Kirstie Alley, the two-time Emmy-winning actress who rose to fame in her role on the hit TV series ‘Cheers’, died on Monday after a short battle with cancer, her representative told Reuters. She was 71.

Her death was also confirmed through a statement from her children released on her official Twitter account, who said Alley died after treatment for cancer at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida.

“To all our friends, far and wide around the world … we are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce and loving mother has passed away after a battle with cancer, only recently discovered,” the statement by True and Lillie Parker said.

“She was surrounded by her closest family and fought with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of her never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead. As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother.”

Alley’s breakout role came as Rebecca Howe in the NBC sitcom ‘Cheers’, which she starred in from 1987 until 1993, and for which she received an Emmy and a Golden Globe award in 1991. She won her second Emmy in 1994 for the television film ‘David’s Mother’.

Alley also appeared in many films during the 1980s and 1990s, including ‘Look Who’s Talking’, ‘It Takes Two’, ‘Deconstructing Henry’ and ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’.

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Russia’s defence ministry has said it has deployed mobile coastal defence missile systems on a northern Kuril island – part of a strategically located chain of islands that stretch between Japan and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula.

Japan lays claim to the Russian-held southern Kuril islands that Tokyo calls the Northern Territories, a territorial row that dates back to the end of World War Two when Soviet troops seized them from Japan.

The Russian Bastion missile systems, which have missiles with a flight range of up to 500 km (310 miles), were deployed on the island of Paramushir in the northern portion of the Kuril Islands, the Russian defence ministry said on Monday.

“Coastal servicemen of the Pacific Fleet will keep a round-the-clock watch to control the adjacent water area and strait zones,” it said.

The ministry said that a military camp was set up on Paramushir with conditions allowing for year-round service, accommodation, recreation and food for personnel.

This deployment comes a year after Russia set up the Bastion systems on the island of Matua, in the central part of the Kuril ridge, the ministry said in a statement.

The Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a September report that overshadowed by the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s militarisation of the Kuril Islands “has flown largely under the radar.”

“Russia’s steps to boost its presence suggest that the islands will continue to play a pernicious role in the future of Russo-Japanese relations and that Japan and the United States should deepen consultations regarding Russia’s activities in the region,” according to the report, published on the Centre’s website.

Japan has joined its Western allies in slapping economic sanctions on Russia after it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what Moscow calls a “special military operation.” Ukraine and its allies say Russia launched an unprovoked war.

Russia withdrew from peace treaty talks with Japan and froze joint economic projects related to the disputed Kuril Islands because of Japanese sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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The man who shot and wounded Lady Gaga’s dog walker during the theft of two of the singer’s French bulldogs in Hollywood last year pleaded no contest to attempted murder on Monday and was immediately sentenced to 21 years in prison.

As part of the no-contest plea – the legal equivalent to a guilty plea in California – James Howard Jackson also admitted in court to inflicting great bodily injury on the man he shot in the chest, Ryan Fischer, who survived the attack.

“The plea agreement holds Mr. Jackson accountable for perpetrating a cold-hearted, violent act and provides justice for our victim,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in announcing the settlement of the case.

Several other charges Jackson faced were dismissed in the plea deal, according to the Los Angeles City News Service (CNS).

Fischer attended Monday’s court hearing and, according to CNS, made a statement blasting the defendant, saying the shooting had forever altered his life.

Jackson was one of five suspects – four of them identified by authorities as known street gang members – arrested in connection with the shooting of Gaga’s dog walker and the abduction of her two pets on Feb. 24, 2021.

The two purloined bulldogs, named Koji and Gustav, were dropped off unharmed at a police station and turned over to the musician’s representatives two days after they were snatched at gunpoint by two strangers in a car.

A third bulldog owned by Gaga that was out walking with Fischer at the time escaped and was later found safe by police.

Police at the time said evidence suggested the suspects singled out the three dogs because of the high value placed on the breed, but they were not believed to have known the identity of the owner before the robbery.

Gaga, who was filming a movie in Rome when her pets were taken, had issued a public plea on social media for an “act of kindness” to bring them home, and offered a $500,000 reward.

The woman who came forward to report finding the dogs and turn them over to police, Jennifer McBride, was later charged with being an accessory after the fact. Her case remained pending on Monday, the D.A.’s office said.

Another co-defendant, Harold White, pleaded no contest on Monday to a weapons charge and will be sentenced next year, prosecutors said.

Two others, Jaylin White and Lafayette Whaley, each previously pleaded no contest to second-degree robbery, receiving sentences of four years and six years in prison, respectively.

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At the risk of stating the obvious, Donald Trump cannot “terminate” the Constitution. In fact he can’t do any of the things he threatens to do these days. He’s powerless. His status as a former President doesn’t somehow give him magic powers, no matter how much the media has spent the past two years trying to convince him that he’s omnipotent.

