Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them.
— Václav Havel, born in 1936
Death toll rises in Japan after Typhoon Hagibis drenches Tokyo
High winds and record-breaking rains have battered Tokyo and large swaths of central and eastern Japan, leaving many dead after several rivers burst their banks and landslides buried houses.
10 Latvian Writers Name Their Favorite Latvian Books at Latvian Literature -- even if far too many of these works are not (yet) available in translation (including the one Bels titles that gets a mention). 
The annual Emergency Service Volunteer Memorial service will be held at 11am Sunday at the volunteer memorial, Mrs Macquaries Road, The Domain.
There are now names of 94 volunteers enshrined on the memorial which recognises personnel from NSW Rural Fire Service, NSW SES, Marine Rescue NSW and NSW Volunteer Rescue Association Inc.
If you're unable to attend, you'll be able to watch the service on the NSW RFS Facebook page.
“I’m not afraid of dying.” Legendary “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek talks to CTV’s Lisa LaFlamme about his battle against cancer.
Report Shows ‘Stunning and Dramatic’ Scenes of Thawing Permafrost in Siberia That ‘Leaves Millions on Unstable Ground’Common Dreams
The NBA is in the middle of a controversy after one of its general managers tweeted support for protesters fighting for democracy in Hong Kong. I generally don’t care for the opinions of sportswriter and talk-show host Clay Travis — and even this column takes out some guard rail — but his calling out the hypocrisy of the NBA and its players is thought-provoking.
‘Incredibly rare’ monkey born at Australian zoo Channel News
From ‘Gemini Man’ to ‘The Irishman’: Dawn of the De-Aged Actor Hollywood Reporter
Four million people drowned in a decade, as experts push for United Nations' action
Drowning prevention advocates are calling on the United Nations to pass a resolution recognising the toll of drowning for the first time.
Back from the dead: Some corals regrow after ‘fatal’ warming PhysOrg. Chuck L: “Maybe it ain’t all over yet for the Great Barrier Reef
'Darkness all around them': customs officers jailed over smuggling ring
Senior customs officer Craig Eakin was "out of his depth" when he became entangled in a smuggling ring with his former colleague Johayna Merhi.
'Very lucky' cockatoo survives after being shot four times
Being shot four times — and surviving — might sound like something out of a James Bond film but this lucky cockatoo, found close to death in a Sydney backyard, lives to fly another day.
Former “Today” show co-host Matt Lauer. (Photo: Dennis Van Tine/STAR MAX)
Making sense of the Matt Lauer news
Former “Today” show co-host Matt Lauer. (Photo: Dennis Van Tine/STAR MAX)
We’ve been hearing for a while now that Ronan Farrow’s upcoming
book “Catch and Kill” has some explosive details about the sexual misconduct
allegations that led to Matt Lauer being fired from the “Today” show and his
career coming to an abrupt and humiliating halt.
Now some of those details are out — and they absolutely are
shocking and disturbing. The most stunning is an allegation that Lauer raped
NBC co-worker Brooke Nevils in his hotel room at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Lauer
is saying the accusation is false, that he and Nevils had consensual sex and
that the allegations are “part of a promotional effort to sell a book.”
The details, covered
by Variety, are graphic. The Variety piece also includes a letter written
in response by Lauer, who said he has remained quiet for two years because he
didn’t want to create headlines that his children would read. But, he wrote,
“my silence has been a mistake.”
“It’s outrageous,” Lauer wrote, “So, after not speaking out to
protect my children, it is now with their full support I say ‘enough.’”
Lauer gives his account of the incident in question as well as
what he describes as a relationship with Nevils that was “mutual and
consensual.” He also explains in detail how their relationship ended and what
happened in the aftermath.
Lauer also addressed a long-standing rumor that he had a button
under his desk at NBC that, when pushed, would lock his office door. He wrote:
“Despite numerous erroneous reports in the past, there was not a
button in my office that could lock the door from the inside. There was no such
locking mechanism. It didn’t exist. NBC confirmed this fact publicly following
my termination. It would have been impossible to confine anyone in my office,
for any purpose, and I have never attempted to make anyone feel as if they were
confined in my office. I have never assaulted anyone or forced anyone to have
sex. Period.”
During Wednesday’s
“Today” show, co-host Savannah Guthrie said, “We’re disturbed to our core.”
Co-host Hoda Kotb said, “You know someone, you feel like you
know them inside and out. And all of a sudden, a door opens up and it’s a part
of them you didn’t know.”
In a statement, NBC said, “Matt Lauer’s conduct was appalling,
horrific and reprehensible and we said at the time that’s why he was fired
within 24 hours of us first learning of the complaint. Our hearts break again
for our colleague.”
Wednesday, Nevils released a statement to NBC News, saying, "I am not afraid of him now regardless of his threats, bullying, and the shaming and predatory tactics I knew he would and now has tried to use against me."
Wednesday, Nevils released a statement to NBC News, saying, "I am not afraid of him now regardless of his threats, bullying, and the shaming and predatory tactics I knew he would and now has tried to use against me."
Teeth are our biographers. They record the difficult paths we have walked in life and place the evidence on display. In discolored, broken or missing teeth anyone can read our history of difficult circumstances or bad decisions: childhood neglect, lifelong poverty, depression, addiction. And so healing the teeth can be a first step in restoring hope and giving us a chance to tell a new story with our lives.
For a long time, Nicole Rouse’s teeth told a story she hated. “I had really bad TMJ; I had no control over my jaw,” she says, referring to temporomandibular joint disorder, which causes jaw pain. “[It] was making me bite my tongue till it bled.” Her jaw problems were a symptom of the many stressful aspects of Ms. Rouse’s life. She had come to Toronto from British Columbia to be with a boyfriend, but the relationship fell apart and she ended up on the streets; she had mental health issues, which included addiction; she became involved in a series of abusive relationships; she had a criminal record; her children would not speak to her. Her teeth were rotting from a combination of neglect, drunken accidents, violent abuse and chemotherapy to treat a bout with cancer. One tooth started hurting so badly that she just yanked it out herself.
The Authoritarian’s Worst Fear? Cold River - A Book
The New York Times – “Governments are spending a remarkable amount of resources attacking books — because their supposed limitations are beginning to look like ageless strengths. Around the world, many authoritarian regimes — having largely corralled the internet — now have declared war on the written word, their oldest enemy. The received wisdom after the close of the Cold War was that physical books were outdated, soon to be swept aside in the digital age; and that the internet was instead the real threat to governments seeking to repress provocative thinking. A generation later, the opposite may be true. The People’s Republic of China has been the most successful in curbing the internet. But their stranglehold on society is also the result of their largely successful push in the past decade to ban nearly all bookstores, books, authors and academics that do not adhere to the Communist Party’s line. Even before the current Hong Kong protests, there was a crackdown on Hong Kong publishers. In the fall of 2015, associates of the Causeway Bay Books store disappeared, later discovered to have been detained on the mainland, accused of trafficking in “illegal” books critiquing leading members of the Communist Party. In 2017, the Communist Party formally took control of all print media, including books…”
Our Most Favorite Story Lines? The Sympathetic Protagonist
Orphaned protagonists are so common that an online encyclopaedia of narrative tropes has more than 25 pages on orphan-related themes, including ‘Street Urchin’ (Oliver Twist), ‘Disappeared Dad’ (Forrest Gump) and ‘Doorstop Baby’ (Harry Potter). – Aeon