| After Trump's intervention, Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher returns to work, for now Posted: 25 Nov 2019 03:38 PM PST  Eddie Gallagher, the Navy SEAL at the center of a controversy in a case that President Trump intervened in, went to work Monday, unsure of what lay ahead.
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| Then and now: Swiss glacier photos show impact of global warming Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:58 AM PST  A collection of images — showing photos of modern-day mountain landscapes next to archive shots of the same scenes decades earlier — reveals the dramatic change.
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| Revealed: Buttigieg 2020 campaign took money from top Kavanaugh lawyers Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:34 AM PST  Campaign admits mistake in accepting thousands of dollars from Alexandra Walsh and Beth Wilkinson, who represented nomineePete Buttigieg's campaign said it would return the money to the lawyers who represented Brett Kavanaugh. Photograph: Christopher Aluka Berry/ReutersPete Buttigieg's 2020 campaign is returning thousands of dollars in donations from two top Washington lawyers who represented Brett Kavanaugh in his controversial confirmation hearing, saying it will not accept funds from people who helped secure the justice's seat on the supreme court.Buttigieg's campaign received $7,200 from Alexandra Walsh – $3,150 of which had already been returned because it exceeded limits – and attended a fundraiser in July that was co-hosted by the Washington lawyer. Buttigieg also received $2,800 from Beth Wilkinson, Walsh's law partner, who also represented Kavanaugh.When asked by the Guardian about the donations, the campaign said it had overlooked the lawyers' role in the Kavanaugh confirmation and had made a mistake in accepting the donations.It said: "With nearly 700,000 donors, a contribution we would otherwise refuse sometimes gets through. We believe the women who have courageously spoken out about Brett Kavanaugh's assault and misconduct, and we thank the Guardian for bringing this contribution to our attention."A spokesperson added: "[Kavanaugh] should have never been put on the supreme court and this campaign will not accept donations from those who played a role in making that happen. Accordingly, we will be returning this contribution and others from this firm."Walsh and Wilkinson are frequent donors to Democratic causes. During this 2020 election cycle, Wilkinson has donated $1,000 to the California senator Kamala Harris's campaign and $2,800 to the Colorado senator Michael Bennet's campaign. Wilkinson also gave $2,800 to the New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who has since dropped out of the race and has been an outspoken critic of Kavanaugh.The Washington law firm Wilkinson Walsh Eskovitz represented the then nominee for the supreme court after Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexually assaulting her when both were high school students in suburban Maryland. Walsh and Wilkinson led the charge defending Kavanaugh, even as more accusations of sexual misconduct were unearthed, and painted the judge as the victim of an "outrageous" campaign.In one case, Wilkinson questioned why women who accused Kavanaugh of assault had not immediately gone to the police to report alleged assaults, instead of members of Congress, and insisted that Kavanaugh treated women with dignity and respect.The judge has denied all of the allegations against him.In another case, Walsh sought to downplay comments that were made in Kavanaugh's high school yearbook. When the New York Times reported that Kavanaugh was listed as a member of the "Renate Alumni" – a reference to a classmate from a neighbouring Catholic girls' school that appeared to insinuate sexual conquest – Walsh was quoted in a statement as saying that Kavanaugh had been friends with Renate in high school and had "admired her very much". She also stated that the two had once shared a "brief kiss goodnight".When asked about the reference, Renate Dolphin told the New York Times that the insinuation in Kavanaugh's yearbook was "hurtful and simply untrue". She also denied Walsh's assertion that she and Kavanaugh had ever kissed.Walsh did not respond to a request for comment about the Buttigieg campaign's decision to reject her donations. Wilkinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Harris and Bennet campaigns did not return a request for comment on the donations they received from Wilkinson. Gillibrand's office also did not return a request for comment.The Buttigieg campaign has been a vocal critic of Kavanaugh and has said that, if elected, he would choose a supreme court justice similar to Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who shared his "progressive values".
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| Couple convicted of grisly 1980s murders get surprise release from prison before being deported Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:04 PM PST  A couple convicted of a brutal double murder in 1985 have won their release from prison, and will now be handed over to immigration authorities for deportation.Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom were convicted in the brutal murders of Haysom's parents, in an attack that rocked Virginia at a time when sensational crime wasn't the norm for major news coverage.
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| Pompeo urges justice over Mumbai attacks Posted: 26 Nov 2019 10:29 AM PST  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday urged justice for the victims of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai after Pakistan arrested the alleged mastermind of the bloodbath. "It is an affront to the victims and their families that those who planned the Mumbai attacks have still not been convicted," Pompeo said. Pakistan in July arrested Hafiz Saeed, a firebrand cleric who heads the UN-designated terrorist group Jamaat-ud-Dawa, shortly before Prime Minister Imran Khan visited the United States.
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| Founder of U.S. private jet firm tied to Venezuelan VP pleads guilty to sanctions evasion Posted: 26 Nov 2019 03:00 PM PST  Victor Mones Coro, founder of Florida-based American Charter Services (ACS), had been charged in March by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, along with El Aissami, for violating Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act sanctions imposed by the United States in 2017.
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| An Air Canada Boeing 787 flying across the Atlantic was forced to turn back after its windshield cracked Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:27 AM PST  Air Canada Flight 857 was due to fly from London to Toronto but instead landed in Ireland after the crack in the 787-8 windshield was noticed.
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| ‘She slipped': Grandfather speaks on 1-year-old’s fatal fall from Royal Caribbean cruise ship Posted: 26 Nov 2019 06:54 AM PST  "I didn't realize there wasn't any glass until the absolutely that it was too late," Salvatore Anello told CBS news in a story that aired Tuesday.
