All posts tagged: Term

What is Zionism? The different meanings of a contested term

What is Zionism? The different meanings of a contested term

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — Haverford, a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, has become the latest U.S. school to settle a lawsuit over how it handled allegations of antisemitism. In a statement on Aug. 7, 2026, its president, Wendy Raymond, wrote that “all students including those who identify as Jewish, and/or Israeli, and those who support Zionism: that is, the right of the Jewish people to self-determination and statehood in the land of Israel, are welcome and enjoy equal access to the College and all of its educational programs and activities.” This statement is not unusual. After the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, the United States saw a wave of campus protests against Israel. Those protests led to a surge of complaints about campus antisemitism, and numerous lawsuits and federal civil rights investigations. Most of these allegations concerned the alleged mistreatment of Jewish students and faculty who identify as Zionists, or merely refuse to denounce Zionism. That has led some administrations, such as Haverford’s, …

President AOC’s First Term

President AOC’s First Term

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Adam Sharp via DailyReckoning.com, The date is August 20th, 2032. We’re nearing the end of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s first term as president. The wave of naive optimism that swept her into power has faded. But the damage is done. With a majority in both the Senate and House, the Democrats made big moves. First they eliminated the Senate filibuster. No more 60 votes needed to pass most legislation. Now a simple majority will do. The political equivalent of a nuclear first strike. Then AOC’s coalition created two new states: Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. That’s 4 more Democratic Senators, and additional seats in the House. The Supreme Court was quickly expanded from 9 to 13 justices. The number of justices has changed before, and there’s no hard and fast rule in the Constitution. Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s last Constitutionalist, retired in 2028 due to health issues. So the highest court in the nation has 5 new neoliberal judges. ICE was abolished almost immediately. Immigration, both legal and illegal, is out of control. Another …

Vietnam considers second LNG term contract after deal with Shell, document shows

Vietnam considers second LNG term contract after deal with Shell, document shows

Published by Sam Flores

HANOI, Aug 12 : State-controlled Petrovietnam Gas is sounding out suppliers for a possible tender to procure liquefied natural gas under a five-year contract, according to a document reviewed by Reuters. If agreed, it would be Vietnam’s second term contract after a deal with Shell earlier this year, as the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub builds an LNG industry from scratch to help meet growing energy demand. The request sent in June to potential suppliers under a “market sounding exercise” is for the supply of 250,000-450,000 metric tons for the Thi Vai Terminal, with delivery starting in January 2027 or later, the document shows. No tender has been announced yet. In January 2026 PV GAS awarded its first term contract to date to Shell. The British energy giant will deliver the super-chilled fuel to Vietnam from 2027 to 2031, under a five-year supply deal for about 400,000 tons a year. The deal with Shell was finalised as Vietnam negotiated with the United States measures to reduce its large trade surplus with Washington, including via the purchase of …

Sam Alito is locked and loaded for another term

Sam Alito is locked and loaded for another term

Published by Sam Flores

A month after National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg announced that Sam Alito was retiring (a story NPR later had to retract), the 76-year-old jurist told the Wall Street Journal in an interview, “Obviously, I’m here for another term.” Looking at the docket for the coming term, it is easy to see why. Even after overturning Roe… Source link

Negative Effects of Using the Term “The Mentally Ill”

Negative Effects of Using the Term “The Mentally Ill”

Published by Jenni Sidey

The concept of “person-first language” in reference to mental health concerns literally puts the person first and then their condition. In other words, you would say “people with mental illness” instead of “the mentally ill.” Person-first language has been encouraged by many advocacy groups and organizations since the 1990s. The argument goes that person-first language is more respectful and conveys more dignity to the person. Also, it puts the primary focus on the person and doesn’t equate the person with their illness. Given my long-standing interest in this topic, I found it very interesting to read about innovative research that claims to be the first study to scientifically test the effects of using person-first versus non-person-first language. The study was simple but ingenious. Three groups of participants were used: 1) undergraduate college students; 2) adult community residents; and 3) professional counselors and counselors in training. Each of these three groups was split in half. One half of each group completed a survey about attitudes towards “people with mental illnesses.” The other half of each group …

Dame Penelope Keith: ‘It’s very sad that “sitcom” has become a pejorative term’