Should you despise Trump? Yes, certainly. Should you condemn him? Absolutely, as needed. Should you panic and cower? Of course not. He says this stuff to get you to panic and cower.

Your job at this point is to find a way to loudly call him out and condemn his inappropriate behavior, while also loudly pointing out that he can’t actually do any of the things he’s threatening to do, and laughing loudly in his face about his upcoming indictment. This is important, because we have to make sure no one out there mistakenly cowers to him at this late date in his downfall. Trying to scare us into paralysis is all Trump has left.

The post At the risk of stating the obvious… appeared first on Palmer Report.

North Korea said on Tuesday it has ordered military units to fire more artillery shells into the sea, the North’s official KCNA reported, following South Korea’s ongoing drills across the border.

The firing comes a day after North Korea said it fired more than 130 shells into the sea off its east and west coasts, some of which landed in a buffer zone near the sea border between the two Koreas, in what Seoul called a violation of a 2018 inter-Korean agreement to reduce tensions.

Event Announcements

Monday, December 5, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. ET: The Brookings Institution hosted a panel discussion to explore the evolution and adaptation of nonstate armed actors in response to changing geopolitical and regional environments in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and Syria. The panel featured Ranj Alaaldin, fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs; Nadwa Al-Dawsari, nonresident fellow at the Middle East Institute; Natasha Hall, senior fellow at CSIS’s Middle East program, and Stephanie T. Williams, nonresident senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy. Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of the Initiative of Nonstate Armed Actors, moderated the panel. 

Tuesday, December 6, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. ET: The Atlantic Council will host a panel discussion about how the U.S. and its allies can build resiliency in light of the transforming space threat environment. The panel will feature Mariel Borowitz, associate professor at the George Institute of Technology’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs; John J. Klein, faculty at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute; Victoria Samson, Washington office director for the Secure World Foundation; and Daniel Tenney, vice president of strategy and business development for Lockheed Martin Space. Gen. James E. Cartwright (ret.), board director at the Atlantic Council; and Travis Langster, principal director of space and missile defense policy at the Department of Defense, will provide keynote remarks. The panel will be moderated by Theresa Hitchens, space and Air Force reporter with Breaking Defense; and the panel will be introduced by Clementine G. Starling, director of Forward Defense. 

Tuesday, December 6, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. ET: The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies will host a seminar about the use of propaganda social media content and censorship in China. The seminar will feature Yiqing Xu, assistant professor in Stanford’s department of political science. The seminar will be moderated by Hongbin Li, co-director of Stanford’s Center on China’s Economy and Institutions and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research; and Scott Rozelle, the Helen F. Farnsworth senior fellow and co-director of Stanford’s Center on China’s Economy and Institutions. 

Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at 12:00 p.m. ET: The Center for Strategic and International Studies will host a discussion about the impact of climate change on malnutrition. The discussion will feature Gillian Caldwell, chief climate officer and deputy assistant administrator of USAID; Jessica Colston, environmental technical lead for GAIN; Rania Dagash-Kamara, deputy regional director of Eastern and South Africa for UNICEF; William Moore, chief executive officer of the Eleanor Crook Foundation; and Caitlin Welsh, director of CSIS’s Global Food Security program.  

Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at 10:30 a.m. ET: The Atlantic Council will host a conversation about the potential creation of a special tribunal to hold Russian officials accountable for the war against Ukraine. Keynote remarks will be delivered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The conversation will feature Oleksandra Drik, international cooperation coordinator at the Center for Civil Liberties; Anton Korynevych, the Ukrainian ambassador-at-large; David J. Scheffer, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; and Lesia Zaburanna, a member of the Ukrainian parliament. The conversation will be moderated by William B. Taylor, vice president of the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Russian and Europe Center. Closing remarks will be delivered by John E. Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. 

Thursday, December 8, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. ET: The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host a conversation about the Department of Defense’s annual report on Chinese military and security developments. The conversation will feature Michael Chase, deputy assistant secretary of defense for China at the Department of Defense; Zack Cooper, senior fellow at AEI; and Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs at the Department of Defense. The conversation will be moderated by Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow at AEI. 

Thursday, December 8, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. ET: The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies will host a seminar about how the coronavirus pandemic and global instability create new challenges for affordable access to medicine around the world. The seminar will feature Chirantan Chatterjee, applied microeconomist and visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution; and will be moderated by Jianan Yang, Asia health policy postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. 

Friday, December 9, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. ET: The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) will host a discussion about the implications of U.S.-China relations on American innovation. The discussion will feature Abigail Coplin, assistant professor of sociology and science at Vassar College; Ruixue Jia, associate professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego; James Mulvenon, scientific researcher and analyst at Peraton Labs; Molly Roberts, associate professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego; Scott Rozelle, co-director at the Stanford University’s Center on China’s Economy and Institutions; and Deborah Seligsohn, non-resident senior associate and trustee chair in Chinese Business and Economics at CSIS.