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| Google Engineer Who Protested Company's Work With CBP Says She’s Been Fired Posted: 25 Nov 2019 02:21 PM PST  A Google software engineer who wrote and circulated a petition against the company's potential bid on a contract with Customs and Border Protection said Monday that she'd been fired."I was just informed by Google that I am being terminated," Rebecca Rivers wrote on Twitter. Rivers was placed on leave earlier this month along with another employee, Laurence Berland, who protested against hate speech on YouTube, prompting roughly 200 employees to walk out of the company's San Francisco offices in support of the two. Google said the two employees had been placed on leave for violating the company's policies regarding access to sensitive documents and monitoring employee calendars, but protest organizers said the company's treatment of the pair amounted to retaliation. Bloomberg reported Google sent a company-wide email Monday announcing that four employees in total had been fired for data security violations that day.Rivers' efforts follow increasing tension between Alphabet management and employees over the company's work with the Department of Defense, its handling of sexual harassment allegations, and alleged retaliation against critical employees. Google reportedly hired a law firm known for its union-busting tactics last week, a move presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called "unacceptable." The company has also reportedly limited employees' opportunity to pose questions to management, a former staple of its famously open culture, and advised employees against having "raging" political debates in online company forums or in person.Rivers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported firing.Outraged employees in the group Google Walkout for Real Change wrote in a Medium post that the social network recently implemented a policy of document secrecy and classification with the ulterior motive of justifying targeted firings and preventing unionization. "Using this policy, Google did all it could to frame our colleagues as 'leakers.' This is a lie," they said.Meredith Whittaker, an artificial intelligence researcher who left Google earlier this year after leading global employee protests of more than 20,000, wrote on Twitter, "It's happened. Google is illegally firing organizers. This is craven retaliation, and I ask everyone who can to show up and support."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 24-Cylinder Monster Truck Big Rig Sells for $12 Million Posted: 26 Nov 2019 03:15 PM PST  "Thor24" brought in big numbers this past weekend.
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| Kennedy says he was "wrong" to say Ukraine may have hacked DNC server Posted: 25 Nov 2019 09:43 PM PST  Kennedy walked back his remarks on Sunday, saying there is "no indication" that Ukraine tried to hack the server
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| Epstein Suicide: Guards Say They're Scapegoats for a Broken System Posted: 26 Nov 2019 06:18 AM PST  NEW YORK -- Two jail guards who were on duty when Jeffrey Epstein killed himself browsed the internet and napped during the night before his body was found, instead of checking on him every half-hour as they were required to do, prosecutors have said. The guards then lied, prosecutors said, on official logs, indicating that they had made the rounds when they had not.Attorney General William Barr said last week that Epstein's death resulted from "a perfect storm of screw-ups."But lawyers for the guards, who have been criminally charged, suggested in court Monday that their clients were being made into scapegoats for larger problems in the federal prison system that contributed to Epstein's death.The Manhattan jail where Epstein hanged himself has long been plagued by staff shortages and the two guards, Michael Thomas and Tova Noel, had already done several tours of overtime that week.In addition, Epstein was left alone without a cellmate that night and morning, even though he had tried to take his own life about three weeks earlier."Unfortunately, the decisions that led to the death of Mr. Epstein were not only because of what my client did or did not do," Montell Figgins, the lawyer for Thomas, said. "It was because of a system that failed completely.""Where are the supervisors?" Figgins added. "Where are the people who make the policy decisions? Why didn't Mr. Epstein have a cellmate at the time that this happened?"Figgins made his remarks outside U.S. District Court in Manhattan after a hearing at which Judge Analisa Torres set a trial date of April 20 for Thomas and Noel, who face charges that include making false records and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Both have pleaded not guilty.Noel's lawyer, Jason E. Foy, said that he had not seen the evidence against his client, but he vowed to investigate her case vigorously. He said he believed there were "outside circumstances that are driving this prosecution."Foy, who also spoke after the hearing, said the charges did not "sound like your regular false-document case," an apparent reference to the unusual circumstances and high-profile nature of Epstein's death.The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and the Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on the lawyers' assertions.The indictment charging the two guards highlighted lapses in the operation of a high-security unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, where Epstein, a financier, was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges when he died.The indictment also offered the first official narrative of the events preceding his death. It said that security cameras did not show anyone entering the cell block where Epstein was housed, suggesting that despite the conjecture and conspiracy theories swirling around Epstein and his connections to powerful people, his death was a suicide as New York City's chief medical examiner ruled.At the hearing Monday, a prosecutor, Rebekah A. Donaleski, told Torres that the discovery materials the government would provide to defense lawyers included hundreds of hours of video recordings from inside the jail.Although Donaleski did not elaborate on the recordings' contents, the indictment said that video obtained from the jail's internal video surveillance system confirmed that no one visited the tier where Epstein was being held after about 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 9."This was the last time anyone, including any correctional officer, walked up to, let alone entered, the only entrance to the tier in which Epstein was housed until approximately 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 10," when his body was found, the indictment said.The defense lawyers said in court that they wanted prosecutors to provide them with additional evidence that might be used at trial. Figgins cited an internal investigation by the Justice Department inspector general's office into the circumstances surrounding Epstein's death. The results of that inquiry will not be made public, officials have said.Outside the courthouse, Figgins said that there had been an unfair "rush to judgment" in the case and that the two guards were being made to pay for the problems of an entire system."Does anyone think that throughout the United States that these are the only two guards that may have taken a nap overnight on their shift?" he said. "I highly doubt it."The attention that Epstein's suicide has brought to prison conditions, inmate supervision and mental health issues around the country was reinforced Sunday with a letter published in The New York Times by Richard M. Berman, the federal judge in Manhattan who presided in Epstein's criminal case before his suicide.Berman wrote that the indictment of the two guards was not the "full accounting" to which Epstein's alleged victims, the public and his family were entitled."We all agree that it is unthinkable that any detainee, let alone a high-profile detainee like Mr. Epstein, would die unnoticed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center," the judge wrote.He said it would be "a tragic and costly missed opportunity" for the Bureau of Prisons and the attorney general "to fail to undertake -- and to make public -- an in-depth evaluation of prison conditions (not only at the MCC) and to carry out appropriate reforms."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| China says developed countries lack 'political will' on climate goals Posted: 27 Nov 2019 01:36 AM PST  Beijing on Wednesday accused developed countries including the US of doing too little to curb global warming, ahead of a UN summit discussing controversial issues including climate compensation. China is the world's second-largest economy and the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, but has repeatedly argued that developed nations should lead on tackling international climate obligations. "Developed countries' insufficient political will to provide support" is the "biggest problem" currently facing international climate efforts, said Zhao Yingmin, vice-minister of ecology and environment, at a press conference Wednesday.
