Elon Musk’s Twitter has reinstated the personal account of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, which was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-technology-health-business-media-0ebae275423fc33a707235c67a0e71b2">banned in January</a> for violating the platform’s COVID misinformation policies at the time.

Greene’s reinstatement comes after Musk over the weekend reinstated the account of former <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-biden-twitter-inc-technology-congress-d88e3de4b3cc095926dc133f53dc3320">President Donald Trump</a>,
 who was banned in the aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6 riots on the 
Capitol in 2021. Twitter — at the time — feared there was a risk of 
further incitement to violence if Trump was allowed to remain on the 
platform. Trump himself has said he won't return to Twitter and as of 
Monday had not yet tweeted since the reinstatement, although he also 
hasn't deleted his account.

Musk apparently based his decision to 
allow Trump back on the site on an unscientific Twitter poll he posted 
on his timeline. There appeared to be no such poll for Greene's account.
 Earlier, Musk said he won’t make major decisions about content or 
restoring banned accounts before setting up a “ <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-social-media-e149b458b153f53268c00ad2a757cf14">content moderation council</a> ” with diverse viewpoints.

Musk
 has frequently expressed his belief that Twitter had become too 
restrictive. Before the U.S. midterm elections this month, he urged his 
“independent-minded” Twitter followers to vote Republican.

One account Musk has said he won't allow back on Twitter is that of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/alex-jones-north-america-ap-top-news-jack-dorsey-politics-2521ccbe3b5a43d68d66c21c030a7f2d">banned in 2018</a> for abusive behavior.

“My
 firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat,” Musk 
tweeted Sunday in response to calls for Jones' reinstatement. “I have no
 mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, 
politics or fame.”

Associated PressElon Musk’s Twitter has reinstated the personal account of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, which was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-technology-health-business-media-0ebae275423fc33a707235c67a0e71b2">banned in January</a> for violating the platform’s COVID misinformation policies at the time.Greene’s reinstatement comes after Musk over the weekend reinstated the account of former <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-biden-twitter-inc-technology-congress-d88e3de4b3cc095926dc133f53dc3320">President Donald Trump</a>,
 who was banned in the aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6 riots on the 
Capitol in 2021. Twitter — at the time — feared there was a risk of 
further incitement to violence if Trump was allowed to remain on the 
platform. Trump himself has said he won't return to Twitter and as of 
Monday had not yet tweeted since the reinstatement, although he also 
hasn't deleted his account.Musk apparently based his decision to 
allow Trump back on the site on an unscientific Twitter poll he posted 
on his timeline. There appeared to be no such poll for Greene's account.
 Earlier, Musk said he won’t make major decisions about content or 
restoring banned accounts before setting up a “ <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-social-media-e149b458b153f53268c00ad2a757cf14">content moderation council</a> ” with diverse viewpoints.Musk
 has frequently expressed his belief that Twitter had become too 
restrictive. Before the U.S. midterm elections this month, he urged his 
“independent-minded” Twitter followers to vote Republican.One account Musk has said he won't allow back on Twitter is that of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/alex-jones-north-america-ap-top-news-jack-dorsey-politics-2521ccbe3b5a43d68d66c21c030a7f2d">banned in 2018</a> for abusive behavior.“My
 firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat,” Musk 
tweeted Sunday in response to calls for Jones' reinstatement. “I have no
 mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, 
politics or fame.”

Elon Musk's Twitter reinstates Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

NEW YORK (AP) — Swifties, your girl has spoke on the Ticketmaster meltdown.

Taylor Swift posted a story Friday on Instagram expressing her anger and frustration over the hours spent by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-ticketmaster-concert-tickets-parents-34399cca6403c97f0983a5c69c7edec0">fans trying to buy tickets</a> for her tour next year.

“I'm
 not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple 
times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they
 could,” she wrote. “It's truly amazing that 2.4 million people got 
tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they 
went through several bear attacks to get them.”

Of those who lost out, Swift said she hopes to “provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs.”

Fans
 trying to scoop up tickets Tuesday in a pre-sale for Swift's The Eras 
tour were met by massive delays and error messages that Ticketmaster 
blamed on bots and historically unprecedented demand. It was the most 
tickets sold on the platform in a single day, the company said in a 
statement. A <a href="https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-ticketmaster-sale-canceled-music-concert-tour-70c8a21059174c37a06b7a8475239b06">general public sale</a> scheduled for Friday was canceled the day before.

Some fans wondered why Swift hadn't spoken out sooner.

On
 Instagram, the pop star didn't address timing but said she has trust 
issues when it comes to her fans' experience, trying to keep many 
elements of her career in house.

“It's really difficult for me to 
trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and 
excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse,” 
Swift said.

In addition to Tuesday's nightmare, Ticketmaster cited
 “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient 
remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand” as a reason for calling 
off Friday’s sale.

Fresh off one of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-taylor-swift-930a204fbbfccea45f6012f0da4feef6">biggest album launches of her career,</a>
 Swift announced earlier this month that she was going on a new U.S. 
stadium tour, with international dates to follow. Fans who received a 
special code after registering had exclusive access to buy tickets 
Tuesday. Those who didn't score tickets were placed on a waiting list.

The
 52-date Eras Tour kicks off March 17 in Glendale, Arizona, and wraps up
 with five shows in Los Angeles ending Aug. 9. It’s Swift’s first tour 
since 2018.

NEW YORK (AP) — Swifties, your girl has spoke on the Ticketmaster meltdown.Taylor Swift posted a story Friday on Instagram expressing her anger and frustration over the hours spent by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-ticketmaster-concert-tickets-parents-34399cca6403c97f0983a5c69c7edec0">fans trying to buy tickets</a> for her tour next year.“I'm
 not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple 
times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they
 could,” she wrote. “It's truly amazing that 2.4 million people got 
tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they 
went through several bear attacks to get them.”Of those who lost out, Swift said she hopes to “provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs.”Fans
 trying to scoop up tickets Tuesday in a pre-sale for Swift's The Eras 
tour were met by massive delays and error messages that Ticketmaster 
blamed on bots and historically unprecedented demand. It was the most 
tickets sold on the platform in a single day, the company said in a 
statement. A <a href="https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-ticketmaster-sale-canceled-music-concert-tour-70c8a21059174c37a06b7a8475239b06">general public sale</a> scheduled for Friday was canceled the day before.Some fans wondered why Swift hadn't spoken out sooner.On
 Instagram, the pop star didn't address timing but said she has trust 
issues when it comes to her fans' experience, trying to keep many 
elements of her career in house.“It's really difficult for me to 
trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and 
excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse,” 
Swift said.In addition to Tuesday's nightmare, Ticketmaster cited
 “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient 
remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand” as a reason for calling 
off Friday’s sale.Fresh off one of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-taylor-swift-930a204fbbfccea45f6012f0da4feef6">biggest album launches of her career,</a>
 Swift announced earlier this month that she was going on a new U.S. 
stadium tour, with international dates to follow. Fans who received a 
special code after registering had exclusive access to buy tickets 
Tuesday. Those who didn't score tickets were placed on a waiting list.The
 52-date Eras Tour kicks off March 17 in Glendale, Arizona, and wraps up
 with five shows in Los Angeles ending Aug. 9. It’s Swift’s first tour 
since 2018.

Taylor Swift angry for fans in Ticketmaster meltdown

By MATT WILLIAMS <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-to-watch-for-when-you-are-watching-the-world-cup-essential-reads-for-on-and-off-the-field-194866">The Conversation</a>

Whether you call it “soccer” or “football,” <a href="https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/explained-why-is-football-called-the-beautiful-game/16ayjoii69lor168ku0gwsd9vd">the beautiful game</a> is enjoyed by fans around the world. And every four years, it is celebrated in a monthlong spectacle: <a href="https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/qatar2022">the World Cup</a>.

This time around, proceedings will start on Nov. 20 in host nation 
Qatar – something that has caused understandable consternation among <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/11/14/qatar-rights-abuses-stain-fifa-world-cup">human rights advocates</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/lgbtq-fans-skip-qatar-world-cup-fearing-hostility-rcna56365">members of the LGBTQ community</a>, given the Arab state’s <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/qatar/report-qatar/">record on such issues</a>.

In spite of the controversy, the World Cup will be the <a href="https://fredericksburg.com/sports/soccer/world-cup/the-world-cup-is-the-most-watched-sporting-event-internationally-heres-how-it-stacks-up/article_5a948571-ad26-54eb-a333-0a759bb03ea9.html">most-watched sporting event</a> of the year. Here’s a guide to some of what to watch out for.

The U.S. men’s national soccer team makes a return to the top stage 
in Qatar after not making the cut four years ago in Russia. But that 
doesn’t mean everyone back home will be cheering them on.

As <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/communication/people/john-m-sloop/">Vanderbilt University’s John M. Sloop</a> notes, soccer fans in the United States <a href="https://theconversation.com/american-exceptionalism-at-the-world-cup-why-many-soccer-fans-in-the-us-will-be-cheering-on-another-team-probably-mexico-192545">aren’t necessarily cheering on the team in red, white and blue</a>.
 The green jerseys of El Tri, as the Mexican national team is known, 
will get a share of that support. In fact, there is a strong argument to
 be made that Mexico’s is the most popular soccer team in the United 
States – especially if you look at TV viewership figures. Mexico’s Liga 
MX is the most-watched soccer league in the U.S. – more popular than 
both the domestic MLS and the elite European leagues of England, Spain 
and Italy.

As Sloop writes: “Factors ranging from the relatively low popularity of soccer compared with other sports, familiarity with overseas clubs and perhaps more importantly – especially to Americans of Mexican heritage – an attachment to countries deemed to be more traditional ‘soccer nations’ mean that Americans can find ourselves oddly divided over the nation we support in the global game.”

2. Watching out for those special moments

Every World Cup has its moment – think <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWsEuczNj48">David Beckham’s sending-off</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvNkkdfNwEg">Zidane’s head-butt</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrtWQSqD3A0">Roger Miller’s goal celebration</a>.

During the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, there were two magical moments –
 and both happened in the same game. Diego Maradona’s “Goal of the 
Century” was one of them. The other was his “Hand of God” moment.

<a href="https://www.kines.umich.edu/directory/stefan-szymanski">Stefan Szymanski at University of Michigan</a> explains why the legacy of that “Hand of God” goal, which really shouldn’t have been a goal, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-maradonas-hand-of-god-goal-is-priceless-and-unforgettable-193760">endures to this day</a>.
 It is due to a combination of factors including the controversy of the 
goal itself and the politically charged atmosphere of the game.

But above all, it was due to the man at the center of it all. 

“Few players have stamped their presence on a World Cup quite like 
Maradona. His performance in the England game stands as a memorial to 
his greatness, and the phrase ‘Hand of God’ neatly puts his name in the 
same sentence as divinity,” Szymanski writes.

It is already a World Cup that breaks the mold – the first to take 
place in an Arab country, and the first to happen in November as opposed
 to a summer month.

Could it also be the first to have an African victor? 

History suggests not. As <a href="http://uttyler.edu/directory/hkdept/wycliffe-njororai.php">Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu of the University of Texas at Tyler</a> notes, at the World Cup <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-2022-senegal-and-cameroon-carry-africas-best-hopes-194647">African teams have “always promised a great deal … but delivered very little</a>.”
 This, he explains, is due to “poor preparation, internal controversies,
 a bad disciplinary record, technical and tactical errors at crucial 
moments and recruiting foreign coaches at the last minute.”

This time it could be different, and better preparation and stability
 within African teams could help. Njororai Simiyu’s tip: Senegal and 
Cameroon have the best chance of the five African nations represented at
 the finals.

<a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/matthew-andrews">Harvard Kennedy School’s Matthew Andrews</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-an-african-team-win-the-world-cup-new-football-study-crunches-the-numbers-194824">takes an analytical approach</a> to assessing African teams’ chances.

Looking at various data sources, he concludes that there is a 
“significant competitive gap between African countries and the world’s 
best, which seems to have grown over recent generations. This gap is not
 encouraging for those hoping for an African World Cup win.”

Every World Cup sees the rollout of a new soccer ball – and inevitable complaints from fans about how it performs. <a href="https://www.lynchburg.edu/academics/faculty/john-eric-goff/">John Eric Goff</a>, a physics professor at the University of Lynchburg, analyzes the new ball every four years and has <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-this-years-special-al-rihla-ball-has-the-aerodynamics-of-a-champion-according-to-a-sports-physicist-194585">cast his eye over the latest iteration</a>, called the Al Rihla ball.

“Instead of using raised textures to increase surface roughness like 
with previous balls, the Al Rihla is covered with dimple-like features 
that give its surface a relatively smooth feel compared to its 
predecessors,” he writes. It might mean that it moves a little bit 
faster, but other than that the footballers at the World Cup shouldn’t 
notice much of a difference.

What happens on the pitch will be only half the story of the 2022 World Cup. 

Controversy has dogged the event ever since sport’s governing body, FIFA, handed Qatar hosting duties back in 2010; Daryl Adair
at University of Technology Sydney <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-qatar-fifa-world-cup-so-controversial-192627">explains why</a>.

First there are the rights issues. Qatar had allowed “vulnerable 
foreign workers – who were central to building World Cup infrastructure –
 to be exploited, with employment and living conditions consistent with 
modern slavery,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-qatar-fifa-world-cup-so-controversial-192627">Adair writes</a>. Incremental reform has taken place in Qatar on the issue, notably a move away from the “<a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-kafala-system">kafala system</a>”
 under which employers were free to exploit a migrant workforce through 
low wages, poor working conditions and abuse. Yet concerns remain, 
especially over the refusal of Qatar to compensate the families of 
migrant employees killed on World Cup-related projects.

Hosting the World Cup in Qatar also runs counter to the inclusionary 
efforts of many national soccer bodies, which are keen to stamp out 
homophobia in the game. The emirate state views homosexuality as an 
affront to Islam and criminalizes same-sex activity. But here, too, it 
is bending a little, with reports that public shows of affection by 
same-sex couples will not result in prosecution.

