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> 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭?: it is a series of written communication text types created by the student on a topic of their choice/they are passionate about.

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> 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭?: it is a series of written communication text types created by the student on a topic of their choice/they are passionate about.

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See Google Classroom post:

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Here is a space for you to brainstorm and share ideas showcasing your passions.
It is important to choose a topic that is super interesting and something you want to go and research in more detail.
There are 3 main posts you should have in the vision board here in Padlet. Check post info here in the Education Padlet under example.

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Newly released transcripts of the minutes leading up to George Floyd's death reveal he told officers "I can't breathe" more than 20 times, only to have his plea dismissed by Derek Chauvin, the white officer pressing his knee into Floyd's neck, who said: "It takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Floyd's dying words have become a rallying cry at demonstrations around the world amid a reckoning with systemic racism and police brutality. The chilling transcripts of body-camera video recordings that were made public on Wednesday provide the most detailed account yet of what happened after police apprehended Floyd on 25 May.

Before he died, Floyd cried for his dead mother and his children. "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead," he said.

The new evidence was made public as part of efforts by one of the officers involved, Thomas Lane, to have charges that he aided and abetted in murder thrown out.

The Congressional Black Caucus, which is made up of most of the African American members of the US Congress, on Thursday stepped up calls for legislation to be passed to reform what many believe to be largely overly militarized police forces in the US, with many departments emphasizing highly aggressive responses to crime and unrest instead of fostering community relations and investing more in social services and education.

The Georgia congressman Hank Johnson tweeted: "Systemic racism permeates too many of our police departments in this country and has existed in policing for generations."

Some have reacted not just with horror but with determination to bring change, one commenter tweeting on Thursday: "This is awful to read but necessary."

Political commentator Keith Boykin simply tweeted Floyd's own words, repeated over and over as he lay dying.

George Floyd told police officers more than 20 times that he could not breathe.

I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
... https://t.co/4IqO66GVRU
- Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 8, 2020

Others mentioned depravity.

Words cannot adequately express the level of depravity within the transcript of George Floyd's murder. You can't reform that kind of racist, indulgent cruelty. There is no better trained or reasonable version of it.
- feminist next door (@emrazz) July 9, 2020

The transcripts make clear Floyd tried to cooperate with police and told them he was not feeling well. "My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. I need some water or something, please," Floyd told them. Begging not to be put in a squad car, Floyd said he was claustrophobic.

A bus stop in Minneapolis is part of a memorial to George Floyd. Photograph: Leila Navidi/AP

Much of what the public knew about Floyd's death previously came from bystander video and surveillance footage. As officers noted that Floyd was passing out, the new transcripts revealed that onlookers asked if Floyd had a pulse. "He's not even breathing right now, bro, you think that's cool?" someone asked.

"You got one?" Lane asked, as he and other officers repeatedly tried and failed to find Floyd's pulse. "Huh," Chauvin said at that time, keeping his knee on Floyd.

The new filings include 82 pages of body-camera transcripts and a 60-page transcript of Lane's interview with investigators. When Lane was asked if he felt either he or Chauvin had contributed to Floyd's death, his lawyer interjected: "You're not going to answer that."

Lane's attorney, Earl Gray, painted an image of a rookie who trusted Chauvin, a senior officer. Gray said that once Floyd was on the ground, Lane had asked twice if officers should roll Floyd on his side, and Chauvin said no.

Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Lane, and the officers J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, were charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter. Lane was holding Floyd's legs and Kueng was at Floyd's midsection as Chauvin restricted his breathing.

An attorney for Floyd's family did not immediately return requests for comment. A spokesman for the attorney general's office said prosecutors planned to oppose the motion to dismiss charges against Lane.

The transcripts show that Floyd was deathly afraid of the officers as they approached him. As Lane initially approached Floyd, who was in a car with two other people, Floyd repeatedly said: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"God dang man. Man, I got shot. I got shot the same way, Mr Officer, before," he told Lane, who had his gun drawn. "Mr Officer, please don't shoot me. Please, man."

Later, Lane asked Shawanda Renee Hill, a witness inside the car, why Floyd was "getting all squirrelly and not showing us his hands and just being all weird like that?" according to the transcript.