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| 71 Gifts That Give Good Vibes Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:57 AM PST |
| Swing state Democrat flips on impeachment Posted: 26 Nov 2019 09:49 AM PST  During the summer, Rep. Brenda Lawrence fully backed the move to impeach President Trump, but the Detroit-area Democrat said last weekend that she has changed her mind.
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| ICE arrests 90 more foreign students at fake university created by DHS in Michigan Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:31 AM PST  Since January, ICE has arrested about 250 students who were enrolled at a fake university in Michigan created to lure in students.
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| PREVIEW-Bronx man, battling own legal woes, brings gun rights case to U.S. Supreme Court Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:00 AM PST ![PREVIEW-Bronx man, battling own legal woes, brings gun rights case to U.S. Supreme Court]( "PREVIEW-Bronx man, battling own legal woes, brings gun rights case to U.S. Supreme Court") Two weeks before Efrain Alvarez and his attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their challenge to a New York City regulation that limited where licensed handgun owners could transport their weapons, police officers showed up at his Bronx apartment and took away all his firearms. From two imposing steel vaults in the back bedroom, they confiscated around 45 firearms, including five handguns.
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| Trump claims he'd 'love' for top aides to testify, but won't allow it Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:53 AM PST  "I would love to have Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney and many others testify," the president tweeted after a federal judge ordered former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before Congress. The Justice Department is appealing the ruling.
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| Woman kept husband’s body in freezer for up to 11 years Posted: 27 Nov 2019 04:49 AM PST  The body of a man was found in the freezer of a deceased woman's home and may have been kept there for over a decade, police say.The remains of both individuals were found during a welfare check on a 75-year old woman who had not been seen in about two weeks by a building maintenance worker.
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| Police cited 55 people for eating on San Francisco trains. Only nine were white Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:15 PM PST  New data renews concerns about racial profiling, just weeks after viral video showed police detaining a black man who was eating a sandwichPassengers wait for a Bart train to depart the Fruitvale station in Oakland, California. Photograph: Ben Margot/APPolice officers for the San Francisco Bay Area commuter train system disproportionately target black riders with citations for eating and drinking, according to new data, renewing concerns about racial profiling.The Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) data was released following a viral video showing police handcuffing a 31-year-old black man who was cited for eating a breakfast sandwich on his way to work. The new records show that more than 81% of people stopped for eating and drinking on Bart since 2014 were people of color, and that the vast majority of them were black.Stops for eating and drinking on trains or platforms are infrequent within Bart, the train system that runs between San Francisco, Oakland and surrounding suburbs. Of 55 people cited for this offense over the last five years, 33 were black passengers, representing 60% of the citations. Nine of the stops were white passengers, seven were listed as Hispanic, five were categorized as "other" and one was unknown, according to the data, which was obtained by the San Francisco Examiner.Only 10% of Bart's total riders are black, meaning they are six times more likely than others to be stopped for eating and drinking. Ridership data, collected last year, showed that 35% of overall riders are white, 32% are Asian/Pacific Islander and 17% are Latino.Bart spokeswoman Alicia Trost said in an email that the data shows citations are "very rare" and are "handed out at stations across the system".She said: "When an officer witnesses someone eating, they remind the rider that eating is not allowed and if the rider puts the food away no citation is necessary. It is a rare occurrence to need to issue a citation after reminding the rider not to eat."John Burris, a civil rights lawyer representing Steve Foster, the man stopped in the recent video, said Tuesday that the data was not surprising and was evidence of racial profiling. "This is a form of biased policing, and it's very harmful to African Americans. Other people eat sandwiches all the time, and they don't get stopped."The 15-minute video that received national attention showed a white Bart police officer stopping Foster at the station in Pleasant Hill, north-east of Oakland. The footage showed the officer holding on to Foster's backpack and telling him he was not free to go until he identified himself and that he was resisting arrest. Backup officers arrived, and Foster was handcuffed and taken away in front of morning commuters.The citation he received required him to pay a $250 fine or do 48 hours of community service."It was so insulting to him and disturbing," said Burris. "He was humiliated in front of all the people on Bart."The video sparked protests and widespread criticism, and Bart leaders eventually apologized and promised to investigate. Bob Powers, Bart's general manager, said at the time he was "disappointed how the situation unfolded".A citation or arrest for a minor infraction like eating can escalate to a significantly more serious conflict, said Cat Brooks, the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project in Oakland."Eating a sandwich is certainly not a reason to throw yet another black body into the criminal justice system," she said. "We have to hold these cops accountable for racial profiling."Bart police have long faced scrutiny for brutality and racial profiling, in particular following the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant, an unarmed 22-year-old shot dead on the Fruitvale station platform. There have since been a number of other killings and allegations of abuse by Bart police.Bart should not be citing anyone for eating in the first place, Brooks said.Burris said there should be better training to prevent biased policing, and that it was wrong to handcuff riders for eating.Trost, the Bart spokeswoman, said all officers receive training in "fair and impartial policing, bias-based policing … and de-escalation".The Bart controversy comes as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York is facing intense backlash over a number of viral videos of police, including the arrest of a food vendor selling churros, and an incident in which officers pulled guns on a teenager accused of fare evasion.
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| Dead deer found in Thailand with 7kg of plastic in stomach Posted: 26 Nov 2019 02:39 AM PST  A wild deer was found dead after swallowing 7 kilograms (15 pounds) of plastic bags and other trash in Thailand, an official said Tuesday, raising the alarm on waste littering the country's waters and forests. The Southeast Asian country is one of the world's largest consumers of plastic, with Thais using up to 3,000 single-use plastic bags each per year, whether for wrapping street food, takeaway coffee or packing groceries. Now the scourge of plastic waste is affecting Thailand's animals on land.