“The world has come to Qatar and, for a time at least, it’s adjusting
 its local norms,” Adair notes, adding: “A more enduring World Cup 
legacy has been incremental reforms to the treatment of foreign workers,
 though an absence of an effective remedy for the families of deceased 
workers continues to raise a bloody red card upon Qatar.”

Matt Williams is Senior Breaking News and International Editor at The Conversation.

By MATT WILLIAMS <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-to-watch-for-when-you-are-watching-the-world-cup-essential-reads-for-on-and-off-the-field-194866">The Conversation</a>Whether you call it “soccer” or “football,” <a href="https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/explained-why-is-football-called-the-beautiful-game/16ayjoii69lor168ku0gwsd9vd">the beautiful game</a> is enjoyed by fans around the world. And every four years, it is celebrated in a monthlong spectacle: <a href="https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/qatar2022">the World Cup</a>.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668805896201.jpg" alt="Pixabay photo" />
 <figcaption>Pixabay photo</figcaption>
 </figure>This time around, proceedings will start on Nov. 20 in host nation 
Qatar – something that has caused understandable consternation among <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/11/14/qatar-rights-abuses-stain-fifa-world-cup">human rights advocates</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/lgbtq-fans-skip-qatar-world-cup-fearing-hostility-rcna56365">members of the LGBTQ community</a>, given the Arab state’s <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/qatar/report-qatar/">record on such issues</a>.In spite of the controversy, the World Cup will be the <a href="https://fredericksburg.com/sports/soccer/world-cup/the-world-cup-is-the-most-watched-sporting-event-internationally-heres-how-it-stacks-up/article_5a948571-ad26-54eb-a333-0a759bb03ea9.html">most-watched sporting event</a> of the year. Here’s a guide to some of what to watch out for.<h2>1. Backing Team USA (or perhaps not)</h2>The U.S. men’s national soccer team makes a return to the top stage 
in Qatar after not making the cut four years ago in Russia. But that 
doesn’t mean everyone back home will be cheering them on.As <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/communication/people/john-m-sloop/">Vanderbilt University’s John M. Sloop</a> notes, soccer fans in the United States <a href="https://theconversation.com/american-exceptionalism-at-the-world-cup-why-many-soccer-fans-in-the-us-will-be-cheering-on-another-team-probably-mexico-192545">aren’t necessarily cheering on the team in red, white and blue</a>.
 The green jerseys of El Tri, as the Mexican national team is known, 
will get a share of that support. In fact, there is a strong argument to
 be made that Mexico’s is the most popular soccer team in the United 
States – especially if you look at TV viewership figures. Mexico’s Liga 
MX is the most-watched soccer league in the U.S. – more popular than 
both the domestic MLS and the elite European leagues of England, Spain 
and Italy.As Sloop writes: “Factors ranging from the relatively low popularity of soccer compared with other sports, familiarity with overseas clubs and perhaps more importantly – especially to Americans of Mexican heritage – an attachment to countries deemed to be more traditional ‘soccer nations’ mean that Americans can find ourselves oddly divided over the nation we support in the global game.”<h2>2. Watching out for those special moments</h2>Every World Cup has its moment – think <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWsEuczNj48">David Beckham’s sending-off</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvNkkdfNwEg">Zidane’s head-butt</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrtWQSqD3A0">Roger Miller’s goal celebration</a>.During the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, there were two magical moments –
 and both happened in the same game. Diego Maradona’s “Goal of the 
Century” was one of them. The other was his “Hand of God” moment.<a href="https://www.kines.umich.edu/directory/stefan-szymanski">Stefan Szymanski at University of Michigan</a> explains why the legacy of that “Hand of God” goal, which really shouldn’t have been a goal, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-maradonas-hand-of-god-goal-is-priceless-and-unforgettable-193760">endures to this day</a>.
 It is due to a combination of factors including the controversy of the 
goal itself and the politically charged atmosphere of the game.But above all, it was due to the man at the center of it all. “Few players have stamped their presence on a World Cup quite like 
Maradona. His performance in the England game stands as a memorial to 
his greatness, and the phrase ‘Hand of God’ neatly puts his name in the 
same sentence as divinity,” Szymanski writes.<h2>3. Backing the underdog</h2>It is already a World Cup that breaks the mold – the first to take 
place in an Arab country, and the first to happen in November as opposed
 to a summer month.Could it also be the first to have an African victor? History suggests not. As <a href="http://uttyler.edu/directory/hkdept/wycliffe-njororai.php">Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu of the University of Texas at Tyler</a> notes, at the World Cup <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-2022-senegal-and-cameroon-carry-africas-best-hopes-194647">African teams have “always promised a great deal … but delivered very little</a>.”
 This, he explains, is due to “poor preparation, internal controversies,
 a bad disciplinary record, technical and tactical errors at crucial 
moments and recruiting foreign coaches at the last minute.” This time it could be different, and better preparation and stability
 within African teams could help. Njororai Simiyu’s tip: Senegal and 
Cameroon have the best chance of the five African nations represented at
 the finals.<a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/matthew-andrews">Harvard Kennedy School’s Matthew Andrews</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-an-african-team-win-the-world-cup-new-football-study-crunches-the-numbers-194824">takes an analytical approach</a> to assessing African teams’ chances. Looking at various data sources, he concludes that there is a 
“significant competitive gap between African countries and the world’s 
best, which seems to have grown over recent generations. This gap is not
 encouraging for those hoping for an African World Cup win.”<h2>4. Marveling at the physics</h2>Every World Cup sees the rollout of a new soccer ball – and inevitable complaints from fans about how it performs. <a href="https://www.lynchburg.edu/academics/faculty/john-eric-goff/">John Eric Goff</a>, a physics professor at the University of Lynchburg, analyzes the new ball every four years and has <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-this-years-special-al-rihla-ball-has-the-aerodynamics-of-a-champion-according-to-a-sports-physicist-194585">cast his eye over the latest iteration</a>, called the Al Rihla ball.“Instead of using raised textures to increase surface roughness like 
with previous balls, the Al Rihla is covered with dimple-like features 
that give its surface a relatively smooth feel compared to its 
predecessors,” he writes. It might mean that it moves a little bit 
faster, but other than that the footballers at the World Cup shouldn’t 
notice much of a difference.<h2>Not forgetting the concerns</h2>What happens on the pitch will be only half the story of the 2022 World Cup. Controversy has dogged the event ever since sport’s governing body, FIFA, handed Qatar hosting duties back in 2010; Daryl Adair
at University of Technology Sydney <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-qatar-fifa-world-cup-so-controversial-192627">explains why</a>.First there are the rights issues. Qatar had allowed “vulnerable 
foreign workers – who were central to building World Cup infrastructure –
 to be exploited, with employment and living conditions consistent with 
modern slavery,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-qatar-fifa-world-cup-so-controversial-192627">Adair writes</a>. Incremental reform has taken place in Qatar on the issue, notably a move away from the “<a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-kafala-system">kafala system</a>”
 under which employers were free to exploit a migrant workforce through 
low wages, poor working conditions and abuse. Yet concerns remain, 
especially over the refusal of Qatar to compensate the families of 
migrant employees killed on World Cup-related projects.Hosting the World Cup in Qatar also runs counter to the inclusionary 
efforts of many national soccer bodies, which are keen to stamp out 
homophobia in the game. The emirate state views homosexuality as an 
affront to Islam and criminalizes same-sex activity. But here, too, it 
is bending a little, with reports that public shows of affection by 
same-sex couples will not result in prosecution.“The world has come to Qatar and, for a time at least, it’s adjusting
 its local norms,” Adair notes, adding: “A more enduring World Cup 
legacy has been incremental reforms to the treatment of foreign workers,
 though an absence of an effective remedy for the families of deceased 
workers continues to raise a bloody red card upon Qatar.”Matt Williams is Senior Breaking News and International Editor at The Conversation.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194866/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe></div>

What to watch for during the World Cup: On and off the field

By MICHAEL A. RAWLINS <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-lake-effect-snow-a-climate-scientist-explains-194953">The Conversation</a>

It’s hard for most people to imagine more than 4 feet of snow in one storm, like the <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496218/original/file-20221118-26-gcuk30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1">Buffalo area was forecast</a> to see this weekend, but these extreme snowfall events happen periodically along the eastern edges of the Great Lakes.

The phenomenon is called “lake-effect snow,” and the lakes themselves play a crucial role.

It starts with cold, dry air from Canada. As the bitter cold air 
sweeps across the relatively warmer Great Lakes, it sucks up more and 
more moisture that falls as snow.

I’m a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=h3tGrwsAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">climate scientist</a>
 at UMass Amherst. In the Climate Dynamics course I teach, students 
often ask how cold, dry air can lead to heavy snowfall. Here’s how that 
happens.

<a href="http://www.theweatherprediction.com/winterwx/lesnow/">Lake-effect snow</a>
 is strongly influenced by the differences between the amount of heat 
and moisture at the lake surface and in the air a few thousand feet 
above it.

A big contrast creates conditions that help to suck water up from the
 lake, and thus more snowfall. A difference of 25 degrees Fahrenheit (14
 C) or more creates an environment that can fuel heavy snows. This often
 happens in late fall, when lake water is still warm from summer and 
cold air starts sweeping down from Canada. More moderate lake-effect 
snows occur every fall under less extreme thermal contrasts.

Wind direction is important too. The farther cold air travels over 
the lake surface, the more moisture is evaporated from the lake. A long 
“fetch” – the distance over water – often results in more lake-effect 
snow than a shorter one.

Imagine a wind out of the west that is perfectly aligned so that it 
blows over the entire 241-mile length of Lake Erie. That’s close to what
 Buffalo was experiencing the weekend of Nov. 18, 2022.

Once the snow reaches land, elevation contributes an additional 
effect. Land that slopes up from the lake increases lift in the 
atmosphere, enhancing snowfall rates. This mechanism is termed “<a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-orographic-precipitation.html">orographic effect</a>.” The <a href="https://tughill.org/tug-hill-region/">Tug Hill plateau</a>, located between the lake and the Adirondacks in western New York, is well known for its impressive snowfall totals.

In a typical year, annual snowfall in the “lee,” or downwind, of the Great Lakes approaches 200 inches in some places.

Residents in places like Buffalo are keenly aware of the phenomenon. 
In 2014, some parts of the region received upwards of 6 feet of snowfall
 during an <a href="https://www.weather.gov/buf/lake1415_stormb.html">epic lake-effect event</a> Nov. 17-19. The weight of the <a href="https://www.weather.gov/buf/lake1415_stormb.html">snow collapsed hundreds of roofs</a> and led to over a dozen deaths.

Lake-effect snowfall in the Buffalo area is typically confined to a 
narrow region where the wind is coming straight off the lake. Drivers on
 Interstate 90 often go from sunny skies to a blizzard and back to sunny
 skies over a distance of 30 to 40 miles.

Is climate change playing a role in the lake-effect snow machine? To an extent. 

<a href="https://climatechange.chicago.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-midwest">Fall has warmed across the upper Midwest</a>.
 Ice prevents lake water from evaporating into the overlying air, and it
 is forming later than in the past. Warmer summer air has led to warmer 
lake temperature into fall.

Models predict that with additional warming, more lake-effect snow 
will occur. But over time, the warming will lead to more of the 
precipitation falling as lake-effect rain, which already occurs in early
 fall, rather than snow.

Michael A. Rawlins is Associate Director of the Climate System Research Center at UMass Amherst.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668805485169.png" alt="Canadian winds pick up moisture over the Great Lakes, turning it into heavy snowfall on the far shore. NOAA" />
 <figcaption>Canadian winds pick up moisture over the Great Lakes, turning it into heavy snowfall on the far shore. NOAA</figcaption>
 </figure>By MICHAEL A. RAWLINS <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-lake-effect-snow-a-climate-scientist-explains-194953">The Conversation</a>It’s hard for most people to imagine more than 4 feet of snow in one storm, like the <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496218/original/file-20221118-26-gcuk30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1">Buffalo area was forecast</a> to see this weekend, but these extreme snowfall events happen periodically along the eastern edges of the Great Lakes.The phenomenon is called “lake-effect snow,” and the lakes themselves play a crucial role.It starts with cold, dry air from Canada. As the bitter cold air 
sweeps across the relatively warmer Great Lakes, it sucks up more and 
more moisture that falls as snow.I’m a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=h3tGrwsAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">climate scientist</a>
 at UMass Amherst. In the Climate Dynamics course I teach, students 
often ask how cold, dry air can lead to heavy snowfall. Here’s how that 
happens.<h2>How dry air turns into snowstorms</h2><a href="http://www.theweatherprediction.com/winterwx/lesnow/">Lake-effect snow</a>
 is strongly influenced by the differences between the amount of heat 
and moisture at the lake surface and in the air a few thousand feet 
above it. A big contrast creates conditions that help to suck water up from the
 lake, and thus more snowfall. A difference of 25 degrees Fahrenheit (14
 C) or more creates an environment that can fuel heavy snows. This often
 happens in late fall, when lake water is still warm from summer and 
cold air starts sweeping down from Canada. More moderate lake-effect 
snows occur every fall under less extreme thermal contrasts.Wind direction is important too. The farther cold air travels over 
the lake surface, the more moisture is evaporated from the lake. A long 
“fetch” – the distance over water – often results in more lake-effect 
snow than a shorter one.Imagine a wind out of the west that is perfectly aligned so that it 
blows over the entire 241-mile length of Lake Erie. That’s close to what
 Buffalo was experiencing the weekend of Nov. 18, 2022.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668805584204.png" alt=" Wind directions from a storm in 2016 shows how lake-effect show piles up. NOAA " />
 <figcaption> Wind directions from a storm in 2016 shows how lake-effect show piles up. NOAA </figcaption>
 </figure>Once the snow reaches land, elevation contributes an additional 
effect. Land that slopes up from the lake increases lift in the 
atmosphere, enhancing snowfall rates. This mechanism is termed “<a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-orographic-precipitation.html">orographic effect</a>.” The <a href="https://tughill.org/tug-hill-region/">Tug Hill plateau</a>, located between the lake and the Adirondacks in western New York, is well known for its impressive snowfall totals.In a typical year, annual snowfall in the “lee,” or downwind, of the Great Lakes approaches 200 inches in some places.Residents in places like Buffalo are keenly aware of the phenomenon. 
In 2014, some parts of the region received upwards of 6 feet of snowfall
 during an <a href="https://www.weather.gov/buf/lake1415_stormb.html">epic lake-effect event</a> Nov. 17-19. The weight of the <a href="https://www.weather.gov/buf/lake1415_stormb.html">snow collapsed hundreds of roofs</a> and led to over a dozen deaths.Lake-effect snowfall in the Buffalo area is typically confined to a 
narrow region where the wind is coming straight off the lake. Drivers on
 Interstate 90 often go from sunny skies to a blizzard and back to sunny
 skies over a distance of 30 to 40 miles.<h2>The role of climate change</h2>Is climate change playing a role in the lake-effect snow machine? To an extent. <a href="https://climatechange.chicago.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-midwest">Fall has warmed across the upper Midwest</a>.
 Ice prevents lake water from evaporating into the overlying air, and it
 is forming later than in the past. Warmer summer air has led to warmer 
lake temperature into fall.Models predict that with additional warming, more lake-effect snow 
will occur. But over time, the warming will lead to more of the 
precipitation falling as lake-effect rain, which already occurs in early
 fall, rather than snow.Michael A. Rawlins is Associate Director of the Climate System Research Center at UMass Amherst.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194953/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe></div>

What is lake-effect snow? A climate scientist explains

By ERIN DOUGLAS <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/18/texas-earthquake-fracking-railroad-commission/">Texas Tribune</a>

Inspectors for the Texas Railroad Commission are investigating a 5.4 
magnitude earthquake that was recorded west of Pecos near the border of 
Reeves and Culberson counties on Wednesday, the agency said.