"Because he's been shot before," Hill said. "He got a thing going on, I'm telling you, about the police."
Kenya Evelyn and agencies contributed reporting

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George Floyd told officers 'I can't breathe' more than 20 times, transcripts show

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Derek Chauvin, the officer kneeling on his neck, replied: 'It takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk'

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The warring sides in Yemen are swapping hundreds of prisoners - a move which has built hopes for a permanent ceasefire between the Saudi-backed government forces and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

The eight year-long civil war has led to the deaths of thousands of Yemenis, and created a major humanitarian crisis.

How did the war start?

In 2011, a popular uprising in Yemen forced its long-standing authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

However, the new president was overwhelmed with Yemen's economic problems, and security problems such as attacks by jihadists. Furthermore, most of Yemen's armed forces felt more loyalty to the ousted president than they did to Mr Hadi.

The Houthis took advantage of his weakness.

Formally known as the Ansar Allah (Partisans of God), they champion Yemen's Zaidi Shia Muslim minority.

In early 2014, they seized control of Saada province, in the north of the country and then captured the nation's capital, Sanaa, forcing President Hadi to flee abroad in March 2015.

Yemen's neighbour Saudi Arabia was alarmed by the prospect of the Houthis taking control of Yemen, fearing it would become a satellite of Saudi Arabia's rival, Iran.

In March 2015, it and other Arab states began an air campaign aimed at ousting the Houthis and restoring Mr Hadi's government.

The coalition received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France.

What's happened since then?

In August 2015, coalition ground troops landed in the port city of Aden and drove the Houthis out of the south of Yemen. However, they could not dislodge them from Sanaa or the north of the country.

Yemen's official government is now in Aden, while President Hadi himself is based in Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis allied with the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to form a "political council" to govern the area under their control. However, in December 2017, Saleh broke with the Houthis and called for his followers to fight them. Saleh was killed and the Houthis defeated his forces.

In 2018, the Saleh loyalists joined the Saudi-led coalition. Together, they launched a major offensive against the Houthis to recapture the Red Sea city of Hudaydah. The port there is the principal lifeline for millions of Yemenis at risk of famine.

After six months of fierce fighting, the two sides agreed a truce in the city.

In 2021, the Houthis launched an attack on Marib, the government's last stronghold in the north and the centre of an oil-rich province.

Fighting escalated in March this year across the province, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.

The Houthis have attacked targets in Saudi Arabia and the UAE with ballistic missiles and drones, targeting sites including oil installations but also injuring civilians.

Saudi and US officials have accused Iran of smuggling weapons such as drones to the Houthis, in violation of a UN arms embargo. Iran has denied the allegation.

The Saudi-led coalition has carried out thousands of air strikes which have killed tens of thousands of people, according to the UN.

These include "double tap" attacks, in which the first strike hits a group of enemy troops and the second one hits the people who go to their rescue.

The UN says both sides in the civil war may have committed war crimes. Both sides deny the allegation.

In April 2022, the UN brokered a ceasefire between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels, though the sides failed to renew it six months later.

However they recently agreed to swap approximately 900 prisoners as a confidence measure which it is hoped could lead to a permanent ceasefire.

What's been the human cost?

The UN says Yemen is experiencing the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

It says 4.5 million people, one in seven of the population, have been displaced. while 24.1 million people, 80% of the population, are in need of humanitarian aid and protection.

The UN says that tens of thousands of people in Yemen are currently living in famine-like conditions, while some six million people are on the verge of famine.

The UN estimated that by the start of 2022, the conflict in Yemen had caused over 377,000 deaths, with 60% the result of hunger, lack of healthcare and unsafe water.

It says more than 11,000 children are known to have been killed or wounded as a direct result of the fighting.

Yemen has also suffered from one of the largest cholera outbreaks ever recorded, with 2.5 million suspected cases and about 4,000 related deaths since 2016.

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Yemen: Why is the war there getting more violent?

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The warring sides in Yemen are swapping hundreds of prisoners - a move which has built hopes for a permanent ceasefire between the Saudi-backed government forces and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The eight year-long civil war has led to the deaths of thousands of Yemenis, and created a major humanitarian crisis.

