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Office of the Governor of... A photo taken by graduates of a West Virginia prison training course doing the Nazi salute. Share

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(JTA) — More than 30 West Virginia correctional academy trainees who were seen giving a Nazi salute in a class photo will be fired.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Monday that he has approved the recommendations from a report by state investigators calling for the dismissal of the correctional officer trainees who participated in the photo. According to the report, the trainees regularly gave the Nazi salute “as a sign of respect” for their instructor in the weeks prior to the release of the photo, The Associated Press reported.

The photo of dozens of participants in the basic training class making the Nazi salute reads “Hail Byrd!” at the top, a reference to their correctional academy instructor, Karrie Byrd.

Two correctional academy trainers and a cadet from the class shown in the picture were fired when the photo came to light in early December.

Byrd told investigators that she was unaware of the “historical or racial implications of the gesture” and said it was “simply a greeting,” according to the report, NBC News reported. Other sources for the report contradicted her statements.

“The investigation disclosed that she encouraged it, reveled in it, and at times reciprocated the gesture,” the report said.

Justice said in a statement Monday that “this act needed to result in real consequences – terminations and dismissals.”

“This kind of behavior will not be tolerated on my watch in any agency of state government,” he said.

A three-page executive summary was released Monday detailing the state's inquiry into the controversial image. (West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

CHARLESTON, W. Va. (AP) — West Virginia plans to begin training its corrections department staff about the Holocaust after a photograph of correction officer cadets giving Nazi salutes led to dozens of firings and widespread outrage, officials said Tuesday.

A spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety said the leader of the regional Anti-Defamation League chapter has agreed to draft the training materials and coursework. He said the agency is “committed to taking all steps necessary to accomplish this.”

The move comes a day after Gov. Jim Justice announced that more than 30 trainees seen in the photo were being fired, along with their instructor. He made the announcement after a report was released detailing how the instructor “reveled” in the salute and encouraged the class to perform the gesture. Four other instructors are being suspended without pay.

"This kind of behavior will not be tolerated on my watch in any agency of state government,” Justice, a Republican, said in a statement Monday.

The photograph, which shows the trainees with their arms raised and faces blurred, was released in early December as officials promised a swift probe of the matter. The image also includes a line of text that reads “Hail Byrd,” a reference to instructor Karrie Byrd.

On Monday, the state released a a summary of its internal investigation, which found that an unspecified number of trainees in Academy Class 18 began using the gesture early on in their training “as a sign of respect” for Byrd. Soon after, other class members also began flashing the salute.

Byrd, who taught the course on “Cultural Diversity,” told investigators that she was “completely unaware of the historical or racial implications of the gesture and reported it was simply a greeting,” according to the summary.

The investigation lists multiple sources contradicting Byrd's statements. Two other instructors told Byrd and the class that the gesture was inappropriate but Byrd said there was nothing wrong with it, according to the report.

“The gesture was done with Byrd's knowledge," the document read. “The investigation disclosed that she encouraged it, reveled in it, and at times reciprocated the gesture. Additionally, Byrd appeared to overrule the corrective actions taken by others and assured the cadets the behavior was acceptable.”

A voicemail message could not be left at a phone number listed for Byrd in public records.

Byrd eventually directed her class to use the hand gesture while taking a photo of the group, though the image had to be taken several times because not everyone was giving the salute, the report said. It added that after 10 members resisted, Byrd explicitly directed them to give the gesture. Seven of those cadets told investigators they made a fist so as to appear to comply with Byrd's demand but not directly mimic a Nazi salute — which can be seen in the photo released.

After the image was taken, a secretary asked Byrd what the class was doing, the report said. State investigators wrote Byrd responded with “look there is nothing wrong with it, we have people of all colors and backgrounds in the picture and everyone of them are participating.” Byrd then told the secretary to caption the image “Hail Byrd,” and said “that's why they do that because I'm a hardass like Hitler."

The photo also made its way before “Capt. Daniels-Watts,” according to the report, which withheld the captain's first name. The report said the captain never addressed Byrd about the photo and did not attempt to stop the photo's distribution.

“Do I resign now or what”" Daniels-Watts asked state officials during the investigation. “I saw the picture and did nothing.”

Ultimately, investigators determined the cadets displayed “poor judgment” but concluded no one who participated in the gesture was being discriminatory.

The report concluded: “There is no dispute that the ‘Hail Byrd’ gesture and photograph were highly offensive and egregious in appearance, but the investigation did not reveal any overt motivation or intent that this was a discriminatory act towards any racial, religious, or ethnic group.”

Byrd made a little over $36,000 from the state in 2018, according to the most recently available employee compensation records.

You can’t touch this:

Pope Francis says sorry

for slapping devotee 43 replies Posted by GO3 — Post Reply VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis apologized Wednesday for his widely-viewed slap of a woman who had grabbed his hand as he greeted Catholic faithful on New Year’s Eve. The image of Francis slapping his way free from the clutches of the admirer was an instant hit on social media. A personal apology followed. “We lose patience many times,” Francis confessed. “It happens to me too. I apologize for the bad example given yesterday,” the head of the Catholic church said before celebrating Mass at the Vatican.

NSC chief slashing Obama's

'bloated' staff to create efficient,

tight-lipped White House operation 23 replies Posted by MissMolly — Post Reply The White House National Security Council staff is being downsized sharply in a bid to improve efficiency within the policy coordinating body by consolidating positions and cutting staff. A second, unspoken thrust of the overhaul is a hoped-for end to what many critics see as a string of politically damaging, unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information. Leaks of President Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders and other damaging disclosures likely originated with anti-Trump officials in the White House who stayed over from the Obama administration, according to several current and former White House officials. White House National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien is leading the NSC reform effort.

Here are the 5 biggest Republican

mistakes of the decade 22 replies Posted by tisHimself — Post Reply For Republicans, the 2010s end with the party seemingly in a better situation than it was when the decade started. The GOP has control of the White House and the Senate. Ten years ago, the Democrats held the White House and both houses of Congress. But that scorecard doesn't tell the whole story. Thanks to five major blunders over the last decade, the Republican Party is actually weaker than it was on Jan.1, 2010. To understand why, you have to document each key mistake in order:

Report: Iran-Backed Militiamen Retreat

from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad 21 replies Posted by Imright — Post Reply Iran-backed militiamen behind an attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, have begun retreating from the area on Wednesday following a threat from President Donald Trump to hold Tehran accountable for the siege. “Supporters of the Kataib Hezbollah militia who had spent the night camped outside the embassy began dismantling their tents and leaving the area, saying they had won a victory and would now seek the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq through the nation’s parliament,” the Washington Post reports. The development comes after Department of Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced

Nasty Nancy, Shifty Schiff, and Schumer

subvert the Constitution to damage Trump 21 replies Posted by ladydawgfan — Post Reply Nancy Pelosi, AKA Nasty Nancy, allowed Adam Schiff, AKA Shifty Schiff, to run the impeachment "inquiry" through Shifty's Intelligence Committee, where Shifty had total control. He set the rules to allow only the witnesses he wanted. He lied in his opening statement to commence the inquiry by making up President Trump's phone conversation with Ukraine's President Zelensky. The resulting vote to impeach was a foregone conclusion regardless of the evidence, or lack thereof. Pelosi has not sent Shifty's articles of impeachment to the Senate for a trial because she said she wants to first see the Senate trial procedures.

Media Continues With Awful Hot Takes

About the 'Terrifying' Armed Churchgoers

in Texas Shooting 20 replies Posted by Hazymac — Post Reply Ever since it was discovered that several armed churchgoers drew their weapons to stop a gunman at a church in Texas last week, the anti-gun mainstream media types have been trying to tell the public that armed, law-abiding citizens are a bad thing. The New Year's Day installment of media malpractice hyperbole arrives courtesy of the nauseatingly leftist USA Today: "@USATODAY Opinion: Jack Wilson is exactly the type of person you want around with a gun because he's a firearms instructor. But we know nothing about the at least six other parishioners who also appeared to draw their handguns. And that's terrifying."

As more women run for office,

child care remains a hurdle 20 replies Posted by voxpopuli — Post Reply When Kimberly Dudik ran for her fourth term in the Montana House, state officials told her she could not use campaign money to pay for child care for her four young children. She is now running for attorney general and is trying to visit a big chunk of the sprawling state, spending hours on the road. That means she needs even more help picking up her kids at school and day care when she's away and her husband has a late night at the office. (snip) Only six states have laws specifically allowing campaign money to be used for child care.

Two tribes aren’t recognized federally. Yet

members won $500 million in minority contracts 16 replies Posted by MissMolly — Post Reply Companies set up by members of a self-described and state-recognized Creek Indian tribe in Alabama have received more than $240 million in federal minority-business contracts, despite a determination by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs that there is no credible evidence the group has Native American ancestry, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found. Federal contracts worth an additional $273 million have gone to two companies run by a member of a different Native American group in Alabama with no federal recognition as a tribe.

How this anti-Semitism came

to be: The virulent hatred

snowballed over the years 15 replies Posted by MissMolly — Post Reply Orthodox Jews around the country — and specifically in the tri-state area — were still reeling from the shooting at a kosher deli earlier this month when we gathered with our families to celebrate the holiday of Chanukah. But that air of tranquility was shattered by a string of nearly a dozen anti-Semitic attacks over the holiday, the most severe of which was a mass stabbing at a rabbi’s home upstate as he lit his menorah. The stabbing attack succeeded in bringing to the fore what we visibly Orthodox Jews have known for quite some time: There’s a growing epidemic of anti-Semitism in this country, specifically targeting Orthodox Jews,

Trump cuts loose with

unpredictable characters

at Mar-a-Lago 14 replies Posted by 4Justice — Post Reply PALM BEACH, Fla. — At the White House, people who want to meet with Donald Trump have to deal with schedulers, scores of aides hovering around the president and a strict security protocol. At Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s luxury South Florida resort where he typically spends Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the president is just another guy in the buffet line.

Bitter Clingers in Texas Shoot Back 14 replies Posted by tisHimself — Post Reply The reason the Founders put the Second Amendment in the Constitution, the document Democrats and liberals selectively embrace or read things into when convenient, was seen last Sunday at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, near Forth Worth where, dare we say it again, good guys with guns stopped a bad guy with a gun. Note the plural is used here, for video footage shows at least seven guns were drawn with seconds of the killer opening fire on the parishioners inside, killing two. But only two, as a wider massacre was stopped by those who don’t believe in gun-free zones.

Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum

Late last year, actor Michael C. Hall announced a new supergroup called Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum. Formed alongside fellow musicians and former Broadway co-stars Peter Yanowitz (The Wallflowers) and Matt Katz-Bohen (Blondie), the trio previously shared its debut single with the slow burning “Ketamine”. Now, the band is back with a second offering.

Titled “Come and Talk to Me”, it’s a much more upbeat and colorful listen. Hall’s falsetto leads the way on the dance track, riding high above disco-style synths provided by his bandmates. “Come and talk to me, my lover,” the Dexter and Six Feet Under star lures in almost loop-like repetition. Hear it for yourself below.

These two singles will appear on Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum’s debut EP, reportedly out in April. Outside of music, Hall recently had a role in the Amazon political drama The Report starring Adam Driver and Annette Bening. Additionally, Hall, who previously starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch and David Bowie’s Lazarus musical, appeared in a 2019 Broadway production actually called Skittles Commercial.

In a new interview with Billboard, Hall said that his past Broadway projects helped lead to the formation of the new band,

“Well, Hedwig was the first chance I had to front a band, albeit dressed in full drag and platform heels… and it gave me a good taste of what that feels like. But, I was playing a character and singing someone else’s songs with a bunch of musicians who were playing someone else’s songs, whereas in this case, it really belongs to all of us and emerges from us, so it’s a very different thing. But yeah, I think Hedwig was maybe what led me on the road to feeling what it was like to front a band, which led me to, in a way, doing the David Bowie musical, Lazarus. In hindsight, all roads seem like they were leading to this.”

Pope Francis was walking through the square in Vatican City and greeting pilgrims on his way to see the large Nativity scene set up in the huge, cobbled esplanade.

After reaching out to touch a child, the pope turned away from the crowd only for a nearby woman to seize his hand and pull her towards him. The abrupt gesture appeared to cause him pain and Francis swiftly wrenched his hand free.

The woman had made the sign of the cross as the pope had approached. It was not clear what she was saying as she subsequently tugged him towards her.

The weather pattern is about to shift at the end of the first day of 2020 and into tomorrow. Most of the day will be sunny, mild, and windy. But, rain tracks in overnight, bringing us scattered showers for Thursday.

Temperatures in Northwest Arkansas will climb out of the 30s and highs will be in the mid 50s.

River Valley temperatures will also be above the seasonable average with highs in the upper 50s.

Most of the day will be sunny, but cloud cover increases throughout the day. Rain pushes in from the south overnight, leaving us with a soggy start to Thursday. The heaviest rain will stay to our east.

-Sabrina

The ascent of Katie Holmes, Billy Porter’s Oscars gown and the welcome end of the Victoria’s Secret show – we look back at the highs and lols to remember, as well as those best left behind

The Celine Dion award for unexpected fashion icon: Katie Holmes

For many, Holmes, now 40, will remain the awkward but erudite teen she played on Dawson’s Creek 20 years ago. For others, she is the woman once married to that famous Scientologist who declared his love for her by jumping up and down on Oprah’s sofa. But for followers of fashion, Holmes has become 2019’s answer to Celine Dion – with Monica from Friends a close second.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The look 2019 needed … Monica from Friends. Photograph: NBC via Getty Images

But while Dion whooped and clapped her way to style icon status from the front row of couture shows in 2017, wearing flashy Balenciaga and Off-White outfits, Holmes’s ascent has been all together more low-key. Exhibit A: casually stepping out in a cashmere cardigan worn so louchely that the matching cashmere bra underneath, available from Khaite for $520, sold out in minutes – no small feat for a bra that costs more than the average monthly food shop for a family of four. Exhibit B: a chunky knit cardigan over a denim shirt with black leather trousers worn to a New York fashion show; a high-fashion version of what her Dawson’s Creek character might have worn for a date with Pacey.

The ‘most fashion’ flower: lavender

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Enough to put you to sleep … the Jacquemus show Photograph: Arnold Jerocki/WireImage

Gypsophila might have had an autumn/winter moment, but it was the floral setting of the 10th anniversary show of French designer Jacquemus – labelled the kind of show “that Instagram was made for” – that had the hearts of the botanically inclined beating the fastest. Hosted in a field in Provence, the soporific fleur de choix was the perfect backdrop for the designer’s oversized blazers, bucket hats and bumbags.

Most impractical accessory: the nano bag

At Paris fashion week in March, the year’s least useful accessory was carried between thumb and forefinger down the Jacquemus catwalk, bright red yet barely visible. The Mini Le Chiquito, as it is known, became the patron saint of the nano bags trend – utterly useless, they couldn’t even fit your keys, and yet they became highly desirable, representing the ultimate power move. Who needs a massive tote when you have an assistant or car waiting?

