Israel
Prime Minister cuts funding to UN israelnationalnews
Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Foreign Ministry to cut $2 million from Israel's payments to the UN, in light of the hostile proposals adopted by the UN Human Rights Council last week.
Society
If state lawmakers have their way, California schoolchildren may be taught how to spot ‘fake news’ washingtonpost
California Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D) introduced a bill Wednesday that would require the state to establish curriculum standards and frameworks to teach “civic online reasoning” to middle- and high-schoolers. The intention is to help give youngsters “the ability to judge the credibility and quality of information found on Internet Web sites, including social media,” the bill states.
Israel
Jordanian official: Moving US embassy to Jerusalem would be ‘catastrophic’ jta.org
An embassy move would be a “red line” for Jordan, would “inflame the Islamic and Arab streets” and serve as a “gift to extremists,” [Jordanian minister Momani] said, adding that Jordan would use all possible political and diplomatic means to try and prevent such a decision.
Anti-Semitism
Activists Manipulate Third-Graders into Hating Israel truthrevolt.org v
"Far under the radar, the attempt to demonize Israel is moving down the educational chain even into elementary schools, pushed by activists who accept no boundaries even for young children," begins Professor William A. Jacobson, who runs LI. "Yet because such activities take place in schools to which access is limited, and the young students are not developmentally able to report on what happens, it’s rare to obtain hard visual proof. We have such proof."
Government
Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste washingtonpost
Pentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat power. But after the project documented far more wasteful spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results.
Russia-Japan
Japan pledges response to 'serious' Russian missile deployment on disputed islands independent.co.uk
The countries are trying to arrange a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next month to settle a 70-year dispute over the islands, which were claimed by the Soviets after Second World War and lie just north of Japan.
Also see Military build-up in the Kuril Islands: Bad timing or a signal from Moscow? rbth
Economy
Dow eclipses 19,000 for first time in its 120-year history usatoday
After Monday’s record-breaking day, when the Dow Jones industrial average, large-company Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, tech-dominated Nasdaq composite and the small-cap Russell 2000 all closed at record levels at the same time for the first time since Dec. 31, 1999, the Dow is making fresh headlines and will likely get a big shout out on the evening news.
False Unity
Amazon Christmas advert 2016: Imam and priest push festive message of friendship independent.co.uk v
A spokesman for Amazon told The Independent: "Our casting reflects this: the gentleman playing the vicar is a practising vicar in London, the gentleman playing the imam is a devout Muslim and the principal of a Muslim school. We used an actual church and mosque for our scenes within the places of worship."
Oh, Amazon...
Society
'Modern Family' to feature transgender child actor usatoday
Wednesday's episode will feature transgender actor Jackson Millarker. The 8-year-old Atlanta native will play Tom, a friend of Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) who comes over for a playdate.
Philippines
Rodrigo Duterte Condemned After Comparing Philippine War on Drugs With Holocaust wsj
“Hitler massacred three million Jews,” Mr. Duterte told reporters in Davao upon his return from a visit to Vietnam Friday. “Now, there are three million drug addicts [in the Philippines]…. I’d be happy to slaughter them.” In fact, historians estimate that the Nazis murdered six million Jews across Europe in the Holocaust during World War II.
Also see Duterte, Citing Hitler, Says He Wants to Kill 3 Million Addicts in Philippines nytimes
Israel
Accept Palestine or face ‘sea of hatred,’ Jordanian king warns Israel timesofisrael
Mentioning only the Christian and Muslim connection to Jerusalem holy sites, Abdullah accused Israel of attempting to alter the identity of the city.
Death
What It Feels Like to Die theatlantic
“Roughly from the last two weeks until the last breath, somewhere in that interval, people become too sick, or too drowsy, or too unconscious, to tell us what they’re experiencing,” says Margaret Campbell, a professor of nursing at Wayne State University wayne.edu who has worked in palliative care for decades. The way death is talked about tends to be based on what family, friends, and medical professionals see, rather than accounts of what dying actually feels like.
