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PJW Live: UK Government Scared of its Own Vaccine Stats

The British government has claimed that it intends to send private security contractors to knock on the doors of anyone returning from holidays to make sure they are quarantining upon their return, as required by law.
Home Secretary Priti Patel <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9597685/Priti-Patel-reveals-plans-10-000-quarantine-checks-day.html">announced Wednesday</a> that those returning from destinations that have not been added to the government’s ‘green list’ should expect to be checked on at their homes.
The warning comes after the government lifted international travel restrictions on Monday, allowing people to go on holiday, but with extensive caveats.
Patel claimed that 10,000 checks will be conducted every day by private contractors hired <a href="https://www.mitie.com/all-services/security-fire/?filter-service=security-and-fire&filter-search=">via the firm Mitie</a>, and if people are found to be flouting quarantine or acting noncompliant, police will be called to deal with them, with the authorisation to issue fines of up to £10,000.
The government has decreed that a negative PCR test and ten day quarantine is required for anyone returning from countries it has not deemed to be completely safe to visit, including the popular destinations of The U.S., France, Spain and Greece.
Those returning will then have to take a further two PCR tests (at their own expense) and test negative to be allowed out of their houses after the ten day period.
“People will not go unchecked,” Patel threatened. adding “Significant resources have been put in place – millions of pounds – in terms of the follow-up checking of people around their testing and making sure they stay at home. It has been stepped up.”
Discouraging travel to so called ‘amber list’ countries, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-travel-expect-knock-on-the-door-when-you-return-from-amber-countries-priti-patel-warns-12311649">told Sky News</a> Thursday that “You’ve got to quarantine. People will come to your house to check your quarantine. It’s expensive. We’re not at the stage of saying to people, go to those places on holiday. Please don’t.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock also claimed that the door to door checks are already underway, with 30,000 being conducted last week.
Boris Johnson told MPs yesterday that visits to medium-risk destinations are only acceptable in ‘extreme circumstances’. 
The announcement came after millions of people had already booked trips to the destinations, and in many cases have already arrived there, prompting fury from travellers, airlines and booking agents.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, of Advantage Travel Partnership described the government’s actions as “typical nanny state tactics.”
She added “Surely the British public can make up their own mind if they wish to quarantine in order to visit an amber country. As long as protocols are followed, testing is in place and rules in the destination are adhered to we see no reason why we cannot be allowed to travel safely to amber destinations for leisure. Otherwise, make those amber countries red.”
In related news, it has been revealed that UK ‘Covid passports’ officially rolled out for use during international travel <a href="https://summit.news/2021/05/20/privacy-watchdog-uk-covid-passport-small-print-says-it-will-be-used-domestically/">will eventually be used domestically</a> to restrict the movement of the population, according to the small print on the NHS website.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/11/09/pjw-live-uk-government-scared-of-its-own-vaccine-stats/">https://summit.news/2021/11/09/pjw-live-uk-government-scared-of-its-own-vaccine-stats/</a>

revolution summit PJW Live: UK Government Scared of its Own Vaccine Stats

The British government has claimed that it intends to send private security contractors to knock on the doors of anyone returning from holid...

Every Elected Official in U.S. City of Hamtramck is Muslim

Despite clear evidence of spikes in violent crime, mass sexual assaults and numerous terror attacks, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested her 2015 decision to allow a million migrants to enter the country was a success.
Talk about re-writing history.
During an interview with Deutsche Welle, Merkel was asked if her infamous quote from an August 2015 press conference about Germany’s ability to absorb large numbers of refugees, “wir schaffen das,” which translates to “we can do it,” still applies.
“Yes, we did it,” she responded, adding that despite some setbacks, “positive stories” emerged from the policy.
To illustrate the absurdity of the claim, it was made shortly after a Syrian migrant stabbed four people on a high-speed ICE train.
However, Merkel was forced to accept there had been some “dreadful incidents, like what happened on New Year’s Eve in Cologne,” a reference to when North African migrants sexually molested and raped around a thousand German women in one night.
“Since the migration crisis, Germany has experienced ongoing terrorism threats, terrorist attacks, rising sexual assault cases, and various other tragedies tied to the decisions she made in 2015,” reports <a href="https://rmx.news/article/yes-we-did-it-merkel-claims-2015-migration-crisis-was-a-success/">Remix News</a>.
“Just this year, a rejected asylum seeker from Somalia murdered three women in Würzburg with a knife, including one mother who shielded her daughter from the stabbing attack. Merkel never even commented on the tragedy.”
At a cost of tens of billions of euros to Germans, one can see little overall “positive” impact of the influx.
As we previously <a href="https://summit.news/2021/09/07/official-crime-stats-show-foreigners-migrants-responsible-for-nearly-half-of-gang-rapes-in-german-region/">highlighted</a>, official crime data released by Düsseldorf’s Ministry of the Interior revealed that in the region of North Rhine-Westphalia, foreigners and migrants, who represent around 14.8 per cent of the population, are responsible for almost half of recorded gang rapes.
As Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-migrants-germany-crime-idUKKBN1ES173">reported</a>, across the whole country, “Violent crime rose by about 10 percent in 2015 and 2016, a study showed. It attributed more than 90 percent of that to young male refugees.”
One particularly harrowing <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2333501/maria-ladenburger-eu-rape-murder-afghan-asylum-seeker/">case</a> involved Maria Ladenburger, the daughter of an EU official who was raped, murdered and dumped in a river in Freiburg.
Her murderer was Afghan migrant Hussein Khavari, who entered Germany as a refugee in November 2015.
In December 2017, another Afghan refugee, Abdul D, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45395066">stabbed</a> his 15-year-old German girlfriend to death because she broke up with him.
An <a href="https://summit.news/2021/09/03/over-80-of-culprits-responsible-for-looting-after-german-floods-were-foreign-migrants/">investigation</a> into the identity of criminal looters who exploited the chaos following the devastating floods in Germany also found that over 80 per cent of the culprits were migrants of non-German origin.
German has also suffered numerous terror attacks carried out by migrants, including a 2016 truck attack at a Christmas market in Berlin, which killed 12 people and injured 56 others,
The culprit was a failed Tunisian asylum seeker.
After a Somali refugee went on a stabbing rampage that left three women dead in June, the Mayor of Würzburg <a href="https://summit.news/2021/06/30/german-mayor-responds-to-islamist-terror-attack-by-expressing-concern-about-refugees/">reacted</a> by writing an open letter expressing concern about the stigmatization of refugees and migrants.
The former director of Germany’s foreign intelligence service <a href="https://summit.news/2019/09/16/ex-spy-chief-says-merkels-open-border-policy-created-security-crisis-for-germany/">accused</a> Angela Merkel of creating a “security crisis” in Germany as a result of her open border refugee policy, with authorities clueless as to the identity of up to 300,000 people in the country.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/11/09/every-elected-official-in-u-s-city-of-hamtramck-is-muslim/">https://summit.news/2021/11/09/every-elected-official-in-u-s-city-of-hamtramck-is-muslim/</a>

