New Year's Traditons

From The Old Farmer's Almanac:

"New Year's Traditions From Around the World"

Many New Year’s traditions that we take for granted actually date back to ancient times. This year, ring out the old and ring in the new with a new New Year’s tradition—or two!

Make Some Noise

Making a lot of noise—from fireworks to gun shots to church bells—seems to be a favorite pastime around the world.

- In ancient Thailand, guns were fired to frighten off demons.

- In China, firecrackers routed the forces of darkness.

- In the early American colonies, the sound of pistol shots rang through the air.

- Today, Italians let their church bells peal, the Swiss beat drums, and the North Americans sound sirens and party horns to bid the old year farewell.

Eat Lucky Food

Many New Year’s traditions surround food. Here are a few:

- The tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight comes from Spain. Revelers stuff their mouths with 12 grapes in the final moments of the year—one grape for every chime of the clock!

- In the southern US, black-eyed peas and pork foretell good fortune. See our recipe for Good Luck Hoppin’ John!

- In Scotland—where Hogmanay is celebrated—people parade down the streets swinging balls of fire.

- Eating any ring-shaped treat (such as a doughnut) symbolizes “coming full circle” and leads to good fortune. In Dutch homes, fritters called olie bollen are served.

- The Irish enjoy pastries called bannock

- In India and Pakistan, rice promises prosperity.

- Apples dipped in honey are a Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) tradition.

- In Swiss homes, dollops of whipped cream, symbolizing the richness of the year to come, are dropped on the floors—and allowed to remain there!

Have a Drink

Although the pop of a champagne cork signals the arrival of the New Year around the world, some countries have their own beverage-based traditions.

- Wassail, a punch-like drink named after the Gaelic term for “good health,” is served in some parts of England.

- Spiced “hot pint” is the Scottish version of Wassail. Traditionally, the Scots drank to each others’ prosperity and also offered this warm drink to neighbors along with a small gift.

- In Holland, toasts are made with hot, spiced wine.!

Give a Gift

New Year’s Day was once the time to swap presents.

- Gifts of gilded nuts or coins marked the start of the new year in Rome.

- Eggs, the symbol of fertility, were exchanged by the Persians.

- Early Egyptians traded earthenware flasks.

- In Scotland, coal, shortbread and silverware were traditionally exchanged for good luck.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

In Scotland, the custom of first-footing is an important part of the celebration of Hogmanay, or New Year’s Eve day. After midnight, family and friends visit each other’s home. The “first foot” to cross a threshold after midnight will predict the next year’s fortune. Although the tradition varies, those deemed especially fortunate as “first footers” are new brides, new mothers, those who are tall and dark (and handsome?) or anyone born on January 1.

Turn Over a New Leaf

The dawn of a new year is an opportune time to take stock of your life. 

- Jews who observe Rosh Hashanah make time for personal introspection and prayer, as well as visiting graves.

- Christian churches hold “watch-night” services, a custom that began in 1770 at Old St. Georges Methodist Church in Philadelphia.

- The practice of making New Year’s resolutions, said to have begun with the Babylonians as early as 2600 B.C., is another way to reflect on the past and plan ahead.

New Year’s Folklore

Some customs and beliefs are simply passed down through the ages. Here are some of our favorite age-old sayings and proverbs.

- On New Year’s Eve, kiss the person you hope to keep kissing.

- If New Year’s Eve night wind blow south, It betokeneth warmth and growth.

- For abundance in the new year, fill your pockets and cupboards today.

- If the old year goes out like a lion, the new year will come in like a lamb.

- Begin the new year square with every man. [i.e., pay your debts!] –Robert B. Thomas, founder of The Old Farmer’s Almanac

So, whether we resolve to return borrowed farm equipment (as did the Babylonians) or drop a few pounds, we’re tapping into an ancient and powerful longing for a fresh start!

^ This was pretty interesting. ^

https://www.almanac.com/content/new-years-traditions-around-world#

Evening Plans

Rescued Law

From the BBC:

"Californian law change means pet shops can sell only rescued animals"

California is set to become the first state in the US to ban the sale of non-rescue animals in pet shops. The new law, known as AB 485, takes effect on 1 January. Any businesses violating it face a $500 (£400) fine. The change means cats, dogs and rabbits sold by retailers cannot be sourced from breeders, only from animal shelters. Animal rights groups have heralded it as a step forward against so-called "kitten factories" and "puppy mills". They say the current "high-volume" industries, where pets are bred for profit, can lead to inhumane treatment and long-term emotional and physical health problems in some animals.  The new state-wide law, approved in late 2017, will now require shops to maintain sufficient records of where they sourced each animal, for periodic checks by authorities. It does not, however, affect sales from private breeders or owner-to-owner sales. Some Californian shop owners have raised concern the law could put them out of business. The measure has also seen resistance from the American Kennel Club, which said it limits pet owners.  According to American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) estimates, more than 6.5 million pets enter shelters across the country every year, of which about 1.5 million are put down.  The California assembly member who introduced the legislation, Patrick O'Donnell, has insisted the legislation is not just "a big win" for "four-legged friends", but for California taxpayers too, as they spend hundreds of millions on sheltering animals across the state.  A couple hoping to adopt a cat from a San Diego shelter on Friday, told NBC News the move was a step forward for the state. "It takes the emphasis off the profit of animals and puts the emphasis back on caring for and getting these cats and dogs a good home," prospective owner Mitch Kentdotson said. AB 485 is the first state-wide law of its kind, although other places have enacted similar regulations on pet sales on a local level. Earlier this month, a similar ban on third-party puppy and kitten sales was confirmed in England. Lucy's law, named after a mistreated cavalier King Charles spaniel, also aims to combat low-welfare animal breeding. 

^ Usually I do agree with what the lawmakers in California do - they tend to be ultra-liberal and focus on weird and petty things - but this time I completely agree with them. I think this is a very good law and one that every state and every country should enact. It not only protects the consumer getting a pet, but (more importantly) it protects the animals themselves. Puppy mills are awful places that need to be shut down immediately. Currently many places have an abundance of unwanted cats, dogs, rabbits, etc. and because of that many are abused and or put-down. I have always gotten a recused dog and find them to be some of the most loyal and wonderful of any dogs. I can understand people saying that a law that only requires selling a rescued animal will eventually cause a shortage of animals to buy and that will most likely happen (eventually) but that just means pet stores will have to bring in rescued animals from other locations thus helping and saving even more animals. My current dog (whom I got from a Humane Society 1 year ago) isn't from my state, but was rescued thousands upon thousands of miles away in the South and brought to my state because there were too many dogs in that state and too few in my state. That was a problem for both states and one that was fixed to help both states, the people in both states and the recused animals. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46717173

No Berlin Fines

From the DW:

"Berlin AG wants to get rid of fines for fare evaders"

In Berlin, traveling without a ticket could cost you €60 and even land you in jail. However, Berlin's Attorney General Margarete Koppers has said she wants to "completely abolish" fines for fare dodgers. Authorities in Berlin view fare dodging as a criminal offense punishable by a €60 ($68.6) fine. Local police filed 12,000 complaints over the issue in 2017 and more than 300 people are imprisoned every year for not being able or willing to pay the fines. The left-leaning mayor and other top officials have recently called for less drastic regulations, with some proposing to downgrade fare dodging to a mere administrative offense. Now, the Berlin attorney general wants to go a step further and "completely abolish" the crime of fare dodging. "We shouldn't waste resources for criminal offenses where criminality is highly questionable," Koppers is one of the most senior judiciary officials in Berlin, a 3.6-million-strong city which is also considered one of Germany's 16 federal states. Talking to the local daily, Koppers said downgrading the offense would pose "no relief for the judiciary." "The prosecution would still need to deal with the proceedings," Koppers said. "And the police would need to take regulatory measures, so they would also not cut their workload." Koppers called for a public debate on the issue.  The latest data shows that fare dodging is at its lowest level in ten years. Controllers working for the public transport company BVG found some 3.14 percent of passengers were riding without a ticket between January and September of 2018. During the same timeframe, the separate company running local trains found 2.59 percent passengers were fare dodgers, according to Berliner Morgenpost. Following Koppers' interview, the conservative CDU party and the business-friendly FDP responded with heavy criticism. "Legalizing fare dodging would mean a serious perversion of our legal system," senior conservative deputy Sven Rissmann said. "Why would anyone still be buying tickets?" Public transport companies were also less than thrilled about Koppers' proposal, warning against trivializing fare dodging. In Germany, fare dodging is defined as "avoiding of dues" under the nation's criminal law. Changing the law would require an intervention from the federal level, according to the Focus magazine.