EU
Europe forges ahead with plans for 'EU army' telegraph.co.uk
Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, is preparing to forward a timetable setting out steps to create EU military structures “to act autonomously" from NATO.
History
Two Decades after His Death, Richard Nixon Is Still Setting Precedents politico
Forty-two years after the 37th president resigned in disgrace, and 22 years after he died, there really is a “new Nixon” at last—a new Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, that is, with radically reimagined interactive exhibits telling the story of his life and presidency in the first comprehensive overhaul since it opened in 1990.
...library officials say the new exhibits will move beyond the blatant hagiography that characterized the old Nixon library...to tell history whole. That means a forthright look at Watergate, the bombing of Cambodia and other negative aspects of the Nixon legacy, amounting to an important victory for professional historians who have long battled the band of Nixon loyalists who built the library as a private institution.
Israel
UN test ban head: Israel should ratify [nuclear test ban] treaty within 5 years washingtontimes
“I’m putting five years as the longest it should take now based on the positive sign that I’m seeing from Israel,” said Zerbo, who met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time during a visit there in June.
Iran-US
U.S., others agreed 'secret' exemptions for Iran after nuclear deal - think tank in.reuters
The report pdf, which was released by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, is based on information provided by several officials of governments involved in the negotiations. The group's president David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and co-author of the report, declined to identify the officials, and Reuters could not independently verify the report's assertions.
EU
Some E.U. countries got rid of the draft years ago. Now, they’re thinking about bringing it back. washingtonpost
In Europe, public opinion long appeared to develop similarly, as conscription was abandoned in France in 1996, followed by Italy, Sweden and Germany.
But more recently, many Europeans — especially those who are now too old to be drafted — have changed their minds on the issue. Following terrorist attacks last year, 80 percent of all French and 70 percent of Swedes said they would support a return of conscription.
Syria
The Syrian Ministry of Tourism Invites You to Enjoy a Lovely Vacation in Its War Zones foreignpolicy v
Mysteriously missing from the one-minute, 43-second video released by the Syrian Ministry of Tourism promoting vacation spots in the coastal town of Tartus [is d]amage from Islamic State suicide bombings that killed dozens in that very town this summer.
Environmental
A Huge Reef Hiding Right Behind the Great Barrier Reef atlasobscura
The existence of this reef has been known about for decades, but, up until recently, its exact scope and scale has never been truly known. But with the use of new laser mapping technology, the natural formations have become much more clear, and appear to be much grander than previously imagined.
Depravity of Man
Gruesome discovery in Germany raises questions about Holocaust-era experiments jpost
According to the report, the mostly brain and brain parts found in the building were remains from those murdered in Nazi human experiments, which were inhumanely conducted on prisoners including children, the mentally ill and people with disabilities during the Holocaust.
Big Data
Liberal, Moderate or Conservative? See How Facebook Labels You nytimes
You may think you are discreet about your political views. But Facebook, the world’s largest social media network, has come up with its own determination of your political leanings, based on your activity on the site.
Society
Compromise Reached in Bill to Criminalize Undercover Filming at Abortion Facilities christiannews.net
Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D-Echo Park) proposed the measure earlier this year in light of the undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress exposing Planned Parenthood’s provision of baby bodily organs to procurement companies.
Archeology
King Solomon-era Palace Found in Biblical Gezer haaretz
The monumental building dates to the 10th century BCE, the era associated with King Solomon, who is famed for bringing wealth and stability to the newly-united kingdom of Israel and Judah. The American archaeological team also found a layer featuring Philistine pottery, lending credence to the biblical account of them living in the city until being vanquished by King David.
Space
SpaceX Signs First Customer for Launch of Refurbished Rocket wsj
Scheduled to occur before the end of the year, the mission announced on Tuesday will be the first one to use the lower stage and nine main engines of a Falcon 9 rocket that experienced the rigors of a blastoff and acceleration through the atmosphere on a previous launch. No other commercial space company or military contractor has achieved such a landmark by recovering and reusing the entire lower stage intact, after an initial orbital flight.
