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A teacher has come under fire for handing out an assignment that asked students to identify primates in a grid of photos that included one of former president Barack Obama.

The teacher, who has not been named, was recently placed on leave by The Roeper School in Birmingham, Michigan, WDIV reported.

Students in a biology class were allegedly handed a piece of paper for the assignment titled: Which of the following are primates?

The former US president was pictured alongside monkeys and other animals including a peacock, and according to the report were expected to tick which of the images showed a primate.

Lessons at the school were cancelled on Thursday because of threats reportedly made online following the revelations. Police were also stationed outside the building.

When I saw it I couldnt believe it, the schools diversity director, Carolyn Lett, told WDIV. Im trying to understand this myself. But right away I had a reaction. like, its so wrong I cant understand it.

The school, who have been investigating the incident, said the assignment had been taken from a highly regarded universitys website, Fox 2 reported. No further details were issued about the work.

The assignment worksheet (Duke University Press)

On behalf of Roeper Schools leadership, we want to acknowledge the disturbing racial offence contained in an assignment with an upper school class last week, the school said in a statement on Friday.

The choice to use this piece of curriculum was completely inconsistent with our Schools philosophy and mission and we sincerely apologise for its use and the harm it has caused.

The school added that although the teacher in question had taken responsibility and admits the mistake of not properly vetting the resource, the action warranted the individual being placed on leave.

The Independent has approached the school for comment.

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Michigan teacher placed on leave after including photo of Obama in assignment about primates - Yahoo! Voices

Days after Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO essentially ending decades of neutrality on the world stage former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the development "huge" and a major defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin's decision to invade Ukraine was partly driven by a desire to prevent the country from joining NATO, which would put the military alliance right at Russia's border. But last week's move by Finland and Sweden suggests that plan has backfired, Gates told "Face the Nation" Sunday.

"I think it changes the geopolitics in Europe in a dramatic way. Now he's got NATO on his doorstep, not only in Ukraine and elsewhere," Gates said, referring to Putin.

"He's going to have them on his border in Finland. And it's an amazing thing he's done because he's gotten Sweden to abandon 200 years of neutrality," Gates said. "So I think one of his many, huge miscalculations in invading Ukraine is he has dramatically changed the geostrategic posture of Western Europe. And now that you have the Swedes and the Finns as part of that, he's really put Russia in a much worse strategic position than it had before the invasion."

NATO's 30 member countries are now reviewing Sweden's and Finland's applications. If their bids are accepted, the two once-neutral Nordic nations could become members within a few months.

When the leaders of the two countries visited the White House last Thursday, President Biden offered his "strong support" for their applications.

Gates, who served as defense secretary under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine could continue to hurt Russia's economy and affect the country in other ways. He also doesn't believe Putin could win the war by taking over Ukraine and "absorbing it" into Russia, but he said Putin might still walk away with some strategic areas of Eastern Ukraine.

"He has the potential to hold on to a good part of the Donbas. But I think in terms of pushing on to Odessa or trying to bring a change of government in Kyiv or absorb Ukraine, I think if that's winning, I don't see that he can win," Gates said.

"His invasion has weakened Russia and it's got now long-term economic problems," Gates said. "Europe, I think, is very serious at this point about weaning itself away from dependence on Russian oil and gas. So that will weaken Russia significantly."

The former defense secretary expressed doubt that Putin's biggest ally, China, would do enough to rescue Russia's economy partly because it wouldn't want to become dependent on Russia for energy sources.

"China will want to remain diversified," Gates said. "They might buy some more Russian oil and gas, but nothing like what would be required to replace the European market. Putin will remain a pariah ... He has put Russia really behind the 8-ball economically, militarily, and because now people are going to look at the Russian military and say, 'You know, this was supposed to be this fantastic military. Well, they give a good parade, but in actual combat, not so hot.'"

Asked if he believes Putin could resort to using a tactical nuclear weapon against Ukraine, Gates said it's unlikely.

"I think the probability of him using a tactical nuclear weapon is low, but not zero," he said. "There are no large masses of Ukrainian forces that would be taken out by a tactical nuclear weapon. And if [there's no] military purpose, then the only purpose is as a terror weapon to try and break the will of the Ukrainian people. And I think that moment has come and gone. I don't think that there's anything at this point that will break the will of the Ukrainian people."

Gates noted that a nuclear attack on Ukraine could possibly affect Russia's mainland as well.

"In that part of the world, and particularly in eastern Ukraine, the winds tend to blow from the west," he said. "If you set off a tactical nuclear weapon in eastern Ukraine, the radiation is going to go into Russia. So I just hope somebody reminds him of that."