revolution summit Every Elected Official in U.S. City of Hamtramck is Muslim

Despite clear evidence of spikes in violent crime, mass sexual assaults and numerous terror attacks, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merke...

Australia has Fallen – Premier announces two-tier society by banning the Unvaccinated from all social, hospitality, and care settings whilst “rewardin...

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The Premier of Queensland, Australia has announced that fully vaccinated Queenslanders will be “rewarded” by December 17th 2021, by being allowed to live their lives again, but they will only be able to do this by not mixing with the unvaccinated, because Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is banning them from all social, hospitality, and care settings indefinitely.
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By mid-December, authorities in Queensland are set to ease restrictions for entry into the state, citing that this is the date they expect at least 80% of Queenslanders, 16 years and older, to be double vaccinated.
However, Premier Palaszczuk has decided that restrictions will remain in place for unvaccinated people once they reach the target of 80% double vaccination.
This means that from mid-December unvaccinated people will be unable to:
<ul>
<li>Visit vulnerable settings, including hospitals, residential aged care, disability care accommodation, and prisons.</li>
<li>Attend hospitality venues such as hotels, pubs, clubs, taverns, bars, restaurants or cafes.</li>
<li>Attend indoor entertainment venues such as nightclubs, live music venues, karaoke bars, concerts, theatres or cinemas.</li>
<li>Attend outdoor entertainment activities such as sporting stadiums or theme parks.</li>
<li>Attend festivals – either indoor or outdoor – such as musical festivals, folk festivals or arts festivals.</li>
<li>Attend Queensland Government owned galleries, museums or libraries.</li>
</ul>
The Queensland Government states that “these activities are not essential for people to meet their basic needs, but present a considerable risk to contributing to an outbreak in our community when our borders reopen”.
There is however, an exception for weddings in which the unvaccinated may attend, but only at the detriment of the entire wedding party as this will then mean the wedding is restricted to a maximum of 20 people attending.
Meanwhile the fully vaccinated, who Premier Palaszczuk said “will be rewarded”, will be allowed to go back to their lives as normal, almost. Because they will still need to use a “freedom pass” to check-in to venues with the Government describing it as “important to support contact tracing” because “vaccinated people can still carry the virus”.
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In the meantime Queenslanders must obey the Queensland Governments enforceable “New Normal” which involves –
<ul>
<li>Maintaining physical distancing of 1.5m</li>
<li>Wearing a face mask</li>
<li>Maintaining good hand hygiene</li>
<li>Staying home when sick</li>
<li>Checking in to premises or events using the Queensland app for effective contact tracing</li>
<li>Getting vaccinated</li>
</ul>
But are the current restrictions on all Queenslanders and the upcoming restrictions on the unvaccinated justified?
Well the <a href="https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/current-status/statistics">Queensland Governments Covid-19 dashboard</a> certainly suggests that they are absolutely not.
In the 24 hours prior to November 9th 2021, the state of Queensland conducted a total of 8,121 Covid-19 tests. Of these there were zero local cases and just 1 case defined as “other”.
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You may be thinking that the lack of cases is due to the restrictions and the Covid-19 vaccines doing their job? Well you’re wrong.
Between March 1st 2020 and November 9th 2021, a period of 1 year and 8 months, the state of Queensland has conducted 4,736,216 Covid-19 tests. Of these just 0.04% have resulted in a positive test, with 529 local cases confirmed, and 1,570 “other” cases confirmed over twenty months.
That equates to just 105 positive test results for Covid-19 every single month since the beginning of the alleged pandemic, but remove the 1,570 “other” cases and you find that Queensland has actually only recorded an average of 26 cases every month since the start of the pandemic. For context, over 5.1 million people reside in the state of Queensland, Australia.
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But it get’s even harder to justify the loss of freedoms for the entire population of Queensland, and the introduction of a two-tier society by December when you realise how many people have died of Covid-19 in twenty months.
Official stats show that the last recorded Covid-19 death in Queensland, Australia occurred April 12th 2021. Prior to that the last recorded death was 26th May 2020.
The entire state of Queensland, with a population of over 5.1 million people has recorded just 7 Covid-19 deaths since March 2020, an average of 0.35 deaths per month, yet Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is planning to ban the unvaccinated from all social, hospitality, and care settings.
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How much more evidence do you need that this has absolutely nothing to do with a virus and everything to do with control?
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North Carolina’s extreme new gerrymander, explained

