Ordinary World: Holiday Hangover Edition

world

[OW1] The “People’s Court” in China is not a made-for-TV show

A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a former lawyer who reported on the early stage of the coronavirus outbreak to four years in prison on charges of “picking fights and provoking trouble,” one of her lawyers said. The Pudong New Area People’s Court in the financial hub of Shanghai gave the sentence to Zhang Zhan following accusations she spread false information, gave interviews to foreign media, disrupted public order and “maliciously manipulated” the outbreak.

Lawyer Zhang Keke confirmed the sentence but said it was “inconvenient” to provide details – usually an indication that the court has issued a partial gag order. He said the court didn’t ask Zhang whether she would appeal, nor did she indicate whether she would. Zhang, 37, traveled to Wuhan in February and posted on various social media platforms about the outbreak that is believed to have emerged in the central Chinese city late last year.

[OW2] Meanwhile, in Russia…

A blizzard of recent legislation in the State Duma has made it harder to protest, easier to target opposition figures and activists and has given authorities broad scope to brand individuals as “foreign agents,” with five-year jail penalties for failure to meet reporting requirements. The government is also moving to curb foreign Internet sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Under new laws, Putin has immunity from prosecution for life, and information about the financial and personal affairs of millions of members of Russian intelligence bodies, security agencies, the judiciary, law enforcement, regulatory agencies and the military — and their relatives — is classified. This elite, central to Putin’s power, has been targeted for corruption investigations by Alexei Navalny, Russia’s main opposition figure and Putin’s only political rival. Some of the new laws appear aimed at him and his colleagues at his Anti-Corruption Foundation.

“It’s a captured state. Putin is forever. He will not step down,” said Vladislav Inozemtsev, a political analyst with the Moscow-based Center for Post-Industrial Studies and an associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “If you’re staying another 15 or 20 years in the Kremlin, you should tighten everything, because protests are definitely not declining. And therefore this turn to authoritarianism was absolutely obvious, and it will go further and further.”

[OW3] Let them fight?

Last month, lawyers acting on behalf of the Boy Scouts asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit, which suggested it could not use “scouts” or “scouting” in its recruitment material for girls.

In the latest filing at the Manhattan federal court on Christmas Eve, the Girl Scouts described the new recruitment programme as “highly damaging” to its organisation, having caused an “explosion of confusion” among parents.

“As a result of Boy Scouts’ infringement… [there have been] rampant instances of confusion and mistaken instances of association between Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts,” the papers stated, adding that the organisation could provide proof of such instances.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Boy Scouts said this was “not only inaccurate – with no legally admissible instance of this offered to date in the case – but it is also dismissive of the decisions of more than 120,000 girls and young women who have joined Cub Scouts or Scouts BSA”.

[OW4] One last campaign hurrah?

President Trump announced Sunday that he’ll hold a rally in Georgia on the eve of a crucial Senate run-off — and will be in the nation’s capital when Congress votes to certify the electoral vote.

“On behalf of two GREAT Senators, @sendavidperdue & KLoeffler, I will be going to Georgia on Monday night, January 4th, to have a big and wonderful RALLY,” he said on Twitter. “So important for our country that they win!”

That would put him in the state one day before GOP incumbent senators David Purdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing a run-off election, with Republican control of the Senate hanging in the balance.

Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock are vying to eliminate the GOP’s two-seat majority in the legislative chamber.

The two have raised more than $200 million between them — by far the most in a Senate race this year. More than 2 million Georgians have cast early votes in the race.

[OW5] How much relief is in the relief bill?

This latest bipartisan relief package omits direct state and local aid, and it only extends federal unemployment benefits to mid-March, even though millions of people probably will be out of work for far longer. Overall, the bill’s price tag shrank from $2 trillion to below $1 trillion, a product of a legislative compromise that was forged between Democrats and Republicans, who were weary of adding to the nation’s debt load.

Here’s what’s in the new $900 billion stimulus package

“This is better than nothing, and there’s some good news that we’re finally getting a deal,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief U.S. financial market economist at Oxford Economics. “The bad news is it’s less stimulative than the prior packages, and the relief measures are short-lived.”