Nano bags are the younger sibling of this year’s trend for extremely specific bags. There was Balenciaga’s £600 water bottle bag, bags made to fit lipsticks and others perfectly tailored to fit phones. And the most stylish was part of Paco Rabanne’s retro chainmail collection.

The nano bag’s place in 2019 fashion history was recently cemented when Lizzo pincered a Valentino version on the red carpet at the AMAs. As she put it on Instagram: “bag big enough for my fucks to give”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vanishing point … Lizzo at the AMAs. Photograph: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Most potent accessory: Lady Hale’s spider brooch

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Catching Johnson in her web … Brenda Hale. Photograph: Supreme Court/PA

When the judge wore this arachnid accessory to announce that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament was unlawful, people were quick to try to decode what message she might have been hoping to send. Was it that she had caught the democracy-dodging prime minister in a judicial web? Whatever was intended, the spider brooch, described by Vogue as “maximalist perfection”, became a breakout star.

But Lady Hale wasn’t alone in sparking chatter with her brooch. The speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wore a pin representing the Mace of the United States House of Representatives as she opened the debate about Trump’s impeachment. It was quickly dubbed her “power pin”.

An honourable mention must also go to headbands. They might have less political heft than the brooch, but have almost as much historical weight as a Mantel novel, and made Anne Boleyn one of the year’s unlikely style inspirations.

Men’s style inspiration: Timothée Chalamet

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Call me by my dress sense … Timothée Chalamet (centre) in a Haider Ackermann suit at the Venice film festival. Photograph: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

A sequinned Louis Vuitton hoodie on the carpet one day, an elephant-grey ensemble by Colombian-French designer Haider Ackermann the next; the Call Me By Your Name actor is unafraid of the bold, conceptual and sartorially tricky. But that adventurousness has not put people off. His style has won him the moniker “the most influential man in fashion”, according to Lyst’s 2019 report, which analyses the behaviour of more than 104 million shoppers. He was pipped to the post of the “World’s Most Powerful Dresser” only by HRH the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle herself. Proof that the unorthodox can be enviable in the sometimes identikit world of men’s fashion. He even managed to make the world’s trickiest hairstyle, the bowl cut, an unlikely hit.

Most ubiquitous item: the spotty Zara dress

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Conquering all … Zara’s polka-dot print dress. Photograph: Zara

It cost £40, was hailed as being as comfortable as a nightie and was as ubiquitous on the UK’s streets throughout the summer as chewing gum or pigeons. One article in the New York Times even claimed that the Zara dress had “conquered Britain”, so widespread was it. Plus, like the green Urban Outfitters puffer jacket and Réalisation Par leopard-print skirt before it, it had that most modern of popularity yardsticks: its own Instagram account complete with more than 20,000 followers.

Best red carpet look: Billy Porter at the Oscars

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘“People are going to be really uncomfortable with my black ass in a ball gown’ … Billy Porter. Photograph: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Porter’s own take on the Christian Siriano gown he wore to the Oscars in February rang true: “That dress changed the world,” he said. It was a two fingers up to the rigid gender diktats controlling red-carpet outfits – as Porter told Vogue at the time: “When you’re black and you’re gay, one’s masculinity is in question. I dealt with a lot of homophobia in relation to my clothing choices.” This dress, he said, made him feel free. “People are going to be really uncomfortable with my black ass in a ball gown – but it’s not anybody’s business but mine.”

Hair trend: lilac

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gathering lilac … Kylie Jenner at the Met Gala Photograph: Kevin Tachman/MG19/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

This year, palma violets, hydrangeas and Googel the Muppet have been added to hairdresser moodboards across the land. In March, searches on Pinterest for “lilac hair” rocketed by 1077%. And then, in May, when Kylie Jenner stepped on to the Met Gala red carpet with hair the colour of Syringa vulgaris, she cemented a trend that would see Instagram awash with lilac tresses long into the summer months. For autumn/winter, the trend evolved into more season-appropriate chocolate lilac hair.

Best heels wearer: Harry Styles

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Heel be happy … Harry Styles. Photograph: Tim Walker

In a year in which Asos sold more than 12,000 pairs of Cuban-heel boots for men, the man with the David Bowie legs takes the crown as most accomplished wearer of such heels, after he wore them with aplomb – and a pearl earring – to the Met Gala in May. Honourable mention must also go to Lil Nas X who wore a chunky fluoro heel to match his fluoro suit, the work of this year’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award winner, Christopher John-Rogers, to the American Music Awards last month.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chunky citrus … Lil Nas X at the AMAs. Photograph: Rich Fury/Getty Images

Throwback hit: the Fendi baguette bag

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Fendi classic in action, with a mini-me purse … Photograph: Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images

According to the 2019 Lyst report, there was a 164% rise in searches year on year for this 90s classic. For those who can afford it, it is the perfect accompaniment for all the spaghetti straps, slip dresses and balayage tresses that have made up this year’s retro resurgence. Available for new thanks to Fendi relaunching it, or via the more sustainable secondhand route thanks to resale sites such as Vestiaire Collective, 2019 was the year to channel Carrie Bradshaw via your handbag.

The saddest goodbye: Karl Lagerfeld

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Stylish exit … Lagerfeld in 2018. Photograph: Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

His legacy in the wider world might be – to put it mildly – mixed, but the fashion industry this year has been hit hard by the loss of the Chanel designer, who died in February. Known for catwalk spectaculars, it is fascinating to speculate what he would of made of the now infamous YouTube comedian who crashed the catwalk at the first ready-to-wear collection produced entirely by his successor Virginie Viard.

His memory lived on throughout the year, via The White Shirt project, a stadium-sized Parisian memorial and a new coffee table book of pictures of his cat Choupette.

The happiest goodbye: the Victoria’s Secret show

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Not Victoria’s Secret … the Savage X Fenty show in New York. Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Savage X Fenty Show Presented by Amazon Prime Video

It was the year in which unrealistic, prescriptive body standards, as championed by the Victoria’s Secret brand, were pitted against the inclusivity of Rihanna’s Fenty brand, which had its made-for-Amazon debut at New York fashion week in September. And, true to the unstoppability of the Barbadian star in the year in which she became luxury conglomerate LVMH’s first black female designer, Rihanna came out on top. Last month it was announced that the Victoria’s Secret show would be cancelled after months of speculation.

The most improved garment: the cardigan

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Taking the cardigan to nirvana … Kurt Cobain On MTV Unplugged in 1993. Photograph: Frank Micelotta Archive/Getty Images

When Kurt Cobain’s stained, moth-eaten green cardigan reached £260,388 at auction in October it was symbolic of the value increasingly bestowed on this once overlooked garment. Where once cardigan wearers might fear being labelled “dowdy”, now they can stand proud thanks to the ascent of cardigans to catwalks from Alexander Wang and Chanel to Ashley Williams and Christopher Kane.

Fashion’s favourite author: Willa Cather

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Frill lit … Willa Cather Photograph: New York Times/Getty Images

Women from catwalks to pavements this year have been wearing frocks that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the prairie. It was the look that wouldn’t give up the Laura Ashley ghost, having kicked off in 2018 with Brooklyn designer Batsheva Hay as its poster girl. In 2019 it went mass, and wearing a dress with a jaw-high neckline, tibia-long hemline and plentiful valance-style dust-ruffle-frills was a quick way to look as if you knew your way around the pages of Vogue – and Willa Cather’s novel O Pioneers!