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| Germany’s Merkel says it’s essential to preserve NATO Posted: 27 Nov 2019 01:18 AM PST  NATO is at least as essential today as it was during the Cold War, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday, renewing a pledge to keep raising Germany's defense spending and arguing that it is important to keep Turkey in the alliance. "The preservation of NATO is in our very own interest today, more strongly than during the Cold War — or at least as strongly as during the Cold War," she said. French President Emmanuel Macron's recent public criticism of NATO — notably a perceived lack of U.S. leadership, concerns about Turkey since it invaded northern Syria without warning its allies, and the need for Europe to take on more security responsibilities — has shaken the alliance.
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| China's H-20 Stealth Bomber Could Be the U.S. Military's Worst Nightmare Posted: 25 Nov 2019 07:30 PM PST  Be on notice.
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| 3 accused war criminals wanted by Trump for campaign: Reports Posted: 26 Nov 2019 06:44 AM PST  President Trump has reportedly told aides he wants three convicted or accused war criminals to campaign for him during his bid for reelection in 2020.
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| Federal prosecutors are reportedly probing whether Rudy Giuliani acted as an 'unregistered foreign agent' Posted: 26 Nov 2019 05:28 AM PST  According to reports, investigators have widened their investigation to probe Giuliani's firm in connection with possible criminal offences.
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| Iran says 200,000 took to streets in anti-government protests Posted: 27 Nov 2019 06:12 AM PST  Iran gave a glimpse on Wednesday into the scale of what may have been the biggest anti-government protests in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic, with an official saying 200,000 people had taken part and a lawmaker saying 7,000 were arrested. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his strongest remarks since the unrest peaked, described the two weeks of violence as the work of a "very dangerous conspiracy". Iran has given no official death toll, but Amnesty International said this week it had documented the deaths of at least 143 protesters.
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| Jury hears 911 call from night engaged doctors were killed in penthouse Posted: 25 Nov 2019 10:09 PM PST  Jury in the murder trial of Bampumim Teixeira hears a 911 call from the night Dr. Richard Field and Dr. Lina Bolaños were killed in their penthouse
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| The son of a deputy from a neighboring county has been charged with the murder of Alabama Sheriff 'Big John' Williams Posted: 26 Nov 2019 05:25 AM PST  William Chase Johnson, the suspect in the killing of Alabama Sheriff "Big John" Williams, is the son of a sheriff's deputy in a neighboring county.
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| Hong Kong police plan to enter ransacked campus on Thursday Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:58 AM PST  Hong Kong police plan to send officers on Thursday morning into the ransacked remains of a university campus where authorities faced off for days with barricaded pro-democracy protesters, an official said Wednesday. Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was the epicentre of the territory's increasingly violent protest movement when clashes broke out on November 17 between police and protesters armed with bows and arrows as well as Molotov cocktails. The stand-off then settled into a tense stalemate during which hundreds fled the campus -- some attempting to get out through sewer lines or shimmying down ropes onto waiting motorbikes -- leaving a dwindling core of holdouts surrounded by police cordons.
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| ‘Anti-Islam’ Europe Is No Place for Azerbaijan, President Says Posted: 27 Nov 2019 03:32 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan won't seek closer integration with Europe, which he accused of discriminating against Muslims and undermining his country's traditional values."Where shall we integrate?" Aliyev said in a rare public criticism of the West in a speech to university students and teachers in the capital, Baku, on Tuesday. "Shall we integrate with those who are saying 'Stop Islam'? Shall we integrate to a place where there's no difference being made between men and women? We definitely shall not."Aliyev's remarks mark a departure from the national security strategy he approved in 2007, which said energy-rich Azerbaijan targets membership in European and Euro-Atlantic alliances. The majority Muslim but secular nation of 10 million people sandwiched between Iran and Russia forged close political and economic ties with the U.S. and the European Union after declaring independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991.The president's speech "was his acknowledgment of the failure of secularism and western values in Azerbaijan," prominent Azeri journalist Khadija Ismayil wrote on Facebook. Ismayil, who's known for investigative reports into Aliyev's undeclared family businesses, was sentenced to prison in 2015 and freed the following year after international criticism of her detention and trial.Energy PartnerThe U.S. helped Azerbaijan build oil and gas pipelines westward bypassing Russia. The EU regards Azerbaijan as a strategic energy partner and began talks in 2017 on a new framework agreement with Baku.While Aliyev and his late father Heydar, who ruled Azerbaijan for 10 years before his death in 2003, refused to join Russian-led military and economic blocs, U.S. and EU criticism of the poor state of democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan have strained relations. Aliyev won a landslide to secure a fourth term and extend his rule for seven years in 2018 elections seen as flawed by Western observers and boycotted by opposition parties.The president is "quite sincere" in his opposition to European integration because "Europe means democracy, free elections, rule of law, universal human rights and social welfare," Altay Goyushov, an opposition politician who heads the Baku Research Institute, a think tank in the city, wrote on Facebook."Aliyev wants to see a medieval monarchy in Azerbaijan," he said.To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at zagayev@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at tclark8@bloomberg.net, Tony HalpinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Stealth 'Killer': Why Russia's Su-35 Might End Up Being Too Good Posted: 25 Nov 2019 04:15 PM PST  As in damaging the chances of Russia going all-in on the Su-57?