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Bolivia was plunged into a deepening political crisis this week after Evo Morales - the country's first indigenous president and its longest-serving leader - was forced to step down following pressure from the military, police and public protests over allegations that he stole an election on 20 October, which would have seen him remain in power until 2025.

An interim administration led by Jeanine Áñez has assumed power with a mandate to call fresh elections but violent protests have claimed 10 lives and the South American country of 11 million people faces its most uncertain moment in several decades.

How fair were the elections?

Morales has long been accused of using the levers of state to boost his popular support through free advertising and handouts to voters. Bolivia's constitutional court - which is elected from candidates nominated by the government-controlled assembly - allowed Evo Morales to run for a fourth consecutive term, despite narrowly losing a referendum on the issue in 2016.

Various parties and candidates competed in the elections on 20 October. After a preliminary vote count was interrupted - it resumed 24 hours later, indicating that Morales had narrowly surpassed a 10 percentage-point lead over his nearest rival needed to win outright - observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) sounded the alarm.

Their subsequent audit found evidence of "clear manipulation", including stuffed ballots, forged signatures and compromised servers. However, critics have questioned the impartiality of the OAS, noted that Morales's apparent victory was in line with previous polling and argued that his late-stage surge in votes reflected late-reporting rural areas.

Was there a coup d'état?

Bolivians and international observers are divided. That Morales resigned amid a widespread police mutiny and shortly after Bolivia's armed forces suggested he do so suggests a classic coup d'état. The haste with which the interim administration of Jeanine Áñez assumed power - lacking a quorum and failing to first formally accept Morales's resignation - along with subsequent military and police deployments confirms this impression.

However, critics on the left and right argue that the terminology of a coup should not distract from Morales's own democratic failings, including his alleged electoral fraud, and that public pressure from the military only came after Morales had lost the support of his party, trade unionists and some indigenous groups, and faced spiralling protests.

In practice, whether or not his departure is judged as an unconstitutional coup or not will depend on the avoidance of further repression and swift move to hold free and fair elections.

What role have other countries played?

Leftwing political leaders in Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela have condemned Morales's removal as a coup d'état. Conversely, Brazil's rightwing president, Jair Bolsonaro, refused to recognise Morales's apparent electoral victory and celebrated his removal - as has Donald Trump's White House, which praised the Bolivian military for "abiding by its oath to protect not just a single person, but Bolivia's constitution".

Russia - a key Morales ally - the UK and Germany are among those countries that have recognised Áñez as interim president and supported calls for another vote. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has dispatched a special envoy to Bolivia to work with the European Union and OAS to help resolve the crisis and guarantee transparent elections.

What happens next?

According to the constitution, the interim government of Áñez is required to hold fresh elections within 90 days. Negotiations with figures from Morales's Mas party are ongoing. The ousted president has indicated that he could return if asked to help pacify protests, but Áñez has insisted that Morales cannot be a candidate and will face investigation for alleged electoral fraud and corruption if he sets foot in Bolivia again.

Amid an atmosphere of deep mistrust and polarisation, violence and protests are likely to continue. The complexion of Bolivia's next government will depend on whether polls are conducted freely and fairly and if the Mas can regroup, potentially under a new leader.

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Bolivia crisis: how did we get here and what happens next?

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Bolivia was plunged into a deepening political crisis this week after Evo Morales - the country's first indigenous president and its longest-serving leader - was forced to step down following pressure from the military, police and public protests over allegations that he stole an election on 20 October, which would have seen him remain in power until 2025.

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ever before have we sprayed so much of a chemical on our food, on our yards, on our children's playgrounds. So it's no surprise that Roundup - the world's most widely used weedkiller - shows up in our bodies. What is perhaps surprising is how easy it is to get it out. A new peer-reviewed study, co-authored by one of us, studied pesticide levels in four American families for six days on a non-organic diet and six days on a completely organic diet. Switching to an organic diet decreased levels of Roundup's toxic main ingredient, glyphosate, by 70% in just six days.

"If my kids have this much of a change in their numbers, what would other families have?" asked Scott Hersrud of Minneapolis, Minnesota, a father of three who participated in the study. The answer to that question is increasingly clear: a big one. This study is part of a comprehensive scientific analysis showing that switching to an organic diet rapidly and dramatically reduces exposure to pesticides.