Last week, while the political world was <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/11/3/22752593/virginia-governor-results-youngkin-wins">transfixed on Virginia</a>, something arguably more consequential took place in the state just south of it: North Carolina’s Republican-controlled statehouse passed new political maps based on the 2020 census that give the GOP a significant leg up in congressional elections.
In a state split nearly evenly between Republicans and Democrats — Trump won it in 2020 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-north-carolina.html">with 49.9 percent</a> of the vote — the new map of districts for House elections would likely give the GOP at least 10 House seats out of 14 (71 percent). North Carolina law <a href="https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2021/03/09/answer-man-can-gov-cooper-veto-redistricting-moves/4626337001/">does not allow</a> Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to veto the maps, which means they will be used in 2022 unless courts intervene.
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, an academic group that grades political maps based on a set of mathematical metrics of fairness, gave the North Carolina map <a href="https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/redistricting-report-card?planId=rec1jFkj1lne3m1RS">an “F” for extreme partisan bias</a> — marking it as one of the very worst proposals anywhere in the country. Two separate analyses, from a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1z3taP_eI">Duke University professor</a> and <a href="https://planscore.campaignlegal.org/plan.html?20211105T170501.319985710Z">the Campaign Legal Center</a>, also found that the map was unusually tilted in the GOP’s direction.
“Ten years ago, North Carolina’s legislature drew an extremely gerrymandered congressional map. It was so gerrymandered that they were ordered to redraw it. Twice,” says Will Adler, an expert on gerrymandering at the Center for Democracy and Technology think tank. “This map appears to be at least as extreme as the ones drawn in the last cycle.”
Whether North Carolina’s newly passed maps will survive legal review — the activist group Common Cause has already <a href="https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article255578216.html">filed a suit</a> to stop them — remains to be seen. But challenges to the map face an uphill climb: a 2019 Supreme Court ruling <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/27/18761166/supreme-court-gerrymandering-republicans-democracy">defanged federal anti-gerrymandering protections</a>, making it easier for North Carolina Republicans to get away with twisting the maps.
In recent years, North Carolina’s Republican legislative majority has been <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/5/18125544/north-carolina-power-grab-wisconsin-michigan-lame-duck">on the cutting edge of anti-democratic activity</a> — going further than other legislatures and even pioneering new tactics for cementing their hold on power that have been picked up by Republicans elsewhere. What happens there is a leading indicator of where our political system is heading.
That’s why this isn’t just about one hyperpartisan statehouse. As states across the country draw new lines in the wake of the census, governments controlled by a single party have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to give themselves a massive leg up. While some Democratic-controlled legislatures like Illinois <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/11/07/us/politics/redistricting-maps-explained.html">are abusing this power</a>, Republicans are both <a href="https://www.vox.com/22632427/redistricting-gerrymandering-house-republicans">better equipped and have proven more willing</a> to draw undemocratic lines that favor themselves.
The GOP’s ruthless redistricting is part of an even bigger pattern of <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/6/15/22522504/republicans-authoritarianism-trump-competitive">state-level sabotage of democracy</a>. Gerrymandering is one tool the GOP uses, together with voter suppression bills and institutional power grabs, to tilt the electoral playing field toward their side.
Given the key role states play in setting the rules for national elections, this represents <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/6/15/22522504/republicans-authoritarianism-trump-competitive">an existential threat to our political system</a>. If American democracy dies, it’ll die in the states.
To get a good baseline for what happened in North Carolina, it helps to start with the 2020 House election results. Using a map drawn <a href="https://about.bgov.com/news/new-nc-redistricting-boosts-democrats-in-2020-elections/">in accordance with court rulings</a> against the gerrymandered map used in 2018, Republicans still won eight of 13 House seats despite Democratic candidates receiving slightly more votes overall.
This result, as you can see in the map below, reflects differences in where Democratic and Republican voters live. Because Democrats are concentrated in and around cities like Charlotte and Greensboro, while Republicans are more spread out across the state, even more neutral maps can yield some degree of GOP advantage.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1636498241_3742_10054" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22995913,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tvvW5EU5AEAx98DWuFIA4GnH1Qk=/0x0:1860x1497/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hZOI25Ujm2O0VKxNto74kTa3aRk=/0x0:1860x1497/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/93vZask_7-B4X1rGA9sylqakatc=/0x0:1860x1497/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7YUxZCDG6yRJ1uwFbuKNMAkxZAg=/0x0:1860x1497/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xbV0HuzlQAOSwICbhGslnNunSqA=/0x0:1860x1497/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GArlZH77GeHqwZYJcNs30rA2Dr0=/0x0:1860x1497/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mNVm5k_7XmsKXWnK5gZnsUaXiso=/0x0:1860x1497/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2W1C9aaChqGygj6InWRo6vOIfOY=/0x0:1860x1497/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/G2SKdndWghG-QfVRPejeqZeaANc=/0x0:1860x1497/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="Map: “North Carolina’s 2020 House map favored Republicans”" data-upload-width="1860" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ee-sXpAwEW7a9e4XyMKi10JeSxk=/0x0:1860x1497/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XcHxAFz6xDJRCTtnoypBbyMVVi0=/0x0:1860x1497/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ibLGl5hZs4UdradWygWfk2pf1SQ=/0x0:1860x1497/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M7xg1RihUvCSJTVa7a1M7V1S9bc=/0x0:1860x1497/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bZAKA6Cm2ReL8CB-O8qq1QPcp_U=/0x0:1860x1497/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bovtWWRj-xNjC3L3-T1UbbkVCh0=/0x0:1860x1497/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5ANbBjoWe91Vl4kkwqLcKPFSJt4=/0x0:1860x1497/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/p5sLxCMwlKfevN6AUhszN_AhdF0=/0x0:1860x1497/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CGCt0LmGI1Dv1EujKFpYCEc-4IQ=/0x0:1860x1497/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JUyUgF1P4_rNpTIc1BWm2UjYv1E=/0x0:1860x1497/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1497):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22995913/8G1kF_north_carolina_s_2020_house_map_br_favored_republicans.png 1920w" /></picture> <cite>Tim Ryan Williams/Vox</cite></figure>
