India vs England, Birmingham Weather Forecast Today and Pitch Report: Expected to stay sunny
India vs England (Ind vs Eng) World Cup 2019, Birmingham Weather Forecast Today and Pitch Report: Team India take on hosts England at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Sunday. While India are riding high after their last win, this is a must-win game for England as they struggle to stay in the tournament after two straight losses
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The visitors, who are in the second spot on the points table, did not have a great outing with the bat in the last game against West Indies but the bowlers did the job for the men in blue. India will sport the much-hyped orange jersey in their match on Sunday.
England, currently at the fifth spot on the points table, started out as World Cup favourites but have not played upto the expectations.
WEATHER REPORT: The weather is predicted to be sunny with a moderate breeze. More importantly, there is less than 10% chance of rain which means we would have a full day’s play on our hands. As per Accuweather, the day is going to be warm with the temperature likely to hover around 22 to 11 degrees Celsius. The humidity will be around 80 percent mark.
PITCH REPORT: The pitch is mostly dry with a promise of more turn than usual for spinners, which is advantage India. The wicket is fresh which is to the liking of England bowlers. In the past, teams batting second has always had an edge, so, the team winning the toss should bowl first.
In pics: A look at Dhoni’s iconic hairstyles over the years
After supreme Court Decision , gerrymandering fix is up to voters.
In a5-4 decisionthe Supreme Court has ruled that partisan gerrymandering is not unconstitutional.
The majority ruled that gerrymandering is outside the scope and power of the federal courts to adjudicate. The issue is a political one, according to the court, not a legal one.
“Excessive partisanship in districting leads to results that reasonably seem unjust,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority decision. “But the fact that such gerrymandering is incompatible with democratic principles does not mean that the solution lies with the federal judiciary.”
So for now, partisan gerrymandering, in which politicians get to choose their voters rather than voters choose their representatives, will remain a fact of American political life.
What is the background to this decision? And what does the decision mean for democracy in the U.S.?
In many states, if one party is in the majority at that time, they can use their power to manipulate the boundaries to their advantage. That’s calledpartisan gerrymandering, and it involves what’s referred to as “cracking and packing.”
Cracking spreads opposition voters thinly across many districts to dilute their power. Packing concentrates opposition voters in fewer districts to reduce the number of seats they can win.
Just one example:In 2012, Republicans in Ohiodrew up congressional boundaries that packed most Democratic voters into just four of the 16 congressional districts. The 9th District was referred to as the“snake on the lake”as it slithered along the edge of Lake Erie from Cleveland to Toledo to pack in as many Democratic voters as possible.
It worked.In the 2018 election, Ohio Republicans won just 52% of the votes but picked up 11 of 16 of the congressional seats.
I have researched theU.S. voting system, analyzedSupreme Court rulingsand shown whygerrymandering is now more prevalentsince the 1990s. Sophisticated computer programs and ever more detailed information on voters’ location and preferences now allow politicians to crack and pack with surgical precision.
In 2004, the Supreme Court effectively sanctioned gerrymandering. InVieth v. Jubelirer, the court ruled 5-4 not to intervene in a case brought by Democrats in Pennsylvania over a redistricting plan they claimed was unconstitutionally gerrymandered.
In 2017, and again in 2018, the Supreme Courtpassed up opportunitiesto decide upon the constitutional legality of gerrymandering by effectively punting on the cases.
In other cases, the court actively intervened.
Republican-controlled Shelby County, Alabama filed a case against the constitutionality of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The act had protected minority voters’ rights in the South from being diluted by gerrymandering and other methods. In the 2013 caseShelby v. Holder, the court overturned key elements of the act, in a 5-4 ruling. The ruling encouraged partisan gerrymandering in the states – Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia – previously under federal scrutiny for their legacy of discriminatory voting practices.
Mounting legal challenges
There have been other legal challenges to partisan gerrymandering.
In Virginiaa Republican map drawn up in 2011 that packed many African American voters into just 11 of the state’s 100 House of Delegates districts was challenged. A federal judge saw racial gerrymandering at work and ordered a new map. A Republican challenge to that ruling came before the Supreme Court. The Republican challenge was dismissed onJune 17, 2019.
The court’s decision in the Virginia case was not about whether the gerrymandering was unconstitutional. Instead, a 5-4 majority of the court ruled that the Virginia Republicans had no legal standing to mount the appeal when the state senate and the state attorney general had decided against appealing. The new map stood.
In Ohio,a three-judge federal panel ruledthat the Republicans attempted to cement a Republican majority of congressional seats when they drew up new districts. The state legislature was ordered by the court to draw a new map for the 2020 election.
