A | The IRS deleted a job listing seeking “new special agents” who are “willing to use deadly force, if necessary” from their website, following a fierce backlash on social media Wednesday–only to reupload it within a day with the offending portion removed.,The IRS has removed the line "Carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary" from their IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent listing following the fiasco yesterday.Archived here: https://t.co/vBy6lB841RActive link: https://t.co/uvwbrAkIit pic.twitter.com/vNmcSXuD7w— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) August 11, 2022,Per the now-updated page on the IRS website, “IRS Special Agents are considered the premier financial investigators for the Federal government.”,“Special Agents are duly sworn law enforcement officers who are trained to ‘follow the money,’” the listing says, warning that “no matter what the source, all income earned, both legal and illegal, has the potential of becoming involved in crimes which fall within the investigative jurisdiction of the IRS Criminal Investigation.”,The posting sparked a wave of condemnation from ordinary citizens and influential politicians alike, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who took to Twitter to express his opposition to the proposed new IRS jobs:,“HELL NO. Every Republican should pledge we WILL NOT FUND these 87k armed new IRS agents who will target the American people.”,HELL NO.Every Republican should pledge we WILL NOT FUND these 87k armed new IRS agents who will target the American people. https://t.co/BmKZVjVdNx— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 10, 2022,Funding for the special agents in question is likely to be drawn from a huge budget boost the IRS anticipates, with Democrats in the House set to approve the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act.”,Along with around $430 billion the Biden administration says will address climate change and extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, the new spending bill promises to pump $80 billion into the IRS over the next ten years - more than doubling the size of the agency with over 87,000 new positions. According to the now-updated job listing, many of them will be armed; one of the “key requirements” is that applicants “be legally allowed to carry a firearm.”,The ad in question was first noticed by documentarian Ford Fischer, who pointed out in a subsequent post on Twitter that, by June, the criminal division of the IRS had spent more on ammunition in the previous three months than they typically spent in an entire year in the recent past.,Fischer told Sputnik News he finds it “fascinating” that “following the attention [he] brought to this job listing, the page went down for a while, and now with it back online, the ‘willingness to engage in deadly force' line has been removed.”,“The reality is that while perhaps finding some renewed relevance in today's news cycle about the IRS, this listing isn't particularly unusual,” Fischer notes. “The agency has been spending more than $600,000 annually on ammunition, which has been charted out for at least the past three administrations.”,“What's new is that while the left (to be clear, I mean real leftists - not Democrats) have been fairly adamant in their opposition to law enforcement at all levels, the Republicans seem to find opposition when the politics line up. For example, they currently are deeply critical of the FBI, and IRS.”,Opposition to the spending bill authorizing the IRS expansion has come almost entirely from the GOP. A recent analysis by House Republicans found that 60% of new audits expected to be unleashed by the doubling in IRS personnel will fall on those making $75,000 or less a year. But Democrats claim those making less than $400,000 will not be targeted by the new IRS agents.,The IRS reportedly did not respond to inquiries by Fox News or the National Review about its removal of the job posting.。
B | London, Oct 18 (UNI) "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida" by Sri Lankan Shehan Karunatilaka, a supernatural satire set amid a murderous civil war in the island nation, has won the Booker Prize.
The novel is about a photographer who wakes up dead, with a week to ask his friends to find his photos and expose the brutality of war, BBC and other media reported.
Camilla, the Queen Consort, presented the prize, and the author said it had been "an honour and a privilege" to be on the shortlist.
Karunatilaka said as he accepted his prize: "My hope is that in the not too distant future... Sri Lanka has understood that these ideas of corruption and race-baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work."
The writer said he decided in 2009 to write "a ghost story where the dead could offer their perspective" after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, "when there was a raging debate over how many civilians died and whose fault it was".
"I hope it's in print in 10 years... if it is, I hope it's written in a Sri Lanka that learns from its stories, and that Seven Moons will be in the fantasy section of the bookshop, next to the dragons, the unicorns and will not be mistaken for realism or political satire," the BBC reported
He added that he had "self-censored" a couple of short stories after author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in August, having faced years of death threats for his novel "The Satanic Verses", which some Muslims see as blasphemous.
"I was in the process of publishing a collection of short stories when this incident happened, and I discovered a couple which I don't think was offensive to any religion," Karunatilaka said.
"But my wife said, can you not do that? You've got two young kids. This story is not that good. Just leave it out."
He added that "this is something that hangs over all of us if we're writing in South Asia, especially writing about politics or religion", the BBC said.
Head judge Neil MacGregor praised the "scope and the skill, the daring, the audacity and hilarity" of the novel, calling it an "afterlife noir" which "takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey through life and death".
He said the judges' decision had been unanimous, adding all of the shortlisted books were "all really about one question, and that is what's the point of an individual life?"
The prestigious £50,000 prize, for a single work of fiction published in the UK in English, also gives the other five writers on the shortlist £2,500 each.
"The Seven Moons of Maali" is Karunatilaka's second novel, having previously won awards including the Commonwealth Book Prize for his debut book Chinaman, which was called the "second best cricket book of all time" by cricketers' almanac Wisden.
Born in 1975, the writer has also worked as an advertising copywriter, and his songs, scripts and stories have been published in Rolling Stone, GQ and National Geographic.
MacGregor, a former director of London's National Gallery and the British Museum, added that the judges read all 170 books put forward for the prize, then whittled them down to 30. They then re-read those, before deciding on the final six, which they read for a third time, the report said.
The other nominees were: "Glory" by NoViolet Bulawayo, "The Trees" by Percival Everett, "Treacle Walker" by Alan Garner, "Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan and "Oh William!" by Elizabeth Strout.
The Booker-winning novel tells the story of the photographer of its title, who in 1990 wakes up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. With no idea who killed him, Maali has seven moons to contact the people he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos of civil war atrocities that will rock Sri Lanka, the Daily Mirror reported.
The judges were unanimous in their decision to award the prize to Karunatilaka, according to the chair.
Receiving his prize, Karunatilaka addressed the people of Sri Lanka in Tamil and Sinhalese. He summarised what he said in English: “I write these books for you… Let’s keep sharing these stories.”
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is published by the independent press Sort of Books. This year is the first time a book by the publisher has been longlisted for the prize.
Karunatilaka has become the second Sri Lankan-born author to win, following Michael Ondaatje, who won in 1992 with "The English Patient".
In his Guardian review, Tomiwa Owolade said the book’s “scenarios are often absurd … but executed with a humour and pathos that ground the reader”. He added: “Karunatilaka has done artistic justice to a terrible period in his country’s history.”
Karunatilaka, was born in Galle, Sri Lanka, in 1975 and grew up in Colombo.
UNI MR。
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