NPR's education reporter talks about what graduating seniors are going through right now as the colleges are closed due to the pandemic and answers their questions.

NPR's education reporter talks about what graduating seniors are going through right now as the colleges are closed due to the pandemic and answers their questions.

Während deutschlandweit Corona-Beschränkungen gelockert werden, müssen drei Landkreise auf die Notbremse treten. Besonders hoch sind die Infektionszahlen in einer Fleischfabrik - die Kritik an den dortigen Arbeitsbedingungen wird lauter.

Die deutsche EU-Kommissionspräsidentin Ursula von der Leyen befindet sich in einer Zwickmühle, seit das Bundesverfassungsgericht sich gegen den Europäischen Gerichtshof gestellt hat. Aber sie hat eine klare Meinung zum Disput über die Staatsanleihenkäufe der EZB.

Der 75. Jahrestag des Sieges über den Hitlerfaschismus ist in der weißrussischen Hauptstadt Minsk mit einer großen Militärparade gefeiert gefeiert worden. Auf den Tribünen stehen Weltkriegsveteranen dicht an dicht ohne Maske.

In Deutschland geht die Reproduktionszahl weiter nach oben. Sorgen macht die Entwicklung in drei Landkreisen in NRW, Schleswig-Holstein und Thüringen. Hohe Fallzahlen werden aus Brasilien und Russland gemeldet. Ein Überblick in interaktiven Karten.

I'm crowdsourcing a photo collection of all the COVID-19 closure signs that have popped up all over our communities. I'd love to include photos from your city!

[Hello MF, long time reader, first time poster!]

Over just a few days, my neighbourhood was blanketed in signs announcing closures and operational changes due to COVID-19. I was especially struck by the range of emotions in these signs — so many expressed messages of hope, optimism, and solidarity. I'm trying to document as many of these signs as possible before they disappear.


I'm also cross-posting photos on twitter and instagram

[Link]

I worked with a group of young creative / technical folks (mostly POC) to create an emotional mapping site. Tag a location and share how you're feeling — and check out the three opportunities for funded creative 'residencies'.

A big inspiration was Queering the Map.

[Link]

A while back, I went looking for a TNG version of Deanna – not finding one, I obviously had to make one myself.

The last time I edited video was 1998.

[Link]

An editor friend of mine and I have been trying to keep occupied during the lockdown by collaborating on short (sometimes very short) fiction based around reader-submitted photos. These are the tales we have so far.

[Link]

Rising British rapper, Macca Wiles releases an electrifying new single "Outlined" - a collage of post-'90s grunge rock with modern trap.  Produced by Matt Schwartz (Yungblud, M.O., Massive Attack, Halsey) "Outline" brilliantly fuses the manic alt-rock energy of Nirvana with the trap swagger of Migos. The informal verses guide the listener through a vivid storytelling […]

The post Macca Wiles' fusion of trap and grunge is "Outlined" in new single [Video] appeared first on EARMILK.

What do we actually know about the number of coronavirus cases in the Bay Area? We'll hear about a group of volunteers working to fill in the gaps in testing data. Then, a San Francisco resident is scrambling to meet basic needs in her community during the shelter-in-place order. And, local songwriter Anna Hillburg looks at the city's changing art scene.

How are seniors are coping in this time of isolation? We'll hear how non-profits and an army of volunteers in the Bay Area are working to relieve the anxiety. Then, we continue checking in with reporters around the globe on the coronavirus. Today, we're going to India. And, Oakland pianist and MC, Kev Choice shares the spiritual dimension of his music.

An update on the coronavirus pandemic from Uganda . Then, as part of our ongoing Quarantine Diaries series, we’ll hear from people all around the Bay Area about daily life during the coronavirus epidemic.

Domestic workers are losing jobs they rely on to the pandemic, and the jobs they’ve kept could jeopardize their health. We hear how workers are using lessons from past disasters to advocate for their communities. Then, in a story from Uncuffed , an ex-marine in prison faces his own mortality. Plus, we’re bringing Bay Area author readings to you in a new series called "New Arrivals."