But now take a look at how a similarly close election would play out under the proposed 2022 map, which has one more seat thanks to North Carolina’s population growth.
Instead of winning eight seats, Republicans win about 10 — a degree of advantage that can’t only be explained by Democrats clustering in cities.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1636498241_717_10055" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22999521,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1WsbQ6hz8NR9tkb5GikT1ssE3nY=/0x0:1860x1572/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6gawH7M1_0-D4TFniMC5hwjI0qE=/0x0:1860x1572/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/__-4gDMvv7E1im67nQJd3vIGcz4=/0x0:1860x1572/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Akdk5fc4Hu_ggsFaRo1rYKE0CJg=/0x0:1860x1572/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DRRgHHpWEuuiMwtxdaVRedImVz0=/0x0:1860x1572/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ABFFHxMLSD2yr_SlHAvqlpYBOcI=/0x0:1860x1572/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/T_-xI0OW1Z-M-DDW2luplf8zXnA=/0x0:1860x1572/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zelZqVCRAUK3s9mW5ycBWRuoWAA=/0x0:1860x1572/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TaCwGOc6TYNepewEOHu_QmS9b_g=/0x0:1860x1572/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="Map: “North Carolina’s new House map for 2022 favors Republicans even more”" data-upload-width="1860" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yahSrrf7aRAl9JP0RL7gih4N6x0=/0x0:1860x1572/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RqQX_dNu0v2e0gJXEasHBiliujE=/0x0:1860x1572/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NXSVNajCEVuQ2gRkv6V7s0SuZmo=/0x0:1860x1572/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TglL4JgSNLTyvP1lQ-KnwgCu3nY=/0x0:1860x1572/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SICw73b7rQrrCWtqDXg_EJOCrWg=/0x0:1860x1572/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/v6B7D3DMUZdgNtFUlGpuAmpp4R0=/0x0:1860x1572/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HNwRibZgn0kV8XN-tuwpmYPsZ1g=/0x0:1860x1572/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dIuMJmBIkem61UHL4bBO6eIrUeE=/0x0:1860x1572/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/N-NMPWCGxHIrB-HcRcsxUflOfk8=/0x0:1860x1572/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Snmnk2blUMF-64sqeag49EelMUA=/0x0:1860x1572/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1572):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22999521/xxWi9_north_carolina_s_new_house_map_for_2022_br_favors_republicans_even_more.png 1920w" /></picture> <cite>Tim Ryan Williams/Vox</cite></figure>
The new map reflects the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22632427/redistricting-gerrymandering-house-republicans">twin hallmarks of any gerrymander</a>, called “packing” and “cracking.” Gerrymanders work by concentrating a large number of the opposing party’s voters in a handful of districts (“packing”), while spreading out the rest of their supporters across districts where they’re consistently outnumbered (“cracking”).
The new map’s lines are drawn in strange ways in order to pack and crack Democratic voters. Democrats in Charlotte, for example, are packed in a very small district where they outnumber Republicans by a roughly 3 to 1 margin. By contrast, Greensboro and the nearby area is cracked in such a way as to create several different districts with comfortable Republican majorities.
One way to measure the degree of unfairness is to look at what gerrymandering experts call “responsiveness”: the extent to which the outcome of elections changes based on shifts in votes. Duke mathematician Jonathan Mattingly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1z3taP_eI&t=465s">ran an analysis</a> of the new maps testing their responsiveness, looking at how many seats each party would get using statewide popular vote totals from previous elections (e.g., the Democrats’ US Senate win in 2008, the GOP’s gubernatorial victory in 2012).
The following chart shows his results. The orange blocks show the frequency of different House outcomes under various hypothetical maps, with the peaks representing the most common vote outcomes. The yellow dots show the outcome using the map Republicans just passed.
In the hypothetical maps, Democrats generally do better as they start winning bigger and bigger majorities — depicted by the orange peaks shifting to the right. But for the 2022 map’s yellow dots, that’s not the case: Republicans continue to maintain a 10-4 advantage even when Democrats win solid statewide majorities.
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<figcaption>A model showing expected outcomes if past statewide elections were House races on North Carolina’s new map. The circles on the histograms show that in all but the most left-leaning electorates, Democrats would likely only win about 4 or 5 House seats out of 14.</figcaption>
<cite>Jonathan Mattingly/Duke University</cite></figure>
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It would take an absolute blowout, over 7 percentage points in the statewide popular vote, for Democrats to even get half of the state’s congressional delegation.
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project did a similar exercise, running over a million simulations of various possible maps. In the vast majority of these maps, Democrats average six or seven seats in House elections — half or a little under the total. Under the new Republican-drawn map, Democrats average just four.
The size of this GOP advantage in the new map, the consistency of its wins with different vote totals, and the lines of the districts themselves are all very strong evidence of an extreme partisan gerrymander.
“All the political scientists are sort of coming to the same conclusion: this doesn’t look happenstance. It looks planned,” says Adam Podowitz-Thomas, a senior legal strategist on the Princeton team.
The North Carolina gerrymander, on its own, doesn’t guarantee that Republicans control Congress. On net, it’s likely to shift two or three House seats into the GOP’s column in 2022 — a nice advantage, especially given how closely divided Congress is at present, but not an insurmountable one.