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| Teacher Threw Away Students' Black Lives Matter Posters, ACLU Says Posted: 25 Nov 2019 11:56 AM PST  A school district near Sacramento, California, said it is investigating an episode in which a teacher threw away student posters related to the Black Lives Matter movement.The district, the San Juan Unified School District in Carmichael, Califorinia, said in a statement that it apologized if any student felt "discomfort" about what happened, the television station KCRA 3 reported.The episode, which took place in September, came to light Thursday after the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California sent the district a letter detailing what happened.In the letter, the organization described how a parent volunteer taught a lesson about how "art can manifest in activism."The parent volunteer asked the teacher if she could teach another art lesson about diversity. According to the letter, the teacher told her in front of a sixth-grade class that "his lessons would contain lessons with 'a bunch of old white guys' so her content may not fit."The volunteer "was obviously confused, and a bit concerned regarding this comment, but did not stop the lesson plan" because of his comment, the letter said.She asked the students to create a poster that focused on something they wanted to see changed at the school. Four students created Black Lives Matter posters, Abre' Conner, the lawyer at the ACLU who wrote the letter, said Sunday.The day after the posters were made by the students, the teacher told the parent volunteer that he threw them away because they were "inappropriate and political," the letter said.The teacher asked her "whether students were getting shot at the school and demanded answers regarding why a presentation on Black Lives Matter was relevant" to the school, Del Paso Manor Elementary, the letter said.The letter identified the teacher only as Madden; a school directory lists a David Madden as a teacher. Conner would not identify the parent volunteer, who was referenced in the school district statement only as Kincaid. A Magali Kincaid is listed as a parent or community member on the school's website.Neither Madden nor Kincaid could be reached Sunday. Kent Kern, the school district superintendent, to whom the letter was addressed, also could not be reached.Kincaid went to the principal, who supported Madden, according to the letter. The principal said that Black Lives Matter posters are political statements and therefore were off limits for public display.Though not named in the letter, Damon Smith is listed on the school's website as its principal. He could not be reached Sunday.The ACLU argued that the Black Lives Matter posters were protected speech under the California Education Code because they convey a student's thoughts, ideas and beliefs in the support of black lives. The group also said the posters were protected under the California Constitution.Conner wrote that "there are obvious problems with a teacher and principal who currently have black students in their classroom and school taking the positions that the acknowledgment of Black Lives is controversial and political in nature."The district has not responded to the letter, Conner said."Because these are so basic fundamental rights we believe that the school district at this point would have responded back to us," she said Sunday.In its statement, the district said the ACLU letter raised new assertions."Ms. Kincaid was allowed to provide a lesson that was not prepared by the district's art program and without having been trained," it said. "That should have not occurred and unfortunately led to disagreement between Ms. Kincaid and the classroom teacher on the assignment's final outcome."The statement attributed the disagreement to a misunderstanding about the nature of the assignment.Madden's "understanding of the resulting assignment was for students to produce artwork related to a change they wanted to see within the school itself," the statement said."Students whose artwork focused on large social issues, which varied in topic, and was not directly tied to the school, were asked by the teacher to complete another poster the next day," it continued.The district said it was never its "intent or desire for any student to feel uncomfortable or unwelcome to discuss issues that are important to them."It added: "Censoring a student's assigned work because of its content would not be acceptable. We are open and committed to continuing our work with students, staff, community partners and others to ensure that our school communities embrace a diversity of thoughts and experiences."The ACLU asked for, among other things, a curriculum and events that include the Black Lives Matter movement, parent engagement training. It also asked that school staff undergo cultural and sensitivity training with Kincaid's input."The moral here is that you have a teacher in your school district basically sending the message that if you create Black Lives Matter art work, it is literal trash," Conner said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| What Does LVMH Get From Buying Tiffany for $16.2 Billion? Posted: 25 Nov 2019 10:51 AM PST  It's engagement season, even for brands—after a month of negotiations, fashion conglomerate LVMH announced on Monday that it officially acquired storied jewelry label Tiffany & Co.The $16.2 billion deal makes Tiffany the most expensive property LVMH has purchased in its 32 year history. It's also a nice holiday bonus for the jeweler, which was first listed as $14.5 billion when negotiations were announced in October. A press release notes that boards of directors for both LVMH and Tiffany approved the sale, which is expected to go through by the middle of next year. Roger N. Farah, chairman of the Board of Directors at Tiffany, said in a statement that, "LVMH proves an exciting path forward with a group that appreciates and will invest in Tiffany's unique assets and strong human capital." Diamonds Grown In a Laboratory Can Still Say, 'I Love You'The New York-based retailer currently employs around 13,000 people. Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, is valued at $100 billion, making him the richest man in Europe, and third richest in the world. Through LVMH, he oversees 75 of the world's most luxurious labels. Arnault has developed a reputation for gobbling up new acquisitions of decades-old fashion houses like Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, and Dior. This year, LVMH debuted Fenty, Rihanna's much-anticipated ready-to-wear line. Tiffany, meanwhile, has spent 182 years becoming synonymous with an inherently American cachet. The brand's robin egg jewelry boxes are a silent wealth flex, so ubiquitously chic that the color has come to be known as "Tiffany blue." The flagship store on 57th street was immortalized in Truman Capote's 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany's, later adapted into the beloved 1961 film, whose opening scene featured Audrey Hepburn munching on a pastry while looking into the store's windows—she looking fabulous in black gown and pearls, as the mournful score of 'Moon River' played. In the past month, executives at the two companies have dedicated much lip service to defending the deal as mutually benefitting both buyer and selling. No doubt these conversations will continue in the months going forward. Tiffany is struggling—last holiday season, sales fell one percent from the previous year. Though the retailer is famous for its extravagant (read: pricey) engagement rings, it has been slow to attract millennial customers or explore popular trends like offering lab grown diamonds. So why would LVMH want to scoop it up? Though LVMH is no doubt a behemoth and powerhouse in the fashion world, jewelry and watch sales account for just seven percent of its earnings. The company currently owns Bulgari, Chaumet, TAG Heuer, Fred, Hublot, and Zenith. With Tiffany, LVMH gets a foray into a bigger slice of that market—to be specific, 300 stores, located all over the world. The American brands' popularity in China is no doubt attractive, too. "LVMH has Bulgari but now with Tiffany, it puts them in a better place to compete with Richemont, who owns Cartier and Van Cleef," retail analyst Charcy Evers told The Daily Beast. "What's unique about Tiffany, though, is that it's not as exclusive, which plays to [LVMH's] favor. It's aspirational and has a mix of high and low so it's more inclusive and millennials are all about this. It's also a household name and will definitely boost LVMH's presence here in the United States."Not too long ago, the growth of most public retail companies followed a type of script. Brands heavily invested in retail, but with the shuttering of storefronts, names like Coach and Michael Kors who succumbed to the call of the mall were left looking cheap. Instead, Tiffany, which is in the midst of an attempted renaissance, can turn to a bigger conglomerate for help."LVMH will give [Tiffany] the investment it needs to reinvigorate