The earthquake, <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/tx2022wmmd/executive" target="_blank">confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey</a>,
 was the largest recorded in the state since 1995 and the third-largest 
in Texas history, according to the USGS National Earthquake Information 
Center. It could be <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/tx2022wmmd/dyfi/intensity" target="_blank">felt as far away</a> as Carlsbad, New Mexico, and El Paso.

The largest quake in Texas history was 5.8 magnitude recorded in 
1931 southwest of Valentine, according to the USGS National Earthquake 
Information Center.

The number of earthquakes recorded in Texas has spiked in recent 
years, particularly in West Texas’ Permian Basin, the most productive 
oil and gas region in the state. Scientific studies have linked the 
seismic activity to the disposal of contaminated, salty water deep 
underground — a common practice by oil companies at the end of the 
hydraulic fracturing process that can awaken dormant fault lines.

[<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/08/west-texas-earthquakes-fracking/" target="_blank">Earthquakes in Texas doubled in 2021. Scientists cite years of oil companies injecting sludgy water underground.</a>]

Between three and six barrels of salty, polluted water also come up
 to the surface with every barrel of oil during the fracking process — 
ancient water that was trapped underground by rock formations.

Years of pumping hundreds of millions of gallons of contaminated 
water per day underground in Texas has coincided with more frequent and 
more powerful earthquakes in the state: An <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/08/west-texas-earthquakes-fracking/" target="_blank">analysis by The Texas Tribune</a> found that the number of earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude and greater had doubled in 2021 from the previous year.

The vast majority of seismicity in the last two decades that’s occurred near Pecos <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2021JB021921" target="_blank">was likely triggered by increased wastewater disposal</a>, a 2021 study by USGS and University of Texas scientists found.

In recent years, the Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and 
gas activity in the state and issues permits for the water injection 
wells, has created several “seismic response areas” in West Texas, where
 the agency has asked companies to limit their water disposal activities
 and agree to an <a href="https://www.rrc.texas.gov/media/hc5jvpwu/ncr-sra-olrp_final_web.pdf" target="_blank">industry-led plan</a> to reduce seismic activity.

This week’s quake occurred in a response area in Culberson and 
Reeves counties created earlier this year. The agency said its 
inspectors are reviewing the industry groups’ <a href="https://www.rrc.texas.gov/media/hc5jvpwu/ncr-sra-olrp_final_web.pdf" target="_blank">plan</a>
 and inspecting water disposal activity nearby. Operators may be 
required to reduce wastewater injections as a result of the quake, 
according to a statement from the Railroad Commission.

It may take several months to a year after reducing or stopping 
wastewater injection for the area to stop shaking; the Railroad 
Commission warned in a statement Thursday that historical activity 
suggests the time lag could be between 12 and 18 months.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668799055719.png" alt="Workers at a fracking rig in Midland. Studies have linked disposal of fracking wastewater with an increase in seismic activity in Texas, and the Texas Railroad Commission is now investigating a 5.4 magnitude quake that struck West Texas this week. Credit: Jerod Foster for The Texas Tribune " />
 <figcaption>Workers at a fracking rig in Midland. Studies have linked disposal of fracking wastewater with an increase in seismic activity in Texas, and the Texas Railroad Commission is now investigating a 5.4 magnitude quake that struck West Texas this week. Credit: Jerod Foster for The Texas Tribune </figcaption>
 </figure>By ERIN DOUGLAS <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/18/texas-earthquake-fracking-railroad-commission/">Texas Tribune</a>Inspectors for the Texas Railroad Commission are investigating a 5.4 
magnitude earthquake that was recorded west of Pecos near the border of 
Reeves and Culberson counties on Wednesday, the agency said.The earthquake, <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/tx2022wmmd/executive" target="_blank">confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey</a>,
 was the largest recorded in the state since 1995 and the third-largest 
in Texas history, according to the USGS National Earthquake Information 
Center. It could be <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/tx2022wmmd/dyfi/intensity" target="_blank">felt as far away</a> as Carlsbad, New Mexico, and El Paso.The largest quake in Texas history was 5.8 magnitude recorded in 
1931 southwest of Valentine, according to the USGS National Earthquake 
Information Center.The number of earthquakes recorded in Texas has spiked in recent 
years, particularly in West Texas’ Permian Basin, the most productive 
oil and gas region in the state. Scientific studies have linked the 
seismic activity to the disposal of contaminated, salty water deep 
underground — a common practice by oil companies at the end of the 
hydraulic fracturing process that can awaken dormant fault lines.[<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/08/west-texas-earthquakes-fracking/" target="_blank">Earthquakes in Texas doubled in 2021. Scientists cite years of oil companies injecting sludgy water underground.</a>]Between three and six barrels of salty, polluted water also come up
 to the surface with every barrel of oil during the fracking process — 
ancient water that was trapped underground by rock formations.Years of pumping hundreds of millions of gallons of contaminated 
water per day underground in Texas has coincided with more frequent and 
more powerful earthquakes in the state: An <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/08/west-texas-earthquakes-fracking/" target="_blank">analysis by The Texas Tribune</a> found that the number of earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude and greater had doubled in 2021 from the previous year.The vast majority of seismicity in the last two decades that’s occurred near Pecos <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2021JB021921" target="_blank">was likely triggered by increased wastewater disposal</a>, a 2021 study by USGS and University of Texas scientists found.In recent years, the Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and 
gas activity in the state and issues permits for the water injection 
wells, has created several “seismic response areas” in West Texas, where
 the agency has asked companies to limit their water disposal activities
 and agree to an <a href="https://www.rrc.texas.gov/media/hc5jvpwu/ncr-sra-olrp_final_web.pdf" target="_blank">industry-led plan</a> to reduce seismic activity.This week’s quake occurred in a response area in Culberson and 
Reeves counties created earlier this year. The agency said its 
inspectors are reviewing the industry groups’ <a href="https://www.rrc.texas.gov/media/hc5jvpwu/ncr-sra-olrp_final_web.pdf" target="_blank">plan</a>
 and inspecting water disposal activity nearby. Operators may be 
required to reduce wastewater injections as a result of the quake, 
according to a statement from the Railroad Commission.It may take several months to a year after reducing or stopping 
wastewater injection for the area to stop shaking; the Railroad 
Commission warned in a statement Thursday that historical activity 
suggests the time lag could be between 12 and 18 months.

Texas oil agency investigating largest quake in three decades

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories 
and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were 
shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. 
Here are the facts:

Split-ticket voting in Arizona isn’t a sign of fraud

CLAIM:
 The fact that incumbent Republican state treasurer Kimberly Yee got 
tens of thousands more votes than GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake 
shows the Arizona election was rigged.

THE FACTS: While Yee did 
get more votes, that isn’t proof of fraud. Many Arizona voters, 
including Republicans and independents, have a history of voting for 
candidates from both political parties. That continued this cycle. But 
as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-arizona-governor-hobbs-ceadb2bf55f1d5ec4760f423f1af0204">Lake lost her gubernatorial bid</a>
 to Democrat Katie Hobbs in Arizona on Monday, social media users 
baselessly suggested that the fact that Yee garnered more votes than 
Lake was a sign of manipulation. “It makes no mathematical sense that 
the GOP State Treasurer just won reelection by 250,000 votes, but none 
of those voters also felt like voting for Kari Lake,” one Twitter user 
wrote Monday in a tweet shared over 7,000 times. Far from being a sign 
of election fraud, such results in Arizona indicate that voters picked 
candidates from both political parties or voted in some races and not 
others, experts and political operatives say. In fact, such voter 
behavior was common in 2022 in elections across the country. 
“Split-ticket voters are very common," said Paul Bentz, a Republican 
pollster in Phoenix. "It happens all of the time. It speaks to the 
various strengths or drawbacks of a particular candidate.” Arizona 
voters in particular have a track record of not always voting along 
party lines. In 2018, many Arizona voters opted for Democrat Kyrsten 
Sinema, who was running for U.S. Senate, and incumbent Republican Gov. 
Doug Ducey, Bentz said. And in this election, Republican Maricopa County
 Attorney Rachel Mitchell fended off her Democratic challenger, 
outperforming Lake. Lake, Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters and 
Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, all of whom lost, 
were all endorsed by Trump and promoted conspiracy theories about the 
2020 election. Johnny Melton, acting chair of the Legislative District 
29 Republicans in Maricopa County, said he personally knows Republicans 
and right-leaning independents who didn’t vote for candidates like Lake 
and Finchem due to their embrace of election conspiracies. “Of course I 
know people who either split or just withheld their vote,” Melton said.

— Associated Press writer Josh Kelety in Phoenix contributed this report.

Posts misrepresent Arizona official’s ballot comments

CLAIM:
 Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates admitted that 
tens of thousands of early ballots dropped off on Election Day were 
mishandled when he said during a CNN interview, “We do not know where 
these are from.”

THE FACTS: The interview clip circulating on 
social media doesn’t show Gates admitting to misconduct. He was 
responding to a specific question from a CNN host about the geographic 
origin of absentee ballots in a batch that had just been tabulated. 
Social media users shared a clip of the Nov. 11 CNN interview with 
Gates, suggesting that it showed him admitting that tens of thousands of
 ballots were mishandled. “We do not know where these are from. These 
could be from anywhere in the county,” Gates said in the clip, referring
 to ballots tabulated that day. “This is not picked out of a certain 
area, these are not pulled by precinct.” <a href="https://archive.org/details/CNNW_20221112_030000_CNN_Tonight/start/2160/end/2220">Archived video of the complete interview</a>
 shows Gates was responding to a question from CNN news anchor John King
 about the geographic origin of ballots in a batch of roughly 75,000 
tabulated ballots released that day. King specifically asked about 
“late-earlies,” referring to absentee ballots that were mailed to voters
 ahead of the election and dropped off at voting sites on Election Day. 
King said, “Are we now, in the sense that you have a giant county, it’s 
9,200 plus square miles, do you know, the ones that were released 
tonight, are they from the central Phoenix area, the more close-in 
suburbs that tend to be more Democratic?” In his response, which is 
where the clip circulating on social media begins, Gates explains that 
the majority of the 75,000 ballots were late-earlies, and he could not 
comment on their origin because of the way they are cast and tabulated 
in Maricopa. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-arizona-governor-race-explainer-39712bda8ccea8012b2200f6792d2da6">Almost all of Arizona’s vote happens by mail</a>,
 although some voters cast their ballots in-person at voting centers. 
Election officials then release their vote totals in batches. Maricopa 
County allows voters to cast absentee ballots at any one of 223 vote 
centers across the county. Ballots dropped off on Election Day are 
driven to a central tabulation facility in downtown Phoenix. Those that 
arrive at the facility first get priority. Therefore, any batch of 
Maricopa votes could contain ballots from all over the county. The 
social media users sharing the clip of Gates are “misrepresenting what 
the chairman said,” Fields Moseley, a spokesperson for Maricopa County, 
wrote in an email to the AP. “While the chairman doesn’t know where 
every batch of ballots came from, our elections workers can account for 
all of them through documentation and chain of custody,” he wrote.

States report election results at different speeds

CLAIM:
 Florida’s ability to report election results quickly during the 2022 
midterms means states that have taken longer, such as Arizona and 
Nevada, are engaged in fraud.