Fremont has been using boulders to block parking near Tesla, and RV residents who call the area their home have had to find another place to go. Then, some singles are missing sex and intimacy during the shutdown. Plus, we continue our "New Arrivals" series with a reading from "Why We Swim" by Berkeley author Bonnie Tsui .

UCSF professor of epidemiology Dr. George Rutherford explains how we've minimized coronavirus deaths so far and talks about a new program that may intrude on our privacy. Then, from The Stoop podcast, we explore how coronavirus is especially affecting black communities.

Public health officials consider the risks and benefits when making policies about going outdoors right now. We’ll hear how the question of equity plays into getting outside. Then, we’ll go to the beach to solve a mystery on the shore. And, a Bay Area poet writes about her deep connection to animals and nature. Plus, we continue our New Arrivals series featuring Bay Area authors.

First, an update on how the City of Oakland is handling the coronavirus pandemic. Then, a teen in Los Gatos creates a space where her peers can safely reveal some of their deepest personal struggles. And, from the Uncuffed team at San Quentin , we’ll hear how a man who grew up in Cambodia and ended up incarcerated in the U.S. Plus, a reading from a Bay Area author for our series " New Arrivals ."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit NOEL KING, HOST: The U.S. and China have a complicated relationship - nothing new there. But during the coronavirus, it's getting worse and may even be at its lowest point since the Tiananmen Square crackdown more than 30 years ago. NPR's Michele Kelemen tells us what the diplomats have been saying, and it is not that diplomatic. MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: U.S. and Chinese officials have been trading barbs on Twitter. And when China's ambassador wrote an op-ed accusing the U.S. of playing the blame game, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came back with this. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) MIKE POMPEO: And I can't wait for my daily column in the China Daily news. KELEMEN: Beyond this tit for tat, relations seem to be deteriorating at all levels. The FBI, for example, has been warning universities about the dangers of working with China, especially in the scientific field. That was going on well before the pandemic, says Georgetown University's James

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: Nurses and doctors have been at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. And yet even as health care workers fight back against the virus, the health care industry is crumbling around them. Today we learned that of the more than 20 million jobs that vanished last month, nearly 1 1/2 million were in health care. AILSA CHANG, HOST: And despite this dismal news for American workers, we heard a more optimistic message from the president today, who spoke about his belief that the country may soon turn an economic corner. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: So we're looking at the transition to greatness, and I think it's starting right now. CHANG: Meanwhile, the virus is inching closer and closer to the president, with another White House aide testing positive today for COVID-19. All right. To talk more about all of this, we're joined now by NPR chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley, science

Dr. Grace Farris is chief of hospital medicine at Mount Sinai West in Manhattan. She also writes a monthly comics column in the Annals of Internal Medicine called "Dr Mom." You can find her on Instagram @coupdegracefarris . Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

A lot is going on this week in the world of cinema, including the nods for next year's Golden Globes! In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair meets up with Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins to discuss the latest movie news and all of the new flicks arriving at your local movie house this weekend.

You can find a good flick anywhere this week, whether it's just down the street or in a galaxy far, far away! In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair sits down with Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins to talk about the latest movie news and all of the new films coming to the silver screen this pre-holiday weekend.

The Golden Globes were handed out this past weekend, and that's just the beginning for what's going on in the movie world. In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair sits down with Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins for a conversation about the latest movie news and the latest flicks landing on the big screen this weekend.

Hollywood's biggest night is on the way, and if you want information on nominations, snubs, and Vegas odds, we have them for you. In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair sits down with Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins to talk about the latest movie news and all of the new films coming to your local movie house this weekend.

It's cold outside, so let a good movie keep you nice and warm! For this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's Michael Jewett sits in for Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins to talk about all of the new films opening this weekend with WEMU's David Fair.

Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins is back from Park City, Utah with a lot of great stories to tell! He joins WEMU's David Fair to talk about this year's Sundance Film Festival, as well as all of the new movies opening in theaters, for this week's edition of "Cinema Chat."