the brand," Evers said. "They will also be able to do so without the scrutiny of Wall Street breathing down its neck, looking for growth. Transformation costs, but Wall Street doesn't care or like to hear the old adage 'it takes money to make money.' Under LVMH, Tiffany can do so without that pressure." There is a romanticism in the idea of an established brand staying solo, refuting the corporate maw, and still coming out on top. Unfortunately, clinging to such ideals can also end companies up on the auction block. Tiffany serves as an example of how a brand saves itself mid-slump, before too much damage is done. But by going to LVMH, it has snubbed the French company's burgeoning American counterparts like Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman) and Capri Holdings (Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, Versace). "I would have liked to see the likes of Capri or Tapestry buy Tiffany," Evers opined. "But perhaps with LVMH they will have more runway. They just have to be careful to maintain the integrity of Tiffany's brand, which is always the risk in mergers." Charles Beckwith, co-host of American Fashion Podcast, noted that merged companies share things like overhead costs—and customer information. "LVMH probably has the world's most accurate and predictive data on the global luxury market because they are in all those different verticals," he said. "Plus, they're a private company, so no one else is getting any data they choose not to share." Tiffany probably has a wealth of data when it comes to its current customers, but Coye Nokes, partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, added that it will now learn more about its European shoppers. "Tiffany will be exposed to data in different geographies," she said. Those insights come with a price—by entering into the LVMH "family," Tiffany has also opted into a risk-controlled environment. "Sometimes, that's not great when you need flexibility to make quick decisions," Nokes said. "Taking risks is hard to do as part of a public company." But executives at Tiffany, which was already trading publicly before the merger, have experience answering to investors. "When you have to deliver measurable financial increases on a quarterly and annual basis, you're always thinking short term," Beckwith said. "That's why many publicly-held fashion and luxury companies make such poor long-term decisions. They're trapped in a short cycle." With LVMH, "Tiffany will be able to make short-term sacrifices in their long-term investment."And if acquisitions continue to thrive as one of fashion's biggest trends, we can bet to see more brands rushing underneath the umbrella of an LVMH-type protector. Nokes predicted a luxury athletic wear label could be the next to cozy up to a conglomerate. "With the growth that's happening in the casual space, you have players like [Italian sneaker label] Golden Goose, that could be interesting [if it was purchased]," Nokes said. "A company needs to look at the product portfolio, what category they want to be in, and see where the strengths of a brand lies. They won't just buy anything."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| U.S. House panel sues Barr, Ross seeking to enforce Census probe subpoenas Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:18 AM PST  U.S. House of Representatives Democrats filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to enforce subpoenas against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as part of their investigation into the Trump administration's handling of the U.S. 2020 Census. The House Oversight and Reform Committee in July held Barr and Ross in criminal contempt for defying the panel's subpoenas as lawmakers probe the administration's attempt to add a controversial citizenship question to the government's population count.
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| How Thieves Just Pulled Off the Largest Treasure Heist Since World War II Posted: 25 Nov 2019 02:59 PM PST  And how you can, too!
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| Malaysian court acquits Australian woman facing death penalty for drug trafficking Posted: 25 Nov 2019 09:30 PM PST  An Australian woman sentenced to death for drug-trafficking in Malaysia was acquitted on Tuesday after the Federal Court in Kuala Lumpur quashed her earlier conviction by a lower court. Maria Exposto, 55, was arrested in the Malaysian capital in 2014 while in transit to Melbourne from Shanghai, and in May last year she was found guilty of smuggling more than a kilogram of crystal methamphetamine.
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| Israel strikes Gaza in response to rocket fire: army Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:27 PM PST  Israel struck a series of military targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Wednesday in response to rockets fired from the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli army said. "Fighter jets struck a number of Hamas terror targets in the southern Gaza Strip," an army statement said early Wednesday. At least two Hamas sites were hit, in addition to one for allied group Islamic Jihad, a security source in Gaza said.
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| Stop Treating American Expats Like Tax Cheats Posted: 25 Nov 2019 11:00 PM PST ![Stop Treating American Expats Like Tax Cheats]( "Stop Treating American Expats Like Tax Cheats") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- An estimated 9 million American citizens living outside the U.S. face a tax nightmare those at home can't imagine and none should ever suffer. The reason: The U.S. is one of only two countries in the world (the other is Eritrea) that taxes its citizens regardless of where they live.American expats don't necessarily owe the U.S. any tax: They can deduct taxes paid to host countries, which are often higher, or take an exemption. But they have to file returns and disclosures regardless, at a significant cost in accounting fees, nuisance and needless anxiety. The rules are often unclear, and foreign employers and financial institutions don't report the numbers in the way the Internal Revenue Service prefers. The penalties for even innocent mistakes can be draconian. The U.S. proceeds as though any citizen with a foreign bank account were a likely tax evader or money launderer. Citizens with foreign assets must disclose them not only to the IRS but also to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.Surprisingly enough, people who live and work abroad tend to acquire other overseas assets along the way. The IRS sees a plain-vanilla European mutual fund, for example, as a "passive foreign investment company," and requires disclosures that are Kafkaesque. The Obama-era Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act made things worse. It threatens foreign banks with drastic penalties if they fail to provide information on customers who are "U.S. persons" (citizens or green-card holders). As a result, many financial institutions simply refuse to serve Americans at all.Owing to the original sin of citizen-based taxation, moreover, every tweak to American tax law seems to exacerbate the problem. President Donald Trump's reform of 2017 added rules aimed at the overseas profits of U.S. companies. Inadvertently, the IRS now treats the American owner of a lemonade stand in Belgium like Google, forcing them to declare a new kind of income known — say it out loud to feel it — as GILTI.The original targets of this harsh regime were rich Americans living in the U.S. and stashing money in hidden offshore accounts. But hardened tax cheats developed new evasion strategies long ago. The victims today are Americans abroad with ordinary incomes and no special tax expertise. They include "accidental Americans" who aren't even aware of the rules — children born in the U.S. while their foreign parents happened to be visiting, for instance, or people born and living abroad whose fathers were U.S. soldiers.Some U.S. expats renounce their citizenship, but few want to cut ties to their country, and for most the cost is prohibitive in any case. They should never be made to feel that it's necessary. At a minimum, the U.S. should simplify the rules for its expats and raise the balance thresholds so middle-income filers are exempt. But the best solution would be even simpler: Follow the example set by almost every other economy (did I mention Eritrea?) and base the personal income tax on residency, not citizenship.To contact the author of this story: Andreas Kluth at akluth1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andreas Kluth is a member of Bloomberg's editorial board. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Russia’s New Missile Could Give the Su-57 Stealth Fighter Its Teeth Posted: 26 Nov 2019 08:00 PM PST  Russia appears to be developing a new, small air-to-air missile that could arm the Su-57 stealth fighter. The United States also is working on smaller air-to-air missiles to arm its own growing force of radar-evading warplanes.
