https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/11/first-edition-cop29-climate-crisis-donald-trump US election | Donald Trump has been declared the winner in Arizona, completing the Republicans’ clean sweep of the so-called swing states and rubbing salt in Democrats’ wounds as it was announced that the president-elect is scheduled to meet with Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the presidential handover. Trump reportedly spoke on the […]

James Gunn got his start at Troma, and the skills he acquired there can help make the DC Universe (and future superhero movies in general) a success.

Walt Disney is the answer (er, question) in Final Jeopardy, and it helps makes an Orlando man the winner

The Miami Dolphins selected a talented college wide receiver who has the size to play tight end in the NFL with their sixth-round selection on the final day of the 2023 NFL draft, and then grabbed an offensive tackle in the seventh round.

Mike Shannon, a two-time World Series winner and longtime St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster, has died. He was 83.

Influencers have played a big role in this election cycle. Hundreds of typically nonpolitical content creators have been using their platforms to endorse candidates on both sides of the political spectrum. Funnily enough, those who said nothing on election day actually ended up being the loudest. 

“Speaking as an influencer, a lot of your favorite influencers are fucking embarrassing,” said TikToker Kate Glavan. “To be a woman in America with a huge fucking platform and a huge audience and post nothing yesterday, just business as usual, ‘I’m going to my Pilates and I’m going to my brunch . . . ’ No one gives a fuck about your Amazon storefront or your fucking makeup routine.” 

The comment section of her video is filled with people calling out the names of influencers who have been notably silent throughout the election. “Me finding out which influencers voted [Republican] cause they are the ones who are strangely silent and acting like its a regular day,” posted another TikTok user last week. 

For influencers, posting who they voted for is a lose-lose situation. Pick a side and they risk alienating a large section of their audience. Stay silent and they risk alienating a large section of their audience. While it makes sense that followers want to know who their favorite influencer voted for, should we expect—or even want—political activism from people whose job involves posting their Sephora hauls and workout routines?

With apologies to Voltaire, with great virality comes great responsibility. Unlike media outlets, which are subject to regulation, there is little oversight of social media, meaning influencer posts can reach millions and have huge sway over their followings. During the 2024 election cycle we have seen influencers and internet personalities being paid on behalf of groups backing both Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump to court their followers’ votes, cashing in on thousands—sometimes millions—for a single post. 

Social media influencers have more influence than they are often given credit for, according to research published in the journal Management Information Systems Quarterly. In fact, research by Pew shows that more than half of U.S. adults (54%) turn to social media for news at least some of the time, putting influencers in direct competition with traditional news outlets for audience attention. To stand out in this crowded space, influencers are incentivized to exaggerate their messages, often leading to polarized followers. If their audience ends up blindly following what they say instead of examining the candidate’s or party’s policies for themselves, it can result in diminished critical thinking in voters. 

Influencers are human and will have a political opinion whether they choose to share it or not. Being pressured into posting about politics can sometimes end up causing more harm than good. At the same time, choosing not to post anything at all during such a divisive election is a choice. So is following an account.

While Donald Trump has announced a few people who will be part of his new administration, when it comes to Cabinet appointees, things appear to be ramping up fast. Trump has named people to several roles, including chief of staff and border czar, and media reports in the past 24 hours have leaked a number of potential Cabinet appointments–with more to come.

On Monday night, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was expected to name Florida Senator Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State—the first of the 15 Cabinet posts to be filled. And on Tuesday South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was tapped to head Homeland Security. Trump also confirmed that former Rep. Lee Zeldin would be his EPA administrator and that John Ratcliffe, the one-time director of National Intelligence during the final year of Trump’s first term and a former congressman who is unflinchingly loyal to Trump, is his pick to lead the CIA. Trump also surprised many with his pick of Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary.

The job of Cabinet secretaries is to advise the president on issues that are related to their office—and whoever fills those must first be confirmed by the Senate . . . at least, for now. Trump is already calling on the Republican-controlled Senate to change those rules and let him appoint nominees without a Senate vote.