^ This is not a very good idea. You can not have a fare system and no penalty for those that abuse the system. If you want to do that - like Berlin seems to want to do - then you need to just make all public transportation in the city 100% free. I think Berlin needs to fix their system of fare dodging so that the city can collect the money owed to them while at the same time not sending people to jail for not paying. ^

https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-ag-wants-to-get-rid-of-fines-for-fare-evaders/a-46900968

Nagy Moved

From the  BBC:

"Hungary removes statue of anti-Soviet hero Imre Nagy"

The Hungarian authorities have removed a much-loved statue of Imre Nagy, hero of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, from a square in central Budapest.  The Nagy statue is being moved to Jaszai Mari Square, a northern location away from the parliament building.  Some critics accuse Prime Minister Viktor Orban's nationalist government of revising the country's history. A monument to the victims of a short-lived communist regime in 1919 will replace the Nagy statue. Imre Nagy was hanged in 1958 for his role in the uprising. A pro-reform communist, he had sought to free Hungary of hardline communist rule, but in 1956 the revolt was crushed by Soviet tanks. Pro-Moscow hardliners were reinstalled in power. The statue was erected in 1996 at Martyrs' Square.  In 1989 Viktor Orban - then an anti-communist activist - addressed a rally celebrating the reburial and rehabilitation of Imre Nagy.  But in recent years Mr Orban has forged closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer who has restored Soviet-era symbols and who regrets the collapse of the USSR. The new monument at Martyrs' Square will replicate one that stood there during the pro-Nazi rule of wartime Admiral Miklos Horthy, who fuelled anti-Semitism.  Nagy's granddaughter Katalin Janosi is among those opposed to the square's redevelopment.  Mr Orban's supporters say the aim is to return parts of the capital to their pre-World War Two appearance, before the decades of communist rule. There have been many tweets protesting at the disappearance of the Nagy statue. 

^ I am torn on this. I can understand wanting to return things to how they were before World War 2 (when Hungary collaborated with Nazi Germany before the Germans invaded them in 1944) and before the Soviets and Hungarian Communists came into power after the war and ruled for decades. At the same time I don't think this change is being done for the sole purpose of honoring Budapest before the Nazi and Communist dictatorships. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46704111

Streaming

"Netflix Streaming is the Branson, Missouri of TV shows. If you think an actor or actress is retired or no longer living chances are they are performing in Branson, Missouri. If you think a TV show has been cancelled chances are it is on Netflix Streaming."

Georges Loinger

From the BBC:

"Georges Loinger: French hero who saved Jews in WW2 dies"

French resistance fighter Georges Loinger, whose bravery and invention saved hundreds of Jewish children in World War Two, has died aged 108. His death was announced by France's Holocaust Memorial Foundation. Born in Strasbourg to a Jewish family, he was captured by the Nazis in 1940 but escaped. One of the methods he used to save children was to take them to the Swiss border, then kick a football over the frontier and get them to chase it. "I spotted a football field that was on the border. It was made up of fences two-and-a-half metres high. I saw that there was nobody", he said. "I made the children play, I told some of them to lift up the fences and I passed the ball." Loinger was serving in the French army when he was caught in 1940 but his blond hair and blue eyes apparently concealed the fact he was Jewish from his German captors and this enabled his escape from a prisoner of war camp. Returning to France during the war he joined an aid agency trying to help Jewish children whose parents had been killed or sent to concentration camps. Another method he used involved dressing children as mourners and taking them to a cemetery on the French-Swiss border, where they would climb up a gravedigger's ladder to neutral territory. He is thought to have saved more than 350 children. Loinger's cousin was another French resistance fighter, the mime artist Marcel Marceau.

^ He saved many children and did so in a very unusual way (by using a soccer ball.) ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46714673

Turning Off And On

Shutdown Continues

From the Stars and Stripes:

"Federal workers face grim prospect of lengthy shutdown"

Three days, maybe four. That's how long Ethan James, 21, says he can realistically miss work before he's struggling. So as the partial government shutdown stretched into its sixth day with no end in sight, James, a minimum-wage contractor sidelined from his job as an office worker at the Interior Department, was worried. "I live check to check right now," he said, and risks missing his rent or phone payment. Contractors, unlike most federal employees, may never get back pay for being idled. "I'm getting nervous," he said. Federal workers and contractors forced to stay home or work without pay are experiencing mounting stress from the impasse affecting hundreds of thousands of them. For those without a financial cushion, even a few days of lost wages during the shutdown over President Donald Trump's border wall could have dire consequences. As well, the disruption is starting to pinch citizens who count on a variety of public services, beyond those who've been finding gates closed at national parks. For example, the government won't issue new federal flood insurance policies or renew expiring ones. Trump and congressional leaders appear no closer to a resolution over his demand for $5 billion for the border wall that could now push the shutdown into the new year. The House and Senate gaveled in for a perfunctory session Thursday, but quickly adjourned without action. No votes are expected until next week, and even that's not guaranteed. Lawmakers are mostly away for the holidays and will be given 24-hour notice to return, with Republican senators saying they won't vote until all parties, including Trump, agree to a deal. The president spent part of the day tweeting about the shutdown, insisting "this isn't about the Wall," but about Democrats denying him "a win." "Do the Dems realize that most of the people not getting paid are Democrats?" he asked in one tweet, citing no evidence for that claim. That earned him a reprimand from Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who tweeted: "Federal employees don't go to work wearing red or blue jerseys. They're public servants." Roughly federal 420,000 workers were deemed essential and are working unpaid, unable to take any sick days or vacation. An additional 380,000 are staying home without pay. While furloughed federal workers have been given back pay in previous shutdowns, it's not guaranteed. The Senate passed a bill last week to make sure workers will be paid. The House will probably follow suit. The longer the shutdown lasts, the more government activities will grind to a halt. It's already caused a lapse in money for nine of 15 Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, State and Justice. Many national parks have closed while some have limited facilities. The National Flood Insurance Program announced it will no longer renew or issue policies during the shutdown. "I think it's obvious that until the president decides he can sign something — or something is presented to him — that we are where we are," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who opened the Senate for the minutes-long session. "We just have to get through this." House Democrats tried Thursday to offer a measure to re-open government, but they were blocked from action by Republicans, who still have majority control of the chamber until Democrats take over Jan. 3. "Unfortunately, 800,000 federal workers are in a panic because they don't know whether they'll get paid," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., who tried to offer the bill. "That may make the president feel good but the rest of us should be terribly bothered by that, and should work on overtime to end the shutdown now." Government contractors like James, placed indefinitely on unpaid leave, don't get compensated for lost hours. James said the contracting company he works for gave its employees a choice: take unpaid leave or dip into paid time-off entitlements. But James doesn't have any paid time off because he started the job just four months ago. His only option is forgoing a paycheck. "This is my full-time job, this is what I was putting my time into until I can save up to take a few classes," said James, who plans to study education and become a teacher. "I'm going to have to look for something else to sustain me." Mary Morrow, a components engineer on contract for NASA, is in the same predicament. In addition to caring for a family largely on her own, she's got a mortgage "I have three teenage boys, it's near Christmas time and we just spent money, there are credit card bills and normal bills and it's really nerve-wracking," she said. "It's scary." As federal employees tell their stories on Twitter under the hashtag #Shutdownstories, Trump has claimed that federal workers are behind him, saying many have told him "stay out until you get the funding for the wall.'" He didn't say whom he had heard from, and he did not explain the incongruity of also believing that most are Democrats. Steve Reaves, president of Federal Emergency Management Agency union, said he hasn't heard from any employees who say they support the shutdown. "They're all by far worried about their mortgages," Reaves said. Reaves said the shutdown could have consequences that stretch beyond a temporary suspension of salary. Many federal government jobs require a security clearance, he said, and missed mortgage payments or deepening debt could hurt their clearance. David Dollard, a Federal Bureau of Prisons employee and chief steward for the American Federation of Government Employees Local 709 union in Colorado, said at least two agency employees lost their homes after the 2013 shutdown suspended their salaries. Bureau of Prisons employees are considered essential, and must work without pay. The agency is already understaffed, Dollard said. Shutdown conditions make everything worse. "You start out at $44,000 a year, there's not much room for anything else as far saving money for the next government shutdown, so it puts staff in a very hard situation," he said. "We've got single  fathers who have child support, alimony. It's very hard to figure out what you're going to do."