THE FACTS: Florida has measures in 
place to speed up its count on Election Day. But the fact that Florida 
reports results faster than other states does not mean that those states
 are committing fraud, elections experts told the AP. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/why-election-results-take-time-4672e20d0aa14fe6ab6b102d1e8054df">Election officials repeatedly warned</a>
 prior to the 2022 midterm elections that results in some states might 
not be known for days. Despite this, many falsely suggested the length 
of time is correlated with election integrity. Some compared Florida — <a href="https://floridaelectionwatch.gov/CountyReportingStatus">which had finished counting its ballots</a>,
 except those from overseas, by Wednesday — to Arizona and Nevada. “This
 is absurd. Arizona and Nevada have a lot fewer voters than Florida and 
yet they take days longer to tally the results,” one tweet said. “Total 
fraud.” Arizona had nearly <a href="https://apps.arizona.vote/info/bps/2022-general-election/33/0">14,000 ballots left to count</a>
 on Thursday. Sophia Solis, a spokesperson for the Arizona secretary of 
state’s office, told the AP that no counties in Arizona had fully 
reported their unofficial results by midnight on Election Day. In 
Nevada, all 17 counties submitted initial tallies, including in-person 
vote reports, to election administrators by the early morning hours of 
Nov. 9, Jennifer Russell, an aide to Republican Secretary of State 
Barbara Cegavske, told the AP Wednesday. However, the state accepted 
mail ballots postmarked by Election Day until Saturday, and had 22,000 
left to process in the state’s largest county, Clark, the day of the 
deadline, Clark County Registrar of Voters <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClarkCountyNV/videos/664217075057098/">Joe Gloria said at a press conference</a>.
 But states’ reporting speeds largely reflect the different ways 
absentee and mail-in ballots are processed in each jurisdiction, 
election experts told the AP. “There are many reasons Florida counts 
quicker than other states, or other states haven’t completed their 
counts yet, and it has nothing to do with fraud in other states,” 
Michael Morley, an election law expert and professor at Florida State 
University, wrote in an email. One of the main differences is how soon 
before Election Day officials are allowed to begin pre-processing early 
ballots, which may involve confirming their validity or scanning them, 
Morley wrote. <a href="http://leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;Search_String=&amp;URL=0100-0199/0101/Sections/0101.68.html">Under state law</a>, Florida <a href="https://files.floridados.gov/media/705483/final-2022-2023-calendar-20220607.pdf">officials can start this process</a> nearly a month before Election Day. By contrast, Arizona counties did not send mail ballots to voters until <a href="https://azsos.gov/votebymail">Oct. 12</a> and the earliest they went out in Nevada was <a href="https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/elections/election-information/2022-election-information">Oct. 7.</a> Florida was required to send mail ballots no later than <a href="https://dos.myflorida.com/elections/for-voters/election-dates/">Sept. 24</a>. Another key difference is whether states accept mail ballots after Election Day. In Florida, most mail ballots must be <a href="http://leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;Search_String=&amp;URL=0100-0199/0101/Sections/0101.6952.html">received by 7 p.m. local time</a> on Election Day. Most early and mail <a href="http://leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;Search_String=&amp;URL=0100-0199/0102/Sections/0102.141.html">voting results must be reported</a>
 to the Florida Department of State starting within 30 minutes after the
 polls close and continuing every 45 minutes until all results are 
reported. Nevada, however, <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-11-receipt-and-postmark-deadlines-for-absentee-ballots.aspx">accepts mail ballots</a> up to 5 p.m. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-nevada-ballot-counting-896bf9df5d24efbdfeef92f1c10799f0">four days after</a> the election as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. <a href="https://azsos.gov/votebymail">Arizona’s deadline</a>
 is the same as Florida’s, local time. Still, there is nothing unusual 
or improper about votes being counted after Election Day, said Michael 
McDonald, a professor of political science at the University of Florida.
 Morley explained that other differences that may speed up reporting 
include staffing levels, available equipment, the length of time needed 
to verify each ballot and how long after Election Day voters are able to
 fix, or “cure,” their ballots if any problems are found.

— 
Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this 
report with additional reporting from Ken Ritter in Las Vegas.

Posts spin baseless theory about FTX, Ukraine and Democrats

CLAIM: U.S. aid to Ukraine was laundered back to the Democratic Party through the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/cryptocurrency-technology-business-e6ea8dca1140ac41ac6bbbba0af5887b#:~:text=EXPLAINER%3A%20What's%20happening%20at%20bankrupt%20crypto%20exchange%20FTX%3F,-November%2013%2C%202022&amp;text=The%20imploding%20cryptocurrency%20trading%20firm,its%20CEO%20and%20founder%20resigned.">failed cryptocurrency exchange firm FTX.</a>

THE
 FACTS: These claims misrepresent a short-term initiative in Ukraine 
that used FTX to convert cryptocurrency donations for the war effort 
into government-issued currency. The Ukrainian government has not 
invested nor stored money in FTX, according to the country’s Ministry of
 Digital Transformation. FTX, the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange 
in the world, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto-downfall-a2eaec231027dfd9f18426ff8982bbf8">filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11</a>
 amid news it was short billions of dollars and may have been hacked. 
Sam Bankman-Fried, the company's CEO, resigned the same day. The moves 
have fueled baseless conspiracy theories. “So Biden gave loads of money 
to Ukraine, who gave loads of money to FTX, who gave loads of money to 
Democrats,” reads one tweet with over 100,000 likes. No evidence has 
been presented to support the claims. Still, they have been shared by 
U.S. lawmakers, prominent Republicans and Russian accounts. Ukraine’s 
government “never invested any funds into FTX,” Alex Bornyakov, the 
deputy minister of digital transformation in <a href="https://twitter.com/abornyakov/status/1592241279051743233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1592241279051743233%7Ctwgr%5Eff3dcafd17a806bb6a0a472b14ff2c933ac7e1a9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fleadstories.com%2Fhoax-alert%2F2022%2F11%2Ffact-check-no-evidence-us-aid-to-ukraine-was-laundered-through-crypto-exchange-channeled-to-democrats.html">Ukraine said on Twitter on Monday</a>. After Russia invaded Ukraine, a new crypto fundraising foundation called Aid For <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-cryptocurrency-technology-business-bitcoin-812902c5dd1474692be3d8d040ba7bda">Ukraine began taking donations</a>
 to help the Ukrainian war effort, the ministry said in an emailed 
statement to the AP on Wednesday. The ministry said it “provided 
informational support” to the foundation, which was run by the 
cryptocurrency exchange Kuna and the blockchain company Everstake. In 
early March, Aid For Ukraine began working with FTX to convert 
cryptocurrency donations into Ukraine’s government-issued currency, a 
partnership that ended in April 2022, according to the ministry. Sergey 
Vasylchuk, the CEO of Everstake, told the AP that cryptocurrencies were 
an efficient way to raise funds for Ukraine to defend itself amid 
Russia’s invasion. He said FTX was only used in the beginning of the war
 to convert cryptocurrency donations. The donations would then get sent 
to <a href="https://twitter.com/NBUkraine/status/1502207218514604034">the National Bank of Ukraine</a>
 and no crypto was stored on FTX. Michael Chobanian, the founder of the 
Kuna exchange, said they had converted cryptocurrencies to U.S. dollars 
through FTX and deposited them in the national bank of Ukraine at the 
beginning of the war. “That is it,” Chobanian said. The Ministry of 
Digital Transformation added that it “has never funded FTX” and “has 
never worked with any political party of the United States of America.” 
It’s true that Bankman-Fried has been a major Democratic donor. <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Sam+Bankman+Fried&amp;two_year_transaction_period=2022&amp;min_date=01%2F01%2F2021&amp;max_date=12%2F31%2F2022">FEC records show</a>
 that he made significant donations to Democratic candidates and PACS 
this year. However, he has also made contributions to some Republican 
candidates and conservative-leaning PACS. <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Ryan+Salame&amp;two_year_transaction_period=2022&amp;min_date=01%2F01%2F2021&amp;max_date=12%2F31%2F2022">FTX’s co-CEO Ryan Salame</a>
 also donated to groups that supported Republican candidates in 2022. 
White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said any claim that U.S. 
assistance to Ukraine has “been diverted to aid American political 
parties is unequivocally false and not grounded in reality.” Vedant 
Patel, principal deputy spokesperson at the State Department, said 
there’s “no reason to believe that these reports are anything but pure 
falsehoods and misinformation.” A spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for 
International Development said safeguards put in place by the World 
Bank, coupled with expert third-party monitoring support within the 
Ukrainian government, ensure accountability around the use of the funds.
 FTX and lawyers representing the company did not respond to requests 
for comment.

— Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York 
and Karena Phan in Los Angeles contributed this report with additional 
reporting from Thalia Beaty in New York.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/11/1572956883313.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories 
and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were 
shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. 
Here are the facts:___Split-ticket voting in Arizona isn’t a sign of fraudCLAIM:
 The fact that incumbent Republican state treasurer Kimberly Yee got 
tens of thousands more votes than GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake 
shows the Arizona election was rigged.THE FACTS: While Yee did 
get more votes, that isn’t proof of fraud. Many Arizona voters, 
including Republicans and independents, have a history of voting for 
candidates from both political parties. That continued this cycle. But 
as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-arizona-governor-hobbs-ceadb2bf55f1d5ec4760f423f1af0204">Lake lost her gubernatorial bid</a>
 to Democrat Katie Hobbs in Arizona on Monday, social media users 
baselessly suggested that the fact that Yee garnered more votes than 
Lake was a sign of manipulation. “It makes no mathematical sense that 
the GOP State Treasurer just won reelection by 250,000 votes, but none 
of those voters also felt like voting for Kari Lake,” one Twitter user 
wrote Monday in a tweet shared over 7,000 times. Far from being a sign 
of election fraud, such results in Arizona indicate that voters picked 
candidates from both political parties or voted in some races and not 
others, experts and political operatives say. In fact, such voter 
behavior was common in 2022 in elections across the country. 
“Split-ticket voters are very common," said Paul Bentz, a Republican 
pollster in Phoenix. "It happens all of the time. It speaks to the 
various strengths or drawbacks of a particular candidate.” Arizona 
voters in particular have a track record of not always voting along 
party lines. In 2018, many Arizona voters opted for Democrat Kyrsten 
Sinema, who was running for U.S. Senate, and incumbent Republican Gov. 
Doug Ducey, Bentz said. And in this election, Republican Maricopa County
 Attorney Rachel Mitchell fended off her Democratic challenger, 
outperforming Lake. Lake, Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters and 
Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, all of whom lost, 
were all endorsed by Trump and promoted conspiracy theories about the 
2020 election. Johnny Melton, acting chair of the Legislative District 
29 Republicans in Maricopa County, said he personally knows Republicans 
and right-leaning independents who didn’t vote for candidates like Lake 
and Finchem due to their embrace of election conspiracies. “Of course I 
know people who either split or just withheld their vote,” Melton said.— Associated Press writer Josh Kelety in Phoenix contributed this report.___Posts misrepresent Arizona official’s ballot commentsCLAIM:
 Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates admitted that 
tens of thousands of early ballots dropped off on Election Day were 
mishandled when he said during a CNN interview, “We do not know where 
these are from.”THE FACTS: The interview clip circulating on 
social media doesn’t show Gates admitting to misconduct. He was 
responding to a specific question from a CNN host about the geographic 
origin of absentee ballots in a batch that had just been tabulated. 
Social media users shared a clip of the Nov. 11 CNN interview with 
Gates, suggesting that it showed him admitting that tens of thousands of
 ballots were mishandled. “We do not know where these are from. These 
could be from anywhere in the county,” Gates said in the clip, referring
 to ballots tabulated that day. “This is not picked out of a certain 
area, these are not pulled by precinct.” <a href="https://archive.org/details/CNNW_20221112_030000_CNN_Tonight/start/2160/end/2220">Archived video of the complete interview</a>
 shows Gates was responding to a question from CNN news anchor John King
 about the geographic origin of ballots in a batch of roughly 75,000 
tabulated ballots released that day. King specifically asked about 
“late-earlies,” referring to absentee ballots that were mailed to voters
 ahead of the election and dropped off at voting sites on Election Day. 
King said, “Are we now, in the sense that you have a giant county, it’s 
9,200 plus square miles, do you know, the ones that were released 
tonight, are they from the central Phoenix area, the more close-in 
suburbs that tend to be more Democratic?” In his response, which is 
where the clip circulating on social media begins, Gates explains that 
the majority of the 75,000 ballots were late-earlies, and he could not 
comment on their origin because of the way they are cast and tabulated 
in Maricopa. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-arizona-governor-race-explainer-39712bda8ccea8012b2200f6792d2da6">Almost all of Arizona’s vote happens by mail</a>,
 although some voters cast their ballots in-person at voting centers. 
Election officials then release their vote totals in batches. Maricopa 
County allows voters to cast absentee ballots at any one of 223 vote 
centers across the county. Ballots dropped off on Election Day are 
driven to a central tabulation facility in downtown Phoenix. Those that 
arrive at the facility first get priority. Therefore, any batch of 
Maricopa votes could contain ballots from all over the county. The 
social media users sharing the clip of Gates are “misrepresenting what 
the chairman said,” Fields Moseley, a spokesperson for Maricopa County, 
wrote in an email to the AP. “While the chairman doesn’t know where 
every batch of ballots came from, our elections workers can account for 
all of them through documentation and chain of custody,” he wrote.— Josh Kelety___States report election results at different speedsCLAIM:
 Florida’s ability to report election results quickly during the 2022 
midterms means states that have taken longer, such as Arizona and 
Nevada, are engaged in fraud.THE FACTS: Florida has measures in 
place to speed up its count on Election Day. But the fact that Florida 
reports results faster than other states does not mean that those states
 are committing fraud, elections experts told the AP. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/why-election-results-take-time-4672e20d0aa14fe6ab6b102d1e8054df">Election officials repeatedly warned</a>
 prior to the 2022 midterm elections that results in some states might 
not be known for days. Despite this, many falsely suggested the length 
of time is correlated with election integrity. Some compared Florida — <a href="https://floridaelectionwatch.gov/CountyReportingStatus">which had finished counting its ballots</a>,
 except those from overseas, by Wednesday — to Arizona and Nevada. “This
 is absurd. Arizona and Nevada have a lot fewer voters than Florida and 
yet they take days longer to tally the results,” one tweet said. “Total 
fraud.” Arizona had nearly <a href="https://apps.arizona.vote/info/bps/2022-general-election/33/0">14,000 ballots left to count</a>
 on Thursday. Sophia Solis, a spokesperson for the Arizona secretary of 
state’s office, told the AP that no counties in Arizona had fully 
reported their unofficial results by midnight on Election Day. In 
Nevada, all 17 counties submitted initial tallies, including in-person 
vote reports, to election administrators by the early morning hours of 
Nov. 9, Jennifer Russell, an aide to Republican Secretary of State 
Barbara Cegavske, told the AP Wednesday. However, the state accepted 
mail ballots postmarked by Election Day until Saturday, and had 22,000 
left to process in the state’s largest county, Clark, the day of the 
deadline, Clark County Registrar of Voters <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClarkCountyNV/videos/664217075057098/">Joe Gloria said at a press conference</a>.
 But states’ reporting speeds largely reflect the different ways 
absentee and mail-in ballots are processed in each jurisdiction, 
election experts told the AP. “There are many reasons Florida counts 
quicker than other states, or other states haven’t completed their 
counts yet, and it has nothing to do with fraud in other states,” 
Michael Morley, an election law expert and professor at Florida State 
University, wrote in an email. One of the main differences is how soon 
before Election Day officials are allowed to begin pre-processing early 
ballots, which may involve confirming their validity or scanning them, 
Morley wrote. <a href="http://leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;Search_String=&amp;URL=0100-0199/0101/Sections/0101.68.html">Under state law</a>, Florida <a href="https://files.floridados.gov/media/705483/final-2022-2023-calendar-20220607.pdf">officials can start this process</a> nearly a month before Election Day. By contrast, Arizona counties did not send mail ballots to voters until <a href="https://azsos.gov/votebymail">Oct. 12</a> and the earliest they went out in Nevada was <a href="https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/elections/election-information/2022-election-information">Oct. 7.</a> Florida was required to send mail ballots no later than <a href="https://dos.myflorida.com/elections/for-voters/election-dates/">Sept. 24</a>. Another key difference is whether states accept mail ballots after Election Day. In Florida, most mail ballots must be <a href="http://leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;Search_String=&amp;URL=0100-0199/0101/Sections/0101.6952.html">received by 7 p.m. local time</a> on Election Day. Most early and mail <a href="http://leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;Search_String=&amp;URL=0100-0199/0102/Sections/0102.141.html">voting results must be reported</a>
 to the Florida Department of State starting within 30 minutes after the
 polls close and continuing every 45 minutes until all results are 
reported. Nevada, however, <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-11-receipt-and-postmark-deadlines-for-absentee-ballots.aspx">accepts mail ballots</a> up to 5 p.m. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-nevada-ballot-counting-896bf9df5d24efbdfeef92f1c10799f0">four days after</a> the election as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. <a href="https://azsos.gov/votebymail">Arizona’s deadline</a>
 is the same as Florida’s, local time. Still, there is nothing unusual 
or improper about votes being counted after Election Day, said Michael 
McDonald, a professor of political science at the University of Florida.
 Morley explained that other differences that may speed up reporting 
include staffing levels, available equipment, the length of time needed 
to verify each ballot and how long after Election Day voters are able to
 fix, or “cure,” their ballots if any problems are found.— 
Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this 
report with additional reporting from Ken Ritter in Las Vegas.___Posts spin baseless theory about FTX, Ukraine and DemocratsCLAIM: U.S. aid to Ukraine was laundered back to the Democratic Party through the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/cryptocurrency-technology-business-e6ea8dca1140ac41ac6bbbba0af5887b#:~:text=EXPLAINER%3A%20What's%20happening%20at%20bankrupt%20crypto%20exchange%20FTX%3F,-November%2013%2C%202022&amp;text=The%20imploding%20cryptocurrency%20trading%20firm,its%20CEO%20and%20founder%20resigned.">failed cryptocurrency exchange firm FTX.</a>THE
 FACTS: These claims misrepresent a short-term initiative in Ukraine 
that used FTX to convert cryptocurrency donations for the war effort 
into government-issued currency. The Ukrainian government has not 
invested nor stored money in FTX, according to the country’s Ministry of
 Digital Transformation. FTX, the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange 
in the world, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto-downfall-a2eaec231027dfd9f18426ff8982bbf8">filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11</a>
 amid news it was short billions of dollars and may have been hacked. 
Sam Bankman-Fried, the company's CEO, resigned the same day. The moves 
have fueled baseless conspiracy theories. “So Biden gave loads of money 
to Ukraine, who gave loads of money to FTX, who gave loads of money to 
Democrats,” reads one tweet with over 100,000 likes. No evidence has 
been presented to support the claims. Still, they have been shared by 
U.S. lawmakers, prominent Republicans and Russian accounts. Ukraine’s 
government “never invested any funds into FTX,” Alex Bornyakov, the 
deputy minister of digital transformation in <a href="https://twitter.com/abornyakov/status/1592241279051743233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1592241279051743233%7Ctwgr%5Eff3dcafd17a806bb6a0a472b14ff2c933ac7e1a9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fleadstories.com%2Fhoax-alert%2F2022%2F11%2Ffact-check-no-evidence-us-aid-to-ukraine-was-laundered-through-crypto-exchange-channeled-to-democrats.html">Ukraine said on Twitter on Monday</a>. After Russia invaded Ukraine, a new crypto fundraising foundation called Aid For <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-cryptocurrency-technology-business-bitcoin-812902c5dd1474692be3d8d040ba7bda">Ukraine began taking donations</a>
 to help the Ukrainian war effort, the ministry said in an emailed 
statement to the AP on Wednesday. The ministry said it “provided 
informational support” to the foundation, which was run by the 
cryptocurrency exchange Kuna and the blockchain company Everstake. In 
early March, Aid For Ukraine began working with FTX to convert 
cryptocurrency donations into Ukraine’s government-issued currency, a 
partnership that ended in April 2022, according to the ministry. Sergey 
Vasylchuk, the CEO of Everstake, told the AP that cryptocurrencies were 
an efficient way to raise funds for Ukraine to defend itself amid 
Russia’s invasion. He said FTX was only used in the beginning of the war
 to convert cryptocurrency donations. The donations would then get sent 
to <a href="https://twitter.com/NBUkraine/status/1502207218514604034">the National Bank of Ukraine</a>
 and no crypto was stored on FTX. Michael Chobanian, the founder of the 
Kuna exchange, said they had converted cryptocurrencies to U.S. dollars 
through FTX and deposited them in the national bank of Ukraine at the 
beginning of the war. “That is it,” Chobanian said. The Ministry of 
Digital Transformation added that it “has never funded FTX” and “has 
never worked with any political party of the United States of America.” 
It’s true that Bankman-Fried has been a major Democratic donor. <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Sam+Bankman+Fried&amp;two_year_transaction_period=2022&amp;min_date=01%2F01%2F2021&amp;max_date=12%2F31%2F2022">FEC records show</a>
 that he made significant donations to Democratic candidates and PACS 
this year. However, he has also made contributions to some Republican 
candidates and conservative-leaning PACS. <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Ryan+Salame&amp;two_year_transaction_period=2022&amp;min_date=01%2F01%2F2021&amp;max_date=12%2F31%2F2022">FTX’s co-CEO Ryan Salame</a>
 also donated to groups that supported Republican candidates in 2022. 
White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said any claim that U.S. 
assistance to Ukraine has “been diverted to aid American political 
parties is unequivocally false and not grounded in reality.” Vedant 
Patel, principal deputy spokesperson at the State Department, said 
there’s “no reason to believe that these reports are anything but pure 
falsehoods and misinformation.” A spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for 
International Development said safeguards put in place by the World 
Bank, coupled with expert third-party monitoring support within the 
Ukrainian government, ensure accountability around the use of the funds.
 FTX and lawyers representing the company did not respond to requests 
for comment.— Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York 
and Karena Phan in Los Angeles contributed this report with additional 
reporting from Thalia Beaty in New York.

NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week

By ELIZABETH SCALA <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-i-teach-a-course-connecting-taylor-swifts-songs-to-the-works-of-shakespeare-hitchcock-and-plath-194120">The Conversation</a>

Unusual Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

This class is part of a group of introductory English offerings that 
focus on basic methods of literary analysis and research. It fulfills 
different requirements for potential English majors and the general 
student population, so I am always looking for news ways to engage them.

For a few years, I taught it as a Harry Potter course. I introduced 
students to classic British literature by exploring the Romantic and 
medieval literary traditions present in the novel. 

But earlier this year, I realized I was bored. I had been listening 
to a lot of Taylor Swift with my college-aged daughter, who had been 
home for a year during the pandemic. Swift had recently released “<a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-red-taylors-version/">Red (Taylor’s Version)</a>.”

Listening to her track “<a href="https://people.com/music/taylor-swift-reacts-to-all-too-well-song-of-the-year-grammy-nomination/">All Too Well</a>”
 was my epiphany. Swift’s vivid imagery and emotionally gripping detail 
had all the markings of a great narrative poem. She writes the song in a
 way that mirrors the recursions of memory. Her verses become 
increasingly strong and build upon each other once she starts 
remembering the past. At the same time, the song’s imagery moves from 
fall to winter as she reflects upon the relationship’s beginning and 
frosty end.

This course pairs Taylor Swift songs with a number of poems, along with a play, a novel and a film.

The semester began with the pairing of Swift’s songs with Renaissance
 love poetry. One class analyzing the metaphors, similes and colors in 
the song “Red” turned, a week or so later, into an exploration of 
Shakespeare’s use of similar colors in his famous sonnet 73: “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45099/sonnet-73-that-time-of-year-thou-mayst-in-me-behold">That time of year thou mayst in me behold</a>.”

Shakespeare, meanwhile, begins his sonnet 73 with “That time of year 
thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang,”
 before pointing to the oranges of autumn’s “sunset [that] fadeth in the
 west” and “the glowing of such fire / That on the ashes of his youth 
doth lie.”

Where Swift moves from cool tones to “burning red,” Shakespeare moves
 through increasingly warm tones: from yellow, to orange, to red. But 
both move toward an intensity of color and heat.

Some couplings are obvious. For instance, Swift’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXzVF3XeS8M">Love Story</a>” mentions the title characters of Shakespeare’s “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1513/1513-h/1513-h.htm">Romeo and Juliet</a>” – “Romeo save me, I’ve been feeling so alone.”

Others might come as more of a surprise: I paired Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/23/olivia-laing-on-daphne-du-mauriers-rebecca-80-years-on">Rebecca</a>,” which Alfred Hitchcock <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032976/">adapted for the silver screen</a> in 1940, with Swift’s song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s5xdY6MCeI">the last great american dynasty</a>.”

Centering on a scandalous woman named Rebecca – or Rebekah, in 
Swift’s song – the song, novel and film explore the relations of mad 
women and madwomen, the tenuous line between anger and craziness. It’s a
 theme Swift hits on in a number of songs, from her 2019 track “<a href="https://genius.com/Taylor-swift-the-man-lyrics">The Man</a>” to 2020’s “<a href="https://genius.com/Taylor-swift-mad-woman-lyrics">mad woman</a>,” which I paired with Sylvia Plath’s poem “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus">Lady Lazarus</a>.”

I think this course tapped into the zeitgeist in ways I couldn’t have
 imagined when I first dreamed it up. Of course, Swift’s music is 
popular, and she has long had a devoted following. But the October 2022 
release of her <a href="https://www.nylon.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-midnights-breaks-records-streaming-sales-charts">record-breaking</a> album “<a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-midnights/">Midnights</a>”
 has only made the course seem more relevant to students’ interests. As a
 class, we spent time exploring the ways tracks on “Midnights” revisited
 themes and writing strategies that appeared in Swift’s earlier songs.

What’s a critical lesson from the course?

Analyzing Swift’s writing will hopefully help my students recognize 
how certain poetic and literary devices operate in older texts – as much
 as those same books and poems from the past help them appreciate 
Swift’s art at a deeper level. They seem especially eager to engage with
 older materials, like Renaissance seduction poetry and black and white 
film, when they can see traces of the same artistic techniques in the 
music videos and songs they watch and listen to today.

Swift’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_and_nominations_received_by_Taylor_Swift">award-winning songwriting</a> is attached to an English and American literary past in both obvious and more subtle ways. <a href="https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/taylor-swift-is-new-face-of-reading/">An avid reader herself</a>,
 Swift deploys forms – like metaphors, conceits and structures – that 
are part of a shared literary heritage that students might otherwise 
find old-fashioned and irrelevant.

Far from diminishing the value of Swift’s writing, tracing its 
connection to the literary greats shores up her authority as a creative 
artist. Swift, like all artists, is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-bob-dylan-used-the-ancient-practice-of-imitatio-to-craft-some-of-the-most-original-songs-of-his-time-187052">great tradition</a>, and she calls upon it to create new works.

Adam Bradley, “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300248326/the-poetry-of-pop/">The Poetry of Pop</a>,” 2019

Alfred Hitchcock, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032976/">Rebecca</a>,” 1940

Taylor Swift, “<a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-folklore/">folkore</a>,” 2020

What will the course prepare students to do?

This course has rather modest ambitions. It prepares careful and 
critical readers, as well as articulate writers and researchers. 

It pays attention to what language denotes at the surface and what it
 carries around with it in its connotations and associations. It teaches
 students about those features, using the Oxford English Dictionary as a
 research tool to probe linguistic origin, register and usage beyond 
what a term literally means.

While delivering New York University’s 2022 commencement speech, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBG50aoUwlI">Swift urged the graduating seniors</a> to embrace their enthusiasms and be unafraid to explore their interests.

Finding a way to tap into students’ enthusiasm for Swift, and tie her
 songwriting to literary methodologies, is my version of following her 
lead.

Elizabeth Scala is a Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts.