Most unlikely site of fashion buzz: the North Circular Road

Not usually mentioned in the same breath as fashion industry buzz but the outer London home of traffic jams and self-storage depots became a hotspot this year when a collection by Louis Vuitton menswear designer and Kanye West protoge Virgil Abloh landed at the Wembley branch of Ikea. People queued through the night and the spot gained instant fashion credibility. As one queuer put it: “We are buying Louis Vuitton stuff for the price of Ikea.”

Most literal literal dresser: Melania Trump

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘London, baby’ … Melania Trump. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

When Melania Trump headed to the UK in June, she did so in an outfit that, in a cod Cockney accent, said: “London, baby”. The Gucci dress was decorated with images of Tower Bridge, Big Ben and a double-decker bus. For the year’s best example of “literal dressing” look no further than Rihanna at the cricket in Durham – all in white but not a V-neck knit in sight.

Instruction: Retrieve semantically similar text.


Question:
The couple whose legal battle paved the way for a change in the law have walked out of a register office as one of the first heterosexual couples in England and Wales to enter into a civil partnership.

Civil partnerships, which the government expects to be embraced by about 84,000 mixed-sex couples in 2020, offer almost identical rights as marriage, including property, inheritance and tax entitlements.

'How to get hitched as a feminist': mixed-sex civil unions to begin Read more

Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, who won their legal battle at the supreme court in 2018 for the right to have a civil partnership instead of a marriage, said their wish was “rooted in our desire to formalise our relationship in a more modern way, focused on equality and mutual respect.”

Steinfeld, an academic, said on the steps of Kensington and Chelsea register office: “There is now a space for new, more modern possibilities for people to express their love and commitment to one another.

“The urgent need to reform cohabitation law so that social policy keeps up with the reality of family life in modern Britain has been brought into greater focus. And by ending the unrivalled position of marriage we have helped to create the space for deeper discussions about giving legal recognition to other types of personal and caring relationships, such as those between friends, siblings and co-parents.”

Quick guide Explainer: civil partnerships Show Hide Civil partnerships were created in 2004 as a means of allowing same-sex couples to enter into a union that guarantees them similar legal rights to those who are married. They are limited to same-sex couples but in October 2018, following a supreme court ruling declaring the existing position discriminatory, the government announced that heterosexual couples would also be entitled to enter the arrangement. There are differences between the two forms of union, partially symbolic and partially matters of substance. For a marriage, the ceremony is solemnised by the couple saying a prescribed form of words; in a civil partnership, the couple can simply sign a document. Marriages can be conducted through either a civil or religious ceremony, at a registry office, church or wherever a venue is licensed. Civil partnerships are secular events, although partners can choose to hold a religious ceremony on the day. Civil partners cannot declare, for legal purposes, that they are married. Civil partnership certificates include the names of both parents of the parties whereas marriage certificates in England and Wales include only the names of a couple's fathers – for the time being. In terms of annulment the rules are virtually identical, although the clause that permits a marriage to be dissolved if one partner is 'suffering from a venereal disease in a communicable form' does not apply to civil partnerships. Likewise, adultery can be grounds for a married couple to divorce though it cannot be relied upon to end a civil partnership.

Those in civil partnerships and those who are married enjoy the same tax breaks and benefits – such as the marriage allowance and bereavement payments. Surviving civil partners are treated the same as widows or widowers in terms of rights to state pension.

While those who are married and in civil partnerships enjoy extensive legal rights, those who are merely cohabiting – 3.3 million couples at the last estimate – have no legal protections or property rights if one of them dies.

The couple were joined for the registration by their two children, Eden, four, and Ariel, two, and their parents and friends who acted as witnesses.

Keidan said: “Through this long journey and hard-fought battle, our mental health has suffered, our ability to be civil to each other has been tested, and, crucially, we missed out on that important moment to state clearly what we mean to each other – not just what we’ve become in the eyes of others.

“So we’re grateful to, and wish to thank, everyone who has supported us on this journey so that we could finally do that in private a few moments ago.”

Those involved in the couple’s campaign said that they were aware of as many as 80 other civil partnership ceremonies happening on Tuesday around the country. The first took place in Carmarthenshire, where a register office opened at 00:02am on New Year’s Eve for Jake Rayson and Emma Wilson.

London: A heterosexual couple who campaigned for mixed-sex civil partnerships have become one of the first couples to tie the knot in a ceremony today after winning a Supreme Court case to change the law.

This morning Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan registered their 'more modern' partnership at Kensington and Chelsea Register.

They were pictured outside the building looking loved up as their two children stood by their side.

The change in the law will allow couples up and down the country to enter into civil partnerships rather than a marriage following a Supreme Court legal victory last year, reports the Daily Mail.

They won a legal battle in 2018 for the right to heterosexual civil partnerships, paving the way for today's change in the law. The couple took their fight to the Supreme Court, the highest court in Britain, forcing the law change.

Steinfeld told journalists it was their personal wish to form a civil partnership which came from a personal desire to formalise their relationship in a more modern way, with a focus in equality and mutual respect. She said it creates new, modern possibilities for thousands of people to express their love and commitment and ends the unrivaled position of marriage.

The change means couples will be able to access the same tax benefits, pensions and inheritances as those available to married couples.

The government said thousands of civil ceremonies were taking place across England and Wales Tuesday as the new rules came into operation.

A spokesperson for the Government Equalities Office said: "Civil partnerships are not intended to compete with marriage but rather to provide an alternative option for those couples who do not wish to marry but want legal certainty and stability for their families."

According to WMTW, Howland's Blaine Marston was the first $1 million Powerball winner.

Marston was one 300 Powerball players, fifteen of which were from Maine, won trips to NYC. On top of that, he was selected as one of five finalists given a chance to win $1 million.

Just after the ball dropped, he was selected as the winner.

See the video of how it played out HERE

He plans to invest much of the over $700,000 he'll walk away with.

Kelly Fraser in 2018 arrives on the red carpet at the Juno Awards in Vancouver. (Darryl Dyck/AP)

Kelly Fraser, a Canadian pop artist who gained attention for an Inuit-language cover of Rihanna’s “Diamonds,” part of her advocacy efforts for her indigenous culture, died Dec. 24 in Winnipeg. She was 26.

Her family issued a statement saying the cause was suicide, adding that “Kelly suffered from PTSD for many years as a result of childhood traumas, racism and persistent cyberbullying.”

Ms. Fraser, who grew up in Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, and was living in Winnipeg, released “Isuma,” her debut album, in 2014. Her sophomore album, “Sedna,” came out in 2017 and was nominated for indigenous music album of the year at Canada’s Juno music awards.

When Ms. Fraser wrote or translated songs into Inuktitut, an Inuit language, a key aim was to “use pop music as a platform to strengthen her language,” said her producer, Thor Simonsen. She also wanted to make the music as accessible to as many people as possible, he said, so she mixed English and Inuktitut in her recordings and blended traditional Inuit sounds and themes with contemporary pop.

A video of her version of “Diamonds” was widely viewed online.

Ms. Fraser was “extremely passionate about trying to improve conditions for Inuit people” as well, and wanted to help young people understand the history that contributed to their difficulties, Simonsen said.

In a 2017 statement that accompanied the release of “Sedna,” Ms. Fraser said the album’s goal was to heal those suffering from the results of colonization, including the “damaging effects of residential school and forced relocation. There is a great need for Inuit artists to directly speak to those affected from the past.”

She was working on a third album, “Decolonize,” at the time of her death, Simonsen said.

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SEATTLE -- While the weather was not the nicest for New Year's Eve, hundreds of people still gathered at Seattle Center in hopes of celebrating 2020 with the annual fireworks display.