There's only a few days left until this year's Oscars are handed out, so now's a good time to catch up on your film viewing. In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair talks to Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins about the latest movie news and all of the new flicks landing on the big screen this weekend.

The 92nd Academy Awards ceremony is now in the books! In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's Michael Jewett and Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins discuss this year's winners and surprises. Plus, they'll talk about all of the new films heading to the silver screen this weekend.

A touch of Sundance descended upon Ann Arbor this week, and we have the rundown! In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair and Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins discuss last night's "Direct from Sundance" event and all of the new films landing on the big screen this weekend.

Spring is almost here, and plenty of great films are here, too! In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's Mat Hopson talks to Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins about the latest movie news and all of the new films arriving on the big screen this weekend.

In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair sits down with Michigan and State Theater executive director to discuss the latest movie news and all of the new flicks landing at your local movie house this weekend. Plus, Leslie Raymond stops by to talk about this year's Ann Arbor Film Festival, including precautions being taken amidst the current public health crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected so many industries worldwide, and the movie business is no exception. In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair and Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins discuss how movie theaters, especially those found in Ann Arbor, are adapting to this difficult situation.

Movie houses across America are still closed, but Ann Arbor's specialty theaters are still finding ways to give you your movie fix. In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair talks to Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins about the latest movie news and all of the films you can catch in the comfort of your own home, including some first-run films not available anywhere else!

We all have to stay home these days, but the show must go on. In this week's "Cinema Chat," Michigan and State Theater executive director joins WEMU's David Fair by phone to talk about the latest films that you can watch online and, in some cases, share with others in the virtual world!

There's no better cure for cabin fever than a good movie! In this week's "Cinema Chat," Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins joins WEMU's David Fair to discuss the latest films the Michigan Theater is offering online. Plus, a few special screenings and events are in the forecast, as well!

Theaters may still be closed, but the movie world is still open to you! In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair talks with Michigan Theater director Russ Collins about the newest films and special screenings offered through the magic of your very own televisions and computers.

Entertainment has become extremely valuable during this difficult time, especially when it comes to a good flick. In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair gets on the phone with Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins to talk about the newest films and special screenings becoming available this weekend for your online streaming pleasure.

In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair talks to Michigan and State Theater executive director Russ Collins about all of the new flicks and special events the Michigan Theater is providing for your online viewing pleasure this weekend. Plus, they talk about how WEMU and the Michigan Theater fared during this week's National Day of Giving.

Bay Area Artist Journee Premieres "Options" on All Streaming Platforms and Creates the #OptionsChallenge.

Biography

Journee is a 21 year old singer, songwriter, and model from San Jose, CA and is one of 5 brothers and sisters. She’s currently in college at UC Riverside and has immersed herself onto the LA music scene, perfecting her craft, and frequently collaborating with creatives making her one of the most exciting new acts from the region. Her single “This and That” was recently added to the Emerging R&B Playlist on Sound Cloud where out of 55 records she has the 6th most streams overall trailing only major artists. Often being compared to Aaliyah as a vocalist her lyrics are edgy but her voice is smooth and leaves any listener wanting more.

The post Bay Area Artist Journee Premieres “Options” on All Streaming Platforms and Creates the #OptionsChallenge appeared first on Singersroom.com.

"The black feminist Combahee River Collective manifesto and E. Franklin Frazier's Black Bourgeoisie share the diagnosis that the wealthy and powerful will take every opportunity to hijack activist energies for their own ends."

