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2 + 2 = 4

Jewish ID politics and my criticism of Jewish 'left'

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© UnknownCara St. Louis
Extraordinary Tales, Extraordinary Writers: My name is Cara St.Louis and this is my show. Conversations with some of the most extraordinary people I have ever met. You will be seeing it as an acquisition elsewhere later. Please feel free to share. I bring you World Class Illustrator and Writer, Bridget Marzot and World-Renowned Jazz Artist and philosopher, Gilad Atzmon.

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© Gilad Atzmon
Part 1

Part 2


Comment: Readers might be fascinated to read Gilad's book, