Time Magazine International Edition Aug 28, 2017

UNDERMINING ELECTIONS RE “THE SECRET HISTORY of Election 2016” [July 31]: In the digital age, where hacking is ubiquitous, trust in democracy requires the traditional use of non-electronic electoral systems. No country can robustly sustain trust if it collects or stores voter registrations using computers connected to the Internet or produces vote totals other than by hand-counting paper ballots. My registration here, for example, was submitted and confirmed through the post. Is the U.S. more serious about electronic convenience than democracy? Mark Griffiths, WINCHESTER, ENGLAND IT’S TRUE THAT AMERICAN voters who lose faith in the integrity of an election won’t bother to vote. What’s more, the government does not seem to consider this hacking a priority, yet there is a commission to check voter registrations nationally to sow seeds of…

‘I’m critical of your client sticking his hand under my skirt and grabbing my ass.’ TAYLOR SWIFT, pop star, responding to a question about whether she was critical of her bodyguard in her testimony against Colorado DJ David Mueller, who she said groped her bare backside at a meet-and-greet in 2013; Mueller was found guilty of assault and battery, and will have to pay a symbolic $1 to Swift 5,000 Estimated number of people infected with cholera per day in war-torn Yemen, according to a new World Health Organization report 30 Number of single-serving cups of ice cream that SpaceX launched in a rocket to the International Space Station, along with 18 ice cream bars and research equipment, including 20 live mice ‘Allow yourself to be a vessel.’ SIMONE ASKEW,…

THERE’S NO ONE WAY TO PRODUCE A U.S. foreign policy. “Realists” hew to a pragmatic view of the world. Moralists are more guided by convictions. Academics identify a Hamiltonian school of thought, also a Wilsonian, Jeffersonian and Jacksonian one. But Donald Trump may be the first President who seems to just make it up on the fly. In the dog days of August, U.S. officials scrambled to brace up a global architecture that shuddered with each new pronouncement Trump appeared to have made off the cuff. In Asia the highest-ranking U.S. military officer flew to Seoul to walk back Trump’s Aug. 8 vow, which aides confirmed he made without consulting anyone, that any future threat from Pyongyang “will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”…

Canadian province bans grizzly hunts British Columbia has banned the controversial practice of hunting grizzly bears for sport. The Canadian province’s ban will take effect on Nov. 30, following this year’s trophy-hunt season. Hunting grizzlies for meat will still be permitted in all but one region. California city settles hijab lawsuit The city of Long Beach, Calif., agreed to pay $85,000 to a Muslim woman who filed suit after her hijab was removed by police after she was arrested on an outstanding warrant. The police updated its guidelines on head coverings. 13% of U.S. take antidepressants Close to 13% of Americans ages 12 and older admitted using antidepressants in the previous month in a government study conducted from 2011 to ’14. The number was up from 11% from ’05 to…

On Aug. 9, Nepal criminalized the practice of relegating women to huts when they are menstruating. The new law, which comes into effect in August 2018, stipulates that anyone enforcing the custom, known as chhaupadi, will face a three-month jail sentence and a fine. Here’s more. HISTORICAL CUSTOM Ancient Nepalese tradition dictates that women must be sequestered to small animal sheds outside their homes during menstruation or after childbirth, as they are considered to be impure. For a couple of days to a month, women are barred from entering homes and temples and are forbidden to touch men, cattle or some foods. STILL WIDESPREAD Nepal’s supreme court ruled that chhaupadi was illegal in 2005, but the ban has been widely flouted. According to a ’10 local government survey, one-fifth of…

The Australian government is at risk of collapse after it emerged on Aug. 14 that National Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is a dual citizen of New Zealand and Australia. The discovery might bar him from public office and threaten his governing coalition: THE LAW Australia’s 116-year-old constitution prohibits subjects or citizens of foreign powers from sitting in Parliament. Since July 14, five politicians have admitted they inherited or have been given dual citizenship; all but one say they did not know until recently. The high court now must decide whether they should be prohibited from holding public office. THE POLITICS Joyce, who says he had no idea he automatically inherited New Zealand citizenship from his father upon birth, is the most senior figure yet to be…