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☆ California Loses on Medical Censorship
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Gavin Newsom boasts that California is the land of the free, yet courts keep rebuking state lawmakers for violating individual liberties. A federal judge did so again last week in enjoining a new state law that threatened to punish doctors accused of promulgating Covid “misinformation.”Democrats last year passed legislation empowering the state medical board to discipline doctors licensed in the state who “disseminate misinformation or disinformation” that contradicts the “contemporary scientific consensus” or is “contrary to the standard of care.” The law’s goal is to enforce a public-health orthodoxy among doctors and silence dissenters.

[1/4] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Central Bank Governor Sahap Kavcioglu are pictured during a signing ceremony in Ankara, Turkey, June 8, 2022. But his drastic transformation of the economy and financial markets means such a change would bring its own uncertainties. The election will also determine what role regional military power and NATO member Turkey plays in conflicts in Ukraine, where Erdogan has helped broker talks, and in neighbour Syria. In the short-term it seems to have worked however, halting a years-long rise in Turks converting lira into dollars. Last week, Turkey had no problem borrowing $2.75 billion from international capital markets.

☆ ‘Experts’ Are Fueling Distrust in Vaccines
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Allysia Finley | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Nearly half of Americans believe Covid vaccines have probably caused a significant number of unexplained deaths, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey last week. In December, Rasmussen reported that a near equal proportion worry that Covid vaccines may have major side effects (57%) as believe they are effective (56%). People can hold both views at the same time. But the self-professed expert class and many who call themselves journalists dismiss anyone who questions their Covid vaccine orthodoxy as an “anti-vaxxer”—a label as sneering as “climate denier.”

☆ Christmas joy and anger for rival Orthodox churches in historic Kyiv monastery
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Max Hunder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

It has become a focus of a bitter conflict between Ukraine's Orthodox communities, triggered by Russia's invasion. Members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Ukraine's largest, piled into the cathedral's ornate interior on Saturday, to hear the first ever Ukrainian-language service in the cathedral. Ukraine's Orthodox Church, in its various iterations, has been subordinate to Moscow since the 17th century. The war, now in its eleventh month, has led many Ukrainians to rally round the OCU, which they see as more pro-Ukrainian than its rival, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). That decision infuriated Russia's Orthodox Church, as Istanbul had previously recognised the UOC, then under Moscow's rule, as the legitimate Ukrainian church.

About an hour after the Russian cease-fire began, air raid sirens sounded in the capital, Kyiv. Ukrainian officials accused Putin of using Christmas as cover to buy time for his military to regroup. Putin's surprise order instructed his defense minister to institute the cease-fire “along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine” from Friday, which is Christmas Eve for the Orthodox church. The Russian Orthodox Church, which uses the ancient Julian calendar, celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7 — later than the Gregorian calendar. Some Orthodox Christians in Ukraine recently started celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25 to show their anger at and defiance of Moscow.

☆ Putin orders a short 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine for Orthodox Christmas, a move some in Kyiv fear is a 'trap'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Putin has ordered a 36-hour-long truce in Ukraine over the upcoming Orthodox Christmas holiday. The ceasefire will last from 12 p.m. local time on January 6 until 12 a.m. local time on January 7. His order, cited by the Kremlin, came after he spoke with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Kremlin's announcement of the upcoming ceasefire came after calls from the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, to temporarily stop fighting so people could attend church services, state media TASS reported. Thus, ROC's statement about 'Christmas truce' is a cynical trap & an element of propaganda," Mykhailo Podolyak, a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Thursday before the ceasefire was formally announced by the Kremlin.

☆ Putin orders ceasefire in Ukraine over Orthodox Christmas - Kremlin
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Guy Faulconbridge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Summary Putin orders ceasefire over Orthodox ChristmasMove follows an appeal by Russian Orthodox ChurchUkraine earlier dismissed Orthodox Church appealMOSCOW, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine over Orthodox Christmas, the first major truce of the more than 10-month long war that has killed tens of thousands and devastated swathes of Ukraine. Putin ordered the ceasefire to begin on Jan. 6, the Kremlin said. Many Orthodox Christians, including those living in Russia and Ukraine, celebrate Christmas on Jan. 6-7. Ukraine earlier dismissed Kirill's appeal, though there was no immediate reaction to Putin's ceasefire announcement. "The statement of the Russian Orthodox Church about the 'Christmas Truce' is a cynical trap and an element of propaganda," he said.

