SINCERETALK

The recent plethora of ethics and corruption scandals that have involved multiple jurists on the United States Supreme Court including Chief Justice John Roberts has triggered an explosion of demand for codified independent oversight of the Court. On Friday night's edition of The Reid Out , justice correspondent for The Nation Elie Mystal suggested how lawmakers on Capitol Hill could pressure the normally independent judiciary into compliance. Host Joy Reid noted that "the conduct by Clarence Thomas could be criminal. The conduct by [Brett] Kavanaugh back during that time could be, could have been criminal. The FBI did a pretend investigation of him. He's sitting on the court judging whether we can have the rights over our own bodies and he might have misused the bodies of women. To me, they seem completely out of the bounds of ethics and they don't care." READ MORE: The US Supreme Court’s efforts to dodge oversight are the actions of 'monarchs and emper...

With conflict that has already caused extensive damage to public infrastructure and loss of human lives taking different faces, News24 spoke to Alp Sevimlisoy, a geopolitical strategist and national security expert. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/M5eglxd via sinceretalk

It would be a “lost opportunity” to conserve limited green space in the Cape Town suburb of Woodstock , should the city forge ahead with a planned housing development on the historic Castle bowling green, according to a social impact study.   The study concluded that the bowling green should become part of an upgraded park and the 150 housing units the city had planned to build here — the Earl Street Social Housing Project — be subsumed into the 600-unit project planned for the former Woodstock Hospital across the road.  Open space in densely populated areas, such as the Woodstock/Salt River area, “is a scarce, irreplaceable resource whose value will increase with time as the population grows and the demand and need for open spaces grow”, the authors said. They noted that “the challenge and promise of public space takes on a historical dimension” in South Africa, in that the deficit in low-income areas that date from apartheid continues. This is relevant to the decisi...

The Cape Town bus company tasked with transporting more than 50 churchgoers from St Aidan's Church in Lansdowne to the Southern Cape, says the driver was injured and still in shock after a deadly accident that saw four female passengers die and scores injured. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/hm1J96A via sinceretalk

The Bulls will have an anxious week ahead of them regarding the fitness of flyhalf Johan Goosen. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/r1n4STs via sinceretalk

Our world faces a mental health pandemic as serious as the one that changed our lives forever in 2020. According to the 2022 World Mental Health Report, there were 970 million people living with mental disorders globally in 2019, including 14% of the world’s adolescents.  Suicide accounted for more than one in 100 deaths; 58% of suicides occurred before the age of 50 and is the fourth-highest cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds. An estimated 82% of the people living with mental disorders reportedly reside in low- and middle-income countries, including ours.  South Africa ranks low on mental health, according to the report. This is because our country is beset by living conditions that fuel poor mental health, including social and structural drivers, such as high levels of violence, poverty, unemployment and inequality. Combined, these factors result in mental health disorders, such as psychological distress, inability to concentrate, depression, anxiety, suicide, hopel...

The suppression of the voice of transgender Montana State Representative Zooey Zephyr (D-100th District) by Republicans last week has sparked nationwide outrage and led to massive demonstrations by Zephyr's constituents in the city of Missoula. Zephyr was banned from the House floor by the GOP as retribution for her accusing conservatives of having "blood on their hands" by passing legislation that strips transgender Montanans of their rights and access to critical health services such as gender-affirming care. Republicans also canceled Monday's scheduled meetings of the House Judiciary and Human Services Committees in which Zephyr would have participated, however, the Montana Free Press reported on Friday that the Judiciary's was reinstated. READ MORE: Montana’s only transgender lawmaker silenced for saying GOP as 'blood on its hands' Meanwhile, Montana's Democratic United States Senator John Tester blasted the assembly's right-wing majori...

Though there may have been some trepidation over the new Sprint Shootout's implementation, there is no doubt that the sprint qualifying has done its intended job. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/F8q2vuV via sinceretalk

All South Africans who were stuck in conflict-torn Sudan have been safely evacuated, according to Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesperson Clayson Monyela. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/sL3g9iZ via sinceretalk

The head of the Spar Group has offered assistance to the KwaZulu-Natal education department after the main contractor in the National School Nutrition Programme pulled out of its contract on Wednesday. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/Nume8dq via sinceretalk

The joy of long weekends is forgetting which day of the week it is. According to a meta-analysis by The Lancet, longer weekends are good for your heart. Not just in the metaphorical way, but also physically. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/1KV2vlM via sinceretalk

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been looking into alleged corruption in the R2.4  billion KwaZulu-Natal school nutrition programme debacle since February. Millions of learners have struggled without the breakfast and lunch served as part of the national school nutrition programme since the Easter break because the company granted the tender either failed to deliver food or provided rotten food. The tender, awarded to Pacina Retail (Pty) Ltd, owned by self-styled philanthropist  AmaZulu FC director Manzini Zungu , first drew the SIU’s attention earlier this year after a whistleblower tipped the unit off about the contract. But the provincial education department’s director general, Nkosinathi Ngcobo, has failed to provide the SIU with the tender documentation it requested two months ago in connection with the deal, which has now been scrapped. Pacina’s failure to supply the nearly 5 400 schools with food has also set off alarm bells, with both Premier Nomusa Dube-Nc...