The issue is that, across the country and over the last few years, Republicans have been systematically more willing and able to redraw lines in their favor than Democrats. An analysis of the past three elections, conducted over the summer by <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-08-10/ap-republicans-reaped-biggest-redistricting-edge-in-decades">the Associated Press</a>, found that gerrymandering has given Republicans “a greater political advantage in more states than either party had in the past 50 years.”
This GOP advantage is <a href="https://cookpolitical.com/redistricting">likely to increase</a> in the current redistricting cycle. In the 2020 elections, Republicans <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/republicans-won-almost-every-election-where-redistricting-was-at-stake/">swept key statehouse races</a> in states where legislatures control redistricting — North Carolina, obviously, but also Florida, Texas, and Georgia. All four are larger states, so a lot of seats are in play. They’re also all fairly competitive, which means that there are more Democrats to pack-and-crack into political oblivion than there are in a deep-red state like Alabama.
Some Democratic state legislatures appear willing to play the same game in 2021. The new <a href="https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/redistricting-report-card/?planId=rec6qj1vAOKsBnXnu">Oregon</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/11/07/us/politics/redistricting-maps-explained.html">Illinois</a> maps appear to be heavily biased in Democrats’ favor; New York’s map, while not yet released, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/nyregion/congress-redistricting-ny.html">may come out quite tilted to the left</a>.
But in recent history, Democratic-controlled states have been <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/5/22358325/study-republican-control-state-government-bad-for-democracy">less likely</a> to engage in extreme gerrymandering than their Republican peers. And even if Democrats wanted to totally change that in 2021, they couldn’t: The party just doesn’t have enough power in enough states. Some of the large states Democrats control, like California and Virginia, have delegated redistricting to independent commissions.
The asymmetry in gerrymandering speaks to a deeper difference between the parties. Republicans are more willing to rewrite the rules of the political game in their favor than Democrats — to undermine foundations of the democratic system in order to cement their hold on power.
In this sense, North Carolina’s gerrymandering is less an undemocratic one-off than part of a bigger pattern of undemocratic behavior.
You have election subversion laws, like Georgia’s SB 202, that give state Republicans <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22368044/georgia-sb202-voter-suppression-democracy-big-lie">the power to seize control of the actual vote-counting procedure</a> in counties. You have post-2020 efforts to replace election administration officials who blocked Trump’s efforts to steal the election, like <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brad-raffensperger-trump-2022_n_61816acfe4b059d0bfc386cd">Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger</a> or <a href="https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2021/01/19/michigan-freedom-fund-leader-to-replace-van-langevelde-on-board-of-state-canvassers">Michigan’s Aaron Van Langevelde</a>.
You have power grabs, as seen in states like <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/5/18125544/north-carolina-power-grab-wisconsin-michigan-lame-duck">North Carolina in 2016 and Wisconsin in 2018</a>, where Republican legislatures strip newly elected Democratic governors of their authority. You have a number of laws aimed at <a href="https://www.vox.com/22463490/voting-rights-democracy-texas-georgia-suppression-jim-crow-supreme-court-sb7">suppressing turnout in Democratic-leaning communities</a>, ranging from strict voter ID requirements to voter roll purges to restrictions on mail-in ballots.
Underneath it all is the Republican Party’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/4/1/22356594/conservatives-right-wing-democracy-claremont-ellmers">delegitimization of democratic rule and embrace of Trump’s lies about election fraud</a>.
In a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/5/22358325/study-republican-control-state-government-bad-for-democracy">2021 working paper</a>, the University of Washington’s Jake Grumbach attempted to quantitatively measure the health of democracy in all 50 states — and to figure out what correlated with its declines in certain places. He found that Republican control over state government — and only Republican control — is strongly correlated with <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/c682q88keqycp6s/grumbach_laboratories_of_democratic_backsliding.pdf?raw=1">large and measurable downturns in democracy</a>.
“Results suggest a minimal role for all factors except Republican control of state government, which dramatically reduces states’ democratic performance,” he writes.
North Carolina is one of the key examples in Grumbach’s paper: Its democracy score starts to plunge in 2011, the last time Republicans had control of the redistricting process. The maps they came up with that time were struck down in courts; there’s already a case pending about the new maps.
But there’s no guarantee the outcome will be the same. In the 2019 case Rucho v. Common Cause, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal judiciary <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/27/18761166/supreme-court-gerrymandering-republicans-democracy">does not have the power</a> to block unfair partisan gerrymanders. Rucho is one in a series of recent Supreme Court cases gutting voting rights protections, which have made it much easier for state legislatures to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22575435/voting-rights-supreme-court-john-roberts-shelby-county-constitution-brnovich-elena-kagan">get away with extreme gerrymanders</a>. Similarly, Republicans in Congress, in thrall to Trump, have become <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22274429/republicans-anti-democracy-13-charts">more willing to engage in anti-democratic practices</a> — culminating with the events of January 6.
This broad-spectrum Republican turn against democracy does not mean that the American political system is doomed. But what happened in North Carolina last week should remind us that we are in the midst of a rolling political crisis — the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/6/15/22522504/republicans-authoritarianism-trump-competitive">authoritarian radicalization</a> of one of our two major parties.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/11/9/22765982/north-carolina-redistricting-gerrymandering-2021-2022">https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/11/9/22765982/north-carolina-redistricting-gerrymandering-2021-2022</a>

