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Jacqueline Huskey, a Black woman living in suburban Illinois, tried more than a dozen times to get help from State Farm after a hailstorm punched holes in her roof. Now, thanks to a broad study of how the insurer handles claims like hers, she has evidence indicating that her struggle is a common one for Black customers.

Ms. Huskey is suing State Farm, and the study is the basis of the lawsuit. It is the first of its kind to use company-specific data to highlight racial bias, which is difficult to prove.

https://tnewsline.com/2022/12/14/business/new-suit-uses-data-to-back-racial-bias-claims-against-state-farm/

Grant Wahl, the celebrated soccer journalist who died suddenly last week at the World Cup in Qatar, had a rupture in a blood vessel leading from the heart, his family announced on Wednesday.

His death resulted from a weakness in an artery wall called an aneurysm, which may balloon outward and then tear open. An autopsy conducted in New York revealed that Mr. Wahl, 49, experienced a catastrophic rupture in the ascending aorta, which carries oxygenated blood from the heart.

The autopsy puts an end to rampant speculation that followed Mr. Wahl’s death. Posts on social media hinted at links to Covid vaccines or retaliation by the Qatari government for an article Mr. Wahl had written about immigrant deaths.

https://tnewsline.com/2022/12/14/world/grant-wahl-died-of-a-burst-blood-vessel-his-family-says/

A Paris official on Tuesday asked for the Champs-Elysees to be closed for Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final clash between France and Morocco, fearing “the world’s beautiful avenue” could turn into a “battlefield” with scenes of “civil war” after the high-stakes encounter.

Paris says it will mobilise 2,000 police across the city during the game but Jeanne d'Hauteserre, the local mayor of the 8th arrondissement - where the Champs-Elysees is based - called the number “insufficient”.

On CNews, she said: "When you want to celebrate victory, you don't come with mortars. But these people are really only coming to smash with iron bars.

https://tnewsline.com/2022/12/13/sports/paris-fears-france-vs-morocco-will-cause-civil-war/

LONDON — Under growing pressure to curb the arrival of migrants in small boats on the English coast, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday announced plans to tackle Britain’s big backlog in asylum claims and to fast-track the return of most Albanians seeking refugee status.

Outlining a tough package of measures, Mr. Sunak said that some asylum seekers who make the dangerous journey across the English Channel would be housed in disused vacation parks, former student halls and surplus military sites, rather than hotels, which cost the government 5.5 million pounds (about $6.8 million) a day. And he promised to propose laws to bar those entering Britain through unofficial routes from remaining.

In one of his first big policy initiatives as prime minister, Mr. Sunak put particular focus on rejecting asylum claims from Albanians, saying their nation would be treated as a safe country, ensuring that most applicants could be swiftly returned.

https://tnewsline.com/2022/12/13/world/britains-leader-unveils-tough-plans-to-tackle-illegal-crossings/

The mythic figure that is the billionaire tech genius in the nowhere man tee may finally be about to meet its long overdue end. The arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency trading platform, on Monday in the Bahamas on charges of fraud, may signal not just the next stage in his downfall, but also a change in the global image-making of Silicon Valley.

After all, no one took the idea that a life of the boundless mind was reflected in a life freed from petty concerns like clothing further than Mr. Bankman-Fried (or SBF, as he is often called). Not for him the physical cage of a suit and tie. Instead, the T-shirt, cargo shorts and sneakers, often worn with white running socks scrunched down at the ankle.

And not just any T-shirt and cargo shorts, but what could seem like the baggiest, most stretched out, most slept in, most consciously unflattering T-shirts and shorts; the most unkempt bed-head. While the look may have evolved naturally, it became a signature as he rose to prominence, a look he realized was as effective at pushing the Pavlovian buttons of the watching public (and the investing community) as the Savile Row suits and Charvet ties of Wall Street.

https://tnewsline.com/2022/12/13/technology/hey-silicon-valley-its-time-to-wear-a-suit/

JOHANNESBURG — Lawmakers from South Africa’s governing African National Congress put their weight behind President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday, rejecting an effort to proceed with an impeachment inquiry over accusations that he broke the law in his response to the theft of a large sum of U.S. currency from his farm.

The vote essentially kills an effort to remove Mr. Ramaphosa from office and lifts his political prospects just three days before the start of a national conference for his party, the A.N.C., at which he is expected to face a grueling battle to win a second term as party leader.

The A.N.C. holds 230 of the 400 seats in Parliament, and his opponents fell far short of the 31 members of the governing party they needed to get above the 50 percent threshold required to proceed with the impeachment process.

https://tnewsline.com/2022/12/13/world/south-africa-rejects-impeachment-inquiry-of-president/

JERUSALEM — When a serving Israeli soldier expressed his approval last month of a far-right politician who is set to become a minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s likely new coalition government, it set off a national furor.

The politician, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was deemed too extremist to serve in the army himself. Until 2020, he displayed in his home a portrait of a Jewish gunman who in 1994 shot dead 29 Palestinians inside a mosque.

The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, quickly released a rare public letter warning soldiers against getting involved in politics, while the soldier was sent to military jail for several days.

https://tnewsline.com/2022/12/13/world/concern-grows-in-israels-military-as-netanyahu-nears-coalition-deal/

It was 1974, and Don Lewis was getting tired of hauling around so many keyboards. One day he would be in a studio in Los Angeles, working alongside Quincy Jones. A week later, he might be on tour as a member of the Beach Boys’ backup band. Or he might be performing his own gigs, shuffling up and down the West Coast with an ever-growing assortment of keyboards and other equipment.

He could have just taken his trusty Hammond Concorde organ, itself not a small item. But Mr. Lewis was an aural explorer, constantly on the hunt for new sounds. If he found a keyboard with a particular tone to it, he had to add it to his collection. He was a one-man band; he aspired to be a one-man orchestra.

His problem was about more than sheer weight. Each instrument had to be controlled separately, and there was no industry standard for integrating them. An electrical engineer by training, he decided to strip them down for parts and build something new.

It took him three years of designing and fund-raising, but in 1977 he finalized the Live Electronic Orchestra, commonly known as the LEO.

https://tnewsline.com/2022/12/13/science/don-lewis-unsung-pioneer-of-electronic-music-dies-at-81/

“The Chinese attempt was contested by our troops in a firm and resolute manner,” Mr. Singh told the lawmakers.

India’s Army said in a statement on Monday that troops from each side had disengaged from the Line of Actual Control, which is patrolled by soldiers from both countries.

https://tnewsline.com/2022/12/13/world/indian-and-chinese-soldiers-again/

SpaceX has already launched its Falcon 9 rocket more than 50 times this year. NASA’s Artemis I, an uncrewed test flight that is a precursor to future astronaut missions, is nearing its return to Earth after orbiting the moon,. CAPSTONE, a small NASA-sponsored CubeSat is still orbiting the moon after being launched in June

BRUSSELS — The authorities in Belgium have started a sweeping operation to detain and question five people including former and current members and