American Federation of Teachers’ president Randi Weingarten says U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘s very personal attack on her as she testified before Congress this week was “homophobic,” and she is urging people to call out “cruelty” whenever they see it. Weingarten denounced “the vile, homophobic nature” of Greene’s attack, saying, “it was pathetic, and the undermining of families was pathetic.” On Wednesday, for five minutes, the Republican Congresswoman from Georgia berated, demeaned, and bullied Weingarten — and not just Weingarten but the LGBTQ community, and anyone who is adopted, anyone who has adopted a child, anyone who is a parent to a child but not by birth –not “biologically,” the term Greene used – and anyone who is a child of a parent but not biologically. Congresswoman Greene told Weingarten she is “not a mother” because she not the “biological” parent of her children. It was a shocking claim that stunned many, but as NCRM reported, it was not the first time G...

Sibongile Novuka is yet another attacking player brimming with promise at the Bulls, a trait that's led to him carrying the nickname 'Izzy' for a number of years now. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/J9h3EWF via sinceretalk

As South Africans brace themselves for their worst winter yet, it's worth contemplating the implications of this worsening scenario for food producers given that they provide for our most basic need of all, writes Christo van der Rheede. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/K4k7eaP via sinceretalk

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s “historic” testimony before a federal grand jury investigating Donald Trump ‘s efforts surrounding the January 6, 2021 insurrection and to overturn the 2020 election should allow Special Counsel Jack Smith to reach a decision “soon” on whether or not to charge the ex-president. “Expect decisions soon from Jack Smith. Very little reason to dawdle now, particularly on MAL charges,” said Andrew Weissman, referring to Trump’s unlawful retention and refusal to return classified documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago. Weissman is a former FBI General Counsel, served two decades at the Dept. of Justice, and was the lead prosecutor during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “Another historic benchmark: Donald Trump’s VP, Mike Pence, just testified in the grand jury about the crimes of his former boss,” said Glenn Kirschner, a federal prosecutor for 30 years who is now an MSNBC legal analyst. “Take it from this old prosecutor-Pence’s testimony is ...

The New York Times reported Wednesday that there were text messages from former Fox host Tucker Carlson that were so bad that it is what ultimately led to his downfall. Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Thursday about it, reporter Michael S. Schmidt explained that the messages redacted in public court documents were so bad it wasn't worth keeping their highest-viewed host. "Despite the fact that Fox’s trial lawyers had these messages for months, the board and some senior executives were now learning about their details for the first time, setting off a crisis at the highest level of the company," the Times said, according to two sources. It's something that, Wallace said, was so awful that it is worse than anything he's ever had on any of his shows. The reporting explained that they were bad , but Schmidt implied that they were far worse than anything else they had from Carlson that was public. "I can only describe the way that people, you ...

A man has been sentenced to 10 years for killing his uncle, who had reprimanded him for breaking a house window. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/tnkg2f9 via sinceretalk

It’s a hot and crowded Tuesday morning in the Yoruba Cultural Center in Havana, and the air sticks to the skin. You can hear the fluttering of paper as people fan themselves, and a surprise blackout takes out the sound system with a flicker of the lights. And yet, 150 young organizers from the U.S. sit shoulder to shoulder, listening attentively to two leaders of the cultural movement in Cuba. They line up and down the hall with the hope of squeezing in their question—on climate change, on housing, on fighting racism, about hope in the future—before time is up. This article was produced by Globetrotter . This energy permeates through and drives the 2023 May Day Brigade: a sharp sense of curiosity honed by the responsibility of this historic undertaking. The International Peoples’ Assembly invited young grassroots activists from across the diversity of struggles in the U.S. to participate in a crucial exchange in Cuba, an experience deprived of them and their generation by the 60-y...

Mounting news reports since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year have detailed the experiences of pregnant people who have been denied lifesaving abortion care, and in the case of one woman in Oklahoma last month, the state's abortion ban effectively barred her from receiving cancer treatment. Jaci Statton , a 25-year-old mother of three, experienced heavy bleeding in February after feeling nauseous, dizzy, and weak for several weeks. Her doctor informed her that she had a molar pregnancy, in which a fertilized egg has too many chromosomes that keep it from ever developing into a viable fetus. Statton's molar pregnancy was among 15% of cases which become cancerous, putting her at risk for more hemorrhaging, kidney and liver failure, stroke—and potentially death. Over the course of a week, though, Statton and her husband were told by doctors at three different hospitals that she could not get the treatment recognized by doctors as the standard of care ...

In the name of "protecting future generations from potentially devastating consequences," a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation meant to prevent artificial intelligence from launching nuclear weapons without meaningful human control. The Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act —introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.), and Ken Buck (R-Colo.)—asserts that "any decision to launch a nuclear weapon should not be made" by AI. The proposed legislation acknowledges that the Pentagon's 2022 Nuclear Posture Review states that current U.S. policy is to "maintain a human 'in the loop' for all actions critical to informing and executing decisions by the president to initiate and terminate nuclear weapon employment." The bill would codify that policy so that no federal funds could be used "to launch a nuclear weapon [or] select or engage targ...