Candice Nesbitt, 51, has worked for 1 ½ years for the U.S. Coast Guard, the only branch of the military affected by the shutdown. About 44,000 Coast Guard employees are working this week without pay; 6,000, including Nesbitt, have been furloughed. Nesbitt worked for a contractor but took a pay cut in exchange for the stability of a government job. She has a mortgage, is the guardian of her special needs, 5-year-old grandson, and makes about $45,000 a year, she said. Any lapse in payment could plunge her into debt. "It shakes me to the core," she said.

^ This is getting ridiculous .Who do I blame for the Government Shutdown? Trump, the Republicans and the Democrats. Each side wants to claim the "win" and so each side is fighting tooth-and-nail  to not compromise and do what is right  - fund the Government and start paying all the employees that are not getting paid. ^

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/federal-workers-face-grim-prospect-of-lengthy-shutdown-1.562186

2nd Great Fire

78 years ago today (December 29-30, 1940) 136 German bombers dropped over 100,000 bombs on London which caused 1,500 fires around the city and has been called the Second Great Fire of London. 160 people were killed including 12 firefighters. 250 people were wounded and hundreds of buildings were destroyed along with an estimated 5 million books. The picture below is of St Paul's Cathedral during this bombing raid. Despite 28 incendiary bombs falling in and around the Cathedral it survived. While the British didn't let the Blitz demoralize them as the Germans had hoped the economic damage from such large devastation of a major city is thought to have accelerated the collapse of the British Empire, and the decline of Great Britain as a superpower in the decades following the war.

Crimean Fence

From the BBC:

"Ukraine conflict: Russia completes Crimea security fence"

Russia has finished building a high-tech security fence along annexed Crimea's border with mainland Ukraine.  The fence, more than 60km (37 miles) long, is topped with barbed wire and has hundreds of sensors. Russian forces annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March 2014 - a move condemned internationally. Crimea has a Russian-speaking majority.  Russia's FSB security agency says the fence is necessary to prevent "infiltration attempts by saboteurs".  An FSB statement, quoted by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency, said the fence would also thwart smugglers trading in illegal weapons, drugs, alcohol and other contraband. The fence spans the neck of land connecting Crimea with Ukraine's Kherson region. Most of its sensors pick up vibrations from any potential intruders, the FSB said, but some are also radio-location devices. Russia has similar equipment along its northern and eastern borders. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko lifted martial law in the country's border regions, which was imposed last month after Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels in the Sea of Azov. On Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron demanded that Russia release 24 Ukrainian sailors it captured along with the two small gunboats and a tugboat last month in the Kerch Strait, between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The two leaders also asked for free access for all ships through the strait, in a joint statement. Moscow accuses the 24 navy personnel of illegally crossing the Russian border, but Ukraine says Russia captured the boats illegally and accuses Moscow of military aggression. Ukraine has also erected border fences since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. New fences went up in the Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions, north of Kiev - regions bordering on Russia. Ukraine also has a new fence in Kherson region, near Crimea.

^ Unlike my previous post about border walls and barriers this Russian-made fence between annexed Crimea and Ukraine seems to be more about keeping people in the Crimea rather than protecting against a Ukrainian attack to regain their territory (if they haven't done it in the 4 1/2 years since Russia invaded, occupied and annexed Crimea I doubt they would now.) This Crimean fence is more of a Berlin Wall situation. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46699807

Barriers And Walls

I honestly do not understand people’s strong opposition to building a fence, wall or barrier along the US-Mexico border. Besides the cost no one can seem to explain why it’s a bad idea. Not only would a barrier help prevent illegal immigrants from entering, but it would also help stem the Mexican Drug War from spilling over into the US – which anyone in the border states of: California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas know all too well has happened for years. So far the Mexican Drug War has killed 250,000 people with 30,000 more missing and displacing 1.6 million people.

Current Border Barriers Around the World:

-          Austria (EU) – Slovenia (EU)

-          Austria (EU) – Italy (EU)

-          Belize–Guatemala

-          Botswana/Zimbabwe

-          Brunei/Limbang

-          Bulgaria (EU) /Turkey

-          Ceuta border fence Spain (EU)-Morocco

-          China/Hong Kong

-          Costa Rica/Nicaragua

-          Chinese–Korean border fence

-          Egypt–Gaza barrier

-          Estonia (EU) –Russia border fence

-          Macedonia–Greece  (EU) barrier

-          Malaysia–Thailand border

-          Melilla border fence Spain (EU)-Morocco

-          Hungary (EU)–Serbia barrier

-          Hungary (EU) –Croatia (EU) barrier

-          India–Bangladesh barrier

-          India–Myanmar barrier

-          Indian Kashmir barrier

-          Iran–Pakistan barrier

-          Israel-Gaza barrier

-          Israel-West Bank barrier

-          Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan barrier

-          Korean Demilitarized Zone North Korea and South Korea

-          South Africa and Mozambique

-          South Africa/Zimbabwe

-          Kuwait–Iraq barrier

-          Norway-Russia barrier

-          Pakistan–Afghanistan barrier

-          Saudi–Yemen barrier

-          Saudi–Iraq barrier

-          Slovenia (EU)–Croatia (EU) barrier

-          Turkey–Syria border barrier

-          Turkey–Iran border barrier

-          Turkmen–Uzbekistan barrier

-          United Arab Emirates–Oman barrier

-          Uzbek–Afghanistan barrier

-          Uzbek–Kyrgyzstan barrier

-          Ukraine–Russia barrier

-          Mexico–United States barrier

-          Besides border barriers several countries of the EU have imposed internal checkpoints between other EU member countries despite the key provision of the EU being the freedom of movement between EU citizens throughout the EU. This would be the same thing as putting a border barrier/checkpoint and stopping Americans going from New York to Massachusetts or from Texas to Oklahoma, etc.  This is currently taking place between Austria-Slovenia, Austria-Italy, Denmark-Germany, Slovenia-Croatia, Hungary-Croatia.