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Robert Gates says NATO expansion "changes the geopolitics of Europe in a dramatic way" - CBS News

The Associated PressMarch 13, 2022 GMT

Former President Barack Obama said on Sunday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, though hes feeling relatively healthy and his wife, Michelle, tested negative.

Ive had a scratchy throat for a couple days, but am feeling fine otherwise, Obama said on Twitter. Michelle and I are grateful to be vaccinated and boosted.

Obama encouraged more Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, despite the declining infection rate in the U.S. There were roughly 35,000 infections on average over the past week, down sharply from mid-January when that average was closer to 800,000.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 75.2% of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated and 47.7% of the fully vaccinated have received a booster shot. The CDC relaxed its guidelines for indoor masking in late February, taking a more holistic approach that meant the vast majority of Americans live in areas without the recommendation for indoor masking in public.

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Obama tests positive for COVID-19, says hes feeling fine

During a speech at Stanford University on Thursday, April 21, 2022, former U.S. President Barack Obama presented his audience with a stark choice: Do we allow our democracy to wither, or do we make it better?

Over the course of an hour-long address, Obama outlined the threat that disinformation online, including deepfake technology powered by AI, poses to democracy as well as ways he thought the problems might be addressed in the United States and abroad.

This is an opportunity, its a chance that we should welcome for governments to take on a big important problem and prove that democracy and innovation can coexist, Obama said.

Obama, who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017, was the keynote speaker at a one-day symposium, titled Challenges to Democracy in the Digital Information Realm, co-hosted by the Stanford Cyber Policy Center and the Obama Foundation on the Stanford campus on April 21.

The event brought together people working in technology, policy, and academia for panel discussions on topics ranging from the role of government in establishing online trust, the relationship between democracy and tech companies, and the threat of digital authoritarians.

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Barack Obama Addresses the Intersection of Online Disinformation, Regulation and Democracy at Stanford Event - Freeman Spogli Institute for...

The buyers, according to the Cook County clerk, are Maurice and Robyn-Ashley Taylor. The Taylors have not responded to phoned and emailed requests for comment.

The Taylors do not appear to have filed any building permits or plans yet for the 7,500-square-foot site, where previous owners reportedly planned to build a house of about 8,000 square feet.

This is the lot that gained some infamy after the Chicago Tribune reported in 2006 that political influencer Tony Rezko and his wife bought it on the same day in 2005 that then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama bought the house next door.

The Obamas house is a six-bedroom, roughly 3,700-square-foot house built in 1916 on Greenwood Avenue. Its lot was about 15,500 square feet, approximately the size of five standard Chicago lots, until it went on the market in 2005 as two separate parcels, the northern one containing the house and the southern one unbuilt.

According to the Tribunes 2006 report, Obama said his family's real estate broker brought the house to his wife's attention. He said he discussed the house with Rezko but isn't sure how Rezko began pursuing the adjacent lot. But Obama raised the possibility that he was the first to bring the lot to Rezko's attention.

The Obamas bought the northern portion, including the house, for $1.65 million in June 2005. At the same time, Rita Rezko paid $625,000 for the southern portion.

My understanding was that (Rezko) was going to develop it, Obama told the Tribune in 2006.

The Obamas later bought one-sixth of the Rezko lot, 1,500 square feet along the property line, for $104,500, and Rezko footed the $14,000 cost of building a fence between the properties, the Tribune reported.

Detractors of Barack Obama believed the transactions showed that Obama was more closely allied with Rezko than he let on. In 2008, Rezko, who had been a fundraiser for Obama and other politicians,was found guilty of 16 counts of fraud, money laundering and bribery. Obama was not implicated.

Rita Rezko sold the lot, in its reduced size, in December 2006 for $575,000. With the $104,500 from the Obamas, her proceeds totaled $679,000, a profit of $54,000.

That buyer sold the lot in March 2008 for $675,000 to John and Marjorie Poulos,who planned to build an 8,000-square-foot home on the site.

About 18 months after buying the lot, the couple listed it at $1.3 million. It was on and off the market a few times over subsequent years, coming down to an asking price of $699,000 in March 2019.

At the $699,000 sale price after owning it for 13 years, the sellers made $24,000, or about 3.5%, not counting their carrying costs. This low profit is one sign the Taylors did not buy the site as an investment but to build on it. Maurice Taylor is in finance, and Robyn-Ashley Taylor is an attorney.

The property was not actively listed at the time of the sale. Carlos Sanchez, the Bloom/Sanchez Realty agent who represented the lot in 2019, told Crains the owners sold the lot on their own in December. Crains could not reach John or Marjorie Poulos.

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The Obamas may be seeing a new home next to theirs in Kenwood - Crain's Chicago Business