Music, food and ice skating were all available to people Tuesday. However, the big focus was on the New Year countdown.

Organizers were keeping a close eye on wind speeds that threatened the big Space Needle fireworks show.

"They've gone off every year, and I have confidence they will again this year at midnight," said Deborah Daoust with Seattle Center.

More than 900 homes have been confirmed destroyed since July in NSW

WHERE ARE THE NSW BUSHFIRES?

More than 110 blazes continue to burn across NSW on Wednesday.

A fire burning south of the Snowy Mountains Highway in the Ellerslie Range near Kunama and Laurel Hill was at "emergency" level at 4.30pm.

The blaze has ripped through more than 100,000 hectares.

Six fires were burning at a "watch and act" level including the 229,000ha Currowan blaze on the south coast, the 68,000ha Clyde Mountain fire near Batemans Bay, the 178,000ha Countegany blaze east of Cooma and the 104,000ha Green Valley fire east of Albury.

An out-of-control blaze is also burning in Werri Berri, north of Bemboka near Bega.

More than 2500 firefighters are battling the blazes.

WHAT IS THE DEATH TOLL?

Seven people have died since Monday evening, taking the number of deaths this season in NSW to at least 15.

A 70-year-old man was found dead on Tuesday outside a home at Yatte Yattah, west of Lake Conjola, a man's body has been discovered in a burnt-out car near the Princes Highway at Yatte Yattah, another man in a vehicle in Sussex Inlet and a body outside a home at Coolagolite, east of Cobargo.

Young father Patrick Salway, 29, his dad Robert Salway, 63, and volunteer firefighter Sam McPaul, 28, were confirmed dead earlier this week in separate blazes that ravaged the state's south.

A 72-year-old man remains missing at Belowra, west of Narooma, while a 70-year-old woman is missing after her home in Conjola Park was destroyed by fire on Tuesday.

HOW MANY HOMES HAVE BEEN LOST?

More than 175 homes have been confirmed destroyed on the south coast since Monday including 89 in Conjola Park, 40 in Malua Bay and 15 in Rosedale.

At last count, 1087 homes have been confirmed destroyed across NSW since July.

THE WARNINGS

Wednesday's fire danger rating is severe in the central ranges and a total fire ban has been declared in that area.

Total fire bans are also in place in the southern slopes and southern ranges where the fire danger rating is very high.

Fire danger is also rated as very high in the greater Sydney region, the Monaro alpine region, north western NSW, the ACT, the Hunter, and the northern slopes.

FORECAST

Hot, dry and windy conditions were expected to bring elevated fire danger to the southern and central ranges and southern slopes on Wednesday.

Parts of the state got some reprieve from the soaring temperatures on Wednesday with forecasts of 27C in Nowra, 34C in Penrith in western Sydney, while the mercury was expected to climb to 36C in Tumut in the Riverina and 42C in the Hunter.

Sydney was under a smoke haze on Wednesday morning with a fair-air quality, and cloudy and windy conditions forecast.

Dangerous fire conditions are expected to return to the south coast on Saturday where the temperature is forecast to reach 43C.

THE ROADS

Motorists are advised to avoid travel to the south coast and Snowy Mountains Riverina area where fires caused widespread power outages and major road closures.

The Snowy Mountains Highway is closed between Tumut Plains Road and Adaminaby.

The Princes Highway remains closed between Falls Creek and Milton, Batemans Bay and Moruya, Brogo and Tilba Tilba, and Narrabarba and Cann River (Victoria).

Instruction: Retrieve semantically similar text.


Question:
The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was one of the first organised police forces in Britain or Ireland when it was founded in 1836 following the amalgamation of four provisional forces. At the same time the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) was founded. Crucially, while the RIC was armed, the DMP was not.

The RIC became an overwhelmingly Catholic police force, but its top brass were invariably Protestant. It was involved in many occasions in putting down nationalist unrest most notably during the Fenian revolt of 1867, the last armed insurrection in Ireland before the Easter Rising.

The reputation of the forces varied according to the level of unrest in Ireland at the time. During the Land War of 1879-1882, the RIC earned a reputation for brutality. In quieter times, in the first decade of the 20th century for instance, the RIC became a more conventional police force dealing with the normal business of policing.

Nevertheless, the role of both police forces as guarantors of British rule in Ireland was resented by nationalists.

The situation came to the head during the Easter Rising. The first fatality of the Rising was DMP Constable James O’Brien from Co Limerick; the second was Constable Michael Lahiff from Co Clare.

The worst fatalities for the police during Easter Week were the eight RIC men killed during the Battle of Ashbourne in Co Meath, the largest engagement outside Dublin during the Rising.

Worse was to follow for the RIC during the War of Independence. The opening event of the War of Independence was the Soloheadbeg ambush in which two RIC men, Constable James McDonnell and Constable Patrick O’Connell, were shot dead while escorting a consignment of gelignite to a quarry in Co Tipperary.

The shooting was widely condemned even in nationalist circles. Both men were regarded as respectable members of the local community. McDonnell was an Irish speaker from Co Mayo and a widower with six children. O’Connell was from Co Cork.

Nevertheless, 10 days after the shooting, the Irish Volunteer newspaper, An tÓglach, declared that every volunteer had a duty “to use all legitimate methods of warfare against the soldiers and policemen of the English usurper and to slay them if it is necessary to do so in order to overcome their resistance”.

Boycott

In April, Dáil Éireann declared a boycott of the police. In January 1920, GHQ gave authority for RIC barracks to be burned.

Hundreds were across the country and many in the force were left in the invidious position of taking up arms against those who were fighting for Irish independence.

In maintaining British rule they were at odds with the majority view of the Irish public at the time.

Thousands of RIC and DMP men quit their jobs. Many were Catholic nationalists who had joined up at a time when opportunities were limited and a career as a policeman offered a measure of job security at the time.

In response the British sent in the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries to bolster the role of the RIC in the thankless task of maintaining British rule in Ireland.

As the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries were hired as temporary constables, the reputation of the RIC was permanently sullied by many of the atrocities carried out by crown forces during the War of Independence.

The DMP was also targeted by the IRA during the War of Independence and seven members of its intelligence wing, the notorious G Division, were assassinated.

Both police forces were dismantled in 1922 after the Treaty was signed and no Irish Government has until now saw fit to honour those who served in either the RIC or DMP.

The decision by the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to honour both forces at an event in Dublin Castle on January 17th is bound to be controversial, but it is consistent with the Government’s stated ambition to remember all those who died during the revolutionary period.

Thousands of families in Ireland have a direct connection to both the RIC and the DMP as their relatives served in them.

Mr Flanagan maintains that the vast majority of DMP and RIC were decent men doing a job that all policemen do and they deserve to be remembered.

After becoming the first Government Minister to attend a service remembering those who had died with those forces, he told The Irish Times:

“These are difficult and sensitive issues. We cannot any longer ignore them or be partisan. I believe I have a duty as Minister for Justice to police officers.”

The Government is to commemorate those who served in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) prior to independence.

The event, part of the State programme to mark the decade of centenaries, will take place in Dublin Castle on January 17th will be addressed by Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

The RIC was established in 1836 and disbanded after Irish independence in 1922. It operated in all parts of Ireland except in Dublin, where the DMP was the police force during the same period.

Mr Flanagan in September became the first government minister to attend a commemoration service for policemen killed by the IRA in the War of Independence.

Ministers have traditionally shied away from such services because of the role of both forces in opposing those who sought Irish independence through armed actions.

The armed RIC was in the vanguard of British resistence to the IRA during the War of Independence causing thousands to quit the force. Dáil Éireann organised a boycott of the force from April 1919 on and the mass burning of RIC barracks began in January 1920.