Bomber Appeal

From Reuters;

"Boston Marathon bomber appeals conviction, death sentence"

Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Thursday asked an appellate court to overturn his conviction and death penalty sentence for helping carry out the 2013 attack, which killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.  Lawyers for Tsarnaev, 25, argued in a brief filed with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston that a lower-court judge’s refusal to move the case to another city not traumatized by the bombings deprived him of a fair trial.  The attorneys acknowledged that their client, then 19, carried out the attack along with his now-deceased 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.  But they argued that wall-to-wall media coverage of the bombings meant that nearly the entire jury pool was exposed to news about the attacks, which included “heart-wrenching stories about the homicide victims, the wounded and their families.”  “The pre-trial publicity was damning: the more a prospective juror had seen, the more likely she was to believe that Tsarnaev was guilty and deserved the death penalty,” Tsarnaev’s lawyers wrote in a 500-page brief.  They said U.S. District Judge George O’Toole also ignored evidence that two jurors had commented on the case on social media before being picked and prevented the defense from telling jurors about Tsarnaev’s brother’s ties to a 2011 triple murder.  That evidence, they said, would have supported their sentencing-related argument that Tsarnaev was a junior partner in a scheme run by his older brother, “an angry and violent man” who had embraced radical Islam.  The appeal came after a federal jury in 2015 found Tsarnaev guilty of placing a pair of homemade pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the world-renowned race on April 15, 2013, as well as fatally shooting a policeman three days later.  The same jury later found that Tsarnaev deserved execution for six of the 17 capital charges of which he was found guilty, which were related to the bomb he personally placed at the marathon’s finish line.  That bomb killed 8-year-old Martin Richard, the youngest fatality, and 23-year-old Chinese exchange student Lingzi Lu. The bombing was one of the highest-profile attacks on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.  Tsarnaev’s brother died after a gunfight with police four days after the bombing, which ended when Tsarnaev ran him over with a stolen car.  The manhunt for Tsarnaev ended when he was found hiding in a boat dry-docked in Watertown, Massachusetts. 

^ It has been 5 years and I don't understand why we are still hearing his appeals. He is guilty of terrorism and murdering and wounding innocent people and he should get the death penalty for that (Massachusetts doesn't have the death penalty, but luckily the Federal Government still does and terrorism is a Federal crime.) At this point it seems it would have been better if the cops had just shot and killed him when he was hiding in the boat. Then all of this would be over - especially for the victims and their families. ^

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boston-bombings-appeal/boston-marathon-bomber-appeals-conviction-death-sentence-idUSKCN1OQ1F4

Robert Heinlein

No Bread And Water

From the Stars and Stripes;

"Navy to scrap bread-and-water confinement"

The age-old naval punishment of jailing junior sailors for three days with just bread and water soon will go the way of flogging and keelhauling. The ban on bread-and-water confinement will go into effect Tuesday as part of an extensive change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which President Barack Obama signed into law in late 2016 and President Donald Trump amended earlier this year. Bread-and-water confinement is a nonjudicial penalty that ship commanders can mete out to misbehaving sailors in the lowest three pay grades. It dates back to when warships had wooden hulls and sails. Offenses that might earn sailors a bready diet in the brig are unauthorized absences, insubordination and lewd behavior. When asked, sailors and former sailors were mostly in favor of the practice being scrapped. “I did it once,” said Don Inbody, a retired Navy captain referring to a subordinate he punished with bread and water. “It’s time for it to go, though.” Inbody couldn’t recall the infraction, only that it was a good sailor who did something out of character. The old-fashioned penalty was preferable to docking the sailor’s pay or demoting him, Inbody said, adding that it works best on smart sailors who think about what they did wrong instead of just getting mad. A military justice review group recommended eliminating bread-and-water confinement, stating it was confident that commanders could render effective discipline through other punishments available under the UCMJ’s Article 15, as well as through nonpunitive measures, said Patty Babb, spokeswoman in the Navy Justice Advocate General’s office. Some say the bread-and-water regimen isn’t as severe as it sounds. At most brigs, detainees eat as much bread as they can in 20 minutes, three times a day, and receive ample water. Brenda Lettera, a retired sailor, said when she was a cook aboard the USS Frank Cable in the late 1980s, a man got three days of bread and water in a makeshift brig for running naked through the women’s berthing. She recalls delivering him two to three loaves each meal. “They get to eat as much bread as they want during the time,” Lettera said. “Except for raisin bread. That wasn’t allowed.” Aircraft carriers and the larger amphibious transport vessels are generally the only ships with enough space for a dedicated brig. Sailors usually are transported to a shore facility for the bread-and-water treatment, said Chief Petty Officer Zach Winemiller, a sailor with a Tomahawk missile unit based in Naples, Italy, who saw a dozen such punishments when he worked three years at the former Naval Brig Puget Sound. Their typical violation was missing three musters while on restriction, Winemiller said. Sailors are normally required to form up several times a day while on restriction. Detainees would receive a medical screening to ensure they could handle the diet, Winemiller said. They were given a loaf of bread each meal, which was always more than enough, and their cells had sinks to supply drinking water, he said. Nevertheless, it’s an archaic punishment that the Navy has kept long past its time, Winemiller said. “We hold onto traditions,” Winemiller said. “It doesn’t seem to be very effective. It didn’t seem to bother them (prisoners). They didn’t complain.” He also thinks it was unfair to impose this penalty only on lower-ranking sailors in seagoing commands. A sailor who worked in security aboard the USS Harry S. Truman in 2015 agreed that it’s a weak deterrent. The Truman’s sailors who were on restriction would get bread and water for violations such as failing to make a formation three times, and many became repeat offenders. “We had one person miss so many musters and go through bread and water at least three times, so the captain recommended him to court martial,” said the sailor, who asked not to be named because of his current job as a criminal investigator. Captains began dishing out bread-and-water confinement around the mid-1800s when the Navy eliminated flogging, said Dave Winkler, a historian with the Naval Historical Foundation in Washington. Hauling a sailor under the keel of a ship, a punishment employed by the Dutch and British navies, among others, was also banned in Europe in the middle of the 19th century. Back then, spending time in the brig would’ve been like R and R because sailors would’ve gotten a break from their arduous daily work, Winkler said. Plus, a bread diet wasn’t much worse than the food they were normally fed. This punishment might be antiquated but it’s not inhumane, Winkler said. He’s sorry to see it go. “I thought it was one of those quirky customs that made naval service unique,” Winkler said.

^ Most people around the world would love to have something like bread and water to keep them alive. It doesn't sound like that big of a punishment especially when they can have as much bread and water as they want. ^

https://www.stripes.com/news/navy-to-scrap-bread-and-water-confinement-1.562209

2018 Deaths

                                                                  2018 Deaths 

January:

1st: Jon Paul Steuer, 33, American actor (Grace Under Fire, Little Giants, Star Trek: The Next Generation) and singer, suicide by gunshot.

2nd: Sauryavong Savang, 80, Laotian prince.

3rd: Donal Barrington, 89, Irish judge, member of the Supreme Court (1996–2000).

4th: Brendan Byrne, 93, American politician, Governor of New Jersey (1974–1982), lung infection.

4th: Bruce Halle, 87, American auto parts executive and philanthropist, founder of Discount Tire.

4th: Owen Hardy, 95, New Zealand WWII air force pilot.

4th: Philipp Jenninger, 85, German politician, President of the Bundestag (1984–1988).

4th: Harry Landers, 96, American actor (Ben Casey).(death announced on this date).

4th: Jack N. Merritt, 87, American army general.

5th: Thomas Bopp, 68, American astronomer, co-discoverer of Comet Hale–Bopp, liver failure.

5th: Jerry Van Dyke, 86, American actor and comedian (My Mother the Car, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Coach), heart failure.

5th: John Young, 87, American astronaut (Apollo 16, STS-1), pneumonia.

6th: Elza Brandeisz, 110, Hungarian dancer and teacher, conferred Righteous Among the Nations.

7th: Anna Mae Hays, 97, American military officer and nurse, Chief of Army Nurse Corps (1967–1971), first female U.S. General, complications from a heart attack.