Montana State Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D-100th District) is determined to counter the state's GOP lawmakers' slew of anti-trans proposed legislation. The state's only transgender lawmaker, Zephyr has voiced her opposition to the GOP's anti-trans laws, which the Republican lawmakers have aggressively attempted to silence . "The Montana GOP has pushed over a dozen anti-trans bills this year—targeting our art forms, our stories, our healthcare, and our very existence," Zephyr said in a memo shared via Twitter last week. "It is particularly troubling that the moment they were confronted with the impact their legislation has, they chose to silence the only trans woman elected to public office in Montana as opposed to doing the right thing and voting down this harmful legislation." READ MORE: 'The worst anti-trans bill I have ever seen': GOP-led state houses are ramping up efforts to gut LGBTQ+ rights Zephyr said this a few days after a hearing i...

The federal judge overseeing E. Jean Carroll’ s civil lawsuit alleging Donald Trump raped and defamed her, on Wednesday strongly warned the ex-president’s attorney just hours after Trump had made several negative social media posts attacking the lawsuit and his accuser. Now a well-known former federal prosecutor is explaining the judge may have something stronger in mind than contempt of court. Wednesday morning, before the trial got underway, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan warned Joe Tacopino, Trump’s attorney, his client’s remarks on social media were “entirely inappropriate,” as Law & Crime’s Adam Klasfeld had reported . Tacopino promised to have a talk with Trump. That apparently did not solve the problem. “Carroll’s lawyer notes the Eric Trump tweeted about him,” Klasfeld reported later Wednesday afternoon, referring to Trump’s son Eric. “After that, Kaplan issues a stern warning to Tacopina, saying the posts could put the ex-prez and ‘conceivably’ his son ‘in harm’...

News24 first saw the so-called 'Eskom intelligence reports' in October 2022. We never published investigative reports based on it, because the evidence wasn't there, writes Pieter du Toit, assistant editor of investigations. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/8bPXAlF via sinceretalk

Fox News is in possession of potentially damaging information about Tucker Carlson in a dossier its executives compiled in case the conservative cable host ever sought to attack the network, Rolling Stone reports . That threat is no longer hypothetical after Fox News’ announcement on Monday that it has cut ties with Carlson , and split sources told the outlet that it was “the worst” and on “the messiest possible terms,” descriptions that are at odds with the network’s characterization of a mutual and amicable decision to depart with its highest-rated host. The existence of an “oppo file” on Carlson was confirmed to the outlet by eight sources. A network spokesperson denied that such a dossier exists. The file contains allegations Carlson created a toxic work environment and includes claims that he made disparaging comments about management and colleagues, as well as complaints about his workplace conduct. Carlson has so far remained mum about the circumstances behind his dismissa...

United States Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) boasted during a recent interview with the right-wing advocacy group Moms for America about her seventeen-year-old son Tyler having impregnated his underage girlfriend. Boebert announced in March that she is excited to be a " thirty-six-year-old grandmother " and has refused to disclose the teen mother-to-be's age, revealing only that she is some number " over fourteen ." Boebert, who secured a second term in 2022 by a mere 546 votes, opposes abortion, is against teaching young students about human reproduction, and was herself an adolescent parent. READ MORE: Watch: Lauren Boebert wants 'comprehensive sex ed' banned from public schools Boebert told a correspondent covering Moms for America that "my oldest son, um, he is going to be a dad in April, the beginning of April. And I, I, I made the, the announcement because I, I want to encourage so many people, um, that life wins. Life is a go...

MSNBC's Ari Melber on Tuesday said that he had acquired a "damning" new recording of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) discussing how to potentially overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. "I think that the country deserves to have a credible assessment of these claims and what the evidence shows and the mechanism to try to force that is denying certification on the sixth," Cruz told Fox host Maria Bartiromo on Jan. 2, 2021. "'Forcing this reassessment,' as he so dryly put it, of [Joe] Biden's actual win," alleged Melber, "was for Cruz one step in a larger coup plot. And that's what the next tape I'm going play for you shows after the violence on Jan. 6th, there was, of course, the ongoing process of trying to overthrow the election Cruz early in that day right before the Capitol was breached was one of 11 senators denying. I should point out, the majority of senators didn't go that far. That's just one thing. Th...

Missouri's Republican secretary of state and recently declared gubernatorial candidate Jay Ashcroft declared that changing a person's gender is "impossible" during a Tuesday appearance on CNN. "So, so you're talking about what you agree with, with the attorney general in terms of this bill and, and that is children. I, I'm asking you specifically why you say this shouldn't apply to adults," anchor Bianna Golodryga said. "Well, unfortunately, although I, I, I don't think anyone should go through this process because it's a lie to say that you can change from a man to a woman or a woman to a man through surgery. It just doesn't happen. It's like spray painting a brick of lead and saying, 'look, I have a brick of gold.' You don't, you have a brick of lead that's been spray painted," Ashcroft proclaimed. READ MORE: 'Fake complaints and other ephemera' force Missouri to shut down transgender ...