Nominees for Cabinet positions are normally trusted advisors, experts in their field, and sometimes major donors. Tesla CEO and Trump backer Elon Musk also may or may not be involved: He recently put out a call on X saying it “would be interesting to hear recommendations for roles in the new administration for consideration by the President.”

Whether those recommendations will carry any weight is, of course, unknown, but given how close Musk and Trump are now—and Trump’s fondness for social media feedback—it can’t be discounted entirely.

That said, here are some of the leading and potential candidates for select Cabinet posts:

Attorney General

Senator Mike Lee: Considered by some as the leading candidate, the Utah Senator aided efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He has also spread conspiracy theories about the January 6 attack on the Capitol. That’s a big turnaround from 2016, when he did not vote for Trump.

Jeffrey Clark: Known best as the assistant Attorney General who pressured officials in the Justice Department to overturn Trump’s loss in 2020, Clark is currently under indictment in Georgia for his role in that election. Three months ago, a disciplinary committee in Washington, D.C., said Clark should be disbarred for two years for efforts to interfere with election results.

Treasury Secretary

Scott Bessent: The former Soros Fund Management executive (and founder and CEO of Key Square Group) is reportedly Trump’s “go-to economic advisor” and has become the frontrunner in the race for Treasury Secretary after John Paulson removed himself from consideration Tuesday.  He has known the Trump family for decades and is friends with JD Vance. Bessent has expressed concerns about the country’s debt levels and believes the way to correct that is by increasing growth. Asked about a possible Treasury secretary role by CNBC, he said, “I’m going to do whatever Donald Trump asks.”

Howard Lutnick: While Lutnick, who is CEO of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, might be under consideration, he’s busy right now leading the Trump transition team with Linda McMahon (who was administrator of the Small Business Administration, 2017-2019, during Trump’s first term). Lutnick and Trump have been friends for more than 20 years and he raised or donated more than $75 million for Trump’s reelection bid.

Larry Kudlow: Best known as a Fox Business financial commentator, Kudlow served as director of the National Economic Council during the Trump Administration, 2018-2021. Throughout this election cycle, Kudlow has been a vocal supporter of Trump and his economic policies on Fox.

Wild cards

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: While Kennedy has said Trump “promised” him “control of the public health agencies,” the exact role he will play in the administration (if any) is still very much up in the air. Asked by CNN in August if he would appoint the independent politician to his cabinet, Trump said “he probably would,” but public criticism of Kennedy’s stance on vaccines and water fluoridation has grown considerably since then.

Elon Musk: Musk has stuck close to Trump since the election, even sitting in on a call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Musk has, however, taken himself out of the running for any Cabinet positions, according to Trump. “He doesn’t want to be in the Cabinet, he just wants to be in charge of cost-cutting. We’ll have a new position, secretary of cost-cutting—Elon wants to do that.” On Tuesday, Trump announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would indeed head a new agency called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut government spending, although a new agency cannot be created without Congress.

Update, November 12, 2024: This article has been updated with Trump’s picks for CIA and Defense Secretary, and announcement about Musk and Ramaswamy.

The largest number of doses (85pc of the allocation) will go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the epicentre of the current outbreak.

Read more: WHO announces 899,000 mpox vaccines for nine African nations most affected

Four roofing companies, including a serial offender that owes more than $4 million in fines, have received a combined total of $1.27 million in penalties from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.

Government attorneys appealed a Texas judge's finding that the Navy's strict religious accommodation process violates the religious freedoms of 35 sailors who refused the vaccine.

The post Navy appeals court decision barring punishment for SEALs who refused vaccine first appeared on Federal News Network.

The yearly fiscal crisis and threats of appropriation lapses affect the contractor industry no less than government employees and the programs they conduct.

The post Government shutdowns stress the whole federal ecosystem first appeared on Federal News Network.

CJ Lang & Son Ltd, the wholesaler for SPAR in Scotland, and the major Scottish convenience store franchise with over 300 stores across the country, has selected RELEX, provider of unified supply chain and retail planning solutions, to automate and optimise its supply chain processes.