7th: Antoni Subirà, 77, Spanish politician, member of Parliament of Catalonia (1980–1993) and co-founder of Democratic Convergence of Catalonia.

7th: Doug Young, 98, American voice actor (Quick Draw McGraw, The Flintstones, Jonny Quest).

8th: George Maxwell Richards, 86, Trinidadian politician, President (2003–2013), heart failure.

9th: Odvar Nordli, 90, Norwegian politician, Prime Minister (1976–1981), prostate cancer.

9th: Alexander Vedernikov, 90, Russian singer and teacher, Bolshoi Theatre soloist (1958–1990), People's Artist of the USSR (1976).

10th: Doreen Tracey, 74, English-born American actress (The Mickey Mouse Club), cancer and pneumonia.

12th: Ilkka Pastinen, 89, Finnish diplomat.

14th: Max Labovitch, 93, Canadian ice hockey player (New York Rangers).

15th: Mathilde Krim, 91, Italian-born American HIV/AIDS researcher.

15th: Dolores O'Riordan, 46, Irish singer and guitarist (The Cranberries, D.A.R.K.).

16th: Kingdon Gould Jr., 94, American diplomat, Ambassador to Luxembourg (1969–1972) and the Netherlands (1973–1976), pneumonia.

16th: John Spellman, 91, American politician, Governor of Washington (1981–1985), pneumonia.

18th: John Barton, 89, British theatre director, co-founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

18th: Stansfield Turner, 94, American admiral, Director of Central Intelligence (1977–1981).

19th: Olivia Cole, 75, American actress (Roots, Backstairs at the White House, Brewster Place), Emmy Award winner (1977), heart attack.

19th: Maurice Couture, 91, Canadian Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Québec (1990–2002).

19th: Dorothy Malone, 93, American actress (Written on the Wind, Peyton Place, Too Much, Too Soon), Oscar winner (1956).

20th: John Coleman, 83, American meteorologist, co-founder of The Weather Channel.

20th: Naomi Parker Fraley, 96, American naval machinist, inspiration for the "We Can Do It!" poster.

20th: Jim Rodford, 76, English bassist (Argent, The Kinks, The Zombies), injuries from a fall.

20th: Doron Rubin, 74, Israeli military officer.

21st: Connie Sawyer, 105, American actress (Dumb and Dumber, Pineapple Express, When Harry Met Sally...), heart attack.

22nd: K. B. Asante, 93, Ghanaian diplomat, Ambassador to Switzerland (1967–1972) and the European Economic Community (1976–1978).

22nd: Ian Bennett, 69, Canadian civil servant, President of the Royal Canadian Mint (2006–2014).

23rd: Robert Dowdell, 85, American actor (Stoney Burke, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea).

23rd: Galen L. Stone, 96, American diplomat, Ambassador to Cyprus (1978–1981), lymphoma.

24th: Gonzalo Facio Segreda, 99, Costa Rican politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs (1970–1978), President of the Legislative Assembly (1953–1956), Ambassador to the United States (1956–1958, 1962–1966, 1990–1994).

29th: Ion Ciubuc, 74, Moldovan politician, Prime Minister (1997–1999).

30th: Louis Zorich, 93, American actor (Mad About You, Brooklyn Bridge, The Muppets Take Manhattan).

31st: Dan Alon, 72, Israeli Olympic fencer (1972) and survivor of the Munich massacre, cancer.

31st: Ann Gillis, 90, American actress (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Bambi, 2001: A Space Odyssey).

31st: Leonid Kadeniuk, 67, Ukrainian first cosmonaut (STS-87).

February:

1st: Dennis Edwards, 74, American Hall of Fame soul and R&B singer (The Contours, The Temptations), complications from meningitis.

1st: Barys Kit, 107, Belarusian rocket scientist.

2nd: Dave Barrett, 87, Canadian politician, Premier of British Columbia (1972–1975), Alzheimer's disease.

4th: Gregor Dorfmeister, 88, German writer and journalist (Die Brücke, Town Without Pity).

4th: John Mahoney, 77, English-American actor (Frasier, In the Line of Fire, Say Anything...), complications from throat cancer.

7th: Nabi Şensoy, 72, Turkish diplomat, ambassador to the United States (2006–2009).

8th: Ben Agajanian, 98, American football player (New York Giants, Green Bay Packers), NFL Champion (1956, 1961).

9th: John Gavin, 86, American actor (Psycho, Spartacus, Imitation of Life) and diplomat, Ambassador to Mexico (1981–1986), pneumonia.

12th: Leo Falcam, 82, Micronesian politician, President of the Federated States of Micronesia (1999–2003), Vice President (1997–1999), Governor of Pohnpei (1979–1983).

13th: James W. Downing, 104, American naval officer and author, commanding officer of USS Patapsco, complications from heart surgery.

13th: Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark, 83, French-born Danish royal, Consort (since 1972), complications from pneumonia.

14th: Lois Barker, 94, American baseball player (AAGPBL).

14th: Pyotr Bochek, 92, Ukrainian military officer, Hero of the Soviet Union (1945).

14th: Ruud Lubbers, 78, Dutch politician and diplomat, Prime Minister (1982–1994), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2001–2005).

14th: Morgan Tsvangirai, 65, Zimbabwean politician and opposition leader, Prime Minister (2009–2013), colorectal cancer.

16th: Deryck Stapleton, 100, British Royal Air Force officer.

22nd: Valentin Falin, 91, Russian Soviet-era diplomat and politician.

24th: Kalman Aron, 93, Holocaust survivor and artist.

27th: Gertrude Alderfer, 86, American baseball player (AAGPBL).

28th: Antonio García-Trevijano, 90, Spanish lawyer, politician, philosopher and anti-Francoist activist.

March:

1st: Colin Campbell, 81, English actor (A Family at War, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries).

3rd: David Ogden Stiers, 75, American actor (M*A*S*H, Beauty and the Beast, The Dead Zone), bladder cancer.

4th: Javed Abidi, 52, Indian disability rights activist, chest infection.

4th: Russell Solomon, 92, American retail executive, founder of Tower Records.

5th: Uri Lubrani, 91, Israeli diplomat and military official.

7th: Charles Thone, 94, American politician, Governor of Nebraska (1979–1983), member of the US House of Representatives for Nebraska's 1st district (1971–1979).

9th: Adam Ostrowski, 99, Polish World War II RAF officer.

9th: Millie Dunn Veasey, 100, American civil rights activist.

11th: Baltasar Corrada del Río, 82, Puerto Rican judge and politician, Mayor of San Juan (1985–1989) and Secretary of State (1993–1995).

11th: Peter H. Dailey, 87, American advertising executive and diplomat, Ambassador to Ireland (1982–1984).

12th: Oleg Tabakov, 82, Russian actor (War and Peace, Oblomov), artistic director of the Moscow Art Theatre.

14th: David Wyman, 89, American historian (The Abandonment of the Jews).

16th: Dayton S. Mak, 100, American diplomat, Ambassador to Kuwait (1961–1963).

16th: Jane Moffet, 87, American baseball player (AAGPBL).

17th: Phan Văn Khải, 84, Vietnamese politician, Prime Minister (1997–2006).

18th: Barkat Gourad Hamadou, 88, Djiboutian politician, Prime Minister (1978–2001).

18th: Princess Mathilde of Saxony, 82, German royal princess.

18th: Georgi Mosolov, 91, Russian test pilot.

18th: Ivor Richard, Baron Richard, 85, British politician and diplomat, Lord Privy Seal (1997–1998), ambassador to UN (1974–1979), MP for Barons Court (1964–1974).

19th: Roger G. Barry, 82, British-born American geographer and climatologist, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (1976–2008).