By ELIZABETH SCALA <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-i-teach-a-course-connecting-taylor-swifts-songs-to-the-works-of-shakespeare-hitchcock-and-plath-194120">The Conversation</a>Unusual Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. <h2>Title of course:</h2>“The Taylor Swift Songbook”<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>This class is part of a group of introductory English offerings that 
focus on basic methods of literary analysis and research. It fulfills 
different requirements for potential English majors and the general 
student population, so I am always looking for news ways to engage them.For a few years, I taught it as a Harry Potter course. I introduced 
students to classic British literature by exploring the Romantic and 
medieval literary traditions present in the novel. But earlier this year, I realized I was bored. I had been listening 
to a lot of Taylor Swift with my college-aged daughter, who had been 
home for a year during the pandemic. Swift had recently released “<a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-red-taylors-version/">Red (Taylor’s Version)</a>.” Listening to her track “<a href="https://people.com/music/taylor-swift-reacts-to-all-too-well-song-of-the-year-grammy-nomination/">All Too Well</a>”
 was my epiphany. Swift’s vivid imagery and emotionally gripping detail 
had all the markings of a great narrative poem. She writes the song in a
 way that mirrors the recursions of memory. Her verses become 
increasingly strong and build upon each other once she starts 
remembering the past. At the same time, the song’s imagery moves from 
fall to winter as she reflects upon the relationship’s beginning and 
frosty end. <h2>What does the course explore?</h2>This course pairs Taylor Swift songs with a number of poems, along with a play, a novel and a film.The semester began with the pairing of Swift’s songs with Renaissance
 love poetry. One class analyzing the metaphors, similes and colors in 
the song “Red” turned, a week or so later, into an exploration of 
Shakespeare’s use of similar colors in his famous sonnet 73: “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45099/sonnet-73-that-time-of-year-thou-mayst-in-me-behold">That time of year thou mayst in me behold</a>.”From “Red”:<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668787433536.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Shakespeare, meanwhile, begins his sonnet 73 with “That time of year 
thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang,”
 before pointing to the oranges of autumn’s “sunset [that] fadeth in the
 west” and “the glowing of such fire / That on the ashes of his youth 
doth lie.”Where Swift moves from cool tones to “burning red,” Shakespeare moves
 through increasingly warm tones: from yellow, to orange, to red. But 
both move toward an intensity of color and heat.Some couplings are obvious. For instance, Swift’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXzVF3XeS8M">Love Story</a>” mentions the title characters of Shakespeare’s “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1513/1513-h/1513-h.htm">Romeo and Juliet</a>” – “Romeo save me, I’ve been feeling so alone.” Others might come as more of a surprise: I paired Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/23/olivia-laing-on-daphne-du-mauriers-rebecca-80-years-on">Rebecca</a>,” which Alfred Hitchcock <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032976/">adapted for the silver screen</a> in 1940, with Swift’s song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s5xdY6MCeI">the last great american dynasty</a>.” Centering on a scandalous woman named Rebecca – or Rebekah, in 
Swift’s song – the song, novel and film explore the relations of mad 
women and madwomen, the tenuous line between anger and craziness. It’s a
 theme Swift hits on in a number of songs, from her 2019 track “<a href="https://genius.com/Taylor-swift-the-man-lyrics">The Man</a>” to 2020’s “<a href="https://genius.com/Taylor-swift-mad-woman-lyrics">mad woman</a>,” which I paired with Sylvia Plath’s poem “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus">Lady Lazarus</a>.” <h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>I think this course tapped into the zeitgeist in ways I couldn’t have
 imagined when I first dreamed it up. Of course, Swift’s music is 
popular, and she has long had a devoted following. But the October 2022 
release of her <a href="https://www.nylon.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-midnights-breaks-records-streaming-sales-charts">record-breaking</a> album “<a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-midnights/">Midnights</a>”
 has only made the course seem more relevant to students’ interests. As a
 class, we spent time exploring the ways tracks on “Midnights” revisited
 themes and writing strategies that appeared in Swift’s earlier songs.<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>Analyzing Swift’s writing will hopefully help my students recognize 
how certain poetic and literary devices operate in older texts – as much
 as those same books and poems from the past help them appreciate 
Swift’s art at a deeper level. They seem especially eager to engage with
 older materials, like Renaissance seduction poetry and black and white 
film, when they can see traces of the same artistic techniques in the 
music videos and songs they watch and listen to today.Swift’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_and_nominations_received_by_Taylor_Swift">award-winning songwriting</a> is attached to an English and American literary past in both obvious and more subtle ways. <a href="https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/taylor-swift-is-new-face-of-reading/">An avid reader herself</a>,
 Swift deploys forms – like metaphors, conceits and structures – that 
are part of a shared literary heritage that students might otherwise 
find old-fashioned and irrelevant. Far from diminishing the value of Swift’s writing, tracing its 
connection to the literary greats shores up her authority as a creative 
artist. Swift, like all artists, is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-bob-dylan-used-the-ancient-practice-of-imitatio-to-craft-some-of-the-most-original-songs-of-his-time-187052">great tradition</a>, and she calls upon it to create new works.<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>Adam Bradley, “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300248326/the-poetry-of-pop/">The Poetry of Pop</a>,” 2019 Alfred Hitchcock, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032976/">Rebecca</a>,” 1940 Taylor Swift, “<a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-folklore/">folkore</a>,” 2020 <h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>This course has rather modest ambitions. It prepares careful and 
critical readers, as well as articulate writers and researchers. It pays attention to what language denotes at the surface and what it
 carries around with it in its connotations and associations. It teaches
 students about those features, using the Oxford English Dictionary as a
 research tool to probe linguistic origin, register and usage beyond 
what a term literally means.While delivering New York University’s 2022 commencement speech, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBG50aoUwlI">Swift urged the graduating seniors</a> to embrace their enthusiasms and be unafraid to explore their interests. Finding a way to tap into students’ enthusiasm for Swift, and tie her
 songwriting to literary methodologies, is my version of following her 
lead.Elizabeth Scala is a Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194120/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe></div>

Shakespeare, Hitchcock, Plath  ... and Taylor Swift?

By GRAHAM DUNBAR Associated Press

DOHA, Qatar — Qatar banned the sale of beer at <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup">World Cup stadiums</a>
 on Friday, a sudden U-turn on the deal the conservative Muslim emirate 
made to secure the soccer tournament with only two days to go before the
 opening game.

The move was the latest sign of the tension of 
staging the event, which is not just a sports tournament but also a 
monthlong party, in the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/womens-soccer-world-cup-sports-travel-c66ca9fb25b737f8ff34df97d5501327">autocratic country where the sale of alcohol is heavily restricted</a>.
 It's also a significant blow to World Cup beer sponsor Budweiser and 
raised questions about how much control FIFA retains over its 
tournament.

When Qatar launched its bid to host the World Cup, the
 country agreed to FIFA’s requirements of selling alcohol in stadiums — 
but the details <a href="https://apnews.com/article/soccer-sports-religion-middle-east-897ebb79eaa12d69c4f353cd2d7ae55a">were only released in September</a>,
 just 11 weeks before the first kickoff, suggesting how fraught the 
negotiations may have been. Friday's statement from FIFA said 
non-alcoholic beer will still be sold at the eight stadiums, while 
champagne, wine, whiskey and other alcohol will be served in the luxury 
hospitality areas of the arenas.

But the vast majority of ticket 
holders don't have access to those areas; they will be able to drink 
alcoholic beer in the evenings in what is known as the FIFA Fan 
Festival, a designated party area that also offers live music and 
activities. Outside of the tournament-run areas, Qatar puts strict 
limits on the purchase and consumption of alcohol, though its sale has 
been permitted in hotel bars for years.

“Following discussions 
between host country authorities and FIFA, a decision has been made to 
focus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the FIFA Fan Festival, other 
fan destinations and licensed venues, removing sales points of beer from
 ... stadium perimeters,” FIFA said in a statement.

As the news 
broke, Budweiser’s Twitter account tweeted: “Well, this is awkward...” 
without elaborating. The tweet was later deleted.

Ab InBev, the 
parent company of Budweiser, acknowledged in a statement that some of 
its plans “cannot move forward due to circumstances beyond our control.”

The
 company pays tens of millions of dollars at each World Cup for 
exclusive rights to sell beer and has already shipped the majority of 
its stock from Britain to Qatar in expectation of selling its product to
 millions of fans. While the actual sales at the tournament might not be
 a significant percentage of the massive company's revenues, the World 
Cup nonetheless represents a major branding opportunity.

The 
company’s partnership with FIFA started at the 1986 tournament, and they
 are in negotiations for renewing their deal for the next World Cup in 
North America.

Ronan Evain, the executive director of the fan 
group Football Supporters Europe, called the decision to ban beer sales 
at the stadiums in Qatar “extremely worrying.”

“For many fans, 
whether they don’t drink alcohol or are used to dry stadium policies at 
home, this is a detail. It won’t change their tournament,” Evain wrote 
on Twitter. “But with 48 (hours) to go, we’ve clearly entered a 
dangerous territory — where ‘assurances’ don’t matter anymore.”

Qatar,
 which is governed by a hereditary emir who has absolute say over all 
governmental decisions, follows an ultraconservative form of Islam known
 as Wahhabism like neighboring Saudi Arabia. In recent years, Qatar has 
transformed into an ultra-modern hub following a natural gas boom in the
 1990s, but it has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-entertainment-sports-soccer-religion-c3dcfa7cefe111716e2fade034d50eab">faced pressure from within</a> to stay true to its Islamic heritage and Bedouin roots. Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol.

In
 the runup to the World Cup, rights groups have raised concerns about 
how the nation will host millions of foreign fans, some of whom might 
violate Islamic laws criminalizing public drunkenness, sex outside of 
marriage and homosexuality.

Qatar’s government and its Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Friday's was not Qatar's first backtrack — but it was the most significant. Last weekend, AB InBev was left surprised by a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-soccer-sports-international-qatar-c7fa8bba6be7da8a86291265b63c38cb">new policy insisted on by Qatari organizers</a> to move beer stalls to less visible locations within the stadium compounds.

And Qatar also <a href="https://apnews.com/article/soccer-sports-world-cup-qatar-gianni-infantino-12168376f9892774bec11a2e87dba180">changed the date of the opening match</a> only weeks before the World Cup began.

Previous
 World Cup hosts have been asked to make concessions. For the 2014 
tournament, Brazil was forced to change a law to allow alcohol sales in 
stadiums — but the same cultural issues were not at play.

AB 
InBev’s deal with FIFA was renewed in 2011 — after Qatar was picked as 
host. However, the Belgium-based brewer has faced uncertainty in recent 
months on the exact details of where it can serve and sell beer in 
Qatar. And some have balked at the price, which was confirmed at $14 for
 a beer.

At the W Hotel in Doha — where the company will be based —
 workers continued putting together a Budweiser-themed bar planned at 
the site. Its familiar AB logo was plastered on columns and walls at the
 hotel, with one reading: “The World Is Yours To Take.”

By GRAHAM DUNBAR Associated PressDOHA, Qatar — Qatar banned the sale of beer at <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup">World Cup stadiums</a>
 on Friday, a sudden U-turn on the deal the conservative Muslim emirate 
made to secure the soccer tournament with only two days to go before the
 opening game.The move was the latest sign of the tension of 
staging the event, which is not just a sports tournament but also a 
monthlong party, in the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/womens-soccer-world-cup-sports-travel-c66ca9fb25b737f8ff34df97d5501327">autocratic country where the sale of alcohol is heavily restricted</a>.
 It's also a significant blow to World Cup beer sponsor Budweiser and 
raised questions about how much control FIFA retains over its 
tournament.When Qatar launched its bid to host the World Cup, the
 country agreed to FIFA’s requirements of selling alcohol in stadiums — 
but the details <a href="https://apnews.com/article/soccer-sports-religion-middle-east-897ebb79eaa12d69c4f353cd2d7ae55a">were only released in September</a>,
 just 11 weeks before the first kickoff, suggesting how fraught the 
negotiations may have been. Friday's statement from FIFA said 
non-alcoholic beer will still be sold at the eight stadiums, while 
champagne, wine, whiskey and other alcohol will be served in the luxury 
hospitality areas of the arenas.But the vast majority of ticket 
holders don't have access to those areas; they will be able to drink 
alcoholic beer in the evenings in what is known as the FIFA Fan 
Festival, a designated party area that also offers live music and 
activities. Outside of the tournament-run areas, Qatar puts strict 
limits on the purchase and consumption of alcohol, though its sale has 
been permitted in hotel bars for years.“Following discussions 
between host country authorities and FIFA, a decision has been made to 
focus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the FIFA Fan Festival, other 
fan destinations and licensed venues, removing sales points of beer from
 ... stadium perimeters,” FIFA said in a statement.As the news 
broke, Budweiser’s Twitter account tweeted: “Well, this is awkward...” 
without elaborating. The tweet was later deleted.Ab InBev, the 
parent company of Budweiser, acknowledged in a statement that some of 
its plans “cannot move forward due to circumstances beyond our control.”The
 company pays tens of millions of dollars at each World Cup for 
exclusive rights to sell beer and has already shipped the majority of 
its stock from Britain to Qatar in expectation of selling its product to
 millions of fans. While the actual sales at the tournament might not be
 a significant percentage of the massive company's revenues, the World 
Cup nonetheless represents a major branding opportunity.The 
company’s partnership with FIFA started at the 1986 tournament, and they
 are in negotiations for renewing their deal for the next World Cup in 
North America.Ronan Evain, the executive director of the fan 
group Football Supporters Europe, called the decision to ban beer sales 
at the stadiums in Qatar “extremely worrying.”“For many fans, 
whether they don’t drink alcohol or are used to dry stadium policies at 
home, this is a detail. It won’t change their tournament,” Evain wrote 
on Twitter. “But with 48 (hours) to go, we’ve clearly entered a 
dangerous territory — where ‘assurances’ don’t matter anymore.”Qatar,
 which is governed by a hereditary emir who has absolute say over all 
governmental decisions, follows an ultraconservative form of Islam known
 as Wahhabism like neighboring Saudi Arabia. In recent years, Qatar has 
transformed into an ultra-modern hub following a natural gas boom in the
 1990s, but it has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-entertainment-sports-soccer-religion-c3dcfa7cefe111716e2fade034d50eab">faced pressure from within</a> to stay true to its Islamic heritage and Bedouin roots. Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol.In
 the runup to the World Cup, rights groups have raised concerns about 
how the nation will host millions of foreign fans, some of whom might 
violate Islamic laws criminalizing public drunkenness, sex outside of 
marriage and homosexuality.Qatar’s government and its Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Friday's was not Qatar's first backtrack — but it was the most significant. Last weekend, AB InBev was left surprised by a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-soccer-sports-international-qatar-c7fa8bba6be7da8a86291265b63c38cb">new policy insisted on by Qatari organizers</a> to move beer stalls to less visible locations within the stadium compounds.And Qatar also <a href="https://apnews.com/article/soccer-sports-world-cup-qatar-gianni-infantino-12168376f9892774bec11a2e87dba180">changed the date of the opening match</a> only weeks before the World Cup began.Previous
 World Cup hosts have been asked to make concessions. For the 2014 
tournament, Brazil was forced to change a law to allow alcohol sales in 
stadiums — but the same cultural issues were not at play.AB 
InBev’s deal with FIFA was renewed in 2011 — after Qatar was picked as 
host. However, the Belgium-based brewer has faced uncertainty in recent 
months on the exact details of where it can serve and sell beer in 
Qatar. And some have balked at the price, which was confirmed at $14 for
 a beer.At the W Hotel in Doha — where the company will be based —
 workers continued putting together a Budweiser-themed bar planned at 
the site. Its familiar AB logo was plastered on columns and walls at the
 hotel, with one reading: “The World Is Yours To Take.”