A Sheffield design and additive manufacturing business is using its system to help the pharmaceutical industry to save valuable time in its production process.

A White House official says President Joe Biden will nominate a longtime aide who once worked for the first lady to represent the United States at the United Nations agency devoted to education, science and culture. Courtney O'Donnell is Biden's choice to become the U.S. permanent representative to the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. O'Donnell would have the rank of ambassador. O'Donnell is a longtime Biden aide who once worked for Jill Biden. She currently is acting chief of staff for second gentleman Doug Emhoff. The U.S. recently rejoined UNESCO after a five-year absence.

The post Biden will nominate longtime aide who worked for the first lady to become US ambassador to UNESCO first appeared on Federal News Network.

Change Healthcare is starting to notify hospitals, insurers and other customers that they may have had patient information exposed in a massive cyberattack. The company also said Thursday that it expects to begin notifying individuals or patients in late July. Change Healthcare is a subsidiary of health care giant UnitedHealth Group. It provides technology used to submit and process billions of insurance claims a year. Hackers gained access in February to its system and unleashed a ransomware attack that encrypted and froze large parts of it.

The post Change Healthcare to start notifying customers who had data exposed in cyberattack first appeared on Federal News Network.

Former Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma has died. He was 89. The family says in a statement that the Republican had a stroke during the July Fourth holiday.

The post Former US Sen. Jim Inhofe, defense hawk who called human-caused climate change a ‘hoax,’ dies at 89 first appeared on Federal News Network.

For many investors, the Thrift Savings Plan will provide anywhere from one-third to half their income in retirement. Assuming, of course, there is income!

The post TSP returns: Who hit the down button? first appeared on Federal News Network.

Russian doctor who criticised war in Ukraine sentenced to five years in prison

Irish entrepreneur who put Dubai on the Duty Free map dies

Tom Wolfe's classic account of the early days of spaceflight has migrated to TV, with help from some seasoned insiders.

Worried about the economy, but climate change isn't high on your list of concerns? Keep reading...

I look at one of the most remarkable articles in the history of psychology

Location: Special Collections Hevelin Collection- BD511.Y6 1928

Location: Main Library- PK6562.16.A73T8 2014

Location: Main Media Collection - Video record 42358 DVD

Location: Engineering Library- TA217.B4D46 2016

Location: Engineering Library- TH438.13.D45 2016

Location: Engineering Library- TL789.85.A1B85 2016

Who are Christians of Iraq and Syria?

Perspective: Guest-Editorial: Muslim Assyrians? Who are they?

Appreciating van Leeuwenhoek: The Cloth Merchant Who Discovered Microbes

There's no surer way to start a fight than to talk politics with someone who disagrees with you. But UCSB psychologist Tania Israel says it doesn't have to be that way. She sees as an opportunity to help bridge America's political divide.

As a player, John McEnroe was not a fan of the French Open. He has few fond memories of the dark red clay on the courts of Roland Garros. As brilliant a career as McEnroe had, he was never able to win a French Open title. He spoke with me by phone from Paris, where he is preparing for his job as a television analyst for the Tennis Channel. We talked about the 2013 French Open and the red clay at Roland Garros.

Campus police are scanning hundreds of images and using facial-recognition technology to identify the attackers. Similar tools were used to identify Jan. 6 attackers.

Writers and other creators see OpenAI's forthcoming Media Manager as an attempt to evade responsibility for the theft of intellectual property.

L.A.-area startups received $1.8 billion in the third quarter, the highest quarterly amount for the region, according to CB Insights. Most of it went to a single company.

Why are Washingtonians using the Empower ride-sharing app?

Former President Barack Obama encouraged coders to join the Biden administration's artificial intelligence team.

Not wearing hearing aids could lead to increased risks of social isolation and Alzheimer's Disease.

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Nathalie Graham

One more for the blue: After a neck-in-neck race, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez officially won re-election to the House in the 3rd Congressional District, beating out far-right challenger Joe Kent. Her win is another step forward for Democrats as they try to take back the House and retain a shred of power in the coming administration from hell. About two dozen races nation-wide still need to be decided.