19th: Madge Bester, 54, South African disability rights activist, once world's shortest woman.

22nd: Johan van Hulst, 107, Dutch politician, author and academic, awarded Righteous Among the Nations (1970), member of the Senate (1956–1981) and the European Parliament (1961–1968).

23rd: Zell Miller, 86, American politician, Governor of Georgia (1991–1999), member of the U.S. Senate (2000–2005), Parkinson's disease.

24th: Arnaud Beltrame, 44, French gendarme, stabbed.

April:

1st: Steven Bochco, 74, American television producer and writer (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue), 10-time Emmy winner, leukemia.

1st: Avichai Rontzki, 66, Israeli general, Chief Military Rabbi of the Israel Defence Forces (2006–2010), colorectal cancer.

2nd: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, 81, South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, MP (since 2009), complications of diabetes.

8th: Chuck McCann, 83, American voice actor (DuckTales, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Fantastic Four), heart failure.

11th: Robert Matthews, 56, British athlete, Paralympic champion (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000), brain tumor.

15th: R. Lee Ermey, 74, American soldier, military drill instructor, and actor (Full Metal Jacket, Toy Story, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), complications from pneumonia.

16th: Harry Anderson, 65, American actor (Night Court, Dave's World, It) and magician, stroke.

17th: Barbara Bush, 92, American political matriarch, First Lady (1989–1993) and Second Lady (1981–1989), complications from COPD and heart failure.

19th: Agnès-Marie Valois, 103, French nun and World War II nurse.

20th: Avicii, 28, Swedish electronic musician, DJ and record producer ("Wake Me Up", "Hey Brother", "Levels"), suicide by exsanguination.

21st: Verne Troyer, 49, American actor (Austin Powers, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), alcohol poisoning.

23rd: Liri Belishova, 91, Albanian politician and resistance member during World War II.

24th: Christine Jewett, 91, Canadian baseball player (AAGPBL).

26th: Philip H. Hoff, 93, American politician, Governor of Vermont (1963–1969).

27th: Álvaro Arzú, 72, Guatemalan politician, President (1996–2000), Mayor of Guatemala City (1986–1990, since 2004), heart attack.

May:

1st: Phil Gowan, 65, American historian (RMS Titanic), cancer.

2nd: Wang Danfeng, 93, Chinese actress.

4th: Kenneth J. Thorneycroft, 90, Canadian military officer.

13th: Margot Kidder, 69, Canadian-American actress (Superman, The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas) and activist.

15th: Joseph G. Clemons, 90, American soldier, subject of Pork Chop Hill.

15th: Martin Hoffman, 88, Czech-born British bridge player, writer and Holocaust survivor.

16th: Zhao Kangmin, 81, Chinese archaeologist, discoverer of the Terracotta Army.

19th: Joseph Cassar, 71, Maltese diplomat, United Nations representative and Ambassador to Portugal, Italy, Libya and Russia.

19th: John Moorfield, 74, New Zealand Māori language academic, cancer.

20th: Ramón Chao, 82, Spanish anti-Francoist journalist (Le Monde, La Voz de Galicia) and writer.

21st: Pedro Tenorio, 84, Northern Mariana Islander politician, Governor (1982–1990, 1998–2002).

21st: Faith Whittlesey, 79, American politician and diplomat, ambassador to Switzerland (1985–1988), cancer.

22nd: Tom Bernard, 86, American actor (Yankee Fakir, The Ruggles, Rebel Without a Cause).

24th: Jerry Maren, 98, American actor (The Wizard of Oz), heart failure.

26th: Alan Bean, 86, American astronaut (Apollo 12, Skylab 3), fourth person to walk on the Moon.

26th: Ted Dabney, 81, American electrical engineer, co-founder of Atari, esophageal cancer.

27th: Russell Nype, 98, American actor (Hello, Dolly!, Love Story, Call Me Madam) and singer, Tony winner (1951, 1959).

27th: Donald H. Peterson, 84, American astronaut (STS-6), Alzheimer's disease and bone cancer.

June:

1st: William Edward Phipps, 96, American actor (Cinderella, The War of the Worlds, Five), complications from lung cancer.

2nd: Mary Baumgartner, 87, American baseball player (AAGPBL).

7th: José Marfil Peralta, 97, Spanish soldier and Holocaust survivor.

7th: Gena Turgel, 95, Polish author, Holocaust survivor and educator.

8th: Eunice Gayson, 90, British actress (Dr. No, From Russia with Love, The Revenge of Frankenstein).

8th: Jackson Odell, 20, American actor (The Goldbergs, Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, iCarly).

8th: Anthony Bourdain, 61, American chef, author and television host (No Reservations, Parts Unknown, The Layover), four-time Emmy winner, suicide by hanging.

17th: Andrei Ivanovich Stepanov, 88, Soviet-born Russian diplomat and author.

19th: Ivan Drach, 81, Ukrainian poet, screenwriter and politician, member of Verkhovna Rada (1990–1994, 1998–2000, 2002–2006).

19th: Princess Elisabeth of Denmark, 83, Danish princess.

19th: Koko, 46, American-bred Western lowland gorilla.

20th: Dante Caputo, 74, Argentine diplomat and politician, President of the United Nations General Assembly (1988–1989), Minister of Foreign Relations (1983–1989).

20th: Francisco Griéguez, 99, Spanish WWII soldier and Holocaust survivor.

20th: Bill Speakman, 90, British soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross.

22nd: Dick Leitsch, 83, American LGBT rights activist, liver cancer.

23rd: Kim Jong-pil, 92, South Korean politician, Prime Minister (1971–1975, 1998–2000).

23rd: Ronald Spadafora, 63, American firefighter (FDNY Chief of Fire Prevention), supervised rescue and recovery following 9/11, acute myeloid leukemia.

24th: Darryl N. Johnson, 80, American diplomat.

24th: Pavel Vranský, 97, Czech brigadier general and RAF radio operator, veteran of the siege of Tobruk, War Cross and Medal of Merit recipient.

27th: Joe Jackson, 89, American band manager (The Jackson 5), patriarch of the Jackson family, pancreatic cancer.

27th: Corran Purdon, 97, British army major general.

July:

2nd: Patrick Finnegan, 68, American Army General and lawyer, President of Longwood University (2010–2012), heart attack.

2nd: Henri Froment-Meurice, 95, French diplomat, Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1979–1981) and West Germany (1981–1983).

3rd: Lorraine Rodgers, 97, American WASP pilot.

5th: Claude Lanzmann, 92, French documentarian (Shoah, The Last of the Unjust, Pourquoi Israël).

6th: Kimishige Ishizaka, 92, Japanese immunologist, discovered the antibody class IgE, heart failure.

7th: Levko Lukyanenko, 89, Ukrainian political Soviet-era dissident and politician, Deputy (1990–1992, 1995–1998, 2002–2007).

7th: Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma, 92, French royal, soldier and race car driver.

8th: Tom Gallagher, 77, American diplomat.

8th: Tab Hunter, 86, American actor (Damn Yankees, Grease 2) and singer ("Young Love"), blood clot.

8th: Robert D. Ray, 89, American politician, Governor of Iowa (1969–1983), Mayor of Des Moines (1997), and President of Drake University (1998), Parkinson's disease.

9th: Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, 99, British politician, Foreign Secretary (1979–1982), Secretary General of NATO (1984–1988).

13th: Thorvald Stoltenberg, 87, Norwegian politician, Minister of Defence (1979–1981), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1987–1989, 1990–1993).

14th: Sir Alan Donald, 87, British diplomat, Ambassador to China (1988–1991), prostate cancer.

14th: Theo-Ben Gurirab, 80, Namibian politician, Prime Minister (2002–2005), President of the UN General Assembly (1999–2000), Speaker of the National Assembly (2005–2015).