When the British government realised the RIC was not up to the task of defending British rule in Ireland, they drafted in the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, mercenary soldiers from Britain, to take the fight to the IRA.

In September, Mr Flanagan was a guest at the annual interdenominational service for members of the RIC and DMP held at the Church of St Paul of the Cross in Mount Argus in Dublin.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was represented by his aide-de-camp Commandant Caroline Burke at the service.

The names of 11 RIC and four DMP men killed in 1919 during the first year of the War of Independence were read out.

Speaking to The Irish Times after the service, Mr Flanagan said he attended because the policemen involved were “doing their job. They were murdered in the line of duty.

“They were doing what police officers do. As they saw it they were protecting communities from harm. They were maintaining the rule of law. These are fundamental to police services everywhere.”

Mr Flanagan described himself as a “pluralist who believes in the co-existence of peoples of different traditions on the island coming together.

“As Minister for Justice, I acknowledge that being a policeman is a very tough job. The men that we commemorated were all killed in the line of duty.”

He added: “I believe very strongly in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement and, in the spirit of co-existence. These are sensitive ceremonies and they are very important to me.

“The fundamental basis of the Good Friday Agreement brings people together. I see the fundamental principle of Brexit being the opposite.

“These are difficult and sensitive issues. We cannot any longer ignore them or be partisan. I believe I have a duty as Minister for Justice to police officers.”

The decision by the State to hold a service to remember the RIC and DMP has been welcomed by the Historical & Reconciliatory Police (HARP) Society set up in 2012 to remember Irish policemen killed on duty between 1836 and 1922 of whom 525 were killed during the War of Independence.

Spokesman Jim Herlihy said: “The Harp Society are delighted with the initiative now taken by Government in at long last hosting the forthcoming event in Dublin Castle and are also in hope that such an event will lead to the provision of a fitting permanent memorial to commemorate the sacrifice made by the 642 members of Royal Irish Constabulary and the 30 members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police between 1836 and 1922.”

Mr Herlihy said his extensive research over the last number of years reveals that 10,936 Black and Tans and 2,264 Auxiliaries served in Ireland during the War of Independence.

Of those, 152 Black and Tans and 44 Auxilaries were killed.

His research also reveals that 883 Black and Tans were Irish-born and 126 Auxilaries were Irish.

A yellow box indicates where an AI system found cancer hiding inside breast tissue. Six previous radiologists failed to find the cancer in routine mammograms. (Image via NorthWestern University) A yellow box indicates where an AI system found cancer hiding inside breast tissue. Six previous radiologists failed to find the cancer in routine mammograms. (Image via NorthWestern University)

Written by Denise Grady

Artificial intelligence can help doctors do a better job of finding breast cancer on mammograms, researchers from Google and medical centers in the United States and Britain are reporting in the journal Nature.

The new system for reading mammograms, which are X-rays of the breast, is still being studied and is not yet available for widespread use. It is just one of Google’s ventures into medicine. Computers can be trained to recognise patterns and interpret images, and the company has already created algorithms to help detect lung cancers on CT scans, diagnose eye disease in people with diabetes and find cancer on microscope slides.

“This paper will help move things along quite a bit,” said Dr Constance Lehman, director of breast imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who was not involved in the study. “There are challenges to their methods. But having Google at this level is a very good thing.”

Tested on images where the diagnosis was already known, the new system performed better than radiologists. On scans from the United States, the system produced a 9.4 per cent reduction in false negatives, in which a mammogram is mistakenly read as normal and a cancer is missed. It also provided a lowering of 5.7 per cent in false positives, where the scan is incorrectly judged abnormal but there is no cancer.

On mammograms performed in Britain, the system also beat the radiologists, reducing false negatives by 2.7 per cent and false positives by 1.2 per cent.

Google paid for the study, and worked with researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago and two British medical centers, Cancer Research Imperial Centre and Royal Surrey County Hospital.

Last year, 268,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer and 41,760 deaths were expected among women in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. Globally, there are about 2 million new cases a year, and more than half a million deaths.

About 33 million screening mammograms are performed each year in the United States. The test misses about 20 per cent of breast cancers, according to the American Cancer Society, and false positives are common, resulting in women being called back for more tests, sometimes even biopsies.

Doctors have long wanted to make mammography more accurate. “There are many radiologists who are reading mammograms who make mistakes, some well outside the acceptable margins of normal human error,” Lehman said.

This is a visualization of tumor growth and metastatic spread in breast cancer. Screening aims to detect breast cancer early, before symptoms develop. (Image via Google) This is a visualization of tumor growth and metastatic spread in breast cancer. Screening aims to detect breast cancer early, before symptoms develop. (Image via Google)

To apply artificial intelligence to the task, the authors of the Nature report used mammograms from about 76,000 women in Britain and 15,000 in the United States, whose diagnoses were already known, to train computers to recognise cancer.

Then, they tested the computers on images from about 25,000 other women in Britain, and 3,000 in the United States, and compared the system’s performance with that of the radiologists who had originally read the X-rays. The mammograms had been taken in the past, so the women’s outcomes were known, and the researchers could tell whether the initial diagnoses were correct.

“We took mammograms that already happened, showed them to radiologists and asked, ‘Cancer or no?’ and then showed them to AI, and asked, ‘Cancer, or no?’” said Dr Mozziyar Etemadi, an author of the study from Northwestern University.

This was the test that found AI more accurate than the radiologists. Unlike humans, computers do not get tired, bored or distracted toward the end of a long day of reading mammograms, Etemadi said.

In another test, the researchers pitted AI against six radiologists in the United States, presenting 500 mammograms to be interpreted. Overall, AI again outperformed the humans. But in some instances, AI missed a cancer that all six radiologists found — and vice versa.

“There’s no denying that in some cases our AI tool totally gets it wrong and they totally get it right,” Etemadi said. “Purely from that perspective it opens up an entirely new area of inquiry and study. Why is it that they missed it? Why is it that we missed it?”

Lehman, who is also developing AI for mammograms, said the Nature report was strong, but she had some concerns about the methods, noting that the patients studied might not be a true reflection of the general population.

A higher proportion had cancer, and the racial makeup was not specified. She also said that “reader” analyses involving a small number of radiologists — this study used six — were not always reliable.

The next step in the research is to have radiologists try using the tool as part of their routine practice in reading mammograms. New techniques that pass their initial tests with flying colors do not always perform as well out in the real world.

“We have to see what happens when radiologists have it, see if they do better,” Etemadi said. Lehman said: “We have to be very careful. We want to make sure this is helping patients.”

She said an earlier technology, computer-aided detection, or CAD, provided a cautionary tale. Approved in 1998 by the Food and Drug Administration to help radiologists read mammograms, it came into widespread use. Some hospital administrators pressured radiologists to use it whether they liked it or not because patients could be charged extra for it, increasing profits, Lehman said. Later, several studies, including one that Lehman was part of, found that CAD did not improve the doctors’ accuracy, and even made them worse.

“We can learn from the mistakes with CAD and do it better,” Lehman said, adding that AI has become far more powerful, and keeps improving as more data is fed in. “Using computers to enhance human performance is long overdue.”

She and Etemadi said that a potentially good use of AI would be to sort mammograms and flag those most in need of the radiologist’s attention. The system may also be able to identify those that are clearly negative, so they could be read quickly and patients could promptly be given a clean bill of health.

Although developers of AI often say it is intended to help radiologists, not replace them, Lehman predicted that eventually, computers alone will read at least some mammograms, without help from humans.