Still, many of the 14 economists interviewed by The Washington Post said the package should be large enough to prevent the economy from backsliding further in the coming months. By that time, vaccines should be more widespread, enabling the hard-hit restaurant and travel sectors to begin a robust recovery.

[OW6] This is refreshing from a professional athlete

WATCH:@JJWatt goes on an explosive rant about the state of the team.

Watt is upset at the product the Texans are putting on the field for the fans: pic.twitter.com/VFDB34rhUs

— Ari Alexander (@KPRC2Ari) December 27, 2020

[OW7] Here we go again…

Britain will ban “buy one get one free” promotions for food high in fat, sugar or salt and free refills of sugary soft drinks in restaurants from April 2022, the government said on Monday, its latest step in its plan to tackle obesity and improve public health.

The government says obesity is one of Britain’s biggest long-term public health problems with almost two-thirds of adults in England overweight and one in three children leaving primary school overweight or obese.

The measures will also restrict where in a store promotions on such products can be advertised, and unhealthy promotions will not be allowed at checkouts, shop entrances or at the ends of aisles.

“We are restricting promotions and introducing a range of measures to make sure the healthy choice is the easy choice. Creating an environment which helps everyone eat healthier foods more regularly is crucial to improving the health of the nation,” public health minister Jo Churchill said.

[OW8] The Yelp! reviews at the end were straight fire…

Archaeologists in Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, have made the extraordinary find of a frescoed hot food and drinks shop that served up the ancient equivalent of street food to Roman passersby.

Known as a termopolium, Latin for hot drinks counter, the shop was discovered in the archaeological park’s Regio V site, which is not yet open the public, and unveiled on Saturday.

Traces of nearly 2,000-year-old food were found in some of the deep terra cotta jars containing hot food which the shop keeper lowered into a counter with circular holes.

[OW9] App of the year?

We no longer live in a 2D meme world of Pepe the Frog, the boyfriend checking out another woman and that man with the weird crinkly face laughing at things. The realm of visual online artistry now not only demands PhotoShop, but video editing skills. Many argue that Vine did this first, but the caveat here is that Vine died while TikTok, which was the fastest app in the history of social media to reach a billion user downloads, isn’t going anywhere. Creators like Robert Tolppi have sent eerie, bad 3D renderings viral on DeepTok [Deep TikTok], the TikTok community known for promulgating a number of bizarre videos, the comments sections of which users gather in to revel in their internet weirdness. This is the year that the internet got “deepfried”: a phrase that refers to the use of deliberate glitches and creepy voice deepening effects that turned TikTok feeds into a sort of Orwellian doomscape. But for fun. Given how much the rest of the world felt like it was turning into an actual Orwellian doomscape, it makes sense that kids would want to create their own one, within their control, and within which they could connect. Many of the deep-fried videos failed to reach virality outside of the app unlike many other TikToks this year, suggesting that the odder niches of meme culture only work when partnered with TikTok’s mysterious algorithm, much like how others only work in certain groups or subreddits.

[OW10] Making free speech permanent during Covid?

Unsure whether he could hold a funeral for his grandmother who succumbed to COVID-19, the man turned to Tiffany Mitchell for another way to memorialize her.

He “couldn’t just get the phone call and go, ‘OK, she’s dead’ and just leave it at that and do nothing at all,” said Mitchell, who owns Black Raven Tattoo in Torrance. “For a lot of people, a tattoo is one of the only outlets they have to honor somebody.”

With a whirring tattoo gun, she emblazoned the words “Grandma RIP” on his forearm.

This was during a brief window beginning in October, when Los Angeles County tattoo parlors opened after being shuttered for the second time by coronavirus restrictions. A state order that went into effect earlier this month brought about a third wave of closures across most of California.

Mitchell and two other Southern California tattoo parlor owners have sued Gov. Gavin Newsom over the mandated closures. On Wednesday, a federal judge denied their request to temporarily lift the restrictions.

For public health purposes, the state lumps tattoo parlors into the personal care services category that includes nail salons and barbers — all requiring prolonged, close contact with clients.

But unlike nail and hair styling, tattoos are considered a form of constitutionally protected free speech in some jurisdictions