Qatar bans sale of beer at World Cup stadiums in about-face

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service, along with state tax 
agencies and the nation's tax industry, today announced a special week 
focusing attention on empowering taxpayers to protect sensitive 
financial information against identity thieves as the holidays and the 
2023 tax season get closer.

Now in its seventh year, the annual National Tax Security Awareness 
Week takes place from November 28 - December 2. The event is part of a 
larger effort that continues by the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/security-summit">Security Summit</a>,
 the coalition of the IRS, the states and the nation's tax software and 
tax professional community. The group formed in 2015 to combat 
tax-related identity theft by strengthening protections against fraud 
and raising security awareness.

With the holidays and tax season approaching, the Summit partners 
warned taxpayers and tax professionals to take extra steps to protect 
their financial and tax information. People face a heightened risk in 
coming months as fraudsters take advantage of the holiday season to 
trick people into sharing sensitive personal information by email, text 
message and online. Identity thieves use that information to try to file
 tax returns and steal refunds.

To help combat this, the Summit partner's National Tax Security 
Awareness Week will feature a week-long series of educational materials 
to help protect individuals, businesses and tax professionals from 
identity theft. The effort will include a November 29 webinar titled <a href="https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/1148/47098">Deeper Dive Into Emerging Cyber Crimes and Crypto Tax Compliance</a>, special informational graphics and a social media effort on Twitter and Instagram through @IRSnews and #TaxSecurity.

"Taxpayers and tax professionals need to remain vigilant for 
increasingly sophisticated scams that look to steal sensitive financial 
information," said IRS&nbsp;Acting Commissioner Doug O'Donnell. "The Security
 Summit effort focuses on highlighting simple steps that small 
businesses and people in all walks of life can take to protect their 
information, helping them avoid problems at tax time."

The IRS and Summit partners continue to see constantly evolving 
threats and scams. They mimic IRS and others in the tax community 
through fake emails, texts and online scams. These schemes frequently 
use recent tragedies or charitable groups to coax people into sharing 
sensitive financial data.

"The heightened risk to taxpayers poses a real threat. The criminals 
continue to evolve and are always looking for opportunities to 
fraudulently obtain this information," said Neena Savage, President of 
the Board of Trustees for the Federation of Tax Administrators and Tax 
Administrator for Rhode Island. "We urge everyone to take the steps 
necessary to protect their sensitive information, which simultaneously 
helps strengthen the joint work conducted by the states, the IRS and the
 tax industry through the Security Summit partnership."

As Security Summit partners increased their joint defenses against 
identity theft in recent years, including through the Identity Theft 
Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), fraudsters have 
increasingly looked for ways to obtain sensitive personal financial 
information to help slip past common defenses. That has made tax 
professionals – who hold valuable tax information for their clients – a 
tempting target for scam artists.

"The innovative Summit partnership between the public and private 
sectors has created important protections against tax-related identity 
theft,'&nbsp;said Julie Magee, Tax Regulatory Lead at Cash App Taxes and an 
original member of the Security Summit who currently serves as the 
group's communications co-chair.&nbsp;"This collaborative effort continues to
 thwart identity thieves, helping protect taxpayers and tax 
professionals while also safeguarding the federal and state tax systems 
essential to running our nation."

With International Fraud Awareness Week underway through November 19 
this year, the Security Summit offers a preview of the upcoming National
 Tax Security Awareness Week that begins November 28.

National Tax Security Awareness Week 2022 highlights

Cyber Monday: Protect personal and financial information online

The IRS and the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/security-summit">Security Summit</a> partners remind people to take these basic steps when shopping online:

Tax professionals should review their security protocols

As identity thieves continue targeting tax professionals, the IRS and the Summit partners urge practitioners to review the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/tax-security-2-point-0-the-taxes-security-together-checklist">"Taxes-Security-Together" Checklist</a>, including:

Taxpayers who can verify their identities online may opt into the IRS
 IP PIN program – a tool taxpayers can use to protect themselves – and 
their tax refund. Here's what taxpayers need to know:

Businesses should watch out for tax-related scams and implement safeguards

Most cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. Some details from this segment include:

Earlier this year, the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/protect-your-clients-protect-yourself-summer-2022">Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself</a>&nbsp;campaign
 encouraged tax professionals to focus on fundamentals and to watch out 
for emerging vulnerabilities for those practitioners using cloud-based 
services for their practice.

In addition to reviewing IRS&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4557.pdf">Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data</a>PDF, tax professionals can also get help with security recommendations by reviewing <a href="https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2016/NIST.IR.7621r1.pdf">Small Business Information Security: The Fundamentals</a>PDF&nbsp;by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The IRS <a href="https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-central">Identity Theft Central</a> pages for tax pros, individuals and businesses have important details as well.

The IRS and Security Summit partners also share YouTube videos on 
security steps for taxpayers. The videos can be viewed or downloaded at <a href="https://youtu.be/V3hdiCtKj5s">Easy Steps to Protect Your Computer and Phone</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJYQL89qMfI">Security Measures Help Protect Against Tax-Related Identity Theft</a>.

Employers can share <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4524.pdf">Publication 4524, Security Awareness for Taxpayers</a>PDF, with their employees and customers and tax professionals can share with clients.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599869632873.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>IRSWASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service, along with state tax 
agencies and the nation's tax industry, today announced a special week 
focusing attention on empowering taxpayers to protect sensitive 
financial information against identity thieves as the holidays and the 
2023 tax season get closer.Now in its seventh year, the annual National Tax Security Awareness 
Week takes place from November 28 - December 2. The event is part of a 
larger effort that continues by the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/security-summit">Security Summit</a>,
 the coalition of the IRS, the states and the nation's tax software and 
tax professional community. The group formed in 2015 to combat 
tax-related identity theft by strengthening protections against fraud 
and raising security awareness.With the holidays and tax season approaching, the Summit partners 
warned taxpayers and tax professionals to take extra steps to protect 
their financial and tax information. People face a heightened risk in 
coming months as fraudsters take advantage of the holiday season to 
trick people into sharing sensitive personal information by email, text 
message and online. Identity thieves use that information to try to file
 tax returns and steal refunds.To help combat this, the Summit partner's National Tax Security 
Awareness Week will feature a week-long series of educational materials 
to help protect individuals, businesses and tax professionals from 
identity theft. The effort will include a November 29 webinar titled <a href="https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/1148/47098">Deeper Dive Into Emerging Cyber Crimes and Crypto Tax Compliance</a>, special informational graphics and a social media effort on Twitter and Instagram through @IRSnews and #TaxSecurity."Taxpayers and tax professionals need to remain vigilant for 
increasingly sophisticated scams that look to steal sensitive financial 
information," said IRS&nbsp;Acting Commissioner Doug O'Donnell. "The Security
 Summit effort focuses on highlighting simple steps that small 
businesses and people in all walks of life can take to protect their 
information, helping them avoid problems at tax time."The IRS and Summit partners continue to see constantly evolving 
threats and scams. They mimic IRS and others in the tax community 
through fake emails, texts and online scams. These schemes frequently 
use recent tragedies or charitable groups to coax people into sharing 
sensitive financial data."The heightened risk to taxpayers poses a real threat. The criminals 
continue to evolve and are always looking for opportunities to 
fraudulently obtain this information," said Neena Savage, President of 
the Board of Trustees for the Federation of Tax Administrators and Tax 
Administrator for Rhode Island. "We urge everyone to take the steps 
necessary to protect their sensitive information, which simultaneously 
helps strengthen the joint work conducted by the states, the IRS and the
 tax industry through the Security Summit partnership."As Security Summit partners increased their joint defenses against 
identity theft in recent years, including through the Identity Theft 
Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), fraudsters have 
increasingly looked for ways to obtain sensitive personal financial 
information to help slip past common defenses. That has made tax 
professionals – who hold valuable tax information for their clients – a 
tempting target for scam artists."The innovative Summit partnership between the public and private 
sectors has created important protections against tax-related identity 
theft,'&nbsp;said Julie Magee, Tax Regulatory Lead at Cash App Taxes and an 
original member of the Security Summit who currently serves as the 
group's communications co-chair.&nbsp;"This collaborative effort continues to
 thwart identity thieves, helping protect taxpayers and tax 
professionals while also safeguarding the federal and state tax systems 
essential to running our nation."With International Fraud Awareness Week underway through November 19 
this year, the Security Summit offers a preview of the upcoming National
 Tax Security Awareness Week that begins November 28.<h2>National Tax Security Awareness Week 2022 highlights</h2><h2>Cyber Monday: Protect personal and financial information online</h2>The IRS and the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/security-summit">Security Summit</a> partners remind people to take these basic steps when shopping online:<ul>
 <li>Use security software for computers and mobile phones – and keep it updated.</li><li>Make sure anti-virus software for computers has a feature to stop 
malware, and that there is a firewall enabled that can prevent 
intrusions.</li><li>Use strong and unique passwords for all accounts.</li><li>Use multi-factor authentication whenever possible.</li><li>Shop only secure websites; look for the "https" in web addresses 
and the padlock icon; avoid shopping on unsecured and public Wi-Fi in 
places like coffee shops, malls or restaurants.</li>
 </ul><h2>Tax professionals should review their security protocols</h2>As identity thieves continue targeting tax professionals, the IRS and the Summit partners urge practitioners to review the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/tax-security-2-point-0-the-taxes-security-together-checklist">"Taxes-Security-Together" Checklist</a>, including:<ul>
 <li>Deploy basic security measures.</li><li>Use multi-factor authentication to protect tax software accounts.</li><li>Create a Virtual Private Network if working remotely.</li><li>Create a written data security plan as required by federal law.</li><li>Know about phishing and phone scams.</li><li>Create data security and data theft recovery plans.</li>
 </ul><h2>Get an Identity Protection PIN</h2>Taxpayers who can verify their identities online may opt into the IRS
 IP PIN program – a tool taxpayers can use to protect themselves – and 
their tax refund. Here's what taxpayers need to know:<ul>
 <li>The Identity Protection PIN or IP PIN is a six-digit code known 
only to the individual and the IRS. It provides another layer of 
protection for taxpayers' Social Security numbers on tax returns.</li><li>Use the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/the-identity-protection-pin-ip-pin">Get an Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN)</a> tool at IRS.gov/IPPIN to immediately get an IP PIN.</li><li>Never share the IP PIN with anyone but a trusted tax provider.</li>
 </ul><h2>Businesses should watch out for tax-related scams and implement safeguards</h2>Most cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. Some details from this segment include:<ul>
 <li>Learn about best security practices for small businesses.</li><li>IRS continues protective masking of sensitive information on business transcripts.</li><li>A Business Identity Theft Affidavit, Form 14039-B, is available for businesses to report theft to the IRS.</li><li>Beware of various scams, especially the W-2 scam that attempts to steal employee income information.</li><li>Check out the "Business" section on IRS's <a href="https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-central">Identity Theft Central</a>.</li>
 </ul>Earlier this year, the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/protect-your-clients-protect-yourself-summer-2022">Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself</a>&nbsp;campaign
 encouraged tax professionals to focus on fundamentals and to watch out 
for emerging vulnerabilities for those practitioners using cloud-based 
services for their practice.<h2>Additional resources</h2>In addition to reviewing IRS&nbsp;<a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4557.pdf">Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data</a>PDF, tax professionals can also get help with security recommendations by reviewing <a href="https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2016/NIST.IR.7621r1.pdf">Small Business Information Security: The Fundamentals</a>PDF&nbsp;by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The IRS <a href="https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-central">Identity Theft Central</a> pages for tax pros, individuals and businesses have important details as well.The IRS and Security Summit partners also share YouTube videos on 
security steps for taxpayers. The videos can be viewed or downloaded at <a href="https://youtu.be/V3hdiCtKj5s">Easy Steps to Protect Your Computer and Phone</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJYQL89qMfI">Security Measures Help Protect Against Tax-Related Identity Theft</a>.Employers can share <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4524.pdf">Publication 4524, Security Awareness for Taxpayers</a>PDF, with their employees and customers and tax professionals can share with clients.

Summit focuses on security and identity theft as holiday, tax season nears

By ANNE M. PETERSON Associated Press

Official-looking flyers have circulated on social media describing 
cultural expectations for fans attending the World Cup in Qatar. Some 
include rules for women’s attire: Shoulders and knees must be covered.

While
 the local organizing committee suggests that fans “respect the 
culture,” no one is expected to be detained or barred from games in 
Qatar because of clothing choices. But persistent rumors swirling around
 appropriate garb and modesty at soccer’s biggest tournament have also 
drawn attention to the country’s record on equality.

Rothna Begum,
 a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, has studied Qatar’s male 
guardianship rules and women's rights in the conservative country.

“There
 isn’t anyone is going to go around arresting you for this because there
 isn’t an official dress code," Begum said. "There isn’t a compulsory 
dress code and you can't get sanctioned for it. It’s just a social 
restriction, a social tradition.”

The local organizing committee includes a section on cultural awareness in its fan guide.

“People
 can generally wear their clothing of choice. Shoulders and knees should
 be covered when visiting public places like museums and other 
government buildings,” it said.

The phrase “public places” is up to interpretation.

The American Outlaws, the U.S. national team's supporters' group, produced its own fan guide.