Please spare us, H5N1: The Centers for Disease Control want more testing done for bird flu after blood tests on 115 of dairy workers showed 7% had bird flu antibodies, meaning they'd already contracted the disease at some point. Previously, we only confirmed 46 cases of bird flu jumping from cows to farmworkers. This new study suggests that bird flu has infected many more people than the confirmed cases. Experts say this indicates the H5N1 viruses are a greater threat than we realized. Great! Another flu just in time for the vaccine-doubters to take office. 

Wet weekend—and then week—ahead: Friday will likely be our last dry day for a while. Get your galoshes ready. The rain starts Saturday and it'll continue at least throughout the week.

I hope you like rain this weekend! ????️

It could be wet for the State H.S. football tournament games across the Puget Sound region. #pnw pic.twitter.com/JAvPx7hegV

— Jake Whittenberg (@jwhittenbergK5) November 8, 2024

That's nice: Boeing said it will pay the employees the money they lost while being furloughed during the machinists' strike that started in September. 

Egyptian flooding: A pipe leak at the historic Egyptian Cinema on Capitol Hill shut down the 108-year-old theater for the "foreseeable future." Repairs will be expensive and take months. The universe does not want me or my people (progressives, art house movie lovers) to be happy this week. 

INBOX: The SIFF Cinema Egyptian is going to be closed for "the foreseeable future and the Fine Arts building leadership expect that it will take multiple months of building closure to assess, repair and reopen." Sad news especially during what is a big time of the year for film. pic.twitter.com/v2ItPx5Lpi

— Chase 'Hutch' Hutchinson (@EclecticHutch) November 7, 2024

Another hit while we're down: Don't forget, five light rail stops will close this weekend. Starting at 10 pm on Friday through 5 am Monday, Westlake, Symphony, Pioneer Square, International District/Chinatown, and Stadium stations will all be closed and inaccessible. Trains will run between Lynnwood and Capitol Hill and between Sodo and Angle Lake. Shuttle buses will be available to bridge gaps between open and closed stations. It’s all part of the crawling effort to connect Line 1 to the Eastside line.

Sign of the times: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale rocketed to the top of Amazon's bestsellers list this week.  

Racist texts: In the days after the election, Black and Brown people across the country received spammy, racist texts telling them they had "been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation" and that the senders' "executive slave catchers" would pick them up. State attorney generals say they will root out who sent these texts. A second Donald Trump term means the masks covering the depravity in America are well and truly off. Racists are emboldened. 

Nobody panic: Forty-three monkeys escaped from a medical lab in South Carolina. "There is almost no danger to the public," a local police chief said. No danger? Isn't this how Planet of the Apes started? 

Israeli soccer fans attacked in Amsterdam: Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch's Ajax faced off in a Europa League soccer game Thursday. After the game, people attacked Israelis in hit-and-run scooter attacks. Five Israeli fans went to the hospital, but have since been released. Around 20 to 30 other Israelis sustained light injuries. Police arrested 63 people, and ten are still in custody. Context, as always, is important. In the days leading up to the match, social media videos showed Maccabi fans "chanting anti-Arab slurs, praising Israeli military attacks in Gaza, and yelling 'fuck the Arabs,'" according to CNN. Ajax won the game 5-0. 

And now, something from Ashley about the cops: 

Fill’er up: The King County Jail officially lifted misdemeanor booking restrictions for the Seattle Police Department (SPD) allowing officers to finally lock up all those pesky Target shoplifters and people who tried to use the bathroom at PCC one too many times and ended up trespassed. I wrote about how SPD Deputy Chief Eric Barden told officers in a department wide email Tuesday that they should book people into jail whenever a public safety interest existed and only show additional discretion when the department neared their misdemeanor bed limit of 135 people per day. Most people charged with misdemeanors spend less than a week in jail, so could be a lot of people cycling through, which King County Department of Public Defense Interim Director Matt Sanders said will ultimately make it harder for people to hold down jobs, maintain housing, and secure behavioral health treatment, ultimately undermining public safety in the city.