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| Woman killed by feral hogs outside Texas home: ‘One of the worst things I had ever seen’ Posted: 26 Nov 2019 07:12 AM PST  Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said Christine Rollins, 59, was found outside an elderly couple's home where she worked as a caretaker.
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| Fox News Backs Trump’s ‘War on Thanksgiving’ BS He Got From Fox Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:43 AM PST  The Trump-Fox News Feedback Loop was on full display Wednesday morning when President Donald Trump's favorite morning show backed his patently absurd claim that liberals want to change the name of Thanksgiving—an idea he obviously got from Fox's recent round-the-clock "War on Thanksgiving" coverage.At his Tuesday night campaign rally in Florida, the president insisted that "some people" want to change the name of the holiday and "don't want to use the term Thanksgiving," likening this supposed anti-Thanksgiving sentiment to another infamous right-wing media invention."And that was true with Christmas. Now everybody is using Christmas again. And remember I said that," Trump declared. "Now we're gonna have to do a little work on Thanksgiving. People have different ideas on why it shouldn't be called Thanksgiving. Everybody here loves the name Thanksgiving and we're not changing it!"During Wednesday morning's broadcast of Fox & Friends, the hosts appeared to give credence to the president's conspiracy, all while sidestepping the role their network had in planting the idea in his head."Last night, the president was talking about somebody who was apparently talking about changing the name of the holiday," co-host Steve Doocy noted while airing a clip of the president's remarks."I don't think there's a huge push to change the name of Thanksgiving, is there?" Brian Kilmeade wondered aloud."You know, in 2015 there was a rumor Obama wanted to change the name but that was debunked," Doocy responded, referencing a Snopes fact-check of a viral email campaign from a few years ago. "So, perhaps what he is talking about is just all these stories about your carbon footprint and the amount of energy you use to travel over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house."In recent weeks, Fox News' opinion shows have run countless segments insisting that liberals and progressives want to "cancel" the holiday and fight a "War on Thanksgiving," tying it all to a single HuffPost opinion piece about the environmental impact of Thanksgiving dinner. The article, while providing readers with steps to reduce their carbon footprint, never called for the holiday to be abolished or even for Americans to stop celebrating it.Later in the segment, fill-in co-host Emily Compagno accepted the president's premise that there was a concerted effort to change the name of Thanksgiving, providing a counterargument to these imaginary critics."I think the issue that a lot of people have to—with potentially changing that name—is the fact that in that name we're expressing gratitude and whatever historical connotations we can acknowledge," she said. "It still doesn't take away from the fact that this is the day that we are to give thanks and gratitude for our loved ones and blessings."In its news recap of the president's remarks, meanwhile, the network framed Trump's baseless claim with the following headline: "Trump vows not to change the name of Thanksgiving despite cries from the 'radical left'". Interestingly, there was no reference to Fox's consistent coverage of the "War on Thanksgiving" in the piece.This isn't the first time that Fox News has taken a single HuffPost piece to accuse the left of trying to "cancel" something holiday-related. Last year, the network's digital site published several articles while its opinion shows ran multiple segments denouncing liberals' supposed complaints that Christmas classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was "seriously problematic," all based on a largely satirical HuffPost video.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Assad: IS members in Syrian Kurds jails to stand local trial Posted: 27 Nov 2019 04:54 AM PST  Syrian President Bashar Assad said in remarks published Wednesday that members of the Islamic State group held in the country will stand trial in local courts specialized in terrorism cases. Assad made his comments in an interview with Paris Match when asked about a deal with a Kurdish-led force that would eventually bring their areas under government control. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who defeated IS in March with the help of the U.S.-led coalition, are holding more than 10,000 militants, mostly Syrians and Iraqis, including some 2,000 foreigners.
