https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/how-watch-november-democratic-debate-schedule-rules-more-n1084926

The debate is being held at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta and is being co-hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post. It's scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday and last two hours.

It will feature four moderators: Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show"; Andrea Mitchell, host of MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" and NBC News' chief foreign affairs correspondent; Kristen Welker, NBC News' White House correspondent; and Ashley Parker, a White House reporter for The Washington Post.

The debate will be broadcast live at 9 p.m. ET on MSNBC and will also stream for free on MSNBC.com and washingtonpost.com as well as across mobile devices via NBC News and The Washington Post's mobile apps. In addition, audio of the debate will be available on SiriusXM Channel 118, and TuneIn.

NBCNews.com will live blog the debate throughout the night, offering live updates, fact checks and analysis.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/americans-have-questions-about-medicare-for-all-canadians-have-answers/2019/11/18/7971c78e-d4d6-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html



HINTON, Alberta — When Bryan Keith was diagnosed with prostate cancer three years ago, he underwent a blizzard of tests, specialist consultations, a month of radiation treatment and a surgical procedure.

His out-of-pocket costs? Zero.

“I’ve never had to reach into my wallet for anything other than my health-care card,” said Keith, 71, who is now in remission.

In this picturesque mountain town of about 10,000 people, Keith’s experience is the norm — and the model often cited by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as they promote Medicare-for-all as an antidote to some of the problems afflicting U.S. health-care consumers.

No one in this mostly working-class community agonizes over whether they can afford to see a doctor, or take their child to the emergency room. No one faces bankruptcy, or loses their home, because of medical debt. Most residents of Hinton have had babies delivered, broken bones set and cancer treatments provided without ever seeing a bill.

But there are also drawbacks: Some wait months for knee or hip replacements or to see certain specialists. Most also pay premiums for private insurance to cover prescription drugs and other services not included in their government plan.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/19/business/international-students-decline/index.html

New York (CNN Business)Fewer international students are coming to the United States. That's hurting American universities and the economy.

The continued decline in international student enrollment since the fall of 2016 has cost the US economy $11.8 billion and more than 65,000 jobs, according to estimates from NAFSA: Association of International Educators, an international association of professional educators.

"There's many variables, but largely it's been the policies and rhetoric from the current administration that's really driven the numbers to move in that direction," said Rachel Banks, director of public policy at NAFSA.
There's a perception among international students that getting a visa for the United States is more difficult, and they increasingly feel unsafe in America, NAFSA survey data show.

"It's not only the anti-immigrant rhetoric being expressed by this administration, there's also increasing concern with regard to gun violence in this country," said Banks. "There's been a number of shootings and that gets reported worldwide, and parents certainly take all of this into account when they are thinking about where they want to send their children to study."

New international student enrollments declined by 0.9% during the 2018-2019 academic year, following a 6.6% decline in new enrollments in the year prior, according to the most recent US Department of State Open Doors report. This marks the first time the United States has seen a three-year decline.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/18/economy/health-care-jobs-us-labor-market/index.html

New York (CNN Business)America's health care sector is an employment powerhouse that is keeping the US labor market strong. Health care hiring is so robust, the industry would be pretty much immune to a recession or changes in politics.

The population of the United States is aging and living longer. For the health care industry this means more people require care for a longer period of time. "Health care is by far the largest and healthiest sector of the economy," Glassdoor Chief Economist Dr Andrew Chamberlain told CNN Business. And as long people continue to get sick and need care, the sector will blossom. That's what's making it immune to outside shocks like a recession or a government efforts to reform the industry, experts say.

Presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, for example, want to make drastic changes to America's health care industry. Although reforms might change prices and payment structures for care, they won't keep elderly people from needing it.
"I don't worry about [potential] health care reform affecting hiring, which is mostly nurses and elderly care," Chamberlain said.
Over the past decade no sector has added more net jobs to the US economy than health care, analysts at ratings agency Moody's said in emailed comments.

"The growing US health care industry supports the US economy through output, employment and innovation," said the agency's analysts in a 2018 industry report. "The sector has created more jobs than any other industry on a net basis over the past decade — nearly three million — and today employs 16 million people, or 11% of the workforce."