vox North Carolina’s extreme new gerrymander, explained

Last week, while the political world was transfixed on Virginia , something arguably more consequential took place in the state just south o...

5 things to know about the big climate conference in Glasgow

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A climate conference that will help determine how hot the planet gets is approaching its final days in Glasgow, Scotland. The United Nations climate change conference, known as <a href="https://www.vox.com/22714800/cop26-un-climate-change-conference-glasgow-explained">COP26</a>, has already been one of the buzziest meetings of its kind.
During the first week of the two-week conference, world leaders promoted their efforts to limit greenhouse gases and expand renewable energy. India joined the world’s other largest greenhouse gas emitters — China, the United States, and the European Union — in committing to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22737140/un-cop26-climate-change-net-zero-emissions-carbon-offsets">net-zero emissions</a> targets. Countries have also made major announcements on coal, deforestation, and financial aid for slowing and adapting to climate change.
Then the heads of state departed, leaving negotiators to a second week of hammering out each country’s strategy for meeting their daunting goals. The talks happening through Friday could determine whether countries live up to their promises or fall desperately short of what’s needed to prevent runaway warming.
“We have not done nearly enough to address this crisis,” former US President Barack Obama told COP26 attendees on Monday. “We are going to have to do more. Whether that happens or not to a large degree is going to depend on you.”
The discussions are often weedy and fraught, and they must find common ground between rich countries and poor countries, between oil exporters and island nations threatened by rising seas. The most difficult issues tend to involve money — who pays, how much, and to whom. But some experts say that countries are making progress, spurred in part by pressure from activists outside the conference and the unmistakable consequences of climate change rippling throughout the world. If you’re just tuning in, here’s what you need to know to get up to speed.
The 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as COP26 is officially called, is the latest in a series of nearly annual meetings where countries try to overcome their differences and rise to the challenge of climate change. This year’s meeting was originally scheduled for 2020 but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Climate disasters are getting more extreme and more frequent, and the atmosphere doesn’t care where greenhouse gases come from — they trap heat and warm the world regardless of who emits them. So every country and community has a stake in the outcome and an obligation to work toward a solution.
International conferences are opportunities for major progress in limiting climate change. Of course, when nearly 200 governments get together — geopolitical rivals, fossil fuel-dependent economies, developing countries, wealthy governments — the disagreements can be fierce, and often make for a slow and frustrating process.
The overarching goal is to get the world committed to a downward slope in total greenhouse gas emissions. Negotiators want to nail down details of adhering to the Paris climate agreement, secure $100 billion in international climate financing, and come up with a framework to help countries adapt to unavoidable changes in the climate.
The <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris Agreement was signed six years ago at COP21</a>. In theory, it is a binding treaty, but it allows member states to set their own targets for limiting emissions. Signatories agreed to limit global warming this century to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, with a higher target of staying below 1.5°C.
When countries signed the Paris Agreement, their pledges were nowhere near enough to meet these goals. Global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise since 2015 and the planet has already warmed up by roughly 1.1°C on average. Scientists from the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/9/17951924/climate-change-global-warming-un-ipcc-report-takeaways">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in 2018</a> that in order to meet the 1.5°C target, the world would have to cut current greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2030. That’s adding to the urgency of the proceedings at COP26.
A core idea of the Paris Agreement was that countries would ramp up their goals over time, as technologies improve and countries build up political support for more aggressive action. COP26 is the first big test of this idea: Countries were supposed to come to the table with greater ambitions to fight climate change, laid out in plans known as nationally determined contributions.
There are other climate-related issues on the table at COP26 as well, though they aren’t strictly part of the Paris Agreement. Negotiators are working on ways to finance the transition to clean energy in developing countries. They are also discussing how countries bearing some of the worst consequences of climate change right now, many of which are not major greenhouse-gas emitters, should be compensated for the damages they face.
COP26 is a critical part of the global effort against climate change, especially as the window for avoiding some of the worst effects of warming <a href="https://www.vox.com/22620706/climate-change-ipcc-report-2021-ssp-scenario-future-warming">starts to close</a>.
COP26 spurred major climate developments both before and during the meeting. The United States, after officially withdrawing from the Paris Agreement last year, was eager to come to the table in Glasgow with a strong hand. As the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, the US announced in April that it would <a href="https://www.vox.com/22397364/earth-day-us-climate-change-summit-biden-john-kerry-commitment-2030-zero-emissions">increase its target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions</a>. The new target is cutting emissions in half by 2030 relative to 2005 levels, and reaching <a href="https://www.vox.com/22737140/un-cop26-climate-change-net-zero-emissions-carbon-offsets">net-zero</a> by 2050, a target meant to be “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/26/president-biden-invites-40-world-leaders-to-leaders-summit-on-climate/">a key milestone</a>” on the road to COP26.
President Joe Biden was also keen to have a pair of bills in hand that would put more money behind his climate goals. Congress did pass a $1.2 trillion <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/11/5/22766086/infrastructure-biden-house-democrats-vote-pass-bbb-spending-bill">bipartisan infrastructure deal</a> that would fund some climate mitigation and resilience work, during the first week of COP26. However, lawmakers are still negotiating the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22752414/reconciliation-bill-biden-build-back-better-spending">Build Back Better</a> plan that would allocate even more money to slowing climate change.
Having the world’s largest economy committed to a more aggressive target likely spurred other countries to step up too, but without money behind it, the US is in a weaker position to press other countries to do more at the table.
Other countries have also strengthened their climate goals. India, the world’s third-largest emitter, made a surprise announcement that it is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03044-x">aiming for net-zero emissions by 2070</a>. Previously, India was reluctant to declare a target at all.
So far, at least 140 countries representing nearly 60 percent of global greenhouse gas output have agreed to increase their pledges.
This could have a big impact. Before COP26, the world’s pledges tracked toward 2.7°C of warming by the end of the century, according to the <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2021">Emissions Gap Report</a> from the United Nations Environment Programme published in October. In light of the pledges made at COP26, the group revised their estimate, finding the new targets would put the <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/37350/AddEGR21.pdf">world on course for 1.9°C to 2.1°C of warming</a>. That may not sound like much, but small shifts in average temperatures lead to larger shifts in extremes. A once-per-decade heat wave becomes <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/whats-difference-between-15c-2c-global-warming-2021-11-07/">four times more likely at 1.5°C</a> and 5.6 times more likely at 2°C, for example.