“We’re onto something,” she said. “These systems are picking up things a human might not see, and we’re right at the beginning of it.”

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Just minutes into New Year’s Day, a teenage boy was shot and wounded in the leg on the North Side of St. Louis. A few minutes later, four people where shot in a different neighborhood, three fatally. By morning, the police were investigating 10 shootings, including five deaths, across the city.

And the year wasn’t even a day old. Nor was the violence limited to St. Louis, which in 2017 had the nation’s highest murder rate.

In a country that has become accustomed to gun violence in all its forms, 2020 was off to a typical start. Gunfire echoed across the country in shootings from St. Louis to Philadelphia, and from Michigan to Texas.

In Cleveland, a man who news reports said was firing off rounds to celebrate the new year accidentally killed his girlfriend. In Florida, near Orlando, two men were killed in a shooting inside a nightclub. And in Baltimore, which closed 2019 with the city’s second-highest number of homicides on record, the police were investigating two killings that happened a few hours before midnight.

LONDON, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Robert Kubica will be Alfa Romeo's Formula One reserve driver for the 2020 season with Polish oil company and personal backer PKN ORLEN joining as co-title sponsor, the Swiss-based team said on Wednesday.

Kubica, 35, made his race debut with the team in 2006 when they were competing as BMW Sauber.

The Pole, who suffered a near-fatal rally accident in 2011, made his comeback with struggling former champions Williams last season but left at the end of the campaign in which he scored their sole point.

"I'm starting a new chapter in my career by joining Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN. This is a team that has a special place in my heart and it'll be nice to see the familiar faces I still remember from Hinwil," he said in a statement.

Alfa Romeo's race drivers this year are Finland's 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen and Italian Antonio Giovinazzi, an unchanged lineup from 2019.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)

REUTERS2

About

What is #Supporter of Each Other?

The goal of this new campaign is to inspire people, players, fans, clubs, leagues, FAs and all other organisations and companies to support each other to overcome the current COVID-19 crisis. We will communicate tips and initiatives to stop the further spread of the virus, to stay healthy and socially active from home and to look after each other. The campaign informs people about the activities and initiatives taken by people, players, clubs, leagues and FAs from all around Europe. In addition to this, Supporter of Each Other also encourages everyone to contribute to fundraising initiatives, for example, from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Foundation.

Why did we start #Supporter of Each Other?

For the good of our society, we all need to do our part to prevent the further spread of the virus but also to keep society going. Especially in times like this, we must not forget the people that need our support the most. We need to help people to get better, prevent further spread of the virus and support people that are affected by self-isolation and other preventive measures. The time has come for us all to unite and to become a supporter of your own family, your neighbours, the people working in healthcare and the people in your community that you might not know, but who need the support of others to overcome this crisis.

How do we support each other?

Supporter of each other will highlight best practice examples from football and community organisations internationally. We will focus on the following 5 topics:

1. Education- sharing advice on how to stay healthy and safe during the COVID-19 outbreak

2. Health- promoting physical activity at home

3. Social Cohesion- supporting each other, especially the people in risk of isolation

4. Volunteering- encouraging people to start volunteering from home

5. Inspire – sharing positive initiatives from all over the world to overcome the COVID-19 crisis

Why Football?

Football has the power to bring people together, regardless of their cultural and language differences. It has the ability to bring communities together by connecting people with the sport that brings them joy. It breaks down barriers that divide us from one another and it can be a powerful tool for social development – even in the state of crisis.

At times like this, it doesn’t matter what your age, race or gender is, what nationality you have or which colours your favourite club has. We all need to stand together and become a #SupporterofEachother to overcome this crisis. The #SupporterofEachOther campaign is for everyone! Every person, club, organisation or company can join our campaign and become a #Supporterofeachother.

Who started #SupporterofEachOther?

The European Football for Development Network (EFDN) launched ‘Supporter of Each Other” together with several clubs and other football organisations. EFDN consists of more than 90 professional football clubs, leagues and FAs who are committed to their communities and social responsibilities and have the passion to cooperate and engage on a European level. The network aims to promote the power of football as a tool for social development and support the efforts of the network members in their initiatives to use football to reach out to various target groups in their communities.

We are Supporter of Each Other

More than 90 clubs, leagues, FAs and other organisations have joined our campaign. You can find the whole list of Supporters here.

Dramatic films top critic's 10 best list for 2019

Back around Labor Day, after an embittered summer of bombardment by an unending skein of superhero clang and stupefying sequels to moribund franchises, I was ready to throw in the towel on 2019. Then came the blessed autumn and suddenly I was surrounded by excellence everywhere I looked. Even the season’s lone comic-book entry, “Joker,” shockingly left me impressed.

I actually felt like I was in the midst of a Hollywood renaissance. But a closer look reveals most of that premium output came courtesy of our friends overseas (“Parasite,” “Pain and Glory”), the occasional indie jewel (“Uncut Gems”) and TV-minded streaming services like Netflix (“The Irishman,” “Marriage Story”). All much to the chagrin of the narrow-minded suits manning the big studios, including Disney, which enjoyed record profits amid a nadir of grade-A product.

They and others cried foul when the Netflix offerings started scoring intense awards consideration, to which Martin Scorsese rebuffed, why shouldn’t he court a streamer in an environment where the big guys value mindless superhero movies over more sophisticated art like his “The Irishman,” which, incidentally, they all refused to make.

I’m not shy about saying I’m with Scorsese on this one -- and please fanboys, don’t bombard me with your hatred because of it. Still, I do feel for the theater chains, sorta, being that they’re the ones left holding the empty cash bag, or so they claim. But Disney movies alone provided the Regals and AMCs of the world a bit more than a marginal profit in 2019. And when they dare charge close to $100 for a family of four to see “Toy Story 4,” including popcorn and drinks, you could hardly fault folks preferring to park themselves in front of their 70-inch, 4K Samsungs to watch prime Netflix offering like “The Irishman” at one-tenth the cost.

Let the consumer decide, I say. A motto the Academy Awards voters should heed when marking their Oscar ballots this month. The past two years they’ve gotten uppity when it comes to superb Netflix entries like 2018’s “Roma” and 2017’s “Mudbound.” This year, when faced with the plethora of great Netflix flix (“The Irishman,” “Marriage Story,” “The Two Popes,” “Dolemite Is My Name,” “I Lost My Body” and the great doc “The Great Hack”), they can no longer shun the streaming giant without looking petty. So I anticipate what could be the start of a sea change when it comes to doling out Oscars. Or, at least one can hope.

Coincidentally, a lot of those Netflix joints cited above are included on my list of favorite films for 2019. And consider this an invitation to seek them out if you haven’t seen them already, and if you have, to watch them again. I promise it’s a no-lose situation. So let’s get started, beginning with my annual Top-10:

1. MARRIAGE STORY: Writer-director Noah Baumbach pours his heart out reflecting on his divorce from Jennifer Jason Leigh in a seriocomic masterpiece insightfully capturing the sorrow and the pity of love torn asunder by two people -- perfectly played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson -- whose vows don’t align with their wants. That their severance requires jumping through the expensive hoops of California’s ridiculous legal system benefits both the film’s sophisticated brand of comedy and shinning supporting turns by Laura Dern, Ray Liotta and Alan Alda as the couple’s loopy L.A. legal counsels.

2. PARASITE: Bong Joon-ho’s gripping comedic thriller was a classy assault on classism cleverly illustrated via a Korean family of have-nots gradually infiltrating the lives and not-so-happy home of haves on the tony side of Seoul. It proved the perfect metaphor for income inequality, not just in Bong’s native Korea, but the world over. It also sent a shiver with its darkly funny finale in which Bong presented a semi-plausible scenario in which simmering rage turns grotesquely violent. Consider it a warning.