17th: Gary Beach, 70, American actor (The Producers, Beauty and the Beast, La Cage aux Folles), Tony winner (2001).

18th: Anne Olivier Bell, 102, English literary editor and art scholar, member of the Monuments Men Brigade.

18th: Adrian Cronauer, 79, American disc jockey (AFN), subject of Good Morning, Vietnam.

18th: Geoffrey Wellum, 96, British fighter pilot (Battle of Britain), member of The Few.

20th: Archduchess Maria of Austria, 82, German-born Austrian royal.

23rd: Duke Carl Gregor of Mecklenburg, 85, German royal and art historian.

24th: Mary Ellis, 101, British WWII era transport pilot (RAF, ATA).

24th: Isidor Levin, 98, Latvian folklorist.

26th: Robert Martin, 99, American fighter pilot (Tuskegee Airmen), pneumonia.

27th: Bernard Hepton, 92, British actor (Colditz, I, Claudius, Secret Army).

August:

1st: Alija Behmen, 77, Bosnian politician, PM of Bosnia and Herzegovina federation (2001–2003) and Mayor of Sarajevo (2009–2013).

1st: Jüri Rätsep, 83, Estonian politician and judge, magistrate of the Supreme Court (1993–2002).

1st: Nancy Tuckerman, 89, American secretary, White House Social Secretary (1963), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

3rd: Zbigniew Ścibor-Rylski, 101, Ukrainian-born Polish Air Force officer (Warsaw Uprising) and brigadier general.

4th: Arsène Tchakarian , 101, Armenian-born French resistance fighter (FTP-MOI).

5th: Charlotte Rae, 92, American actress (The Facts of Life, Diff'rent Strokes, 101 Dalmatians: The Series), bone cancer.

6th: Margaret Heckler, 87, American politician and diplomat, Ambassador to Ireland (1986–1989), Secretary of Health and Human Services (1983–1985), member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1967–1983), cardiac arrest.

6th: Nicole Kullen, 38, Australian Paralympic equestrian, meningococcal disease.

8th: Philip Riteman, 96, Polish-born Canadian lecturer and Holocaust survivor.

8th: Amber Tatro, 42, American disability rights activist and plaintiff, infective complications from spina bifida.

10th: Andrey Budnik, 65, Soviet-Russian diplomat, Ambassador to Pakistan (2009–2013) and Nepal (since 2015).

14th: Sir Hugh Cortazzi, 94, British diplomat, Ambassador to Japan (1980–1984).

16th: Aretha Franklin, 76, American Hall of Fame singer ("Respect", "Chain of Fools", "A Natural Woman"), pianist and songwriter, 18-time Grammy winner, pancreatic cancer.

18th: Kofi Annan, 80, Ghanaian diplomat, Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997–2006), Nobel Prize laureate (2001).

20th: Chicha Mariani, 94, Argentinian human rights activist, co-founder of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, stroke.

21st: Barbara Harris, 83, American actress (The Apple Tree, Freaky Friday, Nashville), Tony winner (1967), co-founder of The Second City, lung cancer.

24th: Princeton Lyman, 82, American diplomat, Ambassador to Nigeria (1986–1989) and South Africa (1992–1995), lung cancer.

24th: Robin Leach, 76, British writer and television host (Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous), complications from a stroke.

25th: Henryk Kucharski , 95, Polish firefighter, social worker and WWII veteran.

25th: John McCain, 81, American politician and Navy officer, member of the U.S. Senate (since 1987) and House of Representatives (1983–1987), glioblastoma.

31st: Alexander Zakharchenko, 42, Ukrainian separatist leader, President and Prime Minister of Donetsk People's Republic (since 2014), bombing.

September:

1st: Mykola Shytyuk, 64, Ukrainian historian, stabbed.

4th: Bill Daily, 91, American actor (I Dream of Jeannie, The Bob Newhart Show) and game show panelist (Match Game).

4th: Christopher Lawford, 63, American actor (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Thirteen Days, All My Children), memoirist and political activist, heart attack.

5th: Alan Peart, 96, New Zealand World War II fighter ace (Royal New Zealand Air Force).

5th: Freddie Oversteegen, 92, Dutch resistance member.

7th: Sheila White, 69, British actress (Oliver!) and singer, heart failure.

8th: Gennadi Gagulia, 70, Abkhazian politician, Prime Minister (1995–1997, 2002–2003, since 2018), traffic collision.

8th: Christopher Harper-Bill, 71, British medieval historian.

8th: Chelsi Smith, 45, American beauty pageant winner (Miss USA 1995, Miss Universe 1995), liver cancer.

8th: Richard Vincent, Baron Vincent of Coleshill, 87, British military officer and life peer.

10th: Peter Donat, 90, Canadian-born American actor (The Godfather: Part II, The X-Files, The China Syndrome), complications from diabetes.

10th: Albin F. Irzyk, 101, American military officer.

12th: Ronald Carter, 71, British linguist.

12th: Geoff Manning, 92, Australian historian.

13th: Sir William Kerr Fraser, 89, British civil servant, Chancellor of the University of Glasgow (1996–2006), Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Office (1978–1988).

13th: Marin Mazzie, 57, American actress and singer (Ragtime, Kiss Me, Kate, Passion), ovarian cancer.

14th: Rudolf Schieffer, 71, German historian.

15th: Irina Bessarabova, 57, Russian documentary film director and actress.

15th: Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, 92, British aristocrat and courtier.

15th: David Lowenthal, 95, American geographer and historian.

16th: Iris Acker, 88, American actress (Flight of the Navigator, Whoops Apocalypse, Cocoon: The Return), pancreatic cancer.

16th: Perry Miller Adato, 97, American documentary film director and producer.

16th: James B. Thayer, 96, American army brigadier general.

18th: James Allan, 86, British diplomat, High Commissioner to Mauritius (1981–1985) and ambassador to Mozambique (1986–1989).

18th: Lawrence Martin-Bittman, 87, Czech-born American artist, author and intelligence officer.

20th: Mohamed Sahnoun, 87, Algerian diplomat, Ambassador to the United States (1984–1989).

21st: Vitaliy Masol, 89, Ukrainian politician, Prime Minister (1994–1995).

22nd: Dolly Niemiec, 87, American baseball player (AAGPBL).

25th: Ivan Kapitanets, 90, Russian military officer, Admiral of the Fleet.

27th: Marty Balin, 76, American Hall of Fame rock singer and musician (Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship).

28th: Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini, 76, Swazi politician, Prime Minister (1996–2003, 2008–2018).

28th: Sidney Shachnow, 83, Lithuanian-born American Army general and Holocaust survivor.

29th: Richard A. Searfoss, 62, American astronaut.

October:

1st: Do Muri, 101, Vietnamese politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party (1991–1997), Prime Minister (1988–1991), respiratory and kidney failure.

1st: Peggy Sue Gerron, 78, American namesake of songs "Peggy Sue" and "Peggy Sue Got Married".

1st: Darryl Greenamyer, 82, American aviator and record holder.

1st: Juan Romero, 68, American busboy, witness to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, heart attack.

2nd: Jamal Khashoggi, 59, Saudi Arabian journalist, strangled.

4th: Sir John Swinton, 93, British military officer.

5th: Ed Kenney, 85, American singer and actor (Flower Drum Song).

6th: Quentin Kenihan, 43, Australian disability advocate and actor (Mad Max: Fury Road), asthma attack.

6th: Victoria Marinova, 30, Bulgarian journalist and television presenter, strangled.

6th: Scott Wilson, 76, American actor (The Walking Dead, In Cold Blood, The Ninth Configuration), complications from leukemia.

9th: Heiki Arike, 53, Estonian politician, Minister of the Interior (1993–1994).

