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Absent: No US press on American student detained in Ben Gurion Airport for 5 days over political views

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Sun, 07 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
Lara Alqasem
© Cody O'Rourke Holy Land Trust
Lara Alqasem
Israel's detention at its international airport of Lara Alqasem, 22, an American student holding a visa to study at Hebrew University, has gone on five days today. Reports from the Israeli media are that Alqasem, whose father is Palestinian, will get a hearing of her appeal of the deportation order- "within days," her lawyers hope.

This is plainly a battle between liberal forces inside Israel and the rightwing government. The Israeli government is denying visitors to Alqasem and is determined to deport her for pro-boycott views that Alqasem has sought to distance herself from.

The Times of Israel reports today:
The Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday was set to schedule a hearing for an appeal against the deportation of a US student of Palestinian descent, who was denied entry into the country last week over her alleged support of the movement to boycott Israel.
Alqasem is raising money by crowdsource in order to fight the deportation.

Comment: See also:

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Footprints

Syrian Kurds likely to hand over 'Jihadi Jack' to Canada instead of the UK


Sputnik
Sun, 07 Oct 2018 13:40 UTC
Jihadi Jack
© channel 4.com/The Independent
Jack Letts aka 'Jihadi Jack'
Ottawa is said to be working to return suspected Daesh militants with Canadian citizenship, and Jack Letts aka "Jihadi Jack" is among them. The news broke as Kurdish officials in northern Syria are seeking to kick out hundreds of foreign terrorists captured in liberated regions of the country.

Jack Letts, a suspected Daesh fighter with dual British-Canadian citizenship, is likely to be extradited to Ottawa rather than to London, The Guardian reported on Saturday, citing unnamed Canadian and Kurdish sources.

Letts, dubbed "Jihadi Jack" by the British media, is among alleged extremists held in Kurdish custody in northern Syria. Canadian government is said to have agreed to extradite an estimated 11 citizens, including Letts.


Comment: That should be 'accept extradition' of 11 citizens.


Unlike the UK, which maintains that it cannot provide consular assistance to British citizens overseas if there are no local UK consular services available, Canada says that citizens with purported terrorist links detained in Syria and Iraq have the right to return home to face questioning or stand trial.

However, the daily claims, Ottawa has recently backed out of the deal "without giving reasons." One explanation is that the government fears an influx of suspected Daesh fighters to the country before the 2019 elections, said Canadian terrorism expert Amarnath Amarasingam.

Comment: Return to sender? Policies and protocols between countries are not clear nor standardized. This becomes an excuse to refuse a returnee.

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Arrow Down

34 girls brutally beaten by 'boys & their parents' after resisting sexual harassment in India - media


RT
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 16:03 UTC
Girls beaten
Up to 34 girls in India had to be hospitalized after being brutally beaten by a group of boys and their parents on Saturday afternoon when they complained of sexual harassment, local media report.

The victims aged are all said to be teenagers between 12 and 16, from a boarding school in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. The incident unfolded when a group of local boys allegedly started making lewd comments towards some girls in a playground. The girls reportedly told the school warden, who threatened to file a police complaint.

About two hours later, the boys returned with their parents and started beating up the girls. Three teachers are believed to have been attacked too.

"They dragged us by our ponytails, assaulted [us] with bamboo sticks and kicked and punched," said Gudia, among the girls hospitalized following the attack, the Guardian reports.
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Document

I hereby promise not to take drugs...honest: University prompts scheme to ask students to sign 'no drugs' contract


RT
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 03:10 UTC
Students with bags on their heads
© Darren Staples / Reuters
Young women use shopping bags to shelter from the rain during a "Carnage" student event in Lincoln.
A university is to ask its students to sign a no drugs contract in a bid to start a "revolution" and make drug-taking "socially unacceptable." The scheme was prompted by the news that over half of students take illegal drugs.

Writing for the MailOnline, Sir Anthony Seldon,the vice-chancellor of Buckingham University accused higher education bosses of lacking "moral leadership" on the issue of illegal drug-taking by students on campuses, claiming they were in part to blame for the epidemic.

"I began to ask myself what kind of moral leadership we university leaders were providing in colluding in the mass consumption of illegal drugs on our premises, with half and more students taking them?" Seldon wrote.

Buckingham University currently permits the police and sniffer-dogs on campus to deter use, but they hope its "compassionate policy" and support for those who want to stop using drugs will create a change in culture.
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Bulb

Forget the bling, Rapper Akon is lighting up Africa with solar power

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 07 Oct 2018 14:14 UTC
rapper Akon
Rap superstar, and Senegal transplant, Akon is planning a solar investment program in Sierra Leone to bring thousands of solar powered lights and traffic lights to the people. Conversely, other rap stars in the United States, like Daniel Hernandez, aka Tekashi 6ix9ine-who likes to post photos of himself holding large amounts of cash while degrading women on Instagram - are facing jail time for child rape. Clearly Akon gets it while many other rappers do not.