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| 3 Afghan Schools, 165 Accounts of Students Being Raped Posted: 26 Nov 2019 11:55 AM PST  KABUL, Afghanistan -- The 14-year-old Afghan boy said his teacher had asked him for "a little favor" in return for not failing him on his final exams. Then the man took him to the school library, locked the door and raped him, the boy said.At the same school, a 17-year-old boy reported similar treatment from the school's principal. He said the man had threatened to kill him if he told anyone.But the boys did talk, giving their accounts to a child advocacy group in their province and repeating them later in interviews with The New York Times. The advocacy group discovered that those two boys were not the only victims. From just three schools in one area of Logar province, south of the Afghan capital, the group said it had taken statements from 165 boys who said they had been sexually abused at their schools or by local officials they went to for help.Now, Afghanistan is again caught up in discussion of rampant sexual abuse of children and of a deep reluctance by many officials to deal with the issue at all.After talking with the TOLO news channel about the investigation, the leader of the Logar advocacy group, Mohammad Musa, and a colleague, Ehsanullah Hamidi, were detained by Afghanistan's national intelligence agency late last week, the group says.On Monday, former President Hamid Karzai said that if verified, the detention of Musa by the intelligence agency was "a very wrong thing."A spokesman for the National Directorate of Security declined to comment Monday. Musa has not been reachable for comment since late Thursday.Robert A. Destro, the assistant secretary of state, said on Twitter that the United States was closely following the case and was "greatly concerned." He called on the Afghan government "to take action to protect survivors and bring perpetrators to justice."It is unclear whether the cases at the three schools are related. But the prevalence of systematic sexual abuse of boys in Afghanistan has been a problem for generations. Bacha bazi -- it means boy play -- is common among men in powerful positions who keep boys as sex slaves. Bacha bazi boys are forced to dress as girls and to dance for men before being raped. Sometimes the boys are prostituted to the highest bidder.In an interview with The New York Times this month, Musa said that his group -- the Logar Youth, Social and Civil Institution -- began intensively investigating after a troubling Facebook post in May that showed men with boys in sexual positions. One video provided by the group shows a teenage boy dancing barefoot for about two dozen men who stand or sit in a circle around him.The post came down quickly, Musa said, but the group was able to preserve many of the images. Some of the boys were recognizable and had complained of sexual abuse before, he said.The Logar group began methodically talking to students in the area, finding dozens who said they had been raped. Many of their accounts were confirmed by teachers or other people in the area, who along with four of the boys were also interviewed by The Times.As the accounts unfolded, at least seven boys who said they had been raped were found dead, Musa said, most likely at the hands of their own families.Musa said that the advocacy group took the boys' statements to Logar provincial police but that no action was taken. He said several boys who had agreed to be questioned by police were subsequently raped by officers.Shapoor Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the Logar provincial police, said the accusations were false. "Nobody has come to the police for rape cases," he said. "It's just rumors."The Logar provincial governor, Mohammad Anwar Ashaqzai, said officials were examining boys' statements provided by the advocacy group. He said he was not aware of any rapes in the province's schools."If we find these documents are incomplete and they are fake, then those who are involved will face the law and should be punished," Ashaqzai said.Still, in response to the group's accusations, the Ministry of Education in Kabul said Nov. 14 that it was sending a delegation to the province to investigate.In Logar, Shafiullah Afghanzai, the executive officer of Hamid Karzai high school, where the 14-year-old and the 17-year-old said they had been raped, told The Times that the school's headmaster had been transferred to another district earlier this year after he was accused of sexually assaulting a boy.Afghanzai said boys had also been raped by teachers at two other schools in the province. He said three boys who had reported rapes were later killed by the Taliban, who condemn the sexual abuse as anti-Islamic."If they get evidence that teachers were involved, they will hang them," Afghanzai said of the militants.A Taliban spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.Hassibullah Stanikzai, head of the Logar provincial council, said the bodies of several boys had been found in areas of Logar under Taliban control. But he said there was no evidence that their deaths were related to sexual assault.A teacher at one school in Logar, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Hamid, said he had spoken to 13 boys who said they had been raped by teachers there. He said the families of three of those boys had moved away to avoid the social stigma of rape, especially after images were posted on Facebook."It's a crisis," Hamid said. "We want to do something to stop this mafia, but we don't know what to do."Musa, of the advocacy group, said 25 families abandoned their homes in shame after their sons said they had been raped. In some cases, he said, the boys' faces had been visible in images on the anonymous Facebook page before it was taken down.In several cases, boys had been banished from home by their fathers, Musa said."We don't trust anyone, neither the Taliban nor the government," Musa said. One school is in an area contested by the Taliban, and two are in government-controlled areas. Wakil Kaliwal, head of the education department in Logar, said there were perhaps one or two cases of student rape in the province's schools but no epidemic of sexual assault. He said the principal at Hamid Karzai high school had been transferred for beating a boy but also had been accused of raping another boy.Kaliwal added, referring to sexual assaults of boys: "It is an issue across the country, and Logar isn't exceptional."Mohammad Qasim Sediqqi, a member of the Logar provincial council, said there was no evidence of widespread rape in schools. "Maybe there are one or two cases, because this is Afghanistan, and crime exists everywhere," he said.President Ashraf Ghani, who is from Logar, promised in 2015 to crack down on bacha bazi. But pederasty is still widely tolerated in Afghan culture, and prosecutions of men who sexually assault boys are rare.An investigation by The New York Times in 2015 found widespread sexual assault of boys by the Afghan security forces or others in power and that the U.S. military was reluctant to intervene. The article reported that an American captain was relieved of command and a first sergeant was pressured to retire after they confronted and shoved an Afghan militia commander who had raped a boy. That article led to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction on the military's reticence to confront the abuse.Afghanistan made bacha bazi and related offenses violations of the national criminal code in May 2017. The penalty for violating the code is up to three years in prison -- three to five years if the dancing is "a public event." If a teacher, instructor or "superior in any way is involved," the penalty is five years in prison.But Charu Lata Hogg, executive director of All Survivors Project, a human rights group based in Liechtenstein, said the group interviewed 24 male rape victims in four Afghan provinces, not including Logar."We found that sexual violence against boys and young men is pervasive and happens within communities, police checkpoints and in detention settings," Hogg said.She said her group welcomed the 2017 laws, but she added that authorities must "apply the law and hold perpetrators to account."In a 2018 report, the United Nations documented 78 cases of sexual assault against boys in Afghanistan, adding, "Impunity for perpetrators remains a serious challenge."Shaharzad Akbar, chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, called on authorities to investigate the Logar allegations and prosecute anyone involved. She asked government officials to protect members of the advocacy group and refrain from "the language of fear and intimidation."Amnesty International warned that the two detained rights activists were at risk of torture "and other ill treatment" as long as they remained in custody.Lyla Lynn Schwartz, who counsels victims of trauma in Afghanistan, including rape, said Afghan boys raped by men often suffer extreme emotional and psychological distress, often for the rest of their lives. The victims are often ostracized, or even attacked, by their family members over a perceived dishonor.The 17-year-old from Hamid Karzai high school said in an interview that he was left homeless after his father banished him. He said he no longer attends school."My father says if he sees me again," he said, "he will kill me."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| 20 of the World's Most Stunning Public Staircases Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:00 AM PST |
| Frenchman, actor kidnapped in Mexico freed: officials Posted: 25 Nov 2019 03:38 PM PST  A French citizen and a Mexican actor kidnapped in a national park in central Mexico were freed Monday, officials said. The two men, identified as Frederic Michel and Alejandro Sandi, were traveling in all-terrain vehicles in the park around the Nevado de Toluca volcano when they were ambushed and abducted on Sunday, witnesses said. A source with Mexico's anti-kidnapping unit told AFP both victims were unharmed.
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