But of course, what countries say they will do and what they actually do can be very different. “I think that a pledge is a good start, However, we are more looking closely at implementation,” said <a href="https://www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com/">Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner</a>, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, during a panel discussion on Monday. “That’s where we will really be holding the larger states accountable for how they will deliver on these commitments.”
Other major announcements at COP26 include:
Methane cuts — More than 100 countries, including the US, Japan, and members of the European Union, signed on to the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/statement_21_5766">Global Methane Pledge</a> and promised to cut their methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. These countries account for half of global methane emissions.
Methane is the dominant component of natural gas and a byproduct of landfills and agriculture. Over 100 years, it’s about <a href="https://www.vox.com/22613532/climate-change-methane-emissions">30 times as powerful as carbon dioxide</a> at trapping heat in the atmosphere, so reducing methane emissions has huge and immediate benefits for the climate.
Ending deforestation — Leaders of more than 100 countries, whose lands include 85 percent of the world’s forests, pledged to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59088498">end deforestation by 2030</a> as well as provide close to $20 billion in public and private support for the endeavor. The list of signatories includes Russia, Brazil, the US, and the United Kingdom.
Vegetation in forests absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows, while also regulating regional climates.
Halting coal financing — Burning coal to make electricity spews out about <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-co2-status-report-2019/emissions">one-third of humanity’s global greenhouse gas emissions</a>. Some of the largest growth in coal power consumption is occurring in developing countries, often backed by banks in wealthier countries. Japan, South Korea, China, and 22 other countries agreed to end their financing of coal power in other countries.
Ending coal consumption — At least 40 countries have now committed to ending their use of coal power. This includes five of the top 20 coal users in the world.
“Today, I think we can say that the end of coal is in sight,” said <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/people/alok-sharma">Alok Sharma</a>, president of COP26, on November 4. But the list notably does not include China and India, which account for two-thirds of global coal consumption. The US and Australia, both major coal producers, did not sign on.
Again, these are all just pledges, and it remains to be seen how they will be put into action.
COP26 officials put out a list of “<a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/Non-paper%20on%20possible%20elements.pdf">possible elements</a>” that could end up in a final agreement at the end of the meeting. One of the most significant points is the “Urgency of action to keep 1.5 alive.”
While the Paris Agreement aimed to limit warming to 2°C , its secondary target of 1.5°C has now become the de facto target for some countries at COP26, particularly those that are most vulnerable to climate change. Remember: Small changes in averages lead to big changes in extremes. At 1.5°C, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/whats-difference-between-15c-2c-global-warming-2021-11-07/">major ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica</a> will likely stay intact, while at 2°C they will likely collapse. At 1.5°C, 70 percent of the world’s coral reefs may be lost, but at 2°C of warming, the losses surge to 99 percent.
The more warming there is, the worse the human and economic consequences for the world, warn reports from numerous scientific agencies like the IPCC. Conversely, that means the more that’s done to avoid warming, the greater the benefits for everyone.
The problem is that heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide can linger in the atmosphere for centuries, and getting on course for 1.5°C requires aggressive cuts in emissions right away. While <a href="https://zerotracker.net/">137 countries have set net-zero emissions targets</a> by the middle of the century, negotiators are debating their goals for 2025. These near-term goals could make or break their longer-term targets.
One tension at the conference is transparency. Some countries are reluctant to disclose details about their emissions and open themselves up to scrutiny and blame for their part in climate change.
Negotiators are also working on finalizing rules for how countries can trade emissions credits across borders to meet their climate targets. The rules around international carbon markets, which were hotly debated in past meetings, may finally get nailed down at COP26. Still, it’s poised to be a slog. “I’m not going to say it’s going to be an easy win,” <a href="https://www.e3g.org/people/jennifer-tollmann/">Jennifer Tollmann</a>, a senior policy adviser at E3G, a think tank, told reporters on Tuesday.
There is also the ever-present issue of money. Many countries facing the impacts of climate change right now say the wealthier countries that produced the most historical emissions should help pay for losses and damages. They want an agreement in writing that they’ll get support, but wealthy countries are resistant to any wording that hints at any obligation or liability on their part.
As for the impacts of climate change that lie ahead, countries continue to fall short. Twelve years ago at <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02846-3">COP15 in Copenhagen</a>, countries agreed to pool $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change. That funding target was missed and may not be reached until 2023.
It’s still not clear whether all these issues will be resolved by the end of the meeting on Friday, and the summit may go long. Negotiators may punt yet again on some of the more contentious issues, arguing that no deal is better than a bad deal.
There’s a lot riding on this meeting, but it <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/12/18/21024283/climate-change-cop25-us-brazil-australia-japan">wouldn’t be the first international gathering</a> built on high hopes that dragged on without delivering conclusive results. Some discussion items may get shifted to the agenda for the next COP, likely to be held in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/egypt-selected-nominee-host-cop27-climate-talks-us-envoy-kerry-2021-10-02/">Egypt next year</a>.
The good news is COP meetings aren’t the only kind of global climate action, as was evident in the past four years. When the US began withdrawing from the Paris Agreement under former President Donald Trump, <a href="https://www.arup.com/perspectives/publications/research/section/working-together-global-aggregation-of-city-climate-commitments">cities and local governments set their own climate goals</a>. Many companies have also committed to zeroing out their contributions to climate change.
Even after Trump left office, some of that momentum has strengthened. Nearly 20 percent of the world’s largest publicly traded companies have set <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-climate-carbon-business-trfn-idUSKBN2BF2ZX">net-zero emissions targets</a>, for example.
Countries have also set up <a href="https://www.energy.ca.gov/about/campaigns/international-cooperation/climate-change-partnerships">bilateral and multilateral climate agreements</a> to curb emissions, with pairs or small groups of countries teaming up to share resources, finance clean energy, and trade carbon credits. Cities and countries are also pursuing climate change tactics on their own, for example by <a href="https://qz.com/1341155/nine-countries-say-they-will-ban-internal-combustion-engines-none-have-a-law-to-do-so/">phasing out gasoline-powered vehicles</a>. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar power are getting even cheaper, giving them an advantage to fossil fuels in many markets. And some governments have concluded that the costs of leaving climate change unchecked far exceed the costs of reducing emissions.
But COP26 is a unique moment to get governments in the same room, and it holds the potential for major changes in how the world addresses climate change. A meeting like this may be ill-suited to the task of tackling an urgent global crisis, yet it’s an important opportunity to commit governments to a better course.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22769793/cop26-un-climate-change-glasgow-scotland-obama">https://www.vox.com/22769793/cop26-un-climate-change-glasgow-scotland-obama</a>