On the origins of identity politics with black feminist activists:

The term "identity politics" was first popularized by the 1977 manifesto of the Combahee River Collective, an organization of black feminist activists. In a recent interview with the Root and in an op-ed at the Guardian, Barbara Smith, a founding member of the collective, addresses common misconceptions about the term. The manifesto, she explains, was written by black women claiming the right to set their own political agendas. They weren't establishing themselves as a moral aristocracy—they were building a political viewpoint out of common experience to work toward "common problems." As such, they were strongly in favor of diverse people working in coalition, an approach that for Smith was exemplified by the Bernie Sanders campaign's grassroots approach and its focus on social issues that people of many identities face, especially "basic needs of food, housing and healthcare." According to Smith, today's uses of the concept are often "very different than what we intended." "We absolutely did not mean that we would work with people who were only identical to ourselves," she insists. "We strongly believed in coalitions and working with people across various identities on common problems."

The concept of elite capture originated in the study of developing countries to describe the way socially advantaged people tend to gain control over financial benefits meant for everyone, especially foreign aid. But the concept has also been applied more generally to describe how political projects can be hijacked—in principle or in effect—by the well positioned and resourced, as Yang's "step up" demand exemplifies. The idea also helps to explain how public resources such as knowledge, attention, and values get distorted and distributed by our power structures. And it is precisely what stands between us and Smith's urgent vision of coalitional politics.

To better understand the broader dynamic, we can look to philosopher C. Thi Nguyen's work on games. As he explains in his new book Games: Agency as Art (2020), confusing the real world with the carefully incentivized structure of game worlds can lead to a phenomenon he calls "value capture," a process by which we begin with rich and subtle values, encounter simplified versions of them in social life, and then revise our values in the direction of simplicity. Nguyen is careful to point out that value capture doesn't require anyone's deliberate or calculated intervention, only an environment or incentive structure that encourages excess value clarity.

Nguyen stops short of noting that another risk of gamifying values is the unequal distribution of power across participants. But outside of the world of games, power differentials do shape outcomes. Value capture is managed by elites, on purpose or not. In other words, elites don't simply participate in our community; their decisions help to structure it, much in the way that game designers structure the world of games. After all, elites face a simpler version of oppression than non-elites do: whereas working-class black folk are pressed by racial slights and degradation alongside economic problems that might require "socialized medicine" to solve, elites's economic position makes them comfortable enough to focus on their own status and cultural power—often at the expense of non-elites.

The Congressional Black Caucus's cosponsorship of Ronald Reagan's 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act helped supercharge mass incarceration by establishing mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines and adding $1.7 billion toward the drug war while welfare programs were cut. This legislation solved the problem for the black elites of the CBC of how to seem involved with respect to the crack cocaine epidemic. But with the law's passage, working-class African Americans went from dealing with one very complex problem to weathering two interlocking ones: the drug epidemic itself—unsolved by this draconian measure—and the surge of discriminatory law enforcement the legislation unleashed.

Elite capture is not unique to black politics; it is a general feature of politics, anywhere and everywhere. I could just as easily have focused on the world of elite universities. In Philosophy of African American Studies (2015), for example, Stephen Ferguson II makes a similar argument about the elite capture of black studies, which owes its existence to the radical student movements of the 1960s and '70s but has since been "turned into a bureaucratic cog in the academic wheel controlled by administrators, with virtually no democratic input from students or the black working-class community." I could also have kept the general perspective but reversed the role of race and class. In socialist organizations, for example, we might find that white people likewise tend to capture the group's politics.

Or we could look away from race to a different set of identity characteristics altogether. In the Buzzfeed article "You Wanted Same-Sex Marriage? Now You Have Pete Buttigieg," Shannon Keating laments the trajectory of mainstream queer politics away from the more radical elements dramatically on display in the Stonewall riot of 1969 and ACT UP. Or take how The Wing, a coworking space touting itself as a "women's utopia," exploits the women who work for it.

