlete advocacy group Global Athlete said that could violate the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, which upholds the freedoms of opinions and expression. He said, “Sport rules should not have the ability to limit that right.” (Source: Reuters) |
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COMMUNITY
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