☆ Pope marks New Year as Vatican prepares to mourn Benedict
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Pope Francis prayed for his predecessor’s passage to heaven as he presided over a special New Year’s Day Mass Sunday in St. Peter’s Basilica, a day after Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died in retirement at the Vatican. Benedict, 95, died Saturday morning in the Vatican where he had lived since retirement. He departed briefly from reading his homily, with its emphasis on hope and peace, to pray aloud for Benedict. “Today we entrust to our Blessed Mother our beloved Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, so that she may accompany him in his passage from this world to God,” he said. “At the beginning of this year, we need hope, just as the Earth needs rain,” Francis said.

☆ Pope Benedict XVI Promoted Traditional Faith, Contended With Sex-Abuse Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Liam Moloney | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

VATICAN CITY—Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was a scholar and longtime senior official in the Catholic Church who sought to reinvigorate Christian faith and strengthen church orthodoxy before becoming the first pontiff to resign in nearly 600 years. A formidable theologian and arbiter of church doctrine for years under papal predecessor St. John Paul II , Benedict anchored his nearly eight-year pontificate in promoting a transcendent faith in Jesus Christ grounded in definitive truths and compatible with human reason.

☆ Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russians are ‘following the devil’ after the country launched a wave of New Year’s Eve attacks on Ukraine: ‘No one in the world will forgive you for this’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Zelenskyy on Saturday railed against Russia over its New Year's Eve strikes on Ukraine. Zelenskyy traveled to Washington this month to meet with US President Biden and speak to Congress. But they are following the devil," Zelenskyy said during his address. Zelenskyy went on to say that Russian President Vladimir Putin is hiding and warned that neither Ukraine nor the world community would "forgive" the violent attacks on his country. Ukraine won't forgive," he emphasized.

A Culture in theCross Hairs Russia’s invasion has systematically destroyed Ukrainian cultural sites. It has also dealt a grievous blow to Ukrainian culture: to its museums and monuments, its grand universities and rural libraries, its historic churches and contemporary mosaics. This is how empires always work.” The war in Ukraine is a culture war, and the extent of the destruction is becoming clearer. Kyiv Sviatohirsk UKRAINE Damaged or destroyed religious sites Areas controlled by Russia at any time since invasion. Kyiv Sviatohirsk UKRAINE Damaged or destroyed religious sites Areas controlled by Russia at any time since invasion.

☆ The Weapon That World Cup Managers Don’t Use Enough: Substitutions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Andrew Beaton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

DOHA, Qatar—When Japan entered halftime down 1-0 to Spain in the group stage of this World Cup, coach Hajime Moriyasu knew precisely what to do: begin substituting his players far earlier than soccer orthodoxy would advise. For Moriyasu, it was a formula that worked. After substitutes had scored both goals in Japan’s comeback against Germany, they lifted the Samurai Blue over another European giant, this time Spain. Japan pulled off two epic comeback wins by substituting early and often. In both of those games, Moriyasu made his first changes at the half.

☆ A Florida judge blocked Ron DeSantis's Stope WOKE Act for colleges, calling it a 'positively dystopian' violation of free speech
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Florida judge on Thursday blocked part of the Stop WOKE Act that restricted race-related speech on campus. The judge said part of the law, which was backed by GOP Gov. Chief US District Judge Mark Walker's 138-page order described Florida's attempt to censor certain viewpoints related to race and gender as "positively dystopian" and said it violated free speech. "We strongly disagree with Judge Walker's preliminary injunction orders on the enforcement of the Stop W.O.K.E. Judge Walker previously suspended enforcement of another part of the law that impacted companies with 15 employees or more, also dismissing it as a violation of free speech.

