Day: March 29, 2024

“The board of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted 11-1 to implement a $15 congestion toll, targeting a shift towards public transportation and easing traffic congestion in midtown and lower Manhattan to mitigate pollution.”Traveling in New York is already costly, but it just got worse: transit authorities have approved a controversial $15 toll, set to take effect in mid-June, for motorists entering the busiest part of Manhattan.

The board of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Wednesday voted 11-1 to impose the toll, which is aimed at encouraging the use of public transport and alleviating traffic in midtown and lower Manhattan, thereby reducing pollution.

The fee will be a first in an American city, and is similar to existing schemes in London, Stockholm and Singapore. It must first gain federal approval, and systems for collecting the tolls must be put in place.

“Passenger and small commercial vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street from Queens, Brooklyn, and neighboring New Jersey will be charged $15 during the day and $3.75 at night, in addition to any existing bridge or tunnel tolls.”

“A journalist in Russia has been sentenced to two years in prison for expressing opposition to the war in Ukraine. The move highlights ongoing concerns about freedom of speech and dissent in the country.”Russia has made on-the-ground reporting increasingly dangerous and illegal since it sent troops into Ukraine two years ago, arresting and fining those who defy the Kremlin’s narratives.

Moscow: 
A Russian court on Thursday sentenced a journalist to two years in prison for denouncing Moscow’s full-scale military offensive on Ukraine, as police in Moscow detained five other reporters over a 24-hour period.

Russia has made on-the-ground reporting increasingly dangerous and illegal since it sent troops into Ukraine two years ago, arresting and fining those who defy the Kremlin’s narratives.

“This is exactly the punishment the prosecution asked for,” OVD-Info said. “In addition to being imprisoned, Feldman was banned from administering websites for two years.”Russia Initiates Hundreds of Criminal Cases Against Anti-Ukraine Campaign Critics.

Under military censorship laws, Russians who criticise the offensive online or journalists that use information other than that provided by Russian officials can face years in prison.

The sentence came after police in Moscow detained five independent journalists over the past 24 hours, one of whom said he was beaten, OVD-Info reported Thursday.

SOTAvision journalist Antonina Favorskaya was taken for interrogation late Wednesday after serving 10 days’ jail for laying flowers at late opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s grave.

Her colleagues Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musatova, who came to meet her at the detention centre where she was set to be released, were also detained by police, SOTAvision said.

“University in Consultation with French Authorities for Respectful Disposition of Human Skin Binding”

New York: 

Prestigious Harvard University said Wednesday it had removed human skin from the binding of a book held for over 90 years at one of its libraries.
“Discovery Made in 2014: Copy of ‘Destinies of the Soul’ Found Bound in Human Skin, Harvard Reveals”

Harvard said it had removed the binding and noted “past failures in its stewardship of the book that further objectified and compromised the dignity of the human being whose remains were used for its binding.”

The university said it was consulting with French authorities “to determine a final respectful disposition of these human remains.”Harvard — widely considered the oldest college in the United States — had indulged interest in the morbid story of the book, calling the 2014 discovery “good news for fans of anthropodermic bibliopegy, bibliomaniacs and cannibals alike.”

“Harvard Notes: Anthropodermic Bibliopegy, Binding Books in Human Skin, Once Prevalent, Revealed in 2014 Blog Post”

The university said at the time that Dr. Ludovic Bouland, the first owner of the book written by French author Arsene Houssaye, had taken skin from the body of a mentally ill woman, who died of a heart attack, at a hospital where he worked.

Bouland was said to have told Houssaye in a note: “A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering.”

In Wednesday’s media release, Harvard said its stewardship practices related to the book had “failed to meet the level of ethical standards to which it subscribes.”

It noted that, following scientific analysis confirming it was bound in human skin, the library made blog posts which “utilized a sensationalistic, morbid, and humorous tone that fueled similar international media coverage.”