Egypt
Egypt blames EU-Turkey deal for refugee spike euobserver
"You see what has happened as a result of the deal with Turkey. The closing of the Balkan route and the deal in north Africa, the pressure has increased on Egypt," [foreign minister ambassador Hisham Badr] told MEPs in the European parliament's foreign affairs committee.
Robots
Researchers discover machines can learn by simply observing, without being told what to look for sheffield.ac.uk
The discovery, published in the journal Swarm Intelligence springer, takes inspiration from the work of pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing, who proposed a test, which a machine could pass if it behaved indistinguishably from a human. In this test, an interrogator exchanges messages with two players in a different room: one human, the other a machine.
AI
Kawasaki Developing Artificial Intelligence For Motorcycles motorcycle
The AI wouldn’t just allow a motorcycle to talk to a rider; Kawasaki kawasaki says the AI will use a technology called an “Emotion Engine” to interpret a rider’s emotions and perhaps even develop its own personality. Cue the “Knight Rider” theme now.
DNA
How DNA could store all the world’s data nature
“We sat down in the bar with napkins and biros,” says Goldman, and started scribbling ideas: “What would you have to do to make that work?” The researchers' biggest worry was that DNA synthesis and sequencing made mistakes as often as 1 in every 100 nucleotides. This would render large-scale data storage hopelessly unreliable — unless they could find a workable error-correction scheme. Could they encode bits into base pairs in a way that would allow them to detect and undo the mistakes? “Within the course of an evening,” says Goldman, “we knew that you could.”
Variation in 'junk' DNA leads to trouble medicalxpress
Although variants are scattered throughout the genome, scientists have largely ignored the stretches of repetitive genetic code once dismissively known as "junk" DNA in their search for differences that influence human health and disease.
A new study shows that variation in these overlooked repetitive regions may also affect human health. These regions can affect the stability of the genome and the proper function of the chromosomes that package genetic material, leading to an increased risk of cancer, birth defects and infertility. The results appear online in the journal Genome Research. genome.cshlp.org
Medical
Contacts May One Day Be Used to Deliver Glaucoma Medication drugs
The new study showed that the drug-dispensing lenses were able to effectively lower the eye pressure in monkeys with glaucoma at least as much as the standard eye drops used to treat the disease.
Reconstructing the 6th century plague from a victim scienmag
Before the infamous Black Death, the first great plague epidemic was the Justinian plague, which, over the course of two centuries, wiped out up to an estimated 50 million (15 percent) of the world's population throughout the Byzantine Empire—-and may have helped speed the decline of the eastern Roman Empire.
No one knows why it disappeared.
Other...
View smart nanotechnology glass is in 250 commercial buildings nextbigfuture v
Interesting, though this is mostly a commercial for the product...
Society
Princeton begins to remove 'man' from official school material foxnews
As first reported Thursday by the conservative campus news outfit The College Fix, Princeton’s Human Resources and Office of Communications issued a four-page memo princeton.edu filled with examples of gender-neutral terminology that must now be used in official school documents...
Turkey-EU
Give us EU visa freedom in October or abandon migrant deal, Turkey says whbl
[Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu] comments in Bild's Monday edition coincide with rising tensions between Ankara and the West that have been exacerbated by the failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15. Turkey is incensed by what it sees as an insensitive response from Western allies to the failed putsch, in which 240 people were killed.
Also see Greek Migration Minister: Refugee Flows from Turkey Manageable greece.greekreporter
Olympics
More Than 1,000 U.S. Spies in Brazil Protecting Rio Olympics nbcnews
In addition, more than a dozen highly trained Navy and Marine Corps commandos from the U.S. Special Operations Command are in Brazil, working with the Brazilian Federal Police and the Brazilian Navy, according to senior military officials.
North Korea
North Korean missile lands perilously close to Japan washingtonpost
In flight time, that meant the missile was only 20 or 30 seconds from Japan itself, said Euan Graham, who served as a British diplomat in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