Nov 17 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked key provisions of a Florida state law that curbs professors from endorsing particular viewpoints in public university classrooms, calling the measure "positively dystopian" in the latest blow to the Republican-enacted measure. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee said in a 139-page ruling that Florida's Individual Freedom Act, also known as the Stop WOKE Act, would have unlawfully required public university professors to self-censor. His ruling came in consolidated lawsuits filed by professors and students challenging the Individual Freedom Act, which Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis championed and signed into law in April. A spokesperson for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment, nor did the Florida attorney general's office, which defended the law in court. Attorneys for Florida had argued that the state had full power to restrict what public university professors, as state employees, could say in their classrooms.

☆ Head of Cyprus Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos, dies aged 81
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NICOSIA, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The head of Cyprus's dominant Orthodox Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, died on Monday, his doctors said. The Church of Cyprus, an independent branch of the Eastern Orthodox communion, traces its lineage back to Barnabas, one of Christ's first followers. In Nicosia, a group of priests in flowing black robes were seen carrying a coffin from the Archbishopric, where Chrysostomos died, to a nearby church. Chrysostomos, who was elected archbishop in 2006, had been critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, head of the estimated 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, said he was "deeply moved" by Chrysostomos's death.

☆ Rishi Sunak to be Britain's new prime minister as rival Penny Mordaunt drops out
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Rishi Sunak has been named as the U.K.'s new prime minister, after beating competitor Penny Mordaunt in the country's fast-tracked leadership race. Hollie Adams | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesLONDON — Rishi Sunak will be named the U.K.'s new prime minister, following a fast-tracked Conservative Party leadership race initiated to fill the void left by Liz Truss' resignation. The 42-year-old takes over just seven weeks after placing second to Truss, who stepped down Thursday, bringing to a swift close her 44 days in office — the shortest tenure of any U.K. prime minister. Sunak, who is credited with steering the U.K. economy through the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, is broadly seen as a safe pair of fiscal hands. Indeed, after being berated by Truss during the race as a voice of Treasury orthodoxy, his critique of the PM's "unfunded tax cuts" appears to have been vindicated.

"I now expect the language of free markets and libertarianism to be consigned to scrap for quite some time. Truss had spent her summer campaign for the party leadership complaining about Britain's weak economic growth, productivity and low pay since the 2008 global financial crisis. Her solution was to challenge economic "orthodoxy" and demand faster, radical action to shake the economy out of its torpor. The Institute of Economic Affairs said of the economic plan: "This isn't a trickle-down budget – it's a boost-up budget." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterEditing by Catherine EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Move over WFH, hello 'work whenever': 94% of employees want to ditch the 9-to-5 for flexible schedules, new survey says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

If you thought WFH was the best way to entice employees, wait until you hear about "work whenever." 94% of workers surveyed by Slack said they want to ditch the 9-to-5 for more flexible schedules. In a new Slack survey published Thursday, a staggering 94% of workers said they want flexibility in when they work — compared to 80% of respondents who said they want flexibility in where they work. "The sudden move to remote work provides the opportunity to question decades of orthodoxy about a 9-to-5, office-centric, homogeneous work culture." Employers allowing remote employees to "work from anywhere" has been one of the more substantial workplace developments to gain traction over the past few years.

☆ With UK leader Liz Truss quitting, here are the top contenders to replace her
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

"Given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party," she said in a brief speech Thursday afternoon. Here are the main contenders for the top job:Rishi SunakRishi Sunak, Britain's former finance minister and Truss' main opponent in this year's Conservative Party leadership race, is now seen as a favorite to replace her. Britain's former finance minister Rishi Sunak was Liz Truss's main opponent in this year's Conservative leadership race. Penny MordauntFormer Defense Secretary Penny Mordaunt surged to prominence during the summer's leadership race, before finishing in third place to Truss and Sunak. Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt is seen as a consensus candidate who could unite a splintered Conservative Party.