And in Michigana panel of federal judges ruledthat many of the state’s legislature districts were unconstitutional, drawn up to ensure a partisan advantage. No more snake on the lake.
The Supreme Courtset asidethese last two lower court rulings on May 24, 2019 in preparation for this recent decision. The two cases are now sent back to lower courts for dismissal. The snake on the lake lives on for another election cycle.
Maryland and North Carolina
Gerrymandering is especially rampant in Maryland and North Carolina. In both statespowerful politicians admittedthat their plan was to solidify their party’s control.
Republicans in North Carolinadrew a mapin 2016 to ensure control of 10 of the state’s 13 congressional districts. Democratic voters were overwhelmingly packed into three districts with the remainder cracked across the remaining 10.
Democrats in Marylanddrew a mapwith gyrating boundaries in order to cement their 7-1 advantage in congressional seats.
When lower federal courts struck down these gerrymandered congressional district maps, politicians in both states appealed to theSupreme Court.
Arguments were heard on these cases in March 2019.
From the questioning, it appeared that the liberal justices – Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan and Sotomayor – wouldrule against gerrymanderingand the more conservative justices – Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch and Kavanaugh – wereagainst the court getting involved.
The votes predictably split along the ideological divide.
In themajority opinion, combining the Maryland and North Carolina cases into one decision, the court’s conservative majority noted that existing measures of gerrymandering do not provide precise and judicially discernible standards. The opinion was authored by Chief Justice Roberts, who has long held the opinion that it is impossibleto measure, let alone overcome, partisan gerrymandering.
Responding for the liberal minority, Justice Kagan read her dissent in open court – a sign of her intense disagreement with what she saw as the court’s unwillingness to uphold fair and free elections. She wrote that the decision “debased and dishonored our democracy.”
Now what?
Partisan gerrymandering will continue. But so will resistance against it, I believe.
These commissions resulted from citizen initiatives to reform the process. But most states east of the Mississippi, for instance,do not have a ballot initiativeprocess that would allow voters to initiate reform.
Gerrymandering has a pernicious impact on the electoral system and on the wider democratic process. It encourages long-term incumbency and a consequent polarization of political discourse.
But now the Supreme Court has made it clear that the solution does not lie with federal judges.
TIK-TOK is a social network in which you can create and share fun music videos with your friends and followers . to use the application , you need to create an account , which takes a few second and can be completed through Instagram ,facebook , or google.
TIK-TOK is an ios and android media app for creating and sharing short videos . the app was launched in 2017 by bytedance , for markets outside of china bytedance has previously launched Douyin for the china market in September 2016 . Tik tok and Douyin use the same software , but maintain separate network to comply with Chinese censorship restriction . the application allows users to create short music videos of 3 to 15 seconds and short video looping videos of 3 to 60 seconds . It is a leading short video plateform in Asia , united states , and other part of the world Tik-tok is not available in china and its servers are Based in countries where the app is available.
TIK TOK Tik-Tok is a 1983 science fiction novel by john Sladek . it Recived a 1983 British science fiction association award .
Residents in Darwin are being evacoated from shops as termers were felt across the city following an earthquake
The US Geological Survey (USGS) says an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 struck in the Banda Sea off Indonesia — which sits above the Northern Territory — about 11am on Monday.
the quake caused tremors in Darwin for about five minutes.
Buildings shook and several hotels and businesses have been evacuated in the CBD. According to the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre the mainland is not at risk of being hit by a tsunami.
Residents have reported feeling the tremors 300kms south of Darwin, in Maningrida and Katherine, according to the 123.
The earthquake occurred at a depth of 213 kilometres, according to Geoscience Australia.
Local residents have varied accounts of the quake, with many saying they felt two separate tremors.
Other residents, reporting their experiences online, described the two tremors as “bouncing” furniture and electrical goods, as they felt the two tremors last for between ten seconds and two minutes.
Office workers were seen throughout Darwin outside buildings after feeling the earthquake.
One worker, Robyn, said no alarm had gone off but workers had decided to get out of the building anyway.
She said it was the strongest she had ever felt in Darwin
Android Oxygen operating system with 2.84GHz Snapdragon 855 octa core processor
3700mAH lithium-ion battery
1 year manufacturer warranty for device and 6 months manufacturer warranty for in-box accessories including batteries from the date of purchase
Box also includes: Power Adapter, Type-C Cable (Support USB 2.0), Quick Start Guide, Welcome Letter, Safety Information and Warranty Card, Logo Sticker, Case, Screen Protector (pre-applied) and SIM Tray Ejector