“Fans
 can wear shorts and short sleeve shirts, and women are not required to 
cover their heads or faces. However, there are many buildings that 
require both men and women to cover their shoulders and knees before 
entering, including museums, shopping centers, and some restaurants," 
the guide says. "We recommend that fans carry some pants and/or a top 
with sleeves if they plan on entering any buildings, as they may be 
asked to put them on.

“In the stadiums, men and women will be 
required to wear tops. People will not be permitted to go shirtless 
during matches or in public settings."

The first World Cup in the 
Middle East comes at a time when there is international attention on the
 treatment of women in Iran. The nation, which sits across the Persian 
Gulf from Qatar, has been rocked by anti-hijab protests following the 
death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while being held by morality 
police for allegedly violating the country’s compulsory dress code for 
women. Activists have called for Iran to be expelled from the World Cup.

With Islam encouraging female modesty, most Qatari women wear headscarves and a loose cloak known as the abaya.

Begum,
 who wrote about Qatar and its treatment of women in a 2021 report for 
Human Rights Watch, said that while women have made progress in Qatar, 
they still face discrimination in almost every facet of their lives. 
Women must get permission from male guardians to marry, pursue higher 
education and work at certain jobs. Guardians can bar women under 25 
from traveling abroad.

It's a conservative culture that has little tolerance for dissent among its own citizens, she said.

“There
 are no independent women’s rights organizations and that’s partly 
because the authorities have laws that make it difficult for you to set 
up associations that are in any way deemed political. You are not 
allowed," Begum said. “Women find it difficult to express or demand 
their rights offline or even online."

That's one of the reasons 
critics are questioning FIFA for awarding of the 2022 World Cup to 
Qatar. Observers certainly noticed when retired American soccer star 
Carli Lloyd wore a long, high-collared dress with long sleeves for the 
World Cup draw earlier this year.

A letter recently circulated 
among teams from FIFA president Gianni Infantino and secretary general 
Fatma Samoura asked nations not to bring political or ideological issues
 into the tournament.

“Please," they wrote, "let’s now focus on the football.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668725284147.jpeg" alt="Former American soccer international Carli Lloyd, right, and Jermaine Jenas, English television presenter, pundit and retired professional soccer player assist with the 2022 soccer World Cup draw at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar, Friday, April 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic, File)" />
 <figcaption>Former American soccer international Carli Lloyd, right, and Jermaine Jenas, English television presenter, pundit and retired professional soccer player assist with the 2022 soccer World Cup draw at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar, Friday, April 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic, File)</figcaption>
 </figure>By ANNE M. PETERSON Associated PressOfficial-looking flyers have circulated on social media describing 
cultural expectations for fans attending the World Cup in Qatar. Some 
include rules for women’s attire: Shoulders and knees must be covered.Problem is, it’s bogus.While
 the local organizing committee suggests that fans “respect the 
culture,” no one is expected to be detained or barred from games in 
Qatar because of clothing choices. But persistent rumors swirling around
 appropriate garb and modesty at soccer’s biggest tournament have also 
drawn attention to the country’s record on equality.Rothna Begum,
 a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, has studied Qatar’s male 
guardianship rules and women's rights in the conservative country.“There
 isn’t anyone is going to go around arresting you for this because there
 isn’t an official dress code," Begum said. "There isn’t a compulsory 
dress code and you can't get sanctioned for it. It’s just a social 
restriction, a social tradition.”The local organizing committee includes a section on cultural awareness in its fan guide.“People
 can generally wear their clothing of choice. Shoulders and knees should
 be covered when visiting public places like museums and other 
government buildings,” it said.The phrase “public places” is up to interpretation.The American Outlaws, the U.S. national team's supporters' group, produced its own fan guide.“Fans
 can wear shorts and short sleeve shirts, and women are not required to 
cover their heads or faces. However, there are many buildings that 
require both men and women to cover their shoulders and knees before 
entering, including museums, shopping centers, and some restaurants," 
the guide says. "We recommend that fans carry some pants and/or a top 
with sleeves if they plan on entering any buildings, as they may be 
asked to put them on.“In the stadiums, men and women will be 
required to wear tops. People will not be permitted to go shirtless 
during matches or in public settings."The first World Cup in the 
Middle East comes at a time when there is international attention on the
 treatment of women in Iran. The nation, which sits across the Persian 
Gulf from Qatar, has been rocked by anti-hijab protests following the 
death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while being held by morality 
police for allegedly violating the country’s compulsory dress code for 
women. Activists have called for Iran to be expelled from the World Cup.With Islam encouraging female modesty, most Qatari women wear headscarves and a loose cloak known as the abaya.Begum,
 who wrote about Qatar and its treatment of women in a 2021 report for 
Human Rights Watch, said that while women have made progress in Qatar, 
they still face discrimination in almost every facet of their lives. 
Women must get permission from male guardians to marry, pursue higher 
education and work at certain jobs. Guardians can bar women under 25 
from traveling abroad.It's a conservative culture that has little tolerance for dissent among its own citizens, she said.“There
 are no independent women’s rights organizations and that’s partly 
because the authorities have laws that make it difficult for you to set 
up associations that are in any way deemed political. You are not 
allowed," Begum said. “Women find it difficult to express or demand 
their rights offline or even online."That's one of the reasons 
critics are questioning FIFA for awarding of the 2022 World Cup to 
Qatar. Observers certainly noticed when retired American soccer star 
Carli Lloyd wore a long, high-collared dress with long sleeves for the 
World Cup draw earlier this year.A letter recently circulated 
among teams from FIFA president Gianni Infantino and secretary general 
Fatma Samoura asked nations not to bring political or ideological issues
 into the tournament.“Please," they wrote, "let’s now focus on the football.”

World Cup draws attention to equal rights, including attire

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A wartime agreement that unblocked grain shipments from Ukraine and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-middle-east-africa-business-global-trade-e5c0cf9f1ebb5c8ec43c9fd6a5db33bf">helped temper rising global food prices</a>
 will be extended by four months, the United Nations and other parties 
to the deal said Thursday, preventing a price shock to some of the 
world’s most vulnerable countries where many are struggling with hunger.

Ukrainian
 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the 120-day extension a “key 
decision in the global fight against the food crisis.” Struck during <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine?utm_source=apnewsnav&amp;utm_medium=featured">Russia’s war in Ukraine</a>,
 the initiative established a safe shipping corridor in the Black Sea 
and inspection procedures to address concerns that cargo vessels might 
carry weapons or launch attacks.

The deal that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-middle-east-global-trade-a2c89d94a0f8473b40a1fcde5710bda8">Ukraine and Russia signed in separate agreements</a>
 with the U.N. and Turkey on July 22 was due to expire Saturday. Russia 
confirmed the extension but said it expected progress on removing 
obstacles to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-middle-east-africa-global-trade-2ab926262e914e70d2abf6ca0c319f5f">export of Russian food and fertilizers</a>.

Ukraine and Russia are <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-business-africa-lifestyle-middle-east-1b41faaa7ac0984d0673023b68d39a70">key global suppliers of wheat</a>, barley, <a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/russia-ukraine-covid-business-health-africa-688a358195a4723fc862cfe3f9e60474">sunflower oil</a>
 and other food to countries in Africa, the Middle East and parts of 
Asia where millions of impoverished people lack enough to eat. Russia 
was also the world's <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-business-health-europe-c6a2d11380d3cb0c48d4c22703d1954e">top exporter of fertilizer</a>
 before the war. A loss of those supplies following Russia’s Feb. 24 
invasion of Ukraine had pushed up global food prices and fueled <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-covid-politics-health-middle-east-58bb99da6bf9fc6af5a5a645022bc4d7">concerns of a hunger crisis in poorer countries</a>.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A wartime agreement that unblocked grain shipments from Ukraine and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-middle-east-africa-business-global-trade-e5c0cf9f1ebb5c8ec43c9fd6a5db33bf">helped temper rising global food prices</a>
 will be extended by four months, the United Nations and other parties 
to the deal said Thursday, preventing a price shock to some of the 
world’s most vulnerable countries where many are struggling with hunger.Ukrainian
 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the 120-day extension a “key 
decision in the global fight against the food crisis.” Struck during <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine?utm_source=apnewsnav&amp;utm_medium=featured">Russia’s war in Ukraine</a>,
 the initiative established a safe shipping corridor in the Black Sea 
and inspection procedures to address concerns that cargo vessels might 
carry weapons or launch attacks.The deal that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-middle-east-global-trade-a2c89d94a0f8473b40a1fcde5710bda8">Ukraine and Russia signed in separate agreements</a>
 with the U.N. and Turkey on July 22 was due to expire Saturday. Russia 
confirmed the extension but said it expected progress on removing 
obstacles to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-middle-east-africa-global-trade-2ab926262e914e70d2abf6ca0c319f5f">export of Russian food and fertilizers</a>.Ukraine and Russia are <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-business-africa-lifestyle-middle-east-1b41faaa7ac0984d0673023b68d39a70">key global suppliers of wheat</a>, barley, <a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/russia-ukraine-covid-business-health-africa-688a358195a4723fc862cfe3f9e60474">sunflower oil</a>
 and other food to countries in Africa, the Middle East and parts of 
Asia where millions of impoverished people lack enough to eat. Russia 
was also the world's <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-business-health-europe-c6a2d11380d3cb0c48d4c22703d1954e">top exporter of fertilizer</a>
 before the war. A loss of those supplies following Russia’s Feb. 24 
invasion of Ukraine had pushed up global food prices and fueled <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-covid-politics-health-middle-east-58bb99da6bf9fc6af5a5a645022bc4d7">concerns of a hunger crisis in poorer countries</a>.While the extension prevents a price shock in developing nations that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-health-africa-faf7f3f6539d39516515dcc4a39cb452">spend far more on food</a> and energy than richer countries, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-inflation-africa-lebanon-1eafa6d440e9f50aeb051ac6fe605a76">threats persist</a> from <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-world-news-droughts-animals-africa-1c16ab8f57268ee2043861326a65d09d">droughts in places like Somalia</a> and the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-middle-east-africa-business-global-trade-bee68344b1812dd48ca9c0735395b868">weakening of currencies around the world</a>, which makes buying imported grain more expensive.“I
 was deeply moved to know that in Istanbul, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and 
the U.N. had come to an agreement for the rollover of the Black Sea 
Grain Initiative, allowing for the free exports of Ukrainian grains,” 
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.The Turkish Defense 
Ministry said the decision to extend the deal came after two days of 
talks in Istanbul between delegations from Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and 
the U.N. that were held in a “positive and constructive” atmosphere.Russia
 had voiced dissatisfaction with the deal facilitating exports of 
Russian grain and fertilizer, hinting that it might not approve an 
extension and even <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-middle-east-africa-business-turkey-ca8d92c169fd64692ee90b844117e175">briefly suspending its part of the deal</a>
 late last month. It cited risks to its ships following what it alleged 
was a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.Although
 Western sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine did not 
target food exports, many shipping and insurance companies were 
reluctant to deal with Moscow, either refusing to do so or greatly 
increasing the price.Guterres said the U.N. was “fully committed” to removing hurdles to shipping food and fertilizer from Russia.The
 United Nations has been working to overcome issues related to 
insurance, access to ports, financial transactions and shipping for 
Russian vessels, according to a U.N. official who was not authorize to 
speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said 
the insurance issue has mainly been resolved in recent days.Russia
 has offered to donate 260,000 metric tons of fertilizer stored in 
European ports to farmers in the developing world who have been priced 
out of the fertilizer market because of shortages, and the official said
 the first ship is slated to leave the Netherlands on Monday for 
Mozambique, where the fertilizer will go by land to Malawi. Further 
shipments are expected from Belgium and Estonia, the official said.The
 Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow had allowed the extension to take 
effect “without any changes in terms and scope.” It said Russia noted 
the “intensification” of U.N. efforts to hasten Russian exports.“All these issues must be resolved within 120 days for which the ‘package deal’ is extended,” the ministry said.During
 talks on the extension, the sides discussed possible additional 
measures to “deliver more grain to those in real need,” the ministry 
added, apparently to address Russian complaints that most of the grain 
has ended up in richer nations.Turkish President Recep Tayyip 
Erdogan suggested Thursday that wheat from Russia could be turned into 
flour in Turkey and shipped to African nations in need.U.N. 
humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said last month that 23% of the 
exports from Ukraine under the grain deal have gone to lower- or 
lower-middle-income countries and 49% of all wheat shipments have gone 
to such nations.Markets were pleasantly surprised by the 
extension, said Ian Mitchell, co-director of the Europe program at the 
Center for Global Development who specializes in agriculture and food 
security. Following the announcement, wheat futures prices dropped 2.6% 
in Chicago.“Ukraine and Russia are such important grain exporters
 that the rest of the market can’t fully substitute for the complete 
absence of Ukrainian grain,” he said. “So that deal is going to matter 
to food prices significantly, even if the volumes are not what they were
 before the invasion.”He said, however, that uncertainty is 
“unhelpful in this deal.” Toward the end of the four-month extension, 
markets will “price in the risk that it wasn’t extended, and prices will
 rise a little bit again.”Arnaud Petit, executive director of the
 International Grains Council, said the Black Sea region produces some 
of the world's cheapest wheat and securing those supplies prevents a 
price shock to developing nations.There have been good harvests 
in the region, contributing to an expected 10 million more tons of wheat
 worldwide compared with last year, he said. The extension means that 
Ukrainian farmers can plan to plant.Petit called the extension a building block in “an unstable region where things can change on a daily basis.”However,
 when it comes to food prices, trade movement isn’t as important as 
currencies around the world weakening against a strong U.S. dollar, 
which commodities like wheat and other grain are priced in, Petit said.The
 council calculated that for Ghana, which mainly imports its wheat from 
Canada, the price of wheat in dollars from Canada has been largely 
stable for two years. But changing into local currency translated to a 
70% price hike.Global food prices declined about 15% from their March peak after the grain initiative was adopted in July.“With
 the delivery of more than 11 million tons of grains and foodstuffs to 
those in need via approximately 500 ships over the past four months, the
 significance and benefits of this agreement for the food supply and 
security of the world have become evident,” Turkey's Erdogan said.

Misc