vox 5 things to know about the big climate conference in Glasgow

A climate conference that will help determine how hot the planet gets is approaching its final days in Glasgow, Scotland. The United Nation...

Let’s talk about Cecily Strong’s game-changing “clown abortion” skit

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There’s an idea, particularly popular with some comedians, that the very point of comedy is to say the unsayable, to push boundaries and envelopes by articulating uncomfortable truths. <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22738500/dave-chappelle-the-closer-daphne-dorman-trans-controversy-comedy">Dave Chappelle embodied this</a> recently in his <a href="https://www.vox.com/22722357/dave-chappelle-the-closer-netflix-backlash-controversy-transphobic">controversial</a> Netflix comedy special The Closer, his sixth for the streaming giant in which he (once again) takes up the question of how we should treat trans people and concludes (once again) that the answer is “none too carefully.”
Saying the presumably unsayable is often the milieu of male comics such as Joe Rogan (whose 2016 Netflix special was called Triggered) or Bill Burr (whose last special was titled Paper Tiger).
For the most part, comedy titan Saturday Night Live has sidestepped that tendency, sticking to its long-running habit of doing straightforward comedic imitations and letting the real-life, absurdist politics speak for themselves under cover of parody — until this past weekend.
Cast member Cecily Strong’s recent “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exSZQICbSb8">clown abortion</a>” sketch for “Weekend Update” — in which she plays “Goober the Clown,” a red-nose-wearing balloon-animal maker under pressure to discuss her abortion thanks to Texas’s debilitating <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59017479">ban on abortions after six weeks</a> — may well go down as one of the starkest political critiques in the show’s recent history.
What becomes clear over the course of the bit is that this may well be Strong’s own personal anecdote, too. As it’s related between clown gags, it’s a reminder that some things do go unsaid in American life, but they might not be the ones we hear the usual suspects yell about.
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Throughout the skit, Strong ineffectually tries to clown — her spinning bow tie winds up tilting vertically, her attempt at making a balloon animal results in failure, and her clown horn refuses to honk. This plays out alongside her visible agitation over being a “clown” who must continually discuss abortion because of increasingly restrictive abortion legislation around the country.
The effect is twofold: As she continues the sketch, the words “clown abortion” become increasingly discomfiting and absurd, arguably highlighting the absurdity of extreme anti-abortion rhetoric. The clown conceit itself becomes increasingly flimsy and hard to maintain. When she realizes her horn isn’t working, she riffs for a few seconds, then apparently ad-libs “I’m not a clown” before soldiering on. The admission, tossed out as an aside, lands like a small explosion, a sobering release of tension.
Rattling off her story in between fun clown gags, Strong discusses <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22715333/tv-abortion-plot-storyline-lies">the unnecessary gravitas</a> attached to the entire subject and the shame and stigmatizing effects it has on women. She points out that “one in three clowns” will have a clown abortion in their lifetime, but that we don’t know that because most of her peers “won’t even talk to other clowns about it.”
When they’re able to — despite the barriers in place — there’s a real kind of relief and communion, and the retelling of her experience seems cathartic. The tone of the sketch shifts into a gentle reminder that the abortion debate impacts real people, human beings whose voices and stories are rarely heard as the war over their bodies rages on around them.
On one level, Strong’s sketch plays directly into the hands of people who think modern comedy has lost its edge — that <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy">woke culture</a> has <a href="https://gen.medium.com/the-decade-political-comedy-stopped-being-funny-677172a37d91">changed the art form</a> into humorless political lectures. But on another level, Strong arguably shows that comedy can not only withstand the political lectures but also be made stronger by them, if done well. There’s something about the phrase “clown abortion” that inevitably evokes laughter.
If anything, the contrast between Strong’s clown antics and the topic she’s discussing, along with her clear emotional investment in the narrative (and, perhaps, some degree of personal discomfort), becomes a way to emphasize the serious stakes for people who lack access to safe abortions.
Strong’s final joke — “The last thing anyone wants is a bunch of dead clowns in a dark alley!” — is barbed and hilarious. The entire skit, from the way Strong wrestles with her props to the actual jokes themselves, strikes an uncomfortably raucous note. We’re laughing, but the more we laugh, the more uncomfortable we are, which just drives home the rawness of the subject under discussion.
The sketch unforgettably illustrates that we’re sometimes pushed to treat abortion like something unspeakable, a tragedy or a mark of permanent shame (or both). In an environment where a topic is so stigmatized that having reasoned debate around it becomes impossible, the addition of clown goggles and a spinning bow tie highlights how ludicrous the controversy has become — all while making us laugh despite ourselves.
The sketch also doubles as a response to the Chappelle philosophy of comedy. He and many other comedians have argued passionately that the targets of a joke need to learn to laugh at themselves even when the quip is cruel and dehumanizing. But Strong frames the sketch around the concept of empathy and kindness, using something her — sorry, Goober’s — abortion doctor told her.
It’s her “favorite joke,” she says, a warm-hearted zinger about how relatively early she was in her pregnancy (“Did you get pregnant on the way over?” the doctor asked.) It’s not “a funny ha ha” kind of humor, she clarifies, but a “funny ‘you’re not an awful person and your life isn’t over’ kind of joke — the best kind.”
The best kind indeed. There’s nothing dehumanizing about Strong’s performance, even though she does it in a clown suit. It’s not “funny ha ha” humor, but humor that spotlights the vulnerability and humanity of the comedian and her audience. It’s something unsaid that we could stand to say more often.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2021/11/9/22772533/saturday-night-live-goober-the-clown-abortion-cecily-strong">https://www.vox.com/culture/2021/11/9/22772533/saturday-night-live-goober-the-clown-abortion-cecily-strong</a>

vox Let’s talk about Cecily Strong’s game-changing “clown abortion” skit

There’s an idea, particularly popular with some comedians, that the very point of comedy is to say the unsayable, to push boundaries and en...