Dame Penelope Keith: ‘It’s very sad that “sitcom” has become a pejorative term’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Actress Dame Penelope Keith, best known for her roles in sitcoms The Good Life and To the Manor Born, has died at the age of 86. An acclaimed theatrical performer as well, Keith won an Olivier Award for her role in Donkey’s Years, as well as two BAFTA TV Awards. Below, we revisit an interview with Keith which was first published in Radio Times magazine in November 2011, in which she reflects on history, the value of experience and the decline of sitcoms. Penelope Keith and the National Trust were made for each other. Striding around Wiltshire’s Avebury Manor, scattering superlatives like small change – “Marvellous! Extraordinary!” – she is a living icon of country-house manners (Home Counties, circa mid-20th century). Entering a room where eight women kneel around a table, embroidering peacocks’ “eyes” onto a flaxen bedcover, Keith turns her hand deftly to the task. “When I went to school one was taught these things,” she points out. She could with ease, one imagines, pluck a pheasant or persuade bishops to waltz at a …

Is it time to retire the term ‘Zionism’?

Is it time to retire the term ‘Zionism’?

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Experiencing artwork by Yaacov Agam, the iconic Israeli artist, you will see a different work depending on where you are standing. He died a few days ago at the age of 98. Agam had a major reputation in the art world for creating kinetic images. He believed that the image, like a person, never finishes becoming itself. I think of his Dizengoff Square Fountain in Tel Aviv. Once, vandals tore it down; the city rebuilt it, much like the dream itself, and somehow it is still recognizably the fountain, still moving. That is the way it is with Zionism itself. View Zionism from one angle, and it is Theodor Herzl, seeking to rescue the Jews of Europe. From another, it is Ahad Ha’am, seeking to resurrect Jewish culture. From another, it is a spiritual connection to the Land; from yet another, a socialist utopia. As it is with an Agam, the images change, depending on where you are, and where we are at this moment of history.   And, like an Agam artwork, whenever …

Column: Trump’s second term is a murky, embarrassing and costly spectacle

Column: Trump’s second term is a murky, embarrassing and costly spectacle

Published by Sam Flores

Every time I get asked by a TV anchor what I think about the drama of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, my favorite “historical” headline from the Onion comes to mind: “World’s Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-Berg.” And every time I do, I hear from defenders of the Trump administration complaining about the disproportionate media coverage of what should be a very minor story in the grand sweep of things. They have a point. President Trump has done some good work rehabbing Washington, D.C., where I live. But the Reflecting Pool has bedeviled him. Algae keep returning to the pool, despite the administration’s best efforts, and attempts to remedy the problem have yielded further problems. I can think of scores of stories that deserve more attention on the merits. But there are two problems with this complaint. First, it was Trump who invited extensive scrutiny of the effort. “I’m very proud of it,” he said before the algae counteroffensive. “I’m very good at building things and constructing things, so I hope you go take a look …

Can the Drake equation’s final term predict humanity’s demise?

Can the Drake equation’s final term predict humanity’s demise?

Published by Jenni Sidey

One of the great mysteries in the Universe is that, in all the vastness of space, we have yet to detect any sort of life out there beyond our own planet. Whether microbial and simple, multicellular and complex, highly differentiated and intelligent, or technologically advanced, the only form of life we know of here in 2026 is terrestrial life that originated right here on Earth. Despite all of the discoveries and advanced that we’ve made in recent years, from the origins and scale of the Universe to thousands of confirmed exoplanets, we still have yet to detect even a single robust signature of a lifeform that originated from anywhere else. All we can do, at the present time, is to make the best use of the knowledge that we have. Because of all that we’ve learned about our galaxy and Universe, the history of stars and heavy elements, the properties and commonness of exoplanets, we can make very high-quality estimates about the abundance of potentially habitable planets. However, how many of them actually come to …

RISE consultation pushed back to this term

RISE consultation pushed back to this term

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Government to begin ‘informal engagement’ over schools with low attainment Government to begin ‘informal engagement’ over schools with low attainment A government consultation on the broadening of its RISE school improvement teams’ remit has been delayed.  RISE targeted support has only been given to “stuck” schools, those rated ‘requires improvement’ following an earlier below-good inspection grade. But in documents published in September, the government said it would begin “informal engagement” with those deemed to have “low or concerning attainment”. The DfE added it would also sound out the sector over the autumn on “further options” to use the teams to address poor outcomes.  But this week, the department confirmed the consultation has been pushed back to this term. Details will be “set out in due course”.  Government papers said the informal engagement would involve RISE teams meeting with low-attaining schools to “discuss their attainment trends”.  They would then “agree actions, including how they will work with hubs, higher performing schools and other sources of well-evidenced support, such as regional networks”.  This was described as a …