Yet he ultimately carried the can for an unwelcome fiscal plan that roiled bond markets, spooked investors and sparked a major backlash from governing Conservative Party lawmakers. Cutting his visit short, he flew back to London on Friday to "continue work at pace" for a medium-term fiscal plan due at the end of the month. Nor were further moves to re-embrace Treasury orthodoxy through the choice of Scholar's replacement and a decision to bring forward a medium-term fiscal plan and forecasts. In a reply to Kwarteng, Truss said she was deeply sorry to lose a long-standing friend from government. But a finance minister being ditched so quickly for his policies - especially when they were so closely aligned with the prime minister - is unprecedented in modern times.

☆ California to Doctors: Agree With Us or Shut Up
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

California Gov. Gavin Newsom made a splash this summer by running ads in Florida that claimed “freedom is under attack in your state.” The ads should have aired in his own state, which is the land of lockdowns and mask mandates. And under a new state law, doctors may even be punished for disputing the government’s public-health orthodoxy. These experts are often wrong and loath to admit it, as we learned with pandemic government lockdowns. Yet California Democrats last month enacted legislation that empowers the state medical board to discipline doctors licensed in the state who “disseminate misinformation or disinformation” that contradicts the “contemporary scientific consensus.”

LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Britain's government on Monday named an experienced Treasury official as the finance ministry's new top civil servant, after unsettling investors last month by abruptly ousting his predecessor. He replaces Tom Scholar whose departure shortly after Kwasi Kwarteng became finance minister contributed to a drop in confidence among investors since Liz Truss took over as prime minister. The removal of Scholar broke the British convention that non-partisan officials remain in post after a change of political leadership. It came shortly before Kwarteng announced a string of unfunded tax cuts that caused turmoil in financial markets. Bowler's appointment came as a surprise after newspapers last week reported that Truss wanted someone new to the Treasury to take the department's top job.

☆ UK's Kwarteng heads for Washington under pressure from IMF
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

On Sept. 23, Kwarteng made his first fiscal announcement including a controversial plan to scrap Britain's top income tax rate for the highest earners, part of a package of measures he said would speed up sluggish economic growth. Last week, a rebellion within the ruling Conservative Party forced Kwarteng and Truss to drop the idea of scrapping the 45% top rate of tax. "If Kwarteng decides to lecture back, let alone publicly dissent from the G7 consensus, then things will go very badly for him," Posen, a former BoE rate-setter, said. The BoE said on Monday it was taking further steps to ensure the emergency bond-buying scheme concludes smoothly on Friday. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterAdditional reporting by Howard Schneider in Washington Writing by William Schomberg Editing by Catherine EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Mel Stride, a lawmaker who chairs the Treasury Committee in the lower house of parliament and had criticised Scholar's departure, said the appointment would help reassure investors. The moves came as Kwarteng prepared to head to Washington this week with International Monetary Fund criticisms of Britain's new policy direction ringing in his ears. British Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng speaks during Britain's Conservative Party's annual conference in Birmingham, Britain, October 3, 2022. Kwarteng said the new date for his medium-term fiscal statement would give the independent Office For Budget Responsibility (OBR) enough time to carry out a full forecast. The new date for the fiscal plan leaves Kwarteng and Truss with little more than two weeks to settle divisions in her cabinet over cuts to government spending.

The most far-reaching of Mr. Trump’s ploys to overturn his defeat, the objections to the Electoral College results by so many House Republicans did more than any lawsuit, speech or rally to engrave in party orthodoxy the myth of a stolen election. Their actions that day legitimized Mr. Trump’s refusal to concede, gave new life to his claims of conspiracy and fraud and lent institutional weight to doubts about the central ritual of American democracy. While most House Republicans had amplified Mr. Trump’s claims about the election in the aftermath of his loss, only the right flank of the caucus continued to loudly echo Mr. Trump’s fraud allegations in the days before Jan. 6, The Times found. More Republican lawmakers appeared to seek a way to placate Mr. Trump and his supporters without formally endorsing his extraordinary allegations. His Republican critics called it a Trojan horse that allowed lawmakers to vote with the president while hiding behind a more defensible case.

Persons: Trump’s ploys, Trump’s, Mr, Trump, Mike Johnson Organizations: Trump Republican, Mr, Electoral, Republicans, Times, Republican Locations: Louisiana

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