And, of course, elite abuse of identity politics isn't limited to the United States. It is also a particularly salient problem in Global South politics, where national, ethnic, and caste identities are shaped by an unstable mix of indigenous and colonial history. Peace studies scholar Camilla Orjuela argues that, from Sri Lanka to Kenya, politics in multiethnic Global South societies easily fall into cycles of expecting elites to allocate resources along blatantly ethnic and regional lines. After all, the thinking going, the elites of every other ethnic group will do the same when they're in power. Journalist John Githongo describes such ethnic elites as "creatures of patronage and . . . influence peddling" who treat the state as a ladder to their own goals rather than an institution of collective responsibility. These conceptual strands are vividly illustrated by the history of the U.S.-backed Haitian dictators "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier. The Duvaliers cynically used tropes drawn from the Vodou religion, popular with the country's poor, to intimidate the citizenry while enriching themselves. At the same time, they unleashed unspeakable violence upon actual Vodou practitioners, fearing the revolutionary potential of the religion, which was instrumental in ending slavery on the island.

As the Combahee River Collective acknowledged, simply participating in activism is no guarantee that we will develop the right kind of political culture; its founding members were veterans of important radical political movements that nevertheless made crucial oversights along the way. Elites have to get involved—actually involved—but that involvement needs to resist elite capture of values and the gamification of political life.

We have our work cut out for us, but fortunately we aren't starting from scratch: there's a rich history to draw from. In the 1960s, feminists held regular group meetings, in houses and apartments, to discuss gender injustice in ways that would have been taboo in mixed company. A set of such "consciousness raising" guidelines by Barbara Smith and fellow activists Tia Cross, Freada Klein, and Beverly Smith provides an example of identity politics work as the Combahee River Collective envisioned it. The exercise starts by asking participants to examine their own shortcomings ("When did you first notice yourself treating people of color in a different way?"), but ends by asking how they can use an element of shared oppression as a bridge to unite people across difference ("In what ways can shared lesbian oppression be used to build connections between white women and women of color?"). Because, in the end, we're in it together—and, from the point of view of identity politics, that is the whole point.

"Fuck the Bread. The Bread Is Over." Sabrina Orah Mark reflects on fairy tales, the academic job market, and being a mother during the COVID-19 pandemic. (SLParisReview)

What does 'mild' mean in the context of Covid-19? Geographer Felicity Callard details the multifarious meanings of mildness in this pandemic; how the term is used by different actors and what it comes to mean to those experiencing 'mild' cases. The mild, Callard argues,

will likely continue to be used for multiple Covid-19 purposes – whether adjudicating clinical symptoms, assessing the virus's impact on the body, determining the need for formal healthcare services, or judging the likely time of return to functional normality, whether inside and outside the labour market. I therefore predict on-going epistemological, ontological and political contestation over the scope and definition of the mild.

Luz had never heard Bible truth in her language—until she attended a Spanish-speaking Amazing Facts prophecy series! She devoured the message and wanted more. Today, you can greatly multiply the number of Spanish materials and websites for our Latino friends when you sacrificially support this ministry. Thank you for changing her life and helping to bring the message of life to the people of Cuba.

In addition to changing many aspects of our waking lives, coronavirus has also shifted how we dream. Institutions around the world have been collecting examples of dreams since the outset of the pandemic, and some researchers found a 35% increase in dream recall since lockdown. On Second Thought sat down with Harvard University Assistant Professor Deirdre Barrett to learn more about the impact of COVID-19 on our dreaming minds. Barrett has analyzed dreams of World War II soldiers, 9/11 first responders, and Kuwaitis under Iraqi occupation. Since March, she’s collected details on more than 7,000 dreams to study how people are responding to coronavirus in their dreams.

In the 911 call regarding the fatal incident involving Ahmaud Arbery and his assailants, Gregory and Travis McMichael, the 911 dispatcher said she didn't understand what Arbery was "doing wrong."

Compared to the lockdowns and shuttered businesses in countries across the world, Sweden is an outlier. Swedish officials have advised citizens to work from home and avoid travel, but most schools and businesses have remained open. This relaxed approach aims to minimize impact on the economy and slow the spread of the virus through what is known as “herd immunity.” But striving for herd immunity without a controlled vaccine in place can also prove risky.

'How can we draw comfort from knowing that, in the end, God and His people will be victorious?'

'This week we will look at some foundational aspects of the origin and nature of the Bible that should impact our interpretation and understanding of it.'