9th: Diane Jergens, 83, American actress (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Bob Cummings Show, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color)

10th: Bill Corey, 101, Australian soldier (The Rats of Tobruk).

11th: Richard Brookins, 96, American soldier. Known as the “American Saint Nick” in Luxembourg during World War 2. 

12th: Pik Botha, 86, South African politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs (1977–1994).

12th: Colleen Conway-Welch, 74, American academic administrator (Vanderbilt School of Nursing), Nursing Living Legend, pancreatic cancer.

13th: Edgar S. Harris Jr., 93, American Air Force lieutenant general.

14th: Donald Stovel Macdonald, 86, Canadian politician and diplomat, MP (1962–1978), Government House Leader (1968–1970), and High Commissioner in the UK (1988–1991).

15th: William Thompson, 96, American admiral, led development of United States Navy Memorial, complications from cancer.

17th: Valters Frīdenbergs, 30, Latvian singer (Valters and Kaža), contestant in Eurovision Song Contest 2005, cancer.

17th: Fritz Wittmann, 85, German politician, MP (1971–1994, 1996–1998), president of the Federation of Expellees (1994–1998).

19th: Victor Marchetti, 88, American CIA agent and author (The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence), complications from dementia.

19th: Diana Sowle, 88, American actress (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Fallout 3).

20th: Gaétan Gervais, 74, Canadian historian and author, co-designer of the Franco-Ontarian flag.

21st: Earl Bakken, 94, American pacemaker inventor (Medtronic) and museum founder (Bakken Museum).

21st: Harry L. Ettlinger, 92, American engineer, member of the Monuments Men, Congressional Gold Medal recipient.

21st: Joachim Rønneberg, 99, Norwegian broadcaster (NRK) and military officer (Commander of Operation Gunnerside).

23rd: Melvin Cohn, 96, American immunologist, co-founder of the Salk Institute.

24th: Rudolf Gelbard, 87, Austrian Holocaust survivor.

26th: Nikolai Karachentsov, 73, Russian actor (Juno and Avos, The Dog in the Manger, A Man from the Boulevard des Capucines), People's Artist of the RSFSR (1989), kidney failure.

29th: Jane Actman, 69, American actress (The Paul Lynde Show, Room 222).

29th: Bernard Bragg, 90, American actor, co-founder of the National Theatre of the Deaf.

29th: Sir Nigel Broomfield, 81, British diplomat, Ambassador to Germany (1993–1997).

November

1st: Theodor Hoffmann, 83, German admiral, Chief of the Volksmarine (1987–1989) and East Germany Minister of Defense (1989–1990).

2nd: Robert F. Taft, 86, American Jesuit priest, Archimandrite of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

3rd: Janusz Bielański, 79, Polish Roman Catholic priest, rector of the Wawel Cathedral (1983–2007).

4th: Kateryna Handziuk, 33, Ukrainian politician, complications from an acid attack.

4th: Katherine Herring, 85, American baseball player (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League).

4th: Juan Antonio Ramírez Sunyer, 71, Spanish judge (Operation Anubis, 2017 Catalan independence referendum).

6th: Bernard Landry, 81, Canadian politician, Premier of Quebec (2001–2003).

8th: Bonnie Cooper, 83, American baseball player (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League).

10th: Jan Petránek , 86, Czech journalist, commentator and dissident, Charter 77 signatory, heart failure.

11th: Paul Rausnitz, 90, Czech-American businessman and WWII veteran, Medal of Merit recipient.

12th: André da Costa Belo, 61, East Timorese independence war veteran, academic and politician, Minister of Veteran Affairs (2017–2018).

13th: Katherine MacGregor, 93, American actress (Little House on the Prairie).

14th: Rolf Hoppe, 87, German actor (I Was Nineteen, Tři oříšky pro Popelku, Mephisto).

18th: Jennie Stoller, 72, British actress (The Good Father, Sapphire & Steel, King Ralph), cancer.

20th: Shlomo Erell, 98, Israeli military general, Commander of the Navy (1966–1968).

21st: Ray Chavez, 106, American Navy seaman, oldest US military survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

21st: Olivia Hooker, 103, American psychologist and yeoman, first African-American woman in the U.S. Coast Guard.

21st: Igor Korobov, 62, Russian intelligence officer, Director of the Main Intelligence Directorate (since 2016).

23rd: Betty Bumpers, 93, American childhood immunizations activist, First Lady of Arkansas (1971–1975), complications from dementia and a broken hip.

25th: Wright King, 95, American actor (A Streetcar Named Desire, Stagecoach to Fury, Planet of the Apes).

26th: Stephen Hillenburg, 57, American animator and director (SpongeBob SquarePants, Rocko's Modern Life), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

27th: Boris Aristov, 93, Russian politician, Soviet Ambassador to Finland (1988–1992) and Poland (1978–1983), Soviet Minister of Foreign Trade (1985–1988).

30th: George H. W. Bush, 94, American politician, President (1989–1993), Vice President (1981–1989), Director of Central Intelligence (1976–1977).

December

1st: Ken Berry, 85, American actor (F Troop, Mayberry R.F.D., Mama's Family).

1st: Ivan Katardžiev, 92, Macedonian historian.

1st: Scott Stearney, 58, American vice admiral, Commander of the Fifth Fleet (since 2018).

3rd: Philip Bosco, 88, American actor (Lend Me a Tenor, Working Girl, My Best Friend's Wedding), Tony winner (1989), complications from dementia.

3rd: Miguel Primo de Rivera y Urquijo, 84, Spanish aristocrat (Duke of Primo de Rivera) and politician, Mayor of Jerez (1965–1971) and Senator.

4th: Selma Engel-Wijnberg, 96, Dutch Holocaust survivor, escapee from Sobibor.

4th: Nika Rurua, 50, Georgian politician, Minister of Culture (2009–2012), heart attack.

5th: Alex Boraine, 87, South African politician, MP (1974–1986).

5th: Inge Johansen, 90, Norwegian engineer and educator, rector of the Norwegian Institute of Technology (1976–1984).

6th: Galina Anisimova, 89, Russian actress (All Remains to People).

6th: Joseph Joffo, 87, French author (A Bag of Marbles).

8th: Lyudmila Alexeyeva, 91, Russian human rights activist.

9th: Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, 72, British aristocrat.

9th: Gordon Scholes, 87, Australian politician, Speaker of the House of Representatives (1975–1976), Minister for Defence (1983–1984) and Territories (1984–1987).

12th: James Lyons, 91, American admiral, Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet (1985–1987).

12th: Pavle Strugar, 85, Montenegrin military officer (Yugoslav People's Army) and convicted war criminal.

13th: Seán Garland, 84, Irish politician, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Ireland (1977–1990).

13th: Nancy Wilson, 81, American jazz singer ("(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am"), Grammy winner (1965, 2005, 2007).

15th: Girma Wolde-Giorgis, 93, Ethiopian politician, President (2001–2013).

17th: Penny Marshall, 75 American actress (Laverne & Shirley” and director (A League Of Their Own), complications of diabetes.

18th: Tulsi Giri, 92, Nepali politician, Prime Minister (1963, 1964–1965, 1975–1977), liver cancer.

19th: Eva Tichauer, 100, German Holocaust survivor and author.

20th: Donald Moffat, 87, British-born American actor (The Thing, The Right Stuff, Clear and Present Danger), complications from a stroke.

22nd: Roberto Suazo Córdova, 91, Honduran politician, President (1982–1986).

22nd: Paddy Ashdown, 77, British politician, Leader of the Liberal Democrats (1988–1999), High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (2002–2006), MP (1983–2001), bladder cancer.

22nd:  Simcha Rotem, 94, Polish-Israeli resistance fighter (Warsaw Ghetto Uprising).

25th: Werner Braun, 100, Israeli photojournalist.