Did you hear about San Francisco's new mayor? He's a centrist Democrat and he's the heir to the Levi's fortune. Daniel Lurie won the ranked-choice voting election with 56.2% of the vote. Incumbent London Breed only received 43.8%. San Franciscans made clear they are sick of seeing poverty and being confronted with crimes of desperation. Unfortunately, as we know very well in Seattle, electing a centrist may hide the problems for a bit, but it will do nothing to fix them. 

A porn gorge: North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia have unrestricted internet access for the first time in their lives and they're using it to watch mountains of porn and jerk themselves silly. Boys will be boys! 

Need something to do tonight? The world is bleak. Why not laugh a little at an improv show? The improv theater I wrote about for my column is having a battle of the star signs show tonight followed by an open-to-all improv jam. I'll be performing on the Scorpio team even though I'm not a Scorpio (don't tell anyone). 

A song for your Friday: This just feels like the sound of my psyche right now. 

The most depressing thing last night for me was reading that a longtime friend voted for the worst candidate they've ever voted for because the other one was worse. They wouldn’t say who they actually voted for. This is what we’ll be left with as a country when all this is done.

I gave another $100 to Harris to compensate, and of course voted straight Democratic on Thursday. Unlike my friend I was proud to vote for her. The alternative, after what we lived through between 2017 and 2021, to choose to go through that again, hard to imagine the horror.

And of course that’s assuming he voted for Harris.

Life-altering experiences. Can you point to a single experience in your life, as a child, which you can define as having contributed to the person you are today? (+)

While many were focused on the race for the White House, Inland Northwest contests were also largely decided on Tuesday night. With at least 31,000 ballots remaining to be counted, Spokane County voter turnout hovered around 56% of registered voters as of Tuesday, which is significantly lower than expected in a presidential election…

Angella Southerly believes that a single act of kindness, no matter how small, has the power to change someone's life…

marusin posted a photo:

via Instagram ift.tt/2i9K9zv

marusin posted a photo:

via Instagram ift.tt/2j2ZWhM

T.J. Osborne and his bandmate John invite chair of the House Republican Caucus to meet them in person for discussion after conservative politicians block plans to honor T.J.

T.J. Osborne and his bandmate John invite chair of the House Republican Caucus to meet them in person for discussion after conservative politicians block plans to honor T.J.

In this month's edition of AppleVis Unleashed, Thomas Domville and Mike Malarsie are joined by James Dean to discuss recent Apple news and other topics of interest. Topics featured in this episode include:

• Introduction
• Apple Makes Developer Betas Free to Download and Install
• Let's Talk about that Vision Pro
• What's New in iOS 17 for Accessibility
• Mailbag
• The release of iOS 17 will cause unsupported iPhone X and iPhone 8 lose up to 50% of their value
• Recent iOS 16.5.1 Release and What’s in the Upcoming iOS 16.6
• Is the iPhone 15 Pro Getting More Expensive?
• in this month AppleVis News
• Closing

Links:

• Apple Makes Developer Betas Free to Download and Install
• WWDC 23 Keynote: Apple Unveils Platform Updates and Introduces Apple Vision Pro Headset and New Macs
• Apple is ‘working with EU’ on third-party app stores for iPhone, iPad, etc.
• Vision Pro keeping camera access under lock and key compared to iPhone and iPad
• Here are the Vision Pro apps that Apple won’t allow
• Apple Seeds Third Betas of iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 to Developers
• The release of iOS 17 will cause unsupported iPhone X and iPhone 8 lose up to 50% of their value, according to SellCell.
• iPhone 15 Pro Max rumored to cost $200 more than iPhone 14 Pro Max
• Apple’s A17 Bionic expected to be its first 3nm chip, offering major performance and efficiency leaps
• RightHear - Blind Assistant

If you have feedback or questions for the Unleashed team, you can reach them by email at unleashed@applevis.com or by leaving a voice message at 1-816-287-1482 (US number, call charges may apply).