That's good news, but it raises a grave question: why do we have to be supermarket detectives, searching for organic labels to ensure we're not eating food grown with glyphosate or hundreds of other toxic pesticides?

Why do we have to be supermarket detectives, searching for organic labels?

Glyphosate was flagged as a potential carcinogen as far back as 1983 by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), yet use of the chemical has grown exponentially since, with the chemical giant Monsanto - purchased by Bayer in 2018 - dominating the market. Numerous reports have covered the internal company documents showing how Monsanto's influence over the EPA succeeded in suppressing health concerns.

In fact, rather than restricting the use of glyphosate, the EPA has raised the legal threshold for residues on some foods up to 300-fold above levels deemed safe in the 1990s. And unlike with other commonly used pesticides, the government has turned a blind eye for decades when it comes to monitoring glyphosate - failing to test for it on food and in our bodies.

The agency's slipshod regulation has led to a dramatic increase in exposure. Research shows that the percentage of the US population with detectable levels of glyphosate in their bodies increased from 12% in the mid-1970s to 70% by 2014.

The new study paints an even more concerning picture. Researchers found glyphosate in every participant, including children as young as four. "I would love to get those pesticides out of my body and my family's bodies," said Andreina Febres of Oakland, California, a participant and mother of two.

Parents have sound reasons to be concerned about their children's exposure to glyphosate and other pesticides. While food residues often fall within levels that regulators consider safe, even government scientists have made it clear that US regulations have not kept pace with the latest science. For one, they ignore the compounding effects of our daily exposures to a toxic soup of pesticides and other industrial chemicals. Nor do they reflect that we can have higher risks at different times in our lives and in different conditions: a developing fetus, for instance, is particularly vulnerable to toxic exposures, as are children and the immunocompromised. Instead, US regulators set one "safe" level for all of us. New research also shows that chemicals called "endocrine disruptors" can increase risk of cancers, learning disabilities, birth defects, obesity, diabetes and reproductive disorders, even at incredibly small levels. (Think the equivalent of one drop in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.)

Pesticide companies' ability to keep profiting from products that poison us is particularly egregious given that we have a solution

Research has linked glyphosate to high rates of kidney disease in farming communities and to shortened pregnancy in a cohort of women in the midwest. Animal studies and bioassays link it to endocrine disruption, DNA damage, decreased sperm function, disruption of the gut microbiome and fatty liver disease.

The pesticide industry's success in keeping a chemical with known toxicity on the market is emblematic of a fundamental system failure. The US allows more than 70 pesticides banned in the European Union. And in just the last few years, the EPA has approved more than 100 new pesticide products containing ingredients deemed to be highly hazardous.

Yet last year, it looked like glyphosate was going to be a success story of another kind - the kind where science wins. In the wake of the World Health Organization determination that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen, thousands of farmers, pesticide applicators and home gardeners filed lawsuits linking their cancer to Roundup. The first three cases were settled in favor of the plaintiffs, saddling Bayer with $2bn in damages (later reduced by judges). But this summer, while Bayer agreed to pay $10bn to settle an additional 95,000 cases out of court, the company again evaded responsibility: under the terms of the settlement, Roundup will continue to be sold for use on yards, school grounds, public parks and farms without any safety warning.

Pesticide companies' ability to keep profiting from products that poison us is particularly egregious given that we have a solution. Organic works. And not just for our health - research shows that a shift away from pesticide-intensive agriculture leads to significant improvements for biodiversity and other environmental benchmarks while also yielding enough to ensure a well-fed planet.

We can look to the European Union for some hope. This summer the EU announced plans to halve use of pesticides by 2030 and transition at least 25% of agriculture to organic. But in the US, despite ever-growing demand for organic food, the government continues to favor the profits of the pesticide industry over our health, spending billions of our taxpayer dollars to prop up pesticide-intensive farming while organic programs and research are woefully underfunded.

As this study shows, the end result is toxic chemicals in our bodies that don't need to be there. A growing number of people are responding by buying organic, but what about the many who don't have access to organic or can't afford it? As long as we treat organic food as if it's a shopping preference instead of a public good, we will miss the opportunity to fight for a desperately needed shift in how we farm - one that would ensure that no one is exposed to toxic pesticides from the food they eat.