3. THE IRISHMAN: Just when it seemed Martin Scorsese had lost his fastball, he (and his savior, Netflix) pitches us high and inside with a flamethrower hard enough to knock us off the plate. And what a delivery it is, with Marty’s old crew (De Niro, Pesci and Keitel) joining with the greatest actor of their generation, Al Pacino, to make a gangster picture to rival “The Godfather” with its powerful insights on everything from family and aging to murder and mayhem, all set around the rise, fall and infamous disappearance of belabored labor-leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino).

4. PAIN AND GLORY: Pedro Almodovar delivered his finest film to date with his semi-autobiographical tale of an acclaimed filmmaker (Oscar-worthy Antonio Banderas) staring mortality straight in the face while also ruminating on being raised by his deeply religious mother (Penelope Cruz) and the fight to ignore impure impulses provoked by her hunky handyman. By laying his life so bare, the idiosyncratic Spaniard cut through all pretenses to give us something we all should crave: a need to be our true selves.

5. UNCUT GEMS: New York’s Safdie brothers, Josh and Benny, proved deserving heir-apparent to the Coens with their electrifying profile of a chaotic Manhattan jeweler (a marvelously obnoxious Adam Sandler) getting in over his head when the chickens -- and a band of determined leg-breakers -- come home to roost on all his seriously flawed get-rich schemes. It’s easily the best thing Sandler has ever done, and the perfect marriage between performer and material. A true diamond in the rough.

6. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE: Writer-director Céline Sciamma's gorgeous, wrenching tale of forbidden love between a woke female artist (Noemie Merlant) and her aristocratic subject (Adele Haenel) set amid repressed 18th-century French culture wasn’t just a worthy follow-up to her acclaimed “Girlhood,” but the dawning of a major talent fully capable of blending affecting storytelling with mesmerizing visuals every bit as seductive as her two protagonists. And her deft use of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” to emphasize the combustible tempest building in the women’s loins is so unforgettable you’ll never listen to the composer’s luscious suite the same way again. (It opens in Boston next month.)

7. 1917: War is hell, as director Sam Mendes devastatingly proves in his stirring tribute to those who fought and gave their lives during the lethal madness that was World War I. Making perfect use of the everyman qualities of his leading man, breakout-star George MacKay, and Roger Deakins’ simulated one-take cinematography, Mendes’ real-time race against death proved both a technical marvel and a hauntingly immersive dive into a horror where danger forever lurks and valor never ceases. (It opens in Boston next Friday.)

8. DIANE: It’s been months since I first saw it, but I still can’t shake the unmitigated sadness of Kent Jones’ haunting debut feature gifting Mary Kay Place a role she was born to play: A rapidly aging Massachusetts baby boomer who suddenly finds death to be her constant, unavoidable companion

9. LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT: You’d think wunderkind Chinese filmmaker Gan Bi, at 29, is too young to create such a thought-provoking noir on how the passage of time sullies and distorts memories. But you’d be wrong. Instead, he stimulates our brains -- and our eyes -- with a gorgeous, hallucinatory tale of a man obsessed with an ex-lover he regretfully let get away. And, now, in pursuit of her, he is gradually overcome by recollections distorted by time and perspective. Can he rely on those feelings? The answer will amaze you almost as much as Gan’s 50-minute finale filmed in one continuous tracking shot fully confirming his visionary prowess.

10. WILD ROSE: Jessie Buckley (my pick for newcomer of the year) tore up the screen and ripped out my heart as a down-and-out ex-con Glaswegian forced to choose between being a mother to her two young children and chasing her feverish dreams of becoming a country music star in her idea of Eden -- Nashville. Under the deft direction of Tom Harper, Buckley made Nicole Taylor’s perceptive script sing with both melancholy and hope in pursuit of an ending that’s as sad as it is redeeming.

10.5. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ... HOLLYWOOD: I know, Quentin Tarantino’s loving opus to the land of broken dreams is in many circles being hailed as the film of the year, but I only found that to be “half” true, thus the fractional designation. Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie were outstanding, as advertised, and the movie’s look is 100 percent evocative of its circa 1969 setting, but too much of its first 60 minutes was heavy on wacky extravagance. Ah, but the back half was pure movie magic, particularly the climactic showdown on Cielo Drive between a fading film star and Charles Manson’s band of crazed “creepy-crawlers.” It was another attempt by Tarantino to re-write history (see “Inglourious Basterds”; really, SEE IT!) in a way that’s both cathartic and flat-out hilarious. Mission accomplished, or at least partially so.

NEXT 10:

11. “One Child Nation”: I don't think I'll ever forget the horrors on display in Nanfu Wang’s shocking and devastating look back at China’s hideous one-child policy.

12. “The Lighthouse”: A wonderfully written two-hander from Robert and Max Eggers about 19th-century lighthouse keepers (Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) slowly driving each other mad while cooped-up on an island off the coast of Maine. Who knew insanity could be so funny?

13. “Luce”: Julius Onah co-wrote and directed this subtle and sly treatise on racism fueled by a magnetic performance from Kelvin Harrison Jr. as the black adopted son of ultra-white snowflake parents (Tim Roth and Naomi Watts).

14. “Apollo 11”: Abetted by newly released footage from NASA, Todd Douglas Miller’s immersive doc proved the perfect tribute to the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing.

15. “Ford v Ferrari”: Christian Bale and Matt Damon provided the fuel needed to propel James Mangold’s fun and inspirational tribute to two race-car designers unafraid to traverse new roads.

16. “Tigers Are Not Afraid”: Writer-director Issa Lopez proved why Guillermo Del Toro took her under his wing after seeing her affecting, eye-opening tale about kids left orphaned on the streets by Mexico’s never-ending drug wars.

17. “Woman at War”: Quirky doesn’t begin to describe Benedikt Erlingsson’s tale about a climate crusader (Halldora Geirharosdottir) dividing her time between directing a choir and plotting terrorist attacks on corporations she blames for destroying the environment. Brilliant is more like it.

18. “Maiden”: A truly stirring documentary about the first all-female yacht crew to sail around the world.

19. “I Lost My Body”: Jeremy Clapin delivered the year’s most imaginative animated film with his funny/creepy tale of a severed hand on a citywide search for the body to which it was formerly attached. You’ll want to become attached, too.

20. “The Farewell”: Awkwafina stole the show in Lulu Wang’s sumptuous tribute to life, love and family, but we were the ultimate winners because of it.

HONORABLE MENTION: “For Sama,” “Knives Out,” “American Factory,” “The Two Popes,” “The Great Hack,” “Waves,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Honey Boy,” “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” “Dolemite Is My Name”

THE WORST OF THE YEAR: I learned to be perceptive in weeding out the truly awful when opting what to see in 2019, but there were a handful I got suckered in by. Among them, the vastly overrated foreign-language darlings “Honeyland” and “Atlantics.” I found both to be meandering and pretentious, with the former repeatedly setting off my contrivance radar, always a bad omen for a documentary. Too much introspection, on the other hand, was what beleaguered Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir,” tedious proof that not every filmmaker is a Noah Baumbach or Pedro Almodovar when it comes to making autobiographical films. Along with those three turkeys, I'll toss in Joe Talbot’s addled “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” I thought it dumb and self-indulgent. And speaking of self-indulgent, my final slot goes to Terrence Malick’s DOA World War II saga, “A Hidden Life.” It should have remained concealed, thus allotting me the three hours of my life I could have better spent staring at the ceiling.

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