Employment Announcements (More details on the Job Board)  

Spring 2023 Intern, Lawfare

Fall 2024 Student Volunteer Program, U.S. Cyber Command

Program Officer, National Governing Institutions, The Hewlett Foundation

Research Assistant, Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative

Professor of Practice for National Security, Cybersecurity, and Foreign Relations Law, The George Washington University Law School

Impact Associate/Paralegal, Protect Democracy

Research Assistant, National Security Institute, Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University

Request for Resumes, Department of Defense Office of the General Counsel

The Biden administration will expand deportation relief and access to work permits for Haitians who are already in the United States, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Monday, a move that comes as Haiti’s government struggles to stabilize the country.

The administration will offer Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to an estimated 264,000 Haitians for 18 months after the current designation expires in February.

Of those, about 101,000 currently have the status and 53,000 have pending applications, according to DHS. Another 110,000 more recent arrivals would also be covered by the new extension move.

TPS provides deportation protection and permission to work to foreigners who cannot return to their home countries due to natural disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary factors.

Armed gangs in Haiti have expanded their power in the country following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Since then, Prime Minister Ariel Henry has faced challenges restoring order. The United States first designated Haiti for TPS in 2010 following an earthquake that devastated the island nation.

Former Republican President Donald Trump tried to end TPS for Haiti and other countries, but was blocked by federal courts. Biden, a Democrat, expanded Haiti’s designation in August 2021 to include Haitians who had arrived in the past decade.

In September 2021, thousands of Haitian migrants crossed into the United States, setting up a makeshift camp in southern Texas. U.S. border agents on horseback confronted some of the migrants crossing the Rio Grande River, with one agent swinging horse reins near a man’s face in images that triggered outrage from advocates and lawmakers.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, had pushed for the extension of TPS to recent arrivals, saying that Haitians “have been met at our doorstep with unimaginable indignity.”

Transgender athletes will be able to participate in community sport in New Zealand in the gender they identify with and not need to prove or justify their identity, according to guiding principles released by Sport New Zealand (SNZ) on Tuesday.

The guidelines do not apply to elite sport and it will be up to individual sports to define where and how transgender athletes participate, the governing body said.

“An inclusive transgender policy allows individuals to take

part as their self-determined gender and not as the sex they

were assigned at birth,” SNZ said.

“It does not ask people to prove or otherwise justify their gender, sex or gender identity.”

Transgender participation has proved controversial at amateur and elite levels, with women’s groups and some athletes saying transgender athletes should be banned from female categories to ensure fair competition.

Supporters of transgender participation argue that not enough research has been done into whether transgender athletes have an unfair advantage against women.

New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard became the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics Games in Tokyo last year.

Sport New Zealand said it was essential that community sport leaders were committed to inclusion and could show that commitment by using pronouns in email signatures and communications, and appointing inclusion officers.

The principles said changing rooms and bathing facilities needed to ensure privacy so that all people could use them safely and comfortably.

That could mean removing urinals to make bathrooms “gender neutral” and making open showers private.

The guidelines also said sports should consider whether gender specific uniforms were necessary and redesign them to accommodate different body types and shapes.

It’s the race to remember! It’s the race for RNC chair. And as you know, pillow king Mike Lindell is running. Lindell has thrown his hat in the ring. And he has already said he might not accept the results of the election. The GOP’s dream candidate, to be sure!

And now potential RNC Chair Lindell is making his first campaign promise. That’s right. Never one to hold back, Lindell is outlining what HE will do if elected. Fire all the lawyers! That’s right. This is a campaign pledge of candidate Lindell. He wants the lawyers out — at least SOME of them.

You see, Lindell is promising to fire any and all lawyers who did not attempt to overturn the 2020 election. That certainly sounds like a promise worthy of the GOP. Lindell said these words in an interview with radio host John Fredericks. He wanted to explain his unique Lindell vision for the party and what he could bring to the republican table.

“Immediately,” Lindell said sternly. “This wouldn’t be an along-term thing — immediately.” Said so eloquently, Mr. Lindell! I do believe you have a chance. “Get all new lawyers in,” Lindell exclaimed. Then he spoke of our election system. “They need to be fixed,” he said emotionally.

Mr. Lindell certainly is showing his eagerness to take on the job. And who knows? In the simmering world of GOP crazy, it is indeed possible that Mr. Lindell may just win. So how would that work anyway? Once he wins, he just — fires all the lawyers? Whom does he replace them with? Rudy perhaps? Oh, he can’t. Rudy no longer has a law license. I am firmly behind this candidacy. I am a firm believer in the phrase “water seeks its own level.” And in this case, the water is — well — fizzy. And rather bitter.

The post Mike Lindell just made the RNC’s life even more difficult appeared first on Palmer Report.