Kendra Klein, PhD, is senior staff scientist at Friends of the Earth-US, a national organization working to create a more just and healthy world. Anna Lappé is a national best-selling author and co-director of Real Food Media. Together, they have collaborated on Organic for All

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You have pesticides in your body. But an organic diet can reduce them by 70% | Kendra Klein and Anna Lappe

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ever before have we sprayed so much of a chemical on our food, on our yards, on our children's playgrounds. So it's no surprise that Roundup - the world's most widely used weedkiller - shows up in our bodies. What is perhaps surprising is how easy it is to get it out.

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With millions of players around the world, the Fantasy Premier League is meant to recreate the competitive excitement and experience of managing a football team in England's top division.

Instead, it has attracted off-pitch intrigue after this year's champion was disqualified for unspecified reasons in a scandal that has rocked the world of fantasy football.

Bulgarian YouTuber Aleksandar Antonov had expected to be formally crowned champion after beating more than 7 million people to finish top of the table in the highly-competitive contest. The game involves picking a squad of players from across the Premier League and hoping their real-life on-field performances are good enough to earn virtual points.

Instead, weeks after the season ended, the eastern European was informed on Tuesday morning that his profile had been deleted by the Premier League, with victory in the competition instead handed to a 29-year-old University of Oxford cancer mathematician, Joshua Bull.

Unlike similar online competitions, the Fantasy Premier League is run directly by the Premier League itself, giving it an official status that others cannot match. This has attracted the likes of Norwegian chess champion Magnus Carlsen, whose fantasy team topped the table in December only to drop back in the second half of the season. He finished in 11th place.

In an oblique statement on Tuesday, the organisers simply confirmed that the team formally occupying the top spot had been disqualified for an unspecified "breach of our terms".

"Following end-of-season checks, final standings have been updated within the game, leaving Southampton fan Joshua and his team, The Bulldozers, top of the table," said the Premier League.

Antonov did not respond to requests for comment but tweeted his disappointment: "Joshua Bull, congrats on the win. Not the way you wanted to win it, not the way I wanted to lose."

Fantasy Premier League has created a thriving online culture, with competitors regularly swapping tips in an attempt to outperform friends, family and workmates. Despite the prizes being little more than a pair VIP tickets to Premier League matches and a games console, there are popular Twitter accounts and Reddit pages dedicated to sharing tips on how to improve the performance of a team and maximise the points available.

Bull, who studies how cancer spreads through the body, said he was shocked when he was told of his delayed victory: "I was expecting to hear something from the Premier League at some point because I'd come second. But then the email that came through said the guy ahead of me has been disqualified for some reason and I'm going to be crowned champion."

Despite registering as a Southampton fan to take part in the competition, in reality Bull is a long-suffering supporter of League One's Ipswich Town: "The idea is that you pick players that you think will do well and it gives you something else to cheer when the games are on. I don't really support any of the Premier League teams so it's a way of having a bit involvement."

He said there was some crossover with his day job specialising in mathematical oncology. "I'm trying to do the same modelling and forecasting as mathematicians are doing with coronavirus - but within a person," he said.

"It's a little bit like poker; there's a huge element of luck involved. Sometimes you make a good decision that doesn't pay off, sometimes you make a bad decision that does. For me as a mathematician I was thinking about it from the view that there's a huge amount of variance involved. You've got to be lucky and you've also got to have some strategy."

Bull declined to comment on the reasons for Antonov's disqualification and said he had only signed up to the Fantasy Premier League to compete with his family.

He said he had not expected to become so deeply involved in the game but as the season progressed and he gained a chance of becoming the world champion, he spent more and more time on it:

"My sister has beaten me every year since forever. This year I decided I would take it seriously and try and beat her. She's very annoyed because she's the real football expert in our family and now people keep asking me."
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Fantasy Premier League winner stripped of title

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With millions of players around the world, the Fantasy Premier League is meant to recreate the competitive excitement and experience of managing a football team in England's top division. Instead, it has attracted off-pitch intrigue after this year's champion was disqualified for unspecified reasons in a scandal that has rocked the world of fantasy football.