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/watch-iceland-christmas-ad-banned/?fbclid=IwAR3mxolWzk88Bj-jJEJdJ5MpHjylll-VsAa7cn9mSRQn2pXXcHKTGxbRkac

Supermarket Iceland's advert for Christmas has been banned for being too political.

The commercial, made with Greenpeace, features an animated orangutan and highlights the destruction of the rainforest by palm oil growers.

The advertising clearance body, Clearcast, who screen broadcast adverts, deemed that the film breaks rules banning political advertising laid down by the 2003 Communications Act.

Earlier this year, Iceland became the first major UK supermarket to announce they are removing palm oil from all its own-brand products.

- Which Products Contain Palm Oil And How Can You Avoid It?

Iceland's founder Malcolm Walker said: "This was a film that Greenpeace made with a voice over by Emma Thompson.

"We got permission to use it and take off the Greenpeace logo and use it as the Iceland Christmas ad. It would have blown the John Lewis ad out of the window. It was so emotional."

The watchdog said in a statement: "Clearcast and the broadcasters have to date been unable to clear this Iceland ad because we concerned that it doesn’t comply with the political rules of the BCAP code.

"The creative submitted to us is linked to another organisation who have not yet been able to demonstrate compliance in this area."

More than 890,000 people have since signed a petition calling for the advert to be shown on TV.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/11/12/20950235/ok-boomer-kids-these-days-psychology

Prediction: Today’s “OK boomer” Gen Z will complain about the youth one day. Blame human memory.

The old and young are feuding — yet again.

It’s safe to assume this is an immortal aspect of human society: Young people always exist, and older people will always complain about them. Young people, in turn, always say, “Ugh, old people just don’t get it.”

Recently, that “Ugh, old people just don’t get it” has metastasized into the viral “OK boomer” meme.

If you’re just tuning in: “OK boomer” is a clapback for the rising Generation Z to call out older adults on their collective lack of inaction on climate change, for their (overall) resistance to progressive policies, and for the condescending tone older people tend to use when describing the “kids these days.” The boomers, well, haven’t taken too kindly to the phrase. One conservative radio host called it “the n-word of ageism.”

Here’s a prediction: These “OK boomer” young people are going to get older and start complaining about the youth of the future. They’ll probably use the same insults, complaining the kids of the 2050s and ’60s are more entitled, more narcissistic, and less self-sufficient than those of generations past. They’ll pay a weird amount of attention to controversies on college campuses and write opinion columns for the New York Times on how those controversies are indicative of a looming societal collapse.

That’s because the “kids these days” is an ancient form of remonstration, going back to antiquity, and probably earlier. It’s a cycle we’re doomed to repeat.

But why? “It seems like there is a memory problem,” says John Protzko, a University of California Santa Barbara psychologist. “A memory tic that just keeps happening, generation after generation.”

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/business/plastic-roads-in-south-africa-intl/index.html



A South African company is taking plastic bottles out of landfill to make roads.
(CNN Business)Plastic milk bottles are being recycled to make roads in South Africa, with the hope of helping the country tackle its waste problem and improve the quality of its roads.

Potholes cost the country's road users an estimated $3.4 billion per year in vehicle repairs and injuries, according to the South African Road Federation, as well as damaging freight.
In August, Shisalanga Construction became the first company in South Africa to lay a section of road that's partly plastic, in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province on the east coast.

It has now repaved more than 400 meters of the road in Cliffdale, on the outskirts of Durban, using asphalt made with the equivalent of almost 40,000 recycled two-liter plastic milk bottles.


Road to recycling
Shisalanga uses high-density polyethylene (HDPE), a thick plastic typically used for milk bottles. A local recycling plant turns it into pellets, which are heated to 190 degrees Celsius until they dissolve and are mixed with additives. They replace six percent of the asphalt's bitumen binder, so every ton of asphalt contains roughly 118 to 128 bottles.

Shisalanga says fewer toxic emissions are produced than during traditional processes and says its compound is more durable and water resistant than conventional asphalt, withstanding temperatures as high as 70 degrees Celsius (158F) and as low as 22 below zero (-7.6F).
The cost is similar to existing methods, but Shisalanga believes there will be a financial saving as its roads are expected to last longer than the national average of 20 years.
"The results are spectacular," says general manager Deane Koekemoer. "The performance is phenomenal."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/30/new-york-times-is-right-dc-is-terrible-place/



By Alexandra Petri

The one downside of the fact that the Nationals (hurrah for our brave boys!) are in the World Series is that now the New York Times is trying to inform its readers about this curious hamlet with few restaurants and less culture in which the team plays. I have had enough of this, I think! But in case they want to run another story, I have taken the liberty of writing one.

