LOS
 ANGELES (AP) — Beyoncé has propelled herself into the highest Grammy 
echelon: The star singer claimed a leading nine nominations Tuesday, 
making her tied — with her husband Jay-Z — as the most nominated music 
act in the history of the awards show.

Beyoncé's “Break My Soul” 
reeled in record and song of the year nominations, while “Renaissance” —
 which ventured into the world of dancehall music — netted an album of 
the year nod. With Jay-Z also earning five nods this year, each spouse 
now holds the record for the most-ever Grammy nominations at 88 apiece.

Kendrick
 Lamar came away with the second-most nominations, with eight. Adele and
 Brandi Carlile both received seven nods. Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, 
Future, DJ Khaled, The-Dream and mastering engineer Randy Merrill each 
picked up six.

Nearly half of this year’s leading nominees — 
announced by the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, John Legend, Machine Gun Kelly
 and Smokey Robinson —are women and more than half are people of color, 
according to the recording academy. The ceremony will be held Feb. 5 in 
Los Angeles.

“This makes me feel very proud, but it makes me 
conscious of the fact that we have to maintain the work we have done,” 
said Harvey Mason jr., the Recording Academy’s CEO. He said there have 
been strides in the peer-driven voting system and increased membership, 
but he still believes more progress can be made.

“This year, I’m 
pleased with the result and work the voters did,” he continued. “We have
 almost 13,000 voters now. It’s really important work. I’m pleased to 
think they spent the time listening to the music and evaluating. I think
 you see by the type of nominations that they are not only going for 
just popular music or music that has a lot of streams. It’s just music 
of high quality.”

The academy added a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-026433f3356e976dbec7d16b3b7d7c65">special song for social change and five new categories including songwriter of the year</a>, which Harvey says will further help diversify the 65th edition of the annual awards.

The
 non-classical songwriter category will recognize one individual who was
 the “most prolific” non-performing and non-producing songwriter for a 
body of new work during an eligibility year. It will take a different 
approach than song of the year, which awards the songwriters who wrote 
the lyrics or melodies to one song.

Harvey said implementing the 
songwriters category is a “significant” step forward for the music 
industry. Last year, a rule update allowed that any songwriter, 
producer, engineer or featured artist on a work nominated for album of 
the year could ultimately earn a nomination.

“The academy and 
voters are placing a high importance on the craft of songwriting,” 
Harvey said of the new category, in which nominees include The-Dream, 
Amy Allen, Nija Charles, Tobias Jesso Jr. and Laura Veltz. “Personally, 
as a songwriter, I’m happy to see it being a significant part of our 
process. We realize that songwriting is at the heart of our industry. 
It’s one of the building blocks for every artist’s career.”

Beyoncé,
 the most decorated woman in Grammy history with 28 wins, could break 
the late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti’s record for most 
awards won if she wins four awards. Solti, who has 31 Grammys, has held 
on to the record since 1997.

For the first time in Beyoncé's 
lauded career, she was nominated in the dance category. Her seventh 
studio project “Renaissance” is up for best dance-electronic music album
 and “Break My Soul” is nominated for best dance-electronic recording. 
Other nominations include best R&amp;B song for “Cuff It,” R&amp;B 
performance for “Virgo’s Groove,” traditional R&amp;B performance for 
“Plastic Off the Sofa” and song written for visual media for “Be Alive,”
 the Oscar-nominated song from the “King Richard” soundtrack.

Merrill
 grabbed two nominations in the record of the year category for the 
second straight year for his work on Adele’s “Easy on Me” and Styles’ 
“As It Was.” It’s also his first time being nominated three times in the
 same year for album of the year.

Other album of the year nominees
 include: Adele’s “30,” ABBA’s “Voyage,” Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti,”
 Mary J. Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous” (Deluxe), Carlile’s “In These 
Silent Days,” Coldplay’s “Music of the Spheres,” Lamar’s “Mr. Morale 
&amp; the Big Steppers,” Lizzo’s “Special” and Styles’ “Harry’s House.”

Tracks
 competing with “Break My Soul” for record of the year include Styles’ 
“As It Was,” Doja Cat’s “Woman,” Adele’s “Easy On Me,” ABBA’s “Don’t 
Shut Me Down,” Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous,” Steve Lacy’s “Bad 
Habit,” Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5,” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” and 
Carlile’s “You and Me On the Rock” featuring Lucius.

Three of 
Jay-Z’s nominations came through DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” a song featuring
 Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend and Fridayy. The track is up for best
 rap performance and rap song along with song of the year, which also 
has Jay-Z nominated for his writing efforts on Beyoncé’s “Break My 
Soul.” The rapper also received a nod for album of the year for his work
 on his wife’s “Renaissance” album.

Young Thug and Gunna both received nominations despite being currently <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-crime-arrests-georgia-1b33395632861d48b1314e90a962148a">locked up in a racketeering criminal case.</a> The rappers are up for best rap song and rap performance through Gunna's “pushin P,” featuring Thug and Future.

Christina
 Aguilera's comeback to Latin music with her self-titled album earned 
her two nominations for best Latin pop album and immersive audio album.

LOS
 ANGELES (AP) — Beyoncé has propelled herself into the highest Grammy 
echelon: The star singer claimed a leading nine nominations Tuesday, 
making her tied — with her husband Jay-Z — as the most nominated music 
act in the history of the awards show.Beyoncé's “Break My Soul” 
reeled in record and song of the year nominations, while “Renaissance” —
 which ventured into the world of dancehall music — netted an album of 
the year nod. With Jay-Z also earning five nods this year, each spouse 
now holds the record for the most-ever Grammy nominations at 88 apiece.Kendrick
 Lamar came away with the second-most nominations, with eight. Adele and
 Brandi Carlile both received seven nods. Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, 
Future, DJ Khaled, The-Dream and mastering engineer Randy Merrill each 
picked up six.Nearly half of this year’s leading nominees — 
announced by the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, John Legend, Machine Gun Kelly
 and Smokey Robinson —are women and more than half are people of color, 
according to the recording academy. The ceremony will be held Feb. 5 in 
Los Angeles.“This makes me feel very proud, but it makes me 
conscious of the fact that we have to maintain the work we have done,” 
said Harvey Mason jr., the Recording Academy’s CEO. He said there have 
been strides in the peer-driven voting system and increased membership, 
but he still believes more progress can be made.“This year, I’m 
pleased with the result and work the voters did,” he continued. “We have
 almost 13,000 voters now. It’s really important work. I’m pleased to 
think they spent the time listening to the music and evaluating. I think
 you see by the type of nominations that they are not only going for 
just popular music or music that has a lot of streams. It’s just music 
of high quality.”The academy added a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-026433f3356e976dbec7d16b3b7d7c65">special song for social change and five new categories including songwriter of the year</a>, which Harvey says will further help diversify the 65th edition of the annual awards.The
 non-classical songwriter category will recognize one individual who was
 the “most prolific” non-performing and non-producing songwriter for a 
body of new work during an eligibility year. It will take a different 
approach than song of the year, which awards the songwriters who wrote 
the lyrics or melodies to one song.Harvey said implementing the 
songwriters category is a “significant” step forward for the music 
industry. Last year, a rule update allowed that any songwriter, 
producer, engineer or featured artist on a work nominated for album of 
the year could ultimately earn a nomination.“The academy and 
voters are placing a high importance on the craft of songwriting,” 
Harvey said of the new category, in which nominees include The-Dream, 
Amy Allen, Nija Charles, Tobias Jesso Jr. and Laura Veltz. “Personally, 
as a songwriter, I’m happy to see it being a significant part of our 
process. We realize that songwriting is at the heart of our industry. 
It’s one of the building blocks for every artist’s career.”Beyoncé,
 the most decorated woman in Grammy history with 28 wins, could break 
the late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti’s record for most 
awards won if she wins four awards. Solti, who has 31 Grammys, has held 
on to the record since 1997.For the first time in Beyoncé's 
lauded career, she was nominated in the dance category. Her seventh 
studio project “Renaissance” is up for best dance-electronic music album
 and “Break My Soul” is nominated for best dance-electronic recording. 
Other nominations include best R&amp;B song for “Cuff It,” R&amp;B 
performance for “Virgo’s Groove,” traditional R&amp;B performance for 
“Plastic Off the Sofa” and song written for visual media for “Be Alive,”
 the Oscar-nominated song from the “King Richard” soundtrack.Merrill
 grabbed two nominations in the record of the year category for the 
second straight year for his work on Adele’s “Easy on Me” and Styles’ 
“As It Was.” It’s also his first time being nominated three times in the
 same year for album of the year.Other album of the year nominees
 include: Adele’s “30,” ABBA’s “Voyage,” Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti,”
 Mary J. Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous” (Deluxe), Carlile’s “In These 
Silent Days,” Coldplay’s “Music of the Spheres,” Lamar’s “Mr. Morale 
&amp; the Big Steppers,” Lizzo’s “Special” and Styles’ “Harry’s House.”Tracks
 competing with “Break My Soul” for record of the year include Styles’ 
“As It Was,” Doja Cat’s “Woman,” Adele’s “Easy On Me,” ABBA’s “Don’t 
Shut Me Down,” Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous,” Steve Lacy’s “Bad 
Habit,” Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5,” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” and 
Carlile’s “You and Me On the Rock” featuring Lucius.Three of 
Jay-Z’s nominations came through DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” a song featuring
 Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend and Fridayy. The track is up for best
 rap performance and rap song along with song of the year, which also 
has Jay-Z nominated for his writing efforts on Beyoncé’s “Break My 
Soul.” The rapper also received a nod for album of the year for his work
 on his wife’s “Renaissance” album.Young Thug and Gunna both received nominations despite being currently <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-crime-arrests-georgia-1b33395632861d48b1314e90a962148a">locked up in a racketeering criminal case.</a> The rappers are up for best rap song and rap performance through Gunna's “pushin P,” featuring Thug and Future.Christina
 Aguilera's comeback to Latin music with her self-titled album earned 
her two nominations for best Latin pop album and immersive audio album.

Beyoncé ties Grammy record after leading nominations with 9

By JOHN M. SLOOP <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">The Conversation</a>

Soccer fans will turn their eyes to Qatar starting Nov. 20, 2020, as <a href="https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/qatar2022">the World Cup</a> gets underway. But in the U.S., the question of which team will be cheered on from afar isn’t entirely straightforward.

You see, one of the anomalies of being a “typical” soccer fan in the United States – a group to which <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/communication/people/john-m-sloop/">I belong</a> – is that, you are not, in fact, a “typical” soccer fan.

For many team’s supporters, the World Cup becomes an event to affirm one’s national identity. This is true, as cultural critic <a href="https://history.duke.edu/books/language-game-how-understand-soccer">Laurent Dubois</a> notes, even among fans that are not jingoistic or nationalistic in any other environment.

Indeed, the nationalist fervor that <a href="https://polisci.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/u245/andrew_bertoli_paper_05-01-17.pdf">emerges among crowds</a> can boil over into xenophobic inter-national violence. As renowned soccer historian <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Age-Football-Soccer-21st-Century/dp/0393541479/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1MM5WQSWMHLPY&amp;keywords=david+goldblatt&amp;qid=1668107171&amp;sprefix=david+goldblatt%2Caps%2C177&amp;sr=8-1">David Goldblatt</a>
 noted in reference to English soccer crowds in the late 20th century, 
their “essential xenophobia” revealed a “rabid insular nationalism that 
was just a few notches more extreme than the foreign policy of the most 
Europhobic government since the Second World War.”

For Americans, though, the experience can be very different. Factors ranging from the <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/15869/favrotie-sports-league/">relatively low popularity of soccer compared with other sports</a>, <a href="https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/most-popular-soccer-clubs-in-the-u-s/">familiarity with overseas clubs</a>
 and perhaps more importantly – especially to Americans of Mexican 
heritage – an attachment to countries deemed to be more traditional 
“soccer nations” mean that we Americans can find ourselves oddly divided
 over the nation we support in the global game.

Soccer has <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/2022/09/23/soccer-the-fastest-growing-major-sport-in-usa/">come a long way in the U.S.</a> over the last few decades in terms of its domestic league and growing a support base.

Yet, outside of our national teams – both the U.S. Women’s National 
Soccer Team (USWNT) and its male counterparts, the USMNT – Americans are
 <a href="https://today.yougov.com/ratings/sports/popularity/soccer-teams/all">more likely to be familiar with teams in Europe</a> than in their own domestic league, Major League Soccer (MLS).

Indeed, <a href="https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/most-popular-soccer-clubs-in-the-u-s/">2020 research</a>
 into the most popular clubs for Americans found that FC Barcelona 
topped the list, followed by Real Madrid – both from the Spanish La 
Liga. The next four teams – Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and 
Arsenal – all play in the English Premier League (EPL).

You have to go <a href="https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/most-popular-soccer-clubs-in-the-u-s/">down the list to 12th</a>
 to find an MLS team, LA Galaxy. They and Atlanta United are the only 
two American clubs in a list of the top 20 most popular teams – as seen 
by Americans.

What this means is that soccer fans in the U.S. are, in the case of 
the men’s game, likely following players whose national identities are 
somewhere on the globe outside the U.S., given the <a href="https://www.90min.com/posts/every-usa-player-europe-top-leagues">relative lack of U.S. men’s representation</a> on Europe’s biggest teams.

This whole “national identity thing” gets even messier when you dig 
deeper into what soccer games are actually the most watched in the U.S.

Both the MLS and European leagues have loyal followers in the U.S. Reviewing Thanksgiving sports-watching in 2020, reporter <a href="https://the18.com/en/soccer-news/liga-mx-usa-tv-ratings-vs-mls-epl-telemundo-tudn">Connor Fleming noted</a> that the 12 most popular EPL and MLS games during the period had television audiences of 203,000 to 744,000 viewers.

But those figures are dwarfed, Fleming noted, by the biggest overseas
 soccer match watched over the period: Chivas v. Club América. Mexico’s <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2009947-guadalajara-vs-america-el-super-clasico-date-time-live-stream-and-tv-info">El Súper Clásico</a>, as the game is known, drew a total of 2.5 million viewers watching on Univision’s TUDN – the self-proclaimed “<a href="https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/tudn-us-soccer-univision/">home of soccer in the U.S.</a>”

And this wasn’t a fluke. Data shows that Mexico’s top league, Liga MX, has a total U.S. viewership in the U.S. <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/mls-fails-close-tv-ratings-gap-premier-league-liga-mx-20190410-CMS-268477.html">bigger than the MLS and the EPL combined</a>. From 2016 to 2018, it grew by 46%, <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/mls-fails-close-tv-ratings-gap-premier-league-liga-mx-20190410-CMS-268477.html">according to analysis</a> in December 2021.

What does it mean for American soccer identity at the World Cup that a
 majority of U.S. soccer fans prefer the Mexican league over the 
domestic league? And how does this translate into support, in 
particular, for the U.S. men’s national team?

The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-womens-soccer-fifa-world-cup-best-american-team-2019-6">unparalleled success of the U.S. women’s team</a> – an American exceptionalism of a different sort – has led to <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/tv/nwsl-championship-tv-ratings-are-a-record-breaker-20221102-WST-406608.html">soaring television ratings</a> for the National Women’s Soccer League and a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/19/us-womens-soccer-games-now-generate-more-revenue-than-mens.html">greater focus on the women’s national team</a> and “American” players.

Yet it is fair to say that hard-core support for both the U.S. men’s 
and women’s national teams among people living in America trails behind 
that of Mexico.

As sports writer <a href="https://michael-lore.com/2022/05/25/mexico-is-the-most-popular-soccer-team-in-the-u-s/">Michael LoRé’s observed</a> in an article earlier this year, with 60 million fans in the U.S., Mexico is “the most popular soccer team in the U.S.”

<a href="https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/highest-selling-soccer-jersey-2020/">Jerseys of the Mexican national team outsell</a> those of both the U.S. men’s and women’s teams in the United States. This was <a href="https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/highest-selling-soccer-jerseys-in-2019/">true even in 2019</a>, the year that the U.S. women’s team won the World Cup and their jerseys <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-womens-world-cup/story/3892049/jersey-sales-soaring-for-uswntsetting-records">outsold that of the men’s team for the first time</a>.

Such is the popularity of the Mexican national team, especially in 
large West Coast cities, that it can play in front of a “home crowd” on 
foreign territory – perhaps the only national team that can claim to do 
so.

Games against the U.S. are now scheduled in the Midwest and South – 
in places like Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio, and Nashville, Tennessee – to
 account for the imbalance in home support for the teams above and below
 the border.

Not all U.S.-based soccer fans are comfortable with the idea of Mexico being considered a “home nation.” In 2018, after the <a href="https://time.com/5258984/is-the-us-in-the-2018-world-cup/">U.S. men’s team failed to qualify for the World Cup</a> held in Russia, former U.S. national team star Landon Donovan took part in the “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/landon-donovan-world-cup-other-team-mexico-2018-6">My Other Team is Mexico” campaign</a> – aimed at marketing the sport in the U.S. despite the national team’s absence.

“USA fans,” Donovan <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/donovan-fellow-ex-usmnt-stars-war-words-mexico-support-232039315.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEDYiK0M3nMkv9bYlecsNs-o-g3-o-ZnBFaTN_loF4y9jj7Ph_UOz6NuHsvGxPMCkDytf2vaEQqb9KnOeL7HIJ-8fs5BhgAQzO2nPXKt-t5nQXBbXBJd4sKUaPjXSXngJWoddmNysX3Hd2auwYOYmye-ZaO-v4ygpU9f3Xy9Igxe">wrote on Twitter</a>,
 “our team may not be in Russia, but our neighbors to the south are. So 
join me and their proud #sponsor @WellsFargo to cheer on our other team,
 Mexico.”

The response was mixed. “Nah man!!! Mexico is not ‘my team.’ Mexico is a rival …,” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BkHLM5-g6RG/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&amp;igshid=1h3e8dn9i0ulz">replied Donovan’s former teammate</a> Cobi Jones. Others <a href="https://twitter.com/TaylorTwellman/status/1008100642571907072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1008100642571907072%7Ctwgr%5E96e49a6390c5a05630087d99c6392991da7e2bb5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Farticles%2F2781516-landon-donovan-criticized-by-past-present-usmnt-members-for-supporting-mexico">expressed similar sentiments</a> in what dissolved into a messy online debate.

Donovan’s support of the Mexican team in the 2018 World Cup was seen 
by some as a cynical marketing move to keep U.S. fans tuned into the 
World Cup. And it should be noted that the Mexican and U.S. soccer 
federations were at the time <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usa/story/4393273/us-soccer-mls-owned-soccer-united-marketing-parting-ways-after-nearly-20-years">marketed by the same organization</a> – Soccer United Marketing – for all games played in the U.S.

Nonetheless, the debate that the “other team” campaign provoked opens
 up interesting questions concerning nationalism and patriotism.

Multiple soccer scholars such as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Soccer-Against-Enemy-Revolutions-Dictators/dp/1568586337/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=simon+kuper&amp;qid=1668106882&amp;sr=8-9">Simon Kuper</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Language-Game-How-Understand-Soccer/dp/0465094481/ref=sr_1_9?crid=25KW9MFUYTAQ5&amp;keywords=Laurent+dubois&amp;qid=1668106978&amp;sprefix=laurent+dubois%2Caps%2C136&amp;sr=8-9">Lauren Dubois</a>
 have suggested that a country’s soccer team can represent the nation’s 
values. As such, it might be telling that a large segment of people 
living in the U.S. embrace another team.

Given the complexity of the U.S. soccer fan base – one with a large 
contingent loyal to either the Mexican team or elite players at European
 teams – and with the competition for attention from other professional 
sports, it’s perhaps not surprising that supporter loyalty in U.S. is 
more divided than in other countries.

In a country that holds dear the notion that “<a href="http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/#:%7E:text=%22E%20Pluribus%20Unum%22%20was%20the,from%20a%20collection%20of%20states.">Out of Many, We are One</a>,” what does it say that, in soccer at least, “Out of Many, We are Two.”

John M Sloop is a Professor of Communication Studies at Vanderbilt University.

By JOHN M. SLOOP <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">The Conversation</a>Soccer fans will turn their eyes to Qatar starting Nov. 20, 2020, as <a href="https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/qatar2022">the World Cup</a> gets underway. But in the U.S., the question of which team will be cheered on from afar isn’t entirely straightforward.You see, one of the anomalies of being a “typical” soccer fan in the United States – a group to which <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/communication/people/john-m-sloop/">I belong</a> – is that, you are not, in fact, a “typical” soccer fan. For many team’s supporters, the World Cup becomes an event to affirm one’s national identity. This is true, as cultural critic <a href="https://history.duke.edu/books/language-game-how-understand-soccer">Laurent Dubois</a> notes, even among fans that are not jingoistic or nationalistic in any other environment. Indeed, the nationalist fervor that <a href="https://polisci.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/u245/andrew_bertoli_paper_05-01-17.pdf">emerges among crowds</a> can boil over into xenophobic inter-national violence. As renowned soccer historian <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Age-Football-Soccer-21st-Century/dp/0393541479/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1MM5WQSWMHLPY&amp;keywords=david+goldblatt&amp;qid=1668107171&amp;sprefix=david+goldblatt%2Caps%2C177&amp;sr=8-1">David Goldblatt</a>
 noted in reference to English soccer crowds in the late 20th century, 
their “essential xenophobia” revealed a “rabid insular nationalism that 
was just a few notches more extreme than the foreign policy of the most 
Europhobic government since the Second World War.”For Americans, though, the experience can be very different. Factors ranging from the <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/15869/favrotie-sports-league/">relatively low popularity of soccer compared with other sports</a>, <a href="https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/most-popular-soccer-clubs-in-the-u-s/">familiarity with overseas clubs</a>
 and perhaps more importantly – especially to Americans of Mexican 
heritage – an attachment to countries deemed to be more traditional 
“soccer nations” mean that we Americans can find ourselves oddly divided
 over the nation we support in the global game.<h2>Where is Uncle Sam in the global game?</h2>Soccer has <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/2022/09/23/soccer-the-fastest-growing-major-sport-in-usa/">come a long way in the U.S.</a> over the last few decades in terms of its domestic league and growing a support base.Yet, outside of our national teams – both the U.S. Women’s National 
Soccer Team (USWNT) and its male counterparts, the USMNT – Americans are
 <a href="https://today.yougov.com/ratings/sports/popularity/soccer-teams/all">more likely to be familiar with teams in Europe</a> than in their own domestic league, Major League Soccer (MLS).Indeed, <a href="https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/most-popular-soccer-clubs-in-the-u-s/">2020 research</a>
 into the most popular clubs for Americans found that FC Barcelona 
topped the list, followed by Real Madrid – both from the Spanish La 
Liga. The next four teams – Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and 
Arsenal – all play in the English Premier League (EPL).You have to go <a href="https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/most-popular-soccer-clubs-in-the-u-s/">down the list to 12th</a>
 to find an MLS team, LA Galaxy. They and Atlanta United are the only 
two American clubs in a list of the top 20 most popular teams – as seen 
by Americans. What this means is that soccer fans in the U.S. are, in the case of 
the men’s game, likely following players whose national identities are 
somewhere on the globe outside the U.S., given the <a href="https://www.90min.com/posts/every-usa-player-europe-top-leagues">relative lack of U.S. men’s representation</a> on Europe’s biggest teams.<h2>The growth of Liga MX</h2>This whole “national identity thing” gets even messier when you dig 
deeper into what soccer games are actually the most watched in the U.S.Both the MLS and European leagues have loyal followers in the U.S. Reviewing Thanksgiving sports-watching in 2020, reporter <a href="https://the18.com/en/soccer-news/liga-mx-usa-tv-ratings-vs-mls-epl-telemundo-tudn">Connor Fleming noted</a> that the 12 most popular EPL and MLS games during the period had television audiences of 203,000 to 744,000 viewers.But those figures are dwarfed, Fleming noted, by the biggest overseas
 soccer match watched over the period: Chivas v. Club América. Mexico’s <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2009947-guadalajara-vs-america-el-super-clasico-date-time-live-stream-and-tv-info">El Súper Clásico</a>, as the game is known, drew a total of 2.5 million viewers watching on Univision’s TUDN – the self-proclaimed “<a href="https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/tudn-us-soccer-univision/">home of soccer in the U.S.</a>”And this wasn’t a fluke. Data shows that Mexico’s top league, Liga MX, has a total U.S. viewership in the U.S. <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/mls-fails-close-tv-ratings-gap-premier-league-liga-mx-20190410-CMS-268477.html">bigger than the MLS and the EPL combined</a>. From 2016 to 2018, it grew by 46%, <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/mls-fails-close-tv-ratings-gap-premier-league-liga-mx-20190410-CMS-268477.html">according to analysis</a> in December 2021. What does it mean for American soccer identity at the World Cup that a
 majority of U.S. soccer fans prefer the Mexican league over the 
domestic league? And how does this translate into support, in 
particular, for the U.S. men’s national team?The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-womens-soccer-fifa-world-cup-best-american-team-2019-6">unparalleled success of the U.S. women’s team</a> – an American exceptionalism of a different sort – has led to <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/tv/nwsl-championship-tv-ratings-are-a-record-breaker-20221102-WST-406608.html">soaring television ratings</a> for the National Women’s Soccer League and a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/19/us-womens-soccer-games-now-generate-more-revenue-than-mens.html">greater focus on the women’s national team</a> and “American” players.Yet it is fair to say that hard-core support for both the U.S. men’s 
and women’s national teams among people living in America trails behind 
that of Mexico.As sports writer <a href="https://michael-lore.com/2022/05/25/mexico-is-the-most-popular-soccer-team-in-the-u-s/">Michael LoRé’s observed</a> in an article earlier this year, with 60 million fans in the U.S., Mexico is “the most popular soccer team in the U.S.” <a href="https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/highest-selling-soccer-jersey-2020/">Jerseys of the Mexican national team outsell</a> those of both the U.S. men’s and women’s teams in the United States. This was <a href="https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/highest-selling-soccer-jerseys-in-2019/">true even in 2019</a>, the year that the U.S. women’s team won the World Cup and their jerseys <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-womens-world-cup/story/3892049/jersey-sales-soaring-for-uswntsetting-records">outsold that of the men’s team for the first time</a>.Such is the popularity of the Mexican national team, especially in 
large West Coast cities, that it can play in front of a “home crowd” on 
foreign territory – perhaps the only national team that can claim to do 
so.Games against the U.S. are now scheduled in the Midwest and South – 
in places like Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio, and Nashville, Tennessee – to
 account for the imbalance in home support for the teams above and below
 the border.<h2>Can you have an ‘other’ team?</h2>Not all U.S.-based soccer fans are comfortable with the idea of Mexico being considered a “home nation.” In 2018, after the <a href="https://time.com/5258984/is-the-us-in-the-2018-world-cup/">U.S. men’s team failed to qualify for the World Cup</a> held in Russia, former U.S. national team star Landon Donovan took part in the “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/landon-donovan-world-cup-other-team-mexico-2018-6">My Other Team is Mexico” campaign</a> – aimed at marketing the sport in the U.S. despite the national team’s absence.“USA fans,” Donovan <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/donovan-fellow-ex-usmnt-stars-war-words-mexico-support-232039315.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEDYiK0M3nMkv9bYlecsNs-o-g3-o-ZnBFaTN_loF4y9jj7Ph_UOz6NuHsvGxPMCkDytf2vaEQqb9KnOeL7HIJ-8fs5BhgAQzO2nPXKt-t5nQXBbXBJd4sKUaPjXSXngJWoddmNysX3Hd2auwYOYmye-ZaO-v4ygpU9f3Xy9Igxe">wrote on Twitter</a>,
 “our team may not be in Russia, but our neighbors to the south are. So 
join me and their proud #sponsor @WellsFargo to cheer on our other team,
 Mexico.”The response was mixed. “Nah man!!! Mexico is not ‘my team.’ Mexico is a rival …,” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BkHLM5-g6RG/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&amp;igshid=1h3e8dn9i0ulz">replied Donovan’s former teammate</a> Cobi Jones. Others <a href="https://twitter.com/TaylorTwellman/status/1008100642571907072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1008100642571907072%7Ctwgr%5E96e49a6390c5a05630087d99c6392991da7e2bb5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Farticles%2F2781516-landon-donovan-criticized-by-past-present-usmnt-members-for-supporting-mexico">expressed similar sentiments</a> in what dissolved into a messy online debate.Donovan’s support of the Mexican team in the 2018 World Cup was seen 
by some as a cynical marketing move to keep U.S. fans tuned into the 
World Cup. And it should be noted that the Mexican and U.S. soccer 
federations were at the time <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usa/story/4393273/us-soccer-mls-owned-soccer-united-marketing-parting-ways-after-nearly-20-years">marketed by the same organization</a> – Soccer United Marketing – for all games played in the U.S.Nonetheless, the debate that the “other team” campaign provoked opens
 up interesting questions concerning nationalism and patriotism.<h2>A nation of two halves?</h2>Multiple soccer scholars such as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Soccer-Against-Enemy-Revolutions-Dictators/dp/1568586337/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=simon+kuper&amp;qid=1668106882&amp;sr=8-9">Simon Kuper</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Language-Game-How-Understand-Soccer/dp/0465094481/ref=sr_1_9?crid=25KW9MFUYTAQ5&amp;keywords=Laurent+dubois&amp;qid=1668106978&amp;sprefix=laurent+dubois%2Caps%2C136&amp;sr=8-9">Lauren Dubois</a>
 have suggested that a country’s soccer team can represent the nation’s 
values. As such, it might be telling that a large segment of people 
living in the U.S. embrace another team. Given the complexity of the U.S. soccer fan base – one with a large 
contingent loyal to either the Mexican team or elite players at European
 teams – and with the competition for attention from other professional 
sports, it’s perhaps not surprising that supporter loyalty in U.S. is 
more divided than in other countries.In a country that holds dear the notion that “<a href="http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/#:%7E:text=%22E%20Pluribus%20Unum%22%20was%20the,from%20a%20collection%20of%20states.">Out of Many, We are One</a>,” what does it say that, in soccer at least, “Out of Many, We are Two.”John M Sloop is a Professor of Communication Studies at Vanderbilt University.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192545/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe></div>

Why many soccer fans in the US will be cheering on another team (probably Mexico)

By PETER SMITH and DAVID CRARY Associated Press

BALTIMORE (AP) — Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Military Services,
 who oversees Catholic ministries to the U.S. armed forces, was elected 
Tuesday as the new president of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-religion-sexual-abuse-by-clergy-81eacc2fc6d53f81eacdcadc459b500a">U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops</a>.

Broglio,
 70, was elected from a field of 10 candidates. He will succeed 
Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, who assumed the post in 2019.

The archbishop of Baltimore, William Lori, was elected as vice president.

Usually
 the election of a new USCCB leaders is a formality, with the bishops 
elevating the conference’s vice president to the post. But this year’s 
election was wide open because the incumbent VP — Detroit Archbishop 
Allen Vigneron — will turn 75 soon, making him ineligible to serve.

The <a href="https://www.usccb.org/news/2022/us-bishops-elect-new-leadership-their-episcopal-conference-fall-general-assembly-november">10 candidates</a>
 ranged from the relatively moderate Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle 
to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, a staunch 
conservative. Cordileone made headlines this year by barring House 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Franciscan, from receiving Communion in the 
archdiocese because of her support for abortion rights.

The 
candidates were nominated by their fellow bishops, who bypassed several 
of their colleagues who have been elevated to cardinal by Pope Francis.

The
 bishops’ annual fall meeting will conclude its public sessions on 
Wednesday. During the course of the meeting, there are expected to be 
discussions about the church’s efforts to prevent clergy sex abuse and 
the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June striking down the 
nationwide right to abortion.

Broglio has extensive experience 
outside U.S. borders, having studied in Rome and serving in the 
Vatican's diplomatic corps. And his current archdiocese is based in 
Washington, D.C, which also is home to the USCCB's head office.

Broglio
 grew up in the Cleveland area, attending Catholic schools there before 
attending Boston College and then earning a doctorate in canon law from 
the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

He was ordained to the priesthood, for the diocese of Cleveland, in May 1977 at a chapel in Rome.

In
 addition to serving as an associate parish pastor and as a college 
lecturer, Broglio engaged extensively in the Vatican's diplomatic 
service. He served as secretary of the apostolic nunciatures in Ivory 
Coast and Paraguay, and from 1990 to 2001 served as Chief of Cabinet to 
Angelo Cardinal Sodano, secretary of state to Saint Pope John Paul II 
and desk officer for Central America.

Broglio was ordained as an 
archbishop by St. John Paul II in March 2001. In 2007, he was named the 
fourth archbishop of the Military Services USA.

As a member of the
 USCCB, Broglio currently serves as secretary of the conference. In the 
past he has served as chairman of the Committee on International Justice
 and Peace and chairman of the Canonical Affairs and Church Governance 
Committee.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668548283876.jpeg" alt="Archbishop Timothy Broglio conducts an Easter Sunday Mass in an empty sanctuary at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Broglio of the Military Services, who oversees Catholic ministries to the U.S. armed forces, was elected Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022, as the new president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)" />
 <figcaption>Archbishop Timothy Broglio conducts an Easter Sunday Mass in an empty sanctuary at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Broglio of the Military Services, who oversees Catholic ministries to the U.S. armed forces, was elected Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022, as the new president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)</figcaption>
 </figure>By PETER SMITH and DAVID CRARY Associated PressBALTIMORE (AP) — Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Military Services,
 who oversees Catholic ministries to the U.S. armed forces, was elected 
Tuesday as the new president of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-religion-sexual-abuse-by-clergy-81eacc2fc6d53f81eacdcadc459b500a">U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops</a>.Broglio,
 70, was elected from a field of 10 candidates. He will succeed 
Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, who assumed the post in 2019.The archbishop of Baltimore, William Lori, was elected as vice president.Usually
 the election of a new USCCB leaders is a formality, with the bishops 
elevating the conference’s vice president to the post. But this year’s 
election was wide open because the incumbent VP — Detroit Archbishop 
Allen Vigneron — will turn 75 soon, making him ineligible to serve.The <a href="https://www.usccb.org/news/2022/us-bishops-elect-new-leadership-their-episcopal-conference-fall-general-assembly-november">10 candidates</a>
 ranged from the relatively moderate Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle 
to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, a staunch 
conservative. Cordileone made headlines this year by barring House 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Franciscan, from receiving Communion in the 
archdiocese because of her support for abortion rights.The 
candidates were nominated by their fellow bishops, who bypassed several 
of their colleagues who have been elevated to cardinal by Pope Francis.The
 bishops’ annual fall meeting will conclude its public sessions on 
Wednesday. During the course of the meeting, there are expected to be 
discussions about the church’s efforts to prevent clergy sex abuse and 
the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June striking down the 
nationwide right to abortion.Broglio has extensive experience 
outside U.S. borders, having studied in Rome and serving in the 
Vatican's diplomatic corps. And his current archdiocese is based in 
Washington, D.C, which also is home to the USCCB's head office.Broglio
 grew up in the Cleveland area, attending Catholic schools there before 
attending Boston College and then earning a doctorate in canon law from 
the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.He was ordained to the priesthood, for the diocese of Cleveland, in May 1977 at a chapel in Rome.In
 addition to serving as an associate parish pastor and as a college 
lecturer, Broglio engaged extensively in the Vatican's diplomatic 
service. He served as secretary of the apostolic nunciatures in Ivory 
Coast and Paraguay, and from 1990 to 2001 served as Chief of Cabinet to 
Angelo Cardinal Sodano, secretary of state to Saint Pope John Paul II 
and desk officer for Central America.Broglio was ordained as an 
archbishop by St. John Paul II in March 2001. In 2007, he was named the 
fourth archbishop of the Military Services USA.As a member of the
 USCCB, Broglio currently serves as secretary of the conference. In the 
past he has served as chairman of the Committee on International Justice
 and Peace and chairman of the Canonical Affairs and Church Governance 
Committee.

Armed forces leader named Catholic bishop council president

By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport and whose saga loosely inspired the <a href="https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/2004/06-18/487003__terminal__leaves_you_waiting_a.html">Steven Spielberg film “The Terminal”</a> died Saturday in the airport that he long called home, officials said.

Mehran
 Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F 
around midday, according an official with the Paris airport authority. 
Police and a medical team treated him but were not able to save him, the
 official said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.

Nasseri
 lived in the airport’s Terminal 1 from 1988 until 2006, first in legal 
limbo because he lacked residency papers and later by apparent choice.

Year
 in and year out, he slept on a red plastic bench, making friends with 
airport workers, showering in staff facilities, writing in his diary, 
reading magazines and surveying passing travelers.

Staff nicknamed him Lord Alfred, and he became a mini-celebrity among passengers.

“Eventually, I will leave the airport,” he <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-14-mn-55716-story.html">told The Associated Press in 1999</a>,
 smoking a pipe on his bench, looking frail with long thin hair, sunken 
eyes and hollow cheeks. “But I am still waiting for a passport or 
transit visa.”

Nasseri was born in 1945 in Soleiman, a part of 
Iran then under British jurisdiction, to an Iranian father and a British
 mother. He left Iran to study in England in 1974. When he returned, he 
said, he was imprisoned for protesting against the shah and expelled 
without a passport.

He applied for political asylum in several 
countries in Europe. The UNHCR in Belgium gave him refugee credentials, 
but he said his briefcase containing the refugee certificate was stolen 
in a Paris train station.

French police later arrested him, but 
couldn't deport him anywhere because he had no official documents. He 
ended up at Charles de Gaulle in August 1988 and stayed.

Further bureaucratic bungling and increasingly strict European immigration laws kept him in a legal no-man's land for years.

When
 he finally received refugee papers, he described his surprise, and his 
insecurity, about leaving the airport. He reportedly refused to sign 
them, and ended up staying there several more years until he was 
hospitalized in 2006, and later lived in a Paris shelter.

Those 
who befriended him in the airport said the years of living in the 
windowless space took a toll on his mental state. The airport doctor in 
the 1990s worried about his physical and mental health, and described 
him as “fossilized here.” A ticket agent friend compared him to a 
prisoner incapable of “living on the outside."

In the weeks before his death, Nasseri had been again living at Charles de Gaulle, the airport official said.

Nasseri's
 mind-boggling tale loosely inspired 2004's “The Terminal” starring Tom 
Hanks, as well as a French film, “Lost in Transit,” and an opera called 
“Flight.”

In “The Terminal,” Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a man 
who arrives at JFK airport in New York from the fictional Eastern 
European country of Krakozhia and discovers that an overnight political 
revolution has invalidated all his traveling papers. Viktor is dumped 
into the airport’s international lounge and told he must stay there 
until his status is sorted out, which drags on as unrest in Krakozhia 
continues.

No information was immediately available about survivors.

By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER Associated PressPARIS (AP) — An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport and whose saga loosely inspired the <a href="https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/2004/06-18/487003__terminal__leaves_you_waiting_a.html">Steven Spielberg film “The Terminal”</a> died Saturday in the airport that he long called home, officials said.Mehran
 Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F 
around midday, according an official with the Paris airport authority. 
Police and a medical team treated him but were not able to save him, the
 official said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.Nasseri
 lived in the airport’s Terminal 1 from 1988 until 2006, first in legal 
limbo because he lacked residency papers and later by apparent choice.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668455970577.jpg" alt="Charles de Gaulle Airport / Pixabay photo" />
 <figcaption>Charles de Gaulle Airport / Pixabay photo</figcaption>
 </figure>Year
 in and year out, he slept on a red plastic bench, making friends with 
airport workers, showering in staff facilities, writing in his diary, 
reading magazines and surveying passing travelers.Staff nicknamed him Lord Alfred, and he became a mini-celebrity among passengers.“Eventually, I will leave the airport,” he <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-14-mn-55716-story.html">told The Associated Press in 1999</a>,
 smoking a pipe on his bench, looking frail with long thin hair, sunken 
eyes and hollow cheeks. “But I am still waiting for a passport or 
transit visa.”Nasseri was born in 1945 in Soleiman, a part of 
Iran then under British jurisdiction, to an Iranian father and a British
 mother. He left Iran to study in England in 1974. When he returned, he 
said, he was imprisoned for protesting against the shah and expelled 
without a passport.He applied for political asylum in several 
countries in Europe. The UNHCR in Belgium gave him refugee credentials, 
but he said his briefcase containing the refugee certificate was stolen 
in a Paris train station.French police later arrested him, but 
couldn't deport him anywhere because he had no official documents. He 
ended up at Charles de Gaulle in August 1988 and stayed.Further bureaucratic bungling and increasingly strict European immigration laws kept him in a legal no-man's land for years.When
 he finally received refugee papers, he described his surprise, and his 
insecurity, about leaving the airport. He reportedly refused to sign 
them, and ended up staying there several more years until he was 
hospitalized in 2006, and later lived in a Paris shelter.Those 
who befriended him in the airport said the years of living in the 
windowless space took a toll on his mental state. The airport doctor in 
the 1990s worried about his physical and mental health, and described 
him as “fossilized here.” A ticket agent friend compared him to a 
prisoner incapable of “living on the outside."In the weeks before his death, Nasseri had been again living at Charles de Gaulle, the airport official said.Nasseri's
 mind-boggling tale loosely inspired 2004's “The Terminal” starring Tom 
Hanks, as well as a French film, “Lost in Transit,” and an opera called 
“Flight.”In “The Terminal,” Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a man 
who arrives at JFK airport in New York from the fictional Eastern 
European country of Krakozhia and discovers that an overnight political 
revolution has invalidated all his traveling papers. Viktor is dumped 
into the airport’s international lounge and told he must stay there 
until his status is sorted out, which drags on as unrest in Krakozhia 
continues.No information was immediately available about survivors.

Iranian who inspired 'The Terminal' dies at Paris airport

"Eating healthy doesn't mean that you have to always eat less or stop eating the food that you like." —&nbsp;Pattie Lueyot, RD, registered dietician, nutritionist and certified diabetes educator, The University of Kansas Health System

<figure>
 <iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WlVNT5F87is"></iframe>
 <figcaption>The University of Kansas Health System</figcaption>
 </figure>"Eating healthy doesn't mean that you have to always eat less or stop eating the food that you like." —&nbsp;Pattie Lueyot, RD, registered dietician, nutritionist and certified diabetes educator, The University of Kansas Health System

🎥 Docs: Healthy, tasty holiday foods for those with Type 2 diabetes

By DEWEY TERRILL JC Post

JUNCTION CITY —&nbsp;Justin Aaron of Junction City has advanced into the live round of "The 
Voice" on NBC. Aaron said there are four contestants on each team for a 
total of 16 contestants. 

"In the live playoffs, which happen Monday, every
 act gets to sing a song and after they sing the voting lines are open. 
Everyone go out and download 'The Voice' official app." 

You can vote 10&nbsp; times for your favorite artist.

"In the top 16 round, you are 
actually able to vote for two artists on each team. With that being said,&nbsp; the two artists with the highest number of votes on the Tuesday 
elimination show automatically move through. The bottom two stand before
 the coaches and each coach is able to pick one contestant. That will be
 the top three on each team."

Live rounds go from the top 16 down to the end of the season in mid-December when the next winner of "The Voice" is crowned.

By DEWEY TERRILL JC PostJUNCTION CITY —&nbsp;Justin Aaron of Junction City has advanced into the live round of "The 
Voice" on NBC. Aaron said there are four contestants on each team for a 
total of 16 contestants. "In the live playoffs, which happen Monday, every
 act gets to sing a song and after they sing the voting lines are open. 
Everyone go out and download 'The Voice' official app." You can vote 10&nbsp; times for your favorite artist."In the top 16 round, you are 
actually able to vote for two artists on each team. With that being said,&nbsp; the two artists with the highest number of votes on the Tuesday 
elimination show automatically move through. The bottom two stand before
 the coaches and each coach is able to pick one contestant. That will be
 the top three on each team."Live rounds go from the top 16 down to the end of the season in mid-December when the next winner of "The Voice" is crowned.

Kansas man will perform in the live playoff round of 'The Voice'

LONDON (AP) — Just minutes after finishing the last Premier League match before the <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup">World Cup</a>, Manchester United duo Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen both questioned the decision to stage the tournament in Qatar.

Fernandes
 said the World Cup “should be done in a better way,” criticizing the 
timing of the tournament and highlighting Qatar's treatment of migrant 
workers.

The Qatar World Cup — which starts next weekend — is the 
first to be played in November and December rather than in June-July 
because of the desert nation's searing heat in the summer. Qatar has 
also faced intense scrutiny of its treatment of the hundreds of 
thousands of migrant workers who were needed in the tiny emirate since 
the World Cup hosting rights were won 12 years ago. Amnesty 
International says dozens may have died from apparent heat stroke.

Qatar's
 views on homosexuality — which is criminalized in the country — has 
also been heavily criticized and the comments by Fernandes indicated 
that players will not hesitate to speak up about issues even as the 
tournament draws near.

“It’s not exactly the time we want to be 
playing in the World Cup,” Fernandes, who plays for Portugal, told Sky 
Sports after a 2-1 win over Fulham. “We know the surroundings of the 
World Cup, what has been in the past few weeks, past few months, about 
the people that have died on the construction of the stadiums. We are 
not happy about that at all. ... We want football to be for everyone, 
everyone has to be included and involved in a World Cup because a World 
Cup is the world. It’s for everyone, it doesn’t matter who. But for a 
World Cup it’s more than football, it’s a party for fans, players, 
something that’s a joy to watch, (it) should be done in a better way."

Eriksen,
 who will play for Denmark in Qatar after recovering from suffering 
cardiac arrest during a game at last year's European Championship, 
echoed Fernandes' comments.

“I totally agree with Bruno. There is a
 lot of focus on it, how the World Cup has happened and why it is in 
Qatar. Everyone agrees it hasn’t been done in the right way," Eriksen 
said. “We are footballers, we play football — politics is about 
something above us to make that decision. Of course we try to say our 
thing and do what we can. We want to get focus on it, but the change has
 to come from somewhere else.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668448327601.jpeg" alt="Fulham's head coach Marco Silva, left, speaks with Manchester United's Christian Eriksen during the English Premier League soccer match between Fulham and Manchester United at the Craven Cottage stadium in London, Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Leila Coker)" />
 <figcaption>Fulham's head coach Marco Silva, left, speaks with Manchester United's Christian Eriksen during the English Premier League soccer match between Fulham and Manchester United at the Craven Cottage stadium in London, Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Leila Coker)</figcaption>
 </figure>LONDON (AP) — Just minutes after finishing the last Premier League match before the <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup">World Cup</a>, Manchester United duo Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen both questioned the decision to stage the tournament in Qatar.Fernandes
 said the World Cup “should be done in a better way,” criticizing the 
timing of the tournament and highlighting Qatar's treatment of migrant 
workers.The Qatar World Cup — which starts next weekend — is the 
first to be played in November and December rather than in June-July 
because of the desert nation's searing heat in the summer. Qatar has 
also faced intense scrutiny of its treatment of the hundreds of 
thousands of migrant workers who were needed in the tiny emirate since 
the World Cup hosting rights were won 12 years ago. Amnesty 
International says dozens may have died from apparent heat stroke.Qatar's
 views on homosexuality — which is criminalized in the country — has 
also been heavily criticized and the comments by Fernandes indicated 
that players will not hesitate to speak up about issues even as the 
tournament draws near.“It’s not exactly the time we want to be 
playing in the World Cup,” Fernandes, who plays for Portugal, told Sky 
Sports after a 2-1 win over Fulham. “We know the surroundings of the 
World Cup, what has been in the past few weeks, past few months, about 
the people that have died on the construction of the stadiums. We are 
not happy about that at all. ... We want football to be for everyone, 
everyone has to be included and involved in a World Cup because a World 
Cup is the world. It’s for everyone, it doesn’t matter who. But for a 
World Cup it’s more than football, it’s a party for fans, players, 
something that’s a joy to watch, (it) should be done in a better way."Eriksen,
 who will play for Denmark in Qatar after recovering from suffering 
cardiac arrest during a game at last year's European Championship, 
echoed Fernandes' comments.“I totally agree with Bruno. There is a
 lot of focus on it, how the World Cup has happened and why it is in 
Qatar. Everyone agrees it hasn’t been done in the right way," Eriksen 
said. “We are footballers, we play football — politics is about 
something above us to make that decision. Of course we try to say our 
thing and do what we can. We want to get focus on it, but the change has
 to come from somewhere else.”

'Not happy': Man United duo criticizes Qatar World Cup

By YUKO SATO <a href="https://theconversation.com/bird-flu-has-made-a-comeback-driving-up-prices-for-holiday-turkeys-193995">The Conversation</a>

An <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-2022/2022-hpai-commercial-backyard-flocks">outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza</a>
 has spread through chicken and turkey flocks in 46 states since it was 
first detected in Indiana on Feb. 8, 2022. The outbreak is also taking a
 heavy toll in <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bird-flu-cases-on-the-rise-what-this-means-for-poultry-and-egg-prices-1.6095332">Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/2021-2022-data-show-largest-avian-flu-epidemic-europe-ever">Europe</a>.

Better known as bird flu, avian influenza is a family of highly 
contagious viruses that are not harmful to wild birds that transmit it 
but are deadly to domesticated birds. The virus spreads quickly through 
poultry flocks and almost always causes severe disease or death, so when
 it is detected, officials quarantine the site and cull all the birds in
 the infected flock.

As of early November, this outbreak had led to the culling of 
over 50 million birds from Maine to Oregon, driving up prices for eggs 
and poultry – <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/02/turkey-shortage-thanksgiving-2022">including holiday turkeys</a>. This matches the toll from a <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=86281">2014-2015 bird flu outbreak</a> that previously was considered the most significant animal disease event in U.S. history. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lLdLWigAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">Yuko Sato</a>,
 an associate professor of veterinary medicine who works with poultry 
producers, explains why so many birds are getting sick and whether the 
outbreak threatens human health.

Why is avian influenza so deadly for domesticated birds but not for wild birds that carry it?

Avian influenza (AI) is a contagious virus that affects all birds. 
There are two groups of aviain influenza viruses that cause disease in 
chickens: highly pathogenic AI (HPAI) and low pathogenic AI (LPAI). 

HPAI viruses cause high mortality in poultry, and occasionally in 
some wild birds. LPAI can cause mild to moderate disease in poultry, and
 usually little to no clinical signs of illness in wild birds. 

The primary <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section10.html">natural hosts and reservoir</a>
 of AI viruses are wild waterfowl, such as ducks and geese. This means 
that the virus is well adapted to them, and these birds do not typically
 get sick when they are infected with it.

But when domesticated poultry, such as chickens and turkeys, come in 
direct or indirect contact with feces of infected wild birds, they 
become infected and start to show symptoms, such as <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/hpai/hpai-background-clinical-illness.htm">lethargy, coughing and sneezing and sudden death</a>.

There are multiple strains of avian influenza. What type is this outbreak, and is it dangerous to humans?

The virus of concern in this outbreak is a Eurasian H5N1 HPAI virus 
that causes high mortality and severe clinical signs in domesticated 
poultry. Scientists who <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nwhc/science/avian-influenza-surveillance">monitor wild bird flocks</a> have also detected a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/genetic-reassortment">reassortant virus</a>
 that contains genes from both the Eurasian H5 and low pathogenic North 
American viruses. Reassortment happens when multiple strains of the 
virus circulating in the bird population exchange genes to create a new 
strain of the virus, much as new strains of COVID-19 like omicron and 
delta have emerged during the ongoing pandemic.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2021-2022/h5n1-low-risk-public.htm">the risk to public health from this outbreak is low</a>. No human illnesses were associated with the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2015/update-h5-outbreak-birds.htm">2014-2015 H5N1 outbreak in the U.S.</a>

The only known human case in the U.S. during the current outbreak was found in a man in Colorado who <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/s0428-avian-flu.html">had contact with infected birds</a>.
 The man tested positive once, then negative on follow-up tests, and 
reported only mild symptoms, so health experts theorized that the virus 
may have been present in his nose <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2022/04/29/10-people-under-watch-after-bird-flu-detected-in-man/">without actually causing an infection</a>.

Are these outbreaks connected to wild bird migration?

Yes, wild bird migration has been an important factor in this 
outbreak. Scientists have detected the same H5N1 virus that is infecting
 poultry in <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-2022/2022-hpai-wild-birds">more than 3,000 wild birds</a>
 during this outbreak, compared with 75 detections during the 2014-2015 
outbreak. This tells us that the virus is highly prevalent in wild bird 
populations. While most detections occur in ducks and geese, the virus 
has also been found in other bird species, including raptors, such as 
eagles and vultures, and other waterfowl, such as swans and <a href="https://www.mycouriertribune.com/outdoors/pelican-found-in-county-with-bird-flu">pelicans</a>.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service conducts targeted sampling to test wild birds in fall
 and early winter, which <a href="https://birdcast.info/migration-tools/live-migration-maps/">correlates with migration season</a>.
 This helps scientists and wildlife managers understand where avian flu 
viruses may be introduced to domestic flocks, track their spread and 
monitor for any reassortment.

Because there are high amounts of virus circulating, wildlife agencies advise against <a href="https://wildlife.utah.gov/avian-influenza.html">handling or eating game birds that appear sick</a>.
 Waterfowl can also be infected, with no signs of illness, so hunters 
need to be especially careful not to handle or eat game birds without 
properly cleaning their clothing and equipment afterward and ensuring 
the birds are cooked to an <a href="https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/avian-influenza-guidance-for-waterfowl-hunters">internal temperature of 165 degrees F (74 C)</a> before consuming them.

Hunters and other members of the public are advised not to approach 
any wild animals that are acting strange and to report any such 
sightings to officials. In some cases, avian flu viruses have spilled 
over to other wild animals, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2711.211281">red foxes</a>, <a href="https://wdfw.medium.com/avian-influenza-common-questions-and-answers-regarding-transmission-to-mammals-b70a73d53a66">raccoons</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/18/health/avian-flu-h5n1-foxes.html">skunks, opossums and bobcats</a>. We did not see this trend in 2014-15.

HPAI is a transboundary disease, which means it is highly contagious 
and spreads rapidly across national borders. Some research indicates 
that detection of HPAI viruses in wild birds <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.22171">has become more common</a>.

Detection of HPAI in wild birds is seasonal, with a peak in February and a low point in September. Many migratory bird species <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nwhc/science/avian-influenza">travel thousands of miles between continents</a>, posing a continuing risk of AI virus transmission.

On the positive side, we have better diagnostic tests for much more 
rapid and improved detection of avian influenza compared to 20 to 30 
years ago, and can use molecular diagnostics such as <a href="https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-glossary#1">polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests</a> – the same method labs use to detect COVID-19 infections.

How are poultry farmers affected when HPAI is detected in their flocks?

To detect AI, the U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees routine 
testing of flocks by farmers and carries out federal inspection programs
 to ensure that eggs and birds are safe and free of virus. When H5N1 is 
diagnosed on a farm or in a backyard flock, state and federal officials 
will quarantine the site and cull and dispose of all the birds in the 
infected flock. Then the site is cleaned and decontaminated, a process 
that includes removing organic materials like manure and chicken feed 
that can <a href="https://extension.psu.edu/creating-a-farm-plan-for-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza">harbor virus particles</a>.

After <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/pos-hpai-stop-avian-influenza-outbreaks.508.pdf">several weeks</a>
 without new virus detections, the area is required to test negative in
 order to be deemed free of infection. We call this process the four D’s
 of outbreak control: diagnosis, depopulation, disposal and 
decontamination.

Flock owners are eligible for federal <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/fs-hpai-indemnity-and-compensation.508.pdf">indemnity payments</a>
 for birds and eggs that have to be destroyed because of avian 
influenza, as well as for the costs of removing birds and cleaning and 
disinfecting their farms. This support is designed to help producers 
move past an outbreak, get their farms back in condition for restocking 
and get back into business as soon as possible.

But these payments <a href="https://www.fcsamerica.com/resources/education/common-ground/common-ground/2022/05/24/financial-best-practices-in-the-face-of-avian-influenza">almost never cover all of farmers’ expenses</a>. Poultry farms can’t always recover financially from major bird flu outbreaks. That makes it especially important to focus on <a href="http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/information-sheets/biosecurity-measures-combat-avian-influenza-threat">prevention strategies</a> to keep the virus out.

Yuko Sato is an Associate Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668447622071.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By YUKO SATO <a href="https://theconversation.com/bird-flu-has-made-a-comeback-driving-up-prices-for-holiday-turkeys-193995">The Conversation</a>An <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-2022/2022-hpai-commercial-backyard-flocks">outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza</a>
 has spread through chicken and turkey flocks in 46 states since it was 
first detected in Indiana on Feb. 8, 2022. The outbreak is also taking a
 heavy toll in <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bird-flu-cases-on-the-rise-what-this-means-for-poultry-and-egg-prices-1.6095332">Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/2021-2022-data-show-largest-avian-flu-epidemic-europe-ever">Europe</a>. Better known as bird flu, avian influenza is a family of highly 
contagious viruses that are not harmful to wild birds that transmit it 
but are deadly to domesticated birds. The virus spreads quickly through 
poultry flocks and almost always causes severe disease or death, so when
 it is detected, officials quarantine the site and cull all the birds in
 the infected flock. As of early November, this outbreak had led to the culling of 
over 50 million birds from Maine to Oregon, driving up prices for eggs 
and poultry – <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/02/turkey-shortage-thanksgiving-2022">including holiday turkeys</a>. This matches the toll from a <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=86281">2014-2015 bird flu outbreak</a> that previously was considered the most significant animal disease event in U.S. history. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lLdLWigAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">Yuko Sato</a>,
 an associate professor of veterinary medicine who works with poultry 
producers, explains why so many birds are getting sick and whether the 
outbreak threatens human health.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">This year’s outbreak of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HPAI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HPAI</a> was the latest blow to US turkey supplies. The combination of dwindling supplies and strong holiday demand will send retail <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/turkey?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#turkey</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/prices?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#prices</a> to record highs this year. CoBank’s <a href="https://twitter.com/brearnest1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@brearnest1</a> shares insights in his new report: <a href="https://t.co/e98QwEtsgG">https://t.co/e98QwEtsgG</a> <a href="https://t.co/t37DrgZN9o">pic.twitter.com/t37DrgZN9o</a>&mdash; CoBank (@CoBank) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoBank/status/1590030204226785280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> </div><h2>Why is avian influenza so deadly for domesticated birds but not for wild birds that carry it?</h2>Avian influenza (AI) is a contagious virus that affects all birds. 
There are two groups of aviain influenza viruses that cause disease in 
chickens: highly pathogenic AI (HPAI) and low pathogenic AI (LPAI). HPAI viruses cause high mortality in poultry, and occasionally in 
some wild birds. LPAI can cause mild to moderate disease in poultry, and
 usually little to no clinical signs of illness in wild birds. The primary <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section10.html">natural hosts and reservoir</a>
 of AI viruses are wild waterfowl, such as ducks and geese. This means 
that the virus is well adapted to them, and these birds do not typically
 get sick when they are infected with it. But when domesticated poultry, such as chickens and turkeys, come in 
direct or indirect contact with feces of infected wild birds, they 
become infected and start to show symptoms, such as <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/hpai/hpai-background-clinical-illness.htm">lethargy, coughing and sneezing and sudden death</a>. <figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1668447709325.png" alt=" Migrating wild birds, most of which are not harmed by avian influenza, are known to spread the disease to commercial and backyard flocks. USGS " />
 <figcaption> Migrating wild birds, most of which are not harmed by avian influenza, are known to spread the disease to commercial and backyard flocks. USGS </figcaption>
 </figure><h2>There are multiple strains of avian influenza. What type is this outbreak, and is it dangerous to humans?</h2>The virus of concern in this outbreak is a Eurasian H5N1 HPAI virus 
that causes high mortality and severe clinical signs in domesticated 
poultry. Scientists who <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nwhc/science/avian-influenza-surveillance">monitor wild bird flocks</a> have also detected a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/genetic-reassortment">reassortant virus</a>
 that contains genes from both the Eurasian H5 and low pathogenic North 
American viruses. Reassortment happens when multiple strains of the 
virus circulating in the bird population exchange genes to create a new 
strain of the virus, much as new strains of COVID-19 like omicron and 
delta have emerged during the ongoing pandemic.According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2021-2022/h5n1-low-risk-public.htm">the risk to public health from this outbreak is low</a>. No human illnesses were associated with the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2015/update-h5-outbreak-birds.htm">2014-2015 H5N1 outbreak in the U.S.</a>The only known human case in the U.S. during the current outbreak was found in a man in Colorado who <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/s0428-avian-flu.html">had contact with infected birds</a>.
 The man tested positive once, then negative on follow-up tests, and 
reported only mild symptoms, so health experts theorized that the virus 
may have been present in his nose <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2022/04/29/10-people-under-watch-after-bird-flu-detected-in-man/">without actually causing an infection</a>. <figure>
 <iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/acK6c8BTtv4"></iframe>
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Are these outbreaks connected to wild bird migration?</h2>Yes, wild bird migration has been an important factor in this 
outbreak. Scientists have detected the same H5N1 virus that is infecting
 poultry in <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-2022/2022-hpai-wild-birds">more than 3,000 wild birds</a>
 during this outbreak, compared with 75 detections during the 2014-2015 
outbreak. This tells us that the virus is highly prevalent in wild bird 
populations. While most detections occur in ducks and geese, the virus 
has also been found in other bird species, including raptors, such as 
eagles and vultures, and other waterfowl, such as swans and <a href="https://www.mycouriertribune.com/outdoors/pelican-found-in-county-with-bird-flu">pelicans</a>.The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service conducts targeted sampling to test wild birds in fall
 and early winter, which <a href="https://birdcast.info/migration-tools/live-migration-maps/">correlates with migration season</a>.
 This helps scientists and wildlife managers understand where avian flu 
viruses may be introduced to domestic flocks, track their spread and 
monitor for any reassortment.Because there are high amounts of virus circulating, wildlife agencies advise against <a href="https://wildlife.utah.gov/avian-influenza.html">handling or eating game birds that appear sick</a>.
 Waterfowl can also be infected, with no signs of illness, so hunters 
need to be especially careful not to handle or eat game birds without 
properly cleaning their clothing and equipment afterward and ensuring 
the birds are cooked to an <a href="https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/avian-influenza-guidance-for-waterfowl-hunters">internal temperature of 165 degrees F (74 C)</a> before consuming them.Hunters and other members of the public are advised not to approach 
any wild animals that are acting strange and to report any such 
sightings to officials. In some cases, avian flu viruses have spilled 
over to other wild animals, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2711.211281">red foxes</a>, <a href="https://wdfw.medium.com/avian-influenza-common-questions-and-answers-regarding-transmission-to-mammals-b70a73d53a66">raccoons</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/18/health/avian-flu-h5n1-foxes.html">skunks, opossums and bobcats</a>. We did not see this trend in 2014-15.HPAI is a transboundary disease, which means it is highly contagious 
and spreads rapidly across national borders. Some research indicates 
that detection of HPAI viruses in wild birds <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.22171">has become more common</a>. Detection of HPAI in wild birds is seasonal, with a peak in February and a low point in September. Many migratory bird species <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nwhc/science/avian-influenza">travel thousands of miles between continents</a>, posing a continuing risk of AI virus transmission.On the positive side, we have better diagnostic tests for much more 
rapid and improved detection of avian influenza compared to 20 to 30 
years ago, and can use molecular diagnostics such as <a href="https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-glossary#1">polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests</a> – the same method labs use to detect COVID-19 infections. <h2>How are poultry farmers affected when HPAI is detected in their flocks?</h2>To detect AI, the U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees routine 
testing of flocks by farmers and carries out federal inspection programs
 to ensure that eggs and birds are safe and free of virus. When H5N1 is 
diagnosed on a farm or in a backyard flock, state and federal officials 
will quarantine the site and cull and dispose of all the birds in the 
infected flock. Then the site is cleaned and decontaminated, a process 
that includes removing organic materials like manure and chicken feed 
that can <a href="https://extension.psu.edu/creating-a-farm-plan-for-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza">harbor virus particles</a>. After <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/pos-hpai-stop-avian-influenza-outbreaks.508.pdf">several weeks</a>
 without new virus detections, the area is required to test negative in
 order to be deemed free of infection. We call this process the four D’s
 of outbreak control: diagnosis, depopulation, disposal and 
decontamination.Flock owners are eligible for federal <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/fs-hpai-indemnity-and-compensation.508.pdf">indemnity payments</a>
 for birds and eggs that have to be destroyed because of avian 
influenza, as well as for the costs of removing birds and cleaning and 
disinfecting their farms. This support is designed to help producers 
move past an outbreak, get their farms back in condition for restocking 
and get back into business as soon as possible. But these payments <a href="https://www.fcsamerica.com/resources/education/common-ground/common-ground/2022/05/24/financial-best-practices-in-the-face-of-avian-influenza">almost never cover all of farmers’ expenses</a>. Poultry farms can’t always recover financially from major bird flu outbreaks. That makes it especially important to focus on <a href="http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/information-sheets/biosecurity-measures-combat-avian-influenza-threat">prevention strategies</a> to keep the virus out. Yuko Sato is an Associate Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193995/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe></div>

🎥 Bird flu comeback driving up prices for holiday turkeys

NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Conroy, the prolific voice actor whose gravely delivery on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrmUk2YUm14">“Batman: The Animated Series"</a> was — for many Batman fans — the definite sound of the Caped Crusader, has died at 66.

Conroy died Thursday after a battle with cancer, series producer Warner Bros. announced Friday.

Conroy
 was the voice of Batman on the acclaimed animated series that ran from 
1992-1996, often acting opposite Mark Hamill's Joker. Conroy continued 
on as the almost exclusive animated voice of Batman, including some 15 
films, 400 episodes of television and two dozen videogames, including 
the “Batman: Arkham” and “Injustice” franchises.

In the eight-decade history of Batman, no one played the Dark Knight more.

“For
 several generations, he has been the definitive Batman,” Hamill in a 
statement. “It was one of those perfect scenarios where they got the 
exact right guy for the right part, and the world was better for it."

“He will always be my Batman,” Hamill said.

Conroy's
 popularity with fans made him a sought-after personality on the 
comic-con circuit. In the often tumultuous world of DC Comics, Conroy 
was a mainstay and widely beloved. In a statement, Warner Bros. 
Animation said Conroy's performance “will forever stand among the 
greatest portrayals of the Dark Knight in any medium.”

“Kevin 
brought a light with him everywhere, whether in the recording booth 
giving it his all or feeding first-responders during 9/11 or making sure
 every fan who ever waited for him had a moment with their Batman," said
 Paul Dini, producer of the animated show. ”A hero in every sense of the
 word."

Born in in Westbury, New York, and raised in Westport, 
Connecticut, Conroy started out as well-trained theater actor. He 
attended Julliard and roomed with Robin Williams. After graduating, he 
toured with John Houseman's acting group, the Acting Company. He 
performed in “A Midsummer Night's Dream” at the Public Theater and in 
“Eastern Standard" on Broadway. At the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, 
California, he performed in “Hamlet.”

The 1980s production of 
“Eastern Standard," in which Conroy played a TV producer secretly living
 with AIDS, had particular meaning to him. Conroy, who was gay, said at 
the time he was regularly attending funerals for friends who died of 
AIDS. He poured out his anguish nightly on stage.

In 1980, Conroy 
moved to Los Angeles, began acting in soap operas and booked appearances
 on TV series including “Cheers," “Tour of Duty” and “Murphy Brown.” In 
1991, when casting director Andrea Romano was scouting her lead actor 
for “Batman: The Animated Series,” she went through hundreds of 
auditions before Conroy came in. He was there on a friend's 
recommendation — and cast immediately.

Conroy began the role 
without any background in comics and as a novice in voice acting. His 
Batman was husky, brooding and dark. His Bruce Wayne was light and 
dashing. His inspiration for the contrasting voices, he said, came from 
the 1930s film, “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” about an English aristocrat who
 leads a double life.

“It’s so much fun as an actor to sink your teeth into,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/arts/television/batman-the-killing-joke-kevin-conroy-alan-moore.html">Conroy told The New York Times in 2016.</a> “Calling it animation doesn’t do it justice. It’s more like mythology.”

As
 Conroy's performance evolved over the years, it sometimes connected to 
his own life. Conroy described his own father as an alcoholic and said 
his family disintegrated while he was in high school. He channeled those
 emotions into the 1993 animated film “Mast of the Phantasm,” which 
revolved around Bruce Wayne's unsettled issues with his parents.

“Andrea
 came in after the recording and grabbed me in a hug,” Conroy told The 
Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “Andrea said, ‘I don’t know where you went, 
but it was a beautiful performance.’ She knew I was drawing on 
something.”

Conroy is survived by his husband, Vaughn C. Williams, sister Trisha Conroy and brother Tom Conroy.

In <a href="https://why-i-love-comics.tumblr.com/post/686429424926736384/dc-pride-1-finding-batman-2022-written-by">“Finding Batman,”</a> released earlier this year, Conroy penned a comic about his unlikely journey with the character and as a gay man in Hollywood.

“I've
 often marveled as how appropriate it was that I should land this role,”
 he wrote. “As a gay boy growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s in a devoutly 
Catholic family, I’d grown adept at concealing parts of myself.”

The
 voice that emerged from Conroy for Batman, he said, was one he didn't 
recognize — a voice that “seemed to roar from 30 years of frustration, 
confusion, denial, love, yearning."

“I felt Batman rising from deep within."

NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Conroy, the prolific voice actor whose gravely delivery on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrmUk2YUm14">“Batman: The Animated Series"</a> was — for many Batman fans — the definite sound of the Caped Crusader, has died at 66.Conroy died Thursday after a battle with cancer, series producer Warner Bros. announced Friday.Conroy
 was the voice of Batman on the acclaimed animated series that ran from 
1992-1996, often acting opposite Mark Hamill's Joker. Conroy continued 
on as the almost exclusive animated voice of Batman, including some 15 
films, 400 episodes of television and two dozen videogames, including 
the “Batman: Arkham” and “Injustice” franchises.In the eight-decade history of Batman, no one played the Dark Knight more.“For
 several generations, he has been the definitive Batman,” Hamill in a 
statement. “It was one of those perfect scenarios where they got the 
exact right guy for the right part, and the world was better for it."“He will always be my Batman,” Hamill said.Conroy's
 popularity with fans made him a sought-after personality on the 
comic-con circuit. In the often tumultuous world of DC Comics, Conroy 
was a mainstay and widely beloved. In a statement, Warner Bros. 
Animation said Conroy's performance “will forever stand among the 
greatest portrayals of the Dark Knight in any medium.”“Kevin 
brought a light with him everywhere, whether in the recording booth 
giving it his all or feeding first-responders during 9/11 or making sure
 every fan who ever waited for him had a moment with their Batman," said
 Paul Dini, producer of the animated show. ”A hero in every sense of the
 word."Born in in Westbury, New York, and raised in Westport, 
Connecticut, Conroy started out as well-trained theater actor. He 
attended Julliard and roomed with Robin Williams. After graduating, he 
toured with John Houseman's acting group, the Acting Company. He 
performed in “A Midsummer Night's Dream” at the Public Theater and in 
“Eastern Standard" on Broadway. At the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, 
California, he performed in “Hamlet.”The 1980s production of 
“Eastern Standard," in which Conroy played a TV producer secretly living
 with AIDS, had particular meaning to him. Conroy, who was gay, said at 
the time he was regularly attending funerals for friends who died of 
AIDS. He poured out his anguish nightly on stage.In 1980, Conroy 
moved to Los Angeles, began acting in soap operas and booked appearances
 on TV series including “Cheers," “Tour of Duty” and “Murphy Brown.” In 
1991, when casting director Andrea Romano was scouting her lead actor 
for “Batman: The Animated Series,” she went through hundreds of 
auditions before Conroy came in. He was there on a friend's 
recommendation — and cast immediately.Conroy began the role 
without any background in comics and as a novice in voice acting. His 
Batman was husky, brooding and dark. His Bruce Wayne was light and 
dashing. His inspiration for the contrasting voices, he said, came from 
the 1930s film, “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” about an English aristocrat who
 leads a double life.“It’s so much fun as an actor to sink your teeth into,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/arts/television/batman-the-killing-joke-kevin-conroy-alan-moore.html">Conroy told The New York Times in 2016.</a> “Calling it animation doesn’t do it justice. It’s more like mythology.”As
 Conroy's performance evolved over the years, it sometimes connected to 
his own life. Conroy described his own father as an alcoholic and said 
his family disintegrated while he was in high school. He channeled those
 emotions into the 1993 animated film “Mast of the Phantasm,” which 
revolved around Bruce Wayne's unsettled issues with his parents.“Andrea
 came in after the recording and grabbed me in a hug,” Conroy told The 
Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “Andrea said, ‘I don’t know where you went, 
but it was a beautiful performance.’ She knew I was drawing on 
something.”Conroy is survived by his husband, Vaughn C. Williams, sister Trisha Conroy and brother Tom Conroy.In <a href="https://why-i-love-comics.tumblr.com/post/686429424926736384/dc-pride-1-finding-batman-2022-written-by">“Finding Batman,”</a> released earlier this year, Conroy penned a comic about his unlikely journey with the character and as a gay man in Hollywood.“I've
 often marveled as how appropriate it was that I should land this role,”
 he wrote. “As a gay boy growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s in a devoutly 
Catholic family, I’d grown adept at concealing parts of myself.”The
 voice that emerged from Conroy for Batman, he said, was one he didn't 
recognize — a voice that “seemed to roar from 30 years of frustration, 
confusion, denial, love, yearning."“I felt Batman rising from deep within."

Kevin Conroy, a defining voice of Batman, dies at 66

By MARK PRATT Associated Press

A
 deeply personal collection of love letters in which a teenage Bob Dylan
 tells his high-school sweetheart that he envisions changing his name 
and selling a million records is going up for sale in Boston.

The 
Hibbing, Minnesota, boy — still known then as Bob Zimmerman — wrote the 
42 letters totaling 150 pages to Barbara Ann Hewitt between 1957 and 
1959. The missives, to be auctioned by RR Auction, have never before 
been made public and shed light on a period in the folk-rock icon’s life
 for which not much firsthand information is known.

“This archive 
is one of the most culturally important of the 20th century we have ever
 offered,” said RR Auction Executive Vice President Bobby Livingston, a 
big Dylan fan.

The collection, including a lavish Valentine's card, is a “first-person account of Dylan's formative years,” he said.

Hewitt's
 daughter found the letters after her mother died in 2020. They, along 
with the original envelopes addressed in Dylan's handwriting, are being 
offered as a single lot with a starting bid of $250,000. Bidding closes 
on Nov. 17.

RR Auction is not releasing the exact content of the 
letters ahead of time, but they deal with timeless and universal teenage
 concerns: clothes, cars, and musical tastes, the auction house said.

Dylan,
 now 81, also included snippets of poetry and professed his love for 
Hewitt. Perhaps most impressively, he also imagined his future success.

In
 one letter, he asks Hewitt for feedback about changing his name (Little
 Willie and Elston are mentioned in the letters), and writes about 
selling a million records (he's actually sold about 125 million) and 
appearing on “American Bandstand" in front of throngs of screaming 
girls.

“They really give an insight into how he's going to present
 himself," Livingston said. “It shows that Dylan dreamed all this up, 
and it all came true — he foresaw it."

Alas, like most teenage 
romances, it came to an end. In one of the last letters, the future 
Nobel laureate asks Hewitt to return the photographs he sent her.

But
 it seems likely Dylan did not forget her. Hewitt's daughter told RR 
Auction that Dylan called her mother sometime in the late 1960s after 
he'd hit the big time and asked her to come to California. She turned 
him down.

Hewitt was a redhead, and Livingston speculates that 
Dylan's references to redheaded or auburn-haired women in some songs 
were inspired by Hewitt, including “Tangled Up in Blue” where in one 
line he wonders “if her hair was still red."

Hewitt moved on, 
apparently. She married another Hibbing man, but divorced in the late 
1970s after seven years and never remarried, her daughter told the 
auction house.

By MARK PRATT Associated PressA
 deeply personal collection of love letters in which a teenage Bob Dylan
 tells his high-school sweetheart that he envisions changing his name 
and selling a million records is going up for sale in Boston.The 
Hibbing, Minnesota, boy — still known then as Bob Zimmerman — wrote the 
42 letters totaling 150 pages to Barbara Ann Hewitt between 1957 and 
1959. The missives, to be auctioned by RR Auction, have never before 
been made public and shed light on a period in the folk-rock icon’s life
 for which not much firsthand information is known.“This archive 
is one of the most culturally important of the 20th century we have ever
 offered,” said RR Auction Executive Vice President Bobby Livingston, a 
big Dylan fan.The collection, including a lavish Valentine's card, is a “first-person account of Dylan's formative years,” he said.Hewitt's
 daughter found the letters after her mother died in 2020. They, along 
with the original envelopes addressed in Dylan's handwriting, are being 
offered as a single lot with a starting bid of $250,000. Bidding closes 
on Nov. 17.RR Auction is not releasing the exact content of the 
letters ahead of time, but they deal with timeless and universal teenage
 concerns: clothes, cars, and musical tastes, the auction house said.Dylan,
 now 81, also included snippets of poetry and professed his love for 
Hewitt. Perhaps most impressively, he also imagined his future success.In
 one letter, he asks Hewitt for feedback about changing his name (Little
 Willie and Elston are mentioned in the letters), and writes about 
selling a million records (he's actually sold about 125 million) and 
appearing on “American Bandstand" in front of throngs of screaming 
girls.“They really give an insight into how he's going to present
 himself," Livingston said. “It shows that Dylan dreamed all this up, 
and it all came true — he foresaw it."Alas, like most teenage 
romances, it came to an end. In one of the last letters, the future 
Nobel laureate asks Hewitt to return the photographs he sent her.But
 it seems likely Dylan did not forget her. Hewitt's daughter told RR 
Auction that Dylan called her mother sometime in the late 1960s after 
he'd hit the big time and asked her to come to California. She turned 
him down.Hewitt was a redhead, and Livingston speculates that 
Dylan's references to redheaded or auburn-haired women in some songs 
were inspired by Hewitt, including “Tangled Up in Blue” where in one 
line he wonders “if her hair was still red."Hewitt moved on, 
apparently. She married another Hibbing man, but divorced in the late 
1970s after seven years and never remarried, her daughter told the 
auction house.

'Love Sick': Trove of Dylan's teenage love letters for sale

Arizona officials correct false claims about ballot issues

CLAIM:
 When ballots were rejected by tabulators at some voting locations 
across Maricopa County on Election Day, an alternate solution for voters
 to drop ballots in a secure drop box onsite resulted in the ballots 
getting shredded, thrown in the trash, or marked for Democrats.

THE
 FACTS: Ballots submitted in this way were counted just as absentee 
ballots or mail-in ballots are, according to county officials. They 
weren't discarded or altered. When a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-arizona-4e15278b82452878d6f6aa45b2984579">printing problem</a>
 caused tabulators to reject ballots in at least 70 of 223 polling sites
 in Arizona's largest county on Tuesday, county officials offered a few 
alternate solutions. Voters could wait and try another machine, cancel 
their vote and go to another vote center, or drop their ballot in a 
secure drop box referred to as “door 3” or “box 3.” Some social media 
user falsely claimed that using this drop box would allow county 
officials to rig those votes by manually changing them or discarding 
them. However, county elections department spokesperson Megan Gilbertson
 explained that ballots placed in these drop boxes were machine-counted 
at the central tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, just as all 
mail-in and absentee ballots are. At the end of the voting day, a 
bipartisan team collected all the voted ballots from voting centers, 
sealed them and transported them by truck to the tabulation center for 
counting. This is the same process used for early voting and is the same
 methodology used on Election Day by most counties, including Pima 
County and Yavapai County, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said 
in a statement Tuesday.

— Associated Press writers Josh Kelety in Phoenix and Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

Clip shows poll worker in Wisconsin, not ‘cheating’ in Philadelphia

CLAIM: Video shows masked man at polling site “cheating” in front of cameras in Philadelphia.

THE
 FACTS: The video shows a poll worker in Madison, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
 He was initialing ballots to be handed out to voters, a standard 
procedure mandated by state law, according to the county clerk. Social 
media users on Election Day distorted a clip of the Madison poll worker 
doing his job to falsely claim it showed election fraud in Philadelphia.
 The video, which aired on Fox News on Tuesday, shows a man wearing a 
cloth face mask flipping through ballots and writing on them. “Masked 
man cheating in front of the cameras on the mainstream media,” read a 
widely shared tweet with the video. But the original footage shows the 
video was filmed in Madison, not Pennsylvania. Immediately before Fox 
News showed the clip in Madison, the network showed the exterior of 
Philadelphia’s East Passyunk Community Center with a graphic labeling 
that location. The broadcast then showed the clip of the poll worker and
 changed the location in the label to Madison. Social media versions of 
the video cropped out the location. A reverse-image search of the 
building’s interior revealed that the clip was filmed at Olbrich 
Botanical Gardens in Madison, which served as a polling location for 
Tuesday’s election. Scott McDonell, the Dane County clerk, said the man 
is a poll worker, and the video shows him initialing ballots before they
 were handed out to voters. He was also circling the ward in which the 
ballots were issued. It’s part of the process of preparing the ballots 
for voters, McDonell said. Another poll worker also initialed the 
ballots before they were handed to voters. “You need to have those 
signatures to show that two people saw the blank ballot and handed it to
 the voter,” McDonell said. “This is a standard operating procedure. 
It’s done in public so that anyone can watch it. It’s mandated by state 
law. It’s a check and balance on the system.” Barry Burden, a University
 of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor and the director of 
the Elections Research Project, agreed that the video showed standard 
procedures for poll workers in Madison. <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/7">Wisconsin election law explains</a>
 that at polling places with paper ballots, two inspectors “shall write 
their initials on the back of each ballot and deliver to each elector as
 he or she enters the voting booth.” Philadelphia’s city commissioner on
 Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/SethBluestein/status/1590132036874170369?s=20&amp;t=ccmwvF3WAlHo2DVy6CM1uA">debunked the false claims</a>
 that the video showed a polling site in his city. Nick Custodio, deputy
 commissioner with Philadelphia’s elections board, told the AP that 
Philadelphia does not use paper voting booths such as those shown in the
 video, and that the “I voted” stickers in the video also do not match 
those used in Philadelphia.

— Associated Press writers Arijeta 
Lajka and Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report with 
additional reporting from Amy Forliti in Minneapolis and Claudia Lauer 
in Philadelphia.

No voters turned away over Detroit absentee ballot glitch

CLAIM:
 Voters in Detroit were prevented from casting ballots on Election Day 
after officials mistakenly said they’d already voted by absentee ballot.

THE
 FACTS: No eligible voters were prevented from casting a ballot at 
Detroit polling locations that experienced the data glitch on Tuesday 
morning, state and city officials confirmed. As voters nationwide went 
to the polls, there was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-voting-909279666c18777c44a9fad6754f3de7">heightened focus on voting problems and irregularities</a>.
 One of the places election watchers sounded the alarm early on was the 
battleground state of Michigan. “People are showing up to vote in 
Detroit only to be told that they already voted via absentee ballots and
 are being turned away,” wrote one Twitter user. “Citizens are being 
told they voted already absentee,” wrote Kristina Karamo, a Republican 
candidate for Michigan secretary of state, in widely shared posts on 
Twitter and Facebook. Former President Donald Trump also amplified the 
claims on Truth Social. But state and city officials said the issue 
stemmed from an election software problem and was quickly resolved 
without anyone being disenfranchised. Corwin Smidt, a political science 
professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing, said the 
situation demonstrated the voting system worked properly. “It certainly 
slowed down voting there, but the reasons for the slowdown were that the
 system caught an error, and that error was then fixed,” he wrote in an 
email. Liette Gidlow, a history professor at Wayne State University in 
Detroit who focuses on U.S. politics and voting rights, agreed. “Minor 
technical glitches are not unusual in any precinct because administering
 elections is a complex business,” she wrote in an email. Detroit’s 
elections department said the problem was caused by computer software 
used by election workers to check in voters as they entered the polling 
location. The agency said the program wrongly flagged some residents as 
having requested an absentee ballot, which would make them ineligible to
 cast a ballot in-person. Matthew Friedman, a department spokesperson, 
said the issue was resolved within an hour and all eligible residents 
were able to vote. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, whose 
office assisted the city in addressing the issue, also stressed that no 
voters were disenfranchised. “In all circumstances, eligible voters were
 able to vote,” <a href="https://twitter.com/MichSoS/status/1590133571175739394">the office said in a statement</a>.
 The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which observed the 
voting process, said it spoke with multiple city election officials and 
was satisfied with the response. Spokespersons for Trump and Karamo did 
not respond to messages seeking comment.

— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.

CLAIM: A Pennsylvania judge ruled that ballots received up until Nov. 14 will count in the 2022 midterm elections.

THE FACTS: Pennsylvania ballots, including mail-in and absentee ballots, <a href="https://www.vote.pa.gov/Voting-in-PA/Pages/Mail-and-Absentee-Ballot.aspx">must be received by county election offices</a>
 by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 8, to be counted, according to the 
state’s Department of State. As voters went to the polls on Tuesday, 
misleading information about Pennsylvania’s vote-counting deadlines 
gained traction. “This just in: Pennsylvania Judge allows ballots to 
count that are received up until November 14th,” read one post. “This is
 unconstitutional.” The message, shared in several Instagram posts, is a
 screenshot of a tweet that was later deleted. The Twitter user who 
first posted it acknowledged in a follow-up that the information was 
incorrect. Existing law requires that Pennsylvania voters’ ballots be 
received by county election workers by Nov. 8, <a href="https://www.vote.pa.gov/Voting-in-PA/Pages/Mail-and-Absentee-Ballot.aspx">the Department of State explains</a>. Unlike <a href="https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/upcoming-elections/general-election-nov-8-2022">some other states</a>,
 Pennsylvania allots no extra time for mail-in ballots — what counts is 
the day the ballot actually made it to election officials, not when the 
ballot was postmarked. The Twitter user who first made the claim said in
 a follow-up post that the court case he was referring to was a recent 
decision by a Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court. However, the case in 
question has nothing to do with ballot submission deadlines. It 
concerned the cross-checking procedure that Pennsylvania uses to prevent
 duplicate votes from being counted, according to Kevin Feeley, 
spokesperson for the Philadelphia City Commissioners, which oversees 
elections in the city. The city had <a href="https://vote.phila.gov/media/Agenda_for_11_02_22.pdf">sought to delay that process</a>
 until after the initial ballot count, in an effort to get ballots 
counted more quickly. He said that no duplicate votes had been found in 
the last three elections. The court <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/philadelphia-poll-book-reconciliation-double-votes-court-ruling-20221107.html">granted the city the right to delay</a> the reconciliation process, but the judge in the case was “highly critical" of the idea, Feeley said. So the <a href="https://vote.phila.gov/media/Agenda-for-11-8-2022.pdf">City Commission opted Tuesday</a> to revert to doing reconciliation as usual. Feeley confirmed that the case did not mean voting can occur through Nov. 14.

—
 Associated Press writer Graph Massara in San Francisco contributed this
 report with additional reporting from Melissa Goldin in New York.

Large numbers of mailed ballots not evidence of election fraud

CLAIM: A candidate winning an election with a majority of mailed ballots is proof of fraud.

THE FACTS: There is no evidence that mail-in voting has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-voting-ee8dd4051a53b5e7471c8a6a2ca1b8f3">historically caused widespread voter fraud</a>, and fraud related to mail-in voting is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-voting-voter-registration-government-and-politics-609866267baef89dd1513e7c9e2f7509">exceedingly rare,</a>
 the AP has reported. Some on social media have posited that if a 
candidate who receives a significant chunk of their votes through 
mail-in voting wins, their victory is inherently fraudulent. An 
Instagram post features results reporting that incumbent Kelly Skidmore,
 a Democrat, beat Dorcas Hernandez, a Republican, in the race for state 
representative in Florida’s 92nd House District. It shows Skidmore with 
57.51% of the vote, including 31,405 mailed ballots, and Hernandez with 
42.9% and 10,297 mailed ballots. “This is what textbook election theft 
via vote by mail ballot looks like,” the post states. The numbers in the
 Instagram post are from <a href="https://enr.electionsfl.org/PAL/3278/Reports/">the state’s unofficial results</a>,
 as published online by county boards of elections. However, the fact 
that some candidates are reported as having won after receiving a 
majority of mailed ballots does not prove election fraud. Claims that 
mail-in voting has caused widespread voter fraud in the past are 
unsubstantiated, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-voting-ee8dd4051a53b5e7471c8a6a2ca1b8f3">according to reporting by the AP.</a> After reviewing every potential case of voter fraud in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-2022-midterm-elections-covid-health-wisconsin-c61fa93a12a1a51d6d9f4e0a21fa3b75">AP found far too few</a>
 to affect the outcome of the 2020 election. Additionally, an AP survey 
of state election officials across the U.S. found that the expanded use 
of drop boxes during the 2020 race did not lead to cases of fraud that 
could have impacted the results. Different states have different <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-14-how-states-verify-voted-absentee.aspx">ballot verification protocols</a>, but all states <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-voting-voter-registration-government-and-politics-609866267baef89dd1513e7c9e2f7509">vet mailed and absentee ballots.</a>
 Every state requires voters to sign their ballots. Some have additional
 precautions, like having bipartisan teams compare the signature on the 
ballot with one on file, requiring the signature on the ballot to be 
notarized or requiring a witness to sign the ballot. Other forms of 
verification can include requiring proof of voter registration, a copy 
of an ID, a driver’s license number or a Social Security number. Ballot 
security features and ballot sorting at election offices would help weed
 out any counterfeits. There are harsh penalties for voter fraud by 
mailed ballot, such as a fine, prison time or both.

— Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin and Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

Associated PressArizona officials correct false claims about ballot issuesCLAIM:
 When ballots were rejected by tabulators at some voting locations 
across Maricopa County on Election Day, an alternate solution for voters
 to drop ballots in a secure drop box onsite resulted in the ballots 
getting shredded, thrown in the trash, or marked for Democrats.THE
 FACTS: Ballots submitted in this way were counted just as absentee 
ballots or mail-in ballots are, according to county officials. They 
weren't discarded or altered. When a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-arizona-4e15278b82452878d6f6aa45b2984579">printing problem</a>
 caused tabulators to reject ballots in at least 70 of 223 polling sites
 in Arizona's largest county on Tuesday, county officials offered a few 
alternate solutions. Voters could wait and try another machine, cancel 
their vote and go to another vote center, or drop their ballot in a 
secure drop box referred to as “door 3” or “box 3.” Some social media 
user falsely claimed that using this drop box would allow county 
officials to rig those votes by manually changing them or discarding 
them. However, county elections department spokesperson Megan Gilbertson
 explained that ballots placed in these drop boxes were machine-counted 
at the central tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, just as all 
mail-in and absentee ballots are. At the end of the voting day, a 
bipartisan team collected all the voted ballots from voting centers, 
sealed them and transported them by truck to the tabulation center for 
counting. This is the same process used for early voting and is the same
 methodology used on Election Day by most counties, including Pima 
County and Yavapai County, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said 
in a statement Tuesday.— Associated Press writers Josh Kelety in Phoenix and Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.___Clip shows poll worker in Wisconsin, not ‘cheating’ in PhiladelphiaCLAIM: Video shows masked man at polling site “cheating” in front of cameras in Philadelphia.THE
 FACTS: The video shows a poll worker in Madison, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
 He was initialing ballots to be handed out to voters, a standard 
procedure mandated by state law, according to the county clerk. Social 
media users on Election Day distorted a clip of the Madison poll worker 
doing his job to falsely claim it showed election fraud in Philadelphia.
 The video, which aired on Fox News on Tuesday, shows a man wearing a 
cloth face mask flipping through ballots and writing on them. “Masked 
man cheating in front of the cameras on the mainstream media,” read a 
widely shared tweet with the video. But the original footage shows the 
video was filmed in Madison, not Pennsylvania. Immediately before Fox 
News showed the clip in Madison, the network showed the exterior of 
Philadelphia’s East Passyunk Community Center with a graphic labeling 
that location. The broadcast then showed the clip of the poll worker and
 changed the location in the label to Madison. Social media versions of 
the video cropped out the location. A reverse-image search of the 
building’s interior revealed that the clip was filmed at Olbrich 
Botanical Gardens in Madison, which served as a polling location for 
Tuesday’s election. Scott McDonell, the Dane County clerk, said the man 
is a poll worker, and the video shows him initialing ballots before they
 were handed out to voters. He was also circling the ward in which the 
ballots were issued. It’s part of the process of preparing the ballots 
for voters, McDonell said. Another poll worker also initialed the 
ballots before they were handed to voters. “You need to have those 
signatures to show that two people saw the blank ballot and handed it to
 the voter,” McDonell said. “This is a standard operating procedure. 
It’s done in public so that anyone can watch it. It’s mandated by state 
law. It’s a check and balance on the system.” Barry Burden, a University
 of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor and the director of 
the Elections Research Project, agreed that the video showed standard 
procedures for poll workers in Madison. <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/7">Wisconsin election law explains</a>
 that at polling places with paper ballots, two inspectors “shall write 
their initials on the back of each ballot and deliver to each elector as
 he or she enters the voting booth.” Philadelphia’s city commissioner on
 Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/SethBluestein/status/1590132036874170369?s=20&amp;t=ccmwvF3WAlHo2DVy6CM1uA">debunked the false claims</a>
 that the video showed a polling site in his city. Nick Custodio, deputy
 commissioner with Philadelphia’s elections board, told the AP that 
Philadelphia does not use paper voting booths such as those shown in the
 video, and that the “I voted” stickers in the video also do not match 
those used in Philadelphia.— Associated Press writers Arijeta 
Lajka and Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report with 
additional reporting from Amy Forliti in Minneapolis and Claudia Lauer 
in Philadelphia.___No voters turned away over Detroit absentee ballot glitchCLAIM:
 Voters in Detroit were prevented from casting ballots on Election Day 
after officials mistakenly said they’d already voted by absentee ballot.THE
 FACTS: No eligible voters were prevented from casting a ballot at 
Detroit polling locations that experienced the data glitch on Tuesday 
morning, state and city officials confirmed. As voters nationwide went 
to the polls, there was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-voting-909279666c18777c44a9fad6754f3de7">heightened focus on voting problems and irregularities</a>.
 One of the places election watchers sounded the alarm early on was the 
battleground state of Michigan. “People are showing up to vote in 
Detroit only to be told that they already voted via absentee ballots and
 are being turned away,” wrote one Twitter user. “Citizens are being 
told they voted already absentee,” wrote Kristina Karamo, a Republican 
candidate for Michigan secretary of state, in widely shared posts on 
Twitter and Facebook. Former President Donald Trump also amplified the 
claims on Truth Social. But state and city officials said the issue 
stemmed from an election software problem and was quickly resolved 
without anyone being disenfranchised. Corwin Smidt, a political science 
professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing, said the 
situation demonstrated the voting system worked properly. “It certainly 
slowed down voting there, but the reasons for the slowdown were that the
 system caught an error, and that error was then fixed,” he wrote in an 
email. Liette Gidlow, a history professor at Wayne State University in 
Detroit who focuses on U.S. politics and voting rights, agreed. “Minor 
technical glitches are not unusual in any precinct because administering
 elections is a complex business,” she wrote in an email. Detroit’s 
elections department said the problem was caused by computer software 
used by election workers to check in voters as they entered the polling 
location. The agency said the program wrongly flagged some residents as 
having requested an absentee ballot, which would make them ineligible to
 cast a ballot in-person. Matthew Friedman, a department spokesperson, 
said the issue was resolved within an hour and all eligible residents 
were able to vote. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, whose 
office assisted the city in addressing the issue, also stressed that no 
voters were disenfranchised. “In all circumstances, eligible voters were
 able to vote,” <a href="https://twitter.com/MichSoS/status/1590133571175739394">the office said in a statement</a>.
 The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which observed the 
voting process, said it spoke with multiple city election officials and 
was satisfied with the response. Spokespersons for Trump and Karamo did 
not respond to messages seeking comment.— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.___CLAIM: A Pennsylvania judge ruled that ballots received up until Nov. 14 will count in the 2022 midterm elections.THE FACTS: Pennsylvania ballots, including mail-in and absentee ballots, <a href="https://www.vote.pa.gov/Voting-in-PA/Pages/Mail-and-Absentee-Ballot.aspx">must be received by county election offices</a>
 by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 8, to be counted, according to the 
state’s Department of State. As voters went to the polls on Tuesday, 
misleading information about Pennsylvania’s vote-counting deadlines 
gained traction. “This just in: Pennsylvania Judge allows ballots to 
count that are received up until November 14th,” read one post. “This is
 unconstitutional.” The message, shared in several Instagram posts, is a
 screenshot of a tweet that was later deleted. The Twitter user who 
first posted it acknowledged in a follow-up that the information was 
incorrect. Existing law requires that Pennsylvania voters’ ballots be 
received by county election workers by Nov. 8, <a href="https://www.vote.pa.gov/Voting-in-PA/Pages/Mail-and-Absentee-Ballot.aspx">the Department of State explains</a>. Unlike <a href="https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/upcoming-elections/general-election-nov-8-2022">some other states</a>,
 Pennsylvania allots no extra time for mail-in ballots — what counts is 
the day the ballot actually made it to election officials, not when the 
ballot was postmarked. The Twitter user who first made the claim said in
 a follow-up post that the court case he was referring to was a recent 
decision by a Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court. However, the case in 
question has nothing to do with ballot submission deadlines. It 
concerned the cross-checking procedure that Pennsylvania uses to prevent
 duplicate votes from being counted, according to Kevin Feeley, 
spokesperson for the Philadelphia City Commissioners, which oversees 
elections in the city. The city had <a href="https://vote.phila.gov/media/Agenda_for_11_02_22.pdf">sought to delay that process</a>
 until after the initial ballot count, in an effort to get ballots 
counted more quickly. He said that no duplicate votes had been found in 
the last three elections. The court <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/philadelphia-poll-book-reconciliation-double-votes-court-ruling-20221107.html">granted the city the right to delay</a> the reconciliation process, but the judge in the case was “highly critical" of the idea, Feeley said. So the <a href="https://vote.phila.gov/media/Agenda-for-11-8-2022.pdf">City Commission opted Tuesday</a> to revert to doing reconciliation as usual. Feeley confirmed that the case did not mean voting can occur through Nov. 14.—
 Associated Press writer Graph Massara in San Francisco contributed this
 report with additional reporting from Melissa Goldin in New York.___Large numbers of mailed ballots not evidence of election fraudCLAIM: A candidate winning an election with a majority of mailed ballots is proof of fraud.THE FACTS: There is no evidence that mail-in voting has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-voting-ee8dd4051a53b5e7471c8a6a2ca1b8f3">historically caused widespread voter fraud</a>, and fraud related to mail-in voting is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-voting-voter-registration-government-and-politics-609866267baef89dd1513e7c9e2f7509">exceedingly rare,</a>
 the AP has reported. Some on social media have posited that if a 
candidate who receives a significant chunk of their votes through 
mail-in voting wins, their victory is inherently fraudulent. An 
Instagram post features results reporting that incumbent Kelly Skidmore,
 a Democrat, beat Dorcas Hernandez, a Republican, in the race for state 
representative in Florida’s 92nd House District. It shows Skidmore with 
57.51% of the vote, including 31,405 mailed ballots, and Hernandez with 
42.9% and 10,297 mailed ballots. “This is what textbook election theft 
via vote by mail ballot looks like,” the post states. The numbers in the
 Instagram post are from <a href="https://enr.electionsfl.org/PAL/3278/Reports/">the state’s unofficial results</a>,
 as published online by county boards of elections. However, the fact 
that some candidates are reported as having won after receiving a 
majority of mailed ballots does not prove election fraud. Claims that 
mail-in voting has caused widespread voter fraud in the past are 
unsubstantiated, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-voting-ee8dd4051a53b5e7471c8a6a2ca1b8f3">according to reporting by the AP.</a> After reviewing every potential case of voter fraud in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-2022-midterm-elections-covid-health-wisconsin-c61fa93a12a1a51d6d9f4e0a21fa3b75">AP found far too few</a>
 to affect the outcome of the 2020 election. Additionally, an AP survey 
of state election officials across the U.S. found that the expanded use 
of drop boxes during the 2020 race did not lead to cases of fraud that 
could have impacted the results. Different states have different <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-14-how-states-verify-voted-absentee.aspx">ballot verification protocols</a>, but all states <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-voting-voter-registration-government-and-politics-609866267baef89dd1513e7c9e2f7509">vet mailed and absentee ballots.</a>
 Every state requires voters to sign their ballots. Some have additional
 precautions, like having bipartisan teams compare the signature on the 
ballot with one on file, requiring the signature on the ballot to be 
notarized or requiring a witness to sign the ballot. Other forms of 
verification can include requiring proof of voter registration, a copy 
of an ID, a driver’s license number or a Social Security number. Ballot 
security features and ballot sorting at election offices would help weed
 out any counterfeits. There are harsh penalties for voter fraud by 
mailed ballot, such as a fine, prison time or both.— Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin and Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

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

Instances of racial slurs have soared on <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-spacex-twitter-inc-technology-europe-30b55f9c3cbe64c0b98d0cfbe7ab5a9f">Twitter</a> since <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-business-0d3d4618a3f4631dfd253ae8798c5196">Elon Musk</a>
 purchased the influential platform, despite assurances from the 
platform that it had reduced hateful activity, a digital civil rights 
group reported Thursday.

Researchers at the <a href="https://counterhate.com/">Center for Countering Digital Hate</a> found that the number of tweets containing one of several different racial slurs soared in the week after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-timeline-e0b41992f178a5221dd0410321068eb2">Musk bought Twitter</a>.

A
 racial epithet used to attack Black people was found more than 26,000 
times, three times the average for 2022. Use of a slur that targets 
trans people increased 53%, while instances of an offensive term for 
homosexual men went up 39% over the yearly average.

Examples of offensive terms used to target Jews and Hispanics also increased.

All
 told, the researchers looked at nearly 80,000 English-language tweets 
and retweets from around the world that contained one of the offensive 
terms they searched for.

Associated PressInstances of racial slurs have soared on <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-spacex-twitter-inc-technology-europe-30b55f9c3cbe64c0b98d0cfbe7ab5a9f">Twitter</a> since <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-business-0d3d4618a3f4631dfd253ae8798c5196">Elon Musk</a>
 purchased the influential platform, despite assurances from the 
platform that it had reduced hateful activity, a digital civil rights 
group reported Thursday.Researchers at the <a href="https://counterhate.com/">Center for Countering Digital Hate</a> found that the number of tweets containing one of several different racial slurs soared in the week after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-timeline-e0b41992f178a5221dd0410321068eb2">Musk bought Twitter</a>.A
 racial epithet used to attack Black people was found more than 26,000 
times, three times the average for 2022. Use of a slur that targets 
trans people increased 53%, while instances of an offensive term for 
homosexual men went up 39% over the yearly average.Examples of offensive terms used to target Jews and Hispanics also increased.All
 told, the researchers looked at nearly 80,000 English-language tweets 
and retweets from around the world that contained one of the offensive 
terms they searched for.“The figures show that despite claims 
from Twitter’s Head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, that the platform 
had succeeded in reducing the number of times hate speech was being seen
 on Twitter’s search and trending page, the actual volume of hateful 
tweets has spiked,” according to the analysis from the center, a 
nonprofit with offices in the U.S. and United Kingdom.Roth <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-business-0d3d4618a3f4631dfd253ae8798c5196">resigned Thursday,</a> joining the large number of Twitter employees who have either resigned from Twitter or been <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-business-layoffs-c0334da78b3af9faf2f43cf3f6e52ffa">laid off</a> since Musk took control.A
 day before, Roth acknowledged the recent increase in hate speech on the
 site but said the platform had made significant progress in bringing 
the numbers down.“We’ve put a stop to the spike in hateful 
conduct, but that the level of hateful activity on the service is now 
about 95% lower than it was before the acquisition,” Roth said in 
remarks broadcast live on Twitter. “Changes that we’ve made and the 
proactive enforcement that we carried out are making Twitter safer 
relative to where it was before.”An executive confirmed Roth’s resignation to coworkers on an internal messaging board seen by The Associated Press on Thursday.On
 Oct. 31, Twitter announced that 1,500 accounts had been removed for 
posting hate speech. The company also said it had greatly reduced the 
visibility of posts containing slurs, making them harder to find on the 
platform.“We have actually seen hateful speech at times this week
 decline (asterisk)below(asterisk) our prior norms, contrary to what you
 may read in the press,” Musk tweeted last week.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-cbd873f1bd81fa4356b81f89c4c5ebed">Musk</a>
 has described himself as a free speech absolutist, and he is widely 
expected to revamp Twitter's content moderation policies. While he said 
no changes have been made so far, Musk has made <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-business-layoffs-c0334da78b3af9faf2f43cf3f6e52ffa">significant layoffs</a> at the company, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-dd4273dbda5b15343753f56c1f43a659">raising questions about its ability to police misinformation</a> and hate speech before Tuesday's midterm election.It
 may take some time to accurately assess the platform's performance in 
the election and to determine whether Twitter has adopted a different 
strategy for content that violates its policies, said Renee DiResta, 
research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory.“The civic 
integrity policy was unchanged,” DiResta said of Twitter under its new 
ownership. "Now, there is a difference between having a policy and 
enforcing a policy.”Shortly after Musk purchased Twitter, some 
users posted hate speech, seemingly to test the boundaries of the 
platform under its new owner.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-elon-musk-technology-misinformation-nancy-pelosi-42c1a39e8df739065abd70c400240d84">Within just 12 hours of Musk’s purchase</a>
 being finalized, references to a specific racist epithet used to demean
 Black people shot up by 500%, according to an analysis conducted by the
 Network Contagion Research Institute, a Princeton, New Jersey-based 
firm that tracks disinformation.Twitter did not immediately respond Thursday to messages seeking comment on the findings of the new report.

Misc