In an interview shared by the Sierra Leone presidency, as Africa News reports, Akon said: "Actually (the president) motivated me a lot more, you know; he is a very smart guy (and) he definitely understands Sierra Leone and he understands the future where Africa needs to be.

"Meeting with a lot of the younger Africans who have been elected now is really motivating because my biggest challenge was getting presidents to understand the vision, and with him we speak the same language.
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Snakes in Suits

Cornell Alliance for Science is a PR Campaign for the Agrichemical Industry

Stacy Malkan
US Right to Know
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 00:01 UTC
cornell university
Despite its academic-sounding name and affiliation with an Ivy League Institution, the Cornell Alliance for Science is a public relations campaign to promote genetically engineered foods and pesticides. With $12 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Cornell Alliance for Science claims to be working to "restore the importance of scientific evidence in decision-making," however, the examples in this fact sheet show that the group:
  • Misleads the public with inaccurate information about science;
  • Elevates unreliable messengers who make false and unscientific claims; and,
  • Partners with front groups that have worked with the tobacco industry or chemical industries to manufacture doubt about science that raises health concerns.
The evidence suggests the Cornell Alliance for Science is using Cornell's name, reputation and authority to promote the talking points and political agenda of the world's largest agrichemical corporations.

Comment: Taking a little peak behind the curtain on these shameless promoters of Big Agra reveals a vast web of industry-tied clappers who are paid to deceive.

More on the Alliance for Science:

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Bizarro Earth

Physicists respond to scientist's gender-based 'pseudoscience' at CERN


Sputnik
Sun, 07 Oct 2018 02:54 UTC
Cern
© AFP 2018 / Richard Juiliart
A letter denouncing a talk made last week in Switzerland by Italian physicist Alessandro Strumia during a CERN workshop on women in the field of high energy physics has been signed by over 200 physicists - including Nobel Prize winner David Gross - and some 900 academics from other fields.

In condemning Strumia's assertions, the letter, published Saturday, refutes the scientist's conclusions, writing, in part:
"Physics and science are part of the shared inheritance of all people, as much as art, music, and literature, and we should strive to ensure that everyone has a fair opportunity to become a scientist. The question of discrimination based on ascribed identity is a moral one, and we write to affirm that discrimination is not a welcome feature of our field, however pervasive it may be..... The thin veneer of scientific rigor with which Strumia's talk began was followed by open discrimination and personal attacks, which we condemn unconditionally."
The authors of the protest letter pointed out that Strumia gave a 'pseudoscientific' talk at CERN attempting to prove that male particle physicists are the real victims of gender discrimination in the modern scientific research community.


Comment: Pseudoscientific - or just not what these politically correct scientists want to hear given the current strain of thinking (or non-thinking) in academia?


Comment: Looks like Sputnik has itself taken a feminist position on this topic, at least in this article.

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Question

Village's 300-year-old stone bridge mysteriously vanishes in Turkey


Sputnik
Sun, 07 Oct 2018 12:56 UTC
mountains turkey
© RIA Novosti /Алексей Даничев
Mountains in Turkey
The five-meter-long arch over a stream, which had stood for ages, disappeared over the course of one week in fairy-tale fashion, puzzling and saddening locals. While some are grieving over childhood memories that are attached to the relic, others suspected foul play and treasure hunters.

Villagers from Arslanca in Eastern Black Sea region have recently found only an abutment where a five-meter stone bridge, connecting three highland areas, divided with a stream, used to be for about 3 centuries, as the outlet Daily Sabah reports.

According to the reports the bridge was still there, as always on October 1, but 5 days later there was almost nothing left at the site. Locals have used it to drive herds across a stream in this mountainous neighborhood over the years.
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Arrow Down

Eight cops injured after anti-immigrant rock concert turns violent in Germany


RT
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 11:13 UTC
german police apolda
© Twiter / Polizei_Thuer
Eight officers were injured as a far-right rock concert in east-central Germany boiled over into scuffles with police. The event was disassembled an hour after the beginning.

Some 700 people descended on the market square of the German town of Apolda on Saturday, where an improvised concert under the motto "rock against the overflow of foreigners" started. The event apparently drew some neo-Nazis as the photos from the event show the participants giving Nazi salutes.

Some concert goers are said to have tried to force their way force through the police officers, who responded with pepper spray.
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Star of David

Two dead & suspect at large after gunman opens fire in West Bank


RT
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 11:11 UTC
IDF israeli soldiers
© Ronen Zvulun / Reuters
Israeli soldiers on patrol near industrial park
Israeli forces launched a manhunt for a suspect after he opened fire at the Barkan Industrial Park, killing two and injuring one. Palestinian group Hamas says the assault represents "a natural response" to Israeli "war crimes."

Two of the three victims of the shooting succumbed to their injuries, Israeli media reported citing the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The third one remains in the hospital in serious but non-life-threatening condition.

The shooter fled the scene and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), as well as the IDF, have deployed additional troops to the area to catch the perpetrator. He was identified as a Palestinian, Ashraf Abu Shaham, 23.
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