WASHINGTON — There is more to Washington than meets the eye! You may think that all of D.C. is just a dark wood-paneled room with two steakhouses in it, but you would be wrong. Let me tell you what you have missed about this quaint backwater that someone called “Hollywood for Ugly People.”

People in D.C. are always walking and talking. Most of the city is the same three exterior shots over again: of the Capitol, the Capitol but in different lighting where it looks ominous, and a park that turns out upon closer inspection to be Baltimore. People in D.C. are known for their political engagement and cutthroat ambition — as anyone you meet at the Cathedral Heights Metro station can attest.

Most of D.C.’s residents wander around in color-coordinated shirts with the name of a middle school in Indiana on it, oohing and aahing at the cherry blossoms, before a visit to the city’s most cherished cultural institution, Madame Tussauds, on their transit mode of choice, an orange trolley with a green top. I ask these locals what to go see, and they tell me “Shear Madness.” I, frankly, did not think much of it. So much for D.C.’s claims to be a center of culture!

On these locals’ food recommendations, I went to Georgetown Cupcake, but it compared unfavorably to the rich range of cuisines available in real cities. I wandered the Mall for miles, and there was no food there at all. Well, there was a man selling hot dogs, but he pulled away just as I got within range. The locals said nothing to me about injera or half-smokes, and I did not think to inquire.

I did not enjoy my 73-minute wait on the Red Line. A fun-loving city would not allow this, so I concluded D.C. hates fun. Instead, they are always on Twitter. Yes, I’m sure that’s everyone in D.C. Everyone in D.C. is a briefcase, a rumpled button-down or an F-35. Although it may appear that the city’s arenas are filled with D.C. sports fans — this is a contradiction in terms — D.C. has no true fans, and the ballpark is packed merely with politics columnists in seersucker suits attempting to use baseball as a metaphor.

At night, the whole city is abandoned, because how could you possibly make a home on all that marble? No one is born here, dies here or does anything that does not revolve around politics, which doesn’t seem like it could be true, yet is. This city’s entire history is political, and I am confused why some buildings have Duke Ellington’s name on them.

Okay, I didn’t leave a three-block radius in Northwest. Okay, I didn’t actually get off the Metro, I just rode the escalator up and then back down again. Okay, I didn’t actually get off the Acela. Okay, I haven’t actually left New York City, I just watched an old episode of “The West Wing.”

Nobody lives here. Well, they might, but can you call living in a place that isn’t New York, living?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/11/01/this-video-runaway-dogsled-police-chase-is-most-absurd-hilarious-thing-youll-see-today/?fbclid=IwAR10eGLIEqN-1TnU8ViCDIIF1xCEmXN4SlvHU49DaqyIovkuV0-QnMbr5H0

The sled dogs probably crested at a speed of 10 mph as they crossed Interstate 90 at the South Billings Boulevard overpass. Conditions were suboptimal in the Montana city that night; the wind whipped, the asphalt was cold, and wet snow was falling.

But the huskies seemed determined, and they were making good time — due in no small part to the lack of a musher on the back of their sled.

The gold runners glinted in the flashing lights of the Billings police officers’ patrol cars as they approached the rogue dog sled from the rear.

“Myself and four-thirty [Officer Adams] are going to be at the South Billings Boulevard overpass,” Officer Dave Firebaugh radioed, “trying to stop a … dog sled? With, uh, no rider.”

Firebaugh and Officer Jeremiah Adams made several attempts to wave the dogs down, but they could not be stopped. Firebaugh would pull his cruiser over in front of the dogs’ path, attempt to coax them to him, and the dogs would blow right by him in their dead sprint across Billings.

Finally, in an attempt not captured by the dash cam, Firebaugh must have said the right thing. The anxious dogs, which reportedly were separated from their owner when the sled tipped and she fell off, can be heard off camera, whimpering as they walk over to him. Then the officer — part of a K-9 unit, himself — unloads a heap of praise.

“Hello, puppies,” Firebaugh said. “Oh, my goodness, you are beautiful dogs. Where’s your mama or daddy?”