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Indonesian high school student gives birth while sitting her final-semester exam | South China Morning Post (scmp.com) Indonesian high school student gives birth while sitting her final-semester exam Students at SMA Negeri 1 high school at Sampang on Madura island were taking a final-semester exam when there was a commotion among the students The teacher supervising the exam warned the students to calm down, “but they were still noisy and it was followed by the sound of a baby crying”

The corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel resumed on Monday, bringing back into focus the legal and political challenges he faces even as he presides over the Israeli military’s war in Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu has been on trial since 2020, accused of bestowing political favors on businessmen in exchange for expensive gifts and offering regulatory benefits to media moguls in exchange for positive news coverage. He denies the charges and has rejected calls to resign. Over the summer, lawmakers from Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing party, Likud, introduced a bill that would have stripped the attorney general — who has been critical of him — of the ability to oversee the prosecution of government ministers, including the prime minister. The bill was later withdrawn but it came amid heightened protests that had been going on for months over the government’s efforts to assert more authority over the judiciary. NYT

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/12/02/moscow-police-raid-gay-clubs-after-extremist-ban-on-lgbt-community-a83297

With a voter turnout rate of 99.6%, it was the worst turnout for the North Korean elections in its 70 years of existence. Lowest amount of votes and lowest turnout in existence, is Kim Jong Un’s reign in danger? Is it time for his sister Kim Yo Jong to step in and take his place? Discuss below.

In California, animal rights activist and attorney Wayne Hsiung has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after he was found guilty of felony conspiracy and misdemeanor trespassing for rescuing dozens of injured and dying ducks and chickens at two factory farms in Sonoma County, California. The charges stemmed from peaceful actions at Sunrise Farms and Reichardt Duck Farm. Mirais Holden, a member of Wayne Hsiung’s legal team, spoke outside the Sonoma County courthouse after Thursday’s sentencing. Mirais Holden: “I believe that this trial will end up in the book of animal liberation, when that book is written. I’m tremendously grateful to Wayne for the sacrifice that he has made. … The injustice of the fact that a human being is being held in a cage for the supposed crime of compassion, for rescuing other sentient, feeling beings from cages, will not be lost on the world.”

Nasa now urges researchers to reach out for China’s Chang’e 5 moon samples, sidestepping the US ban, in exception to the congressional Wolf Amendment.

Sandra Day O’Connor, First Woman on the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 93 (msn.com) Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the United States Supreme Court, a rancher’s daughter who wielded great power over American law from her seat at the center of the court’s ideological spectrum, died on Friday in Phoenix. She was 93. The Supreme Court announced her death in a statement, saying the cause was complications of dementia. She grew up in Arizona and lived there most of her life. Although William H. Rehnquist, her Stanford Law School classmate, served as chief justice during much of her tenure, the Supreme Court during that crucial period was often called the O’Connor court, and Justice O’Connor was referred to, accurately, as the most powerful woman in America. Very little could happen without Justice O’Connor’s support when it came to the polarizing issues on the court’s docket, and the law regarding affirmative action, abortion, voting rights, religion, federalism, sex discrimination and other hot-button subjects was basically what Sandra Day O’Connor thought it should be.

https://euobserver.com/world/157764

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/11/29/henry-kissinger-dead-obituary/ well hello!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hanukkah-celebrations-cancelled-havering-gaza-b2456088.html Havering Council in east London has said it would be “unwise” for the traditional menorah, a nine-branched candelabrum lit during the eight-day Jewish holiday, to be installed outside Havering Town Hall in Romford. It said going ahead could “risk further inflaming tensions within our communities”.

...girl 😭

https://apnews.com/article/russia-lgbtq-crackdown-4f043baf6e1d8999965b815dc5cc7315

The Chinese government is significantly reducing the number of mosques in Ningxia and Gansu provinces [which have the highest Muslim populations in China after Xinjiang] under its “mosque consolidation” policy, in violation of the right to freedom of religion, Human Rights Watch said today. Chinese authorities have decommissioned, closed down, demolished, and converted mosques for secular use as part of the government’s efforts to restrict the practice of Islam. The authorities have removed Islamic architectural features, such as domes and minarets, from many other mosques. “The Chinese government is not ‘consolidating’ mosques as it claims, but closing many down in violation of religious freedom,” said Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch. “The Chinese government’s closure, destruction, and repurposing of mosques is part of a systematic effort to curb the practice of Islam in China.” Chinese law allows people to practice only in officially approved places of worship of officially approved religions, and authorities retain strict control over houses of worship. Since 2016, when President Xi Jinping called for the “Sinicization” of religions, which aims to ensure that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the arbiter of people’s spiritual life, state control over religion has strengthened. “The Chinese government’s policies of Sinicization show a blanket disregard for freedom of religion not only of all Muslims in China, but all religious communities in the country,” Wang said. “Governments concerned about religious freedom should raise these issues directly with the Chinese government and at the United Nations and other international forums.” https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/22/china-mosques-shuttered-razed-altered-muslim-areas

you can’t write this **** These are the so called heroes protesting the new government in Israel - which many people mistake them for caring for Palestinian rights when in reality they weren’t even in the equation to begin with. the specific quote with additional context: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxaYHkCtnU6/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

After promising to take care of them, they abandoned them and left them to die more and more horrifying scenes keep coming out after the ceasefire

This is the lowest he has been underwater in Quinnipiac's polling. In comparison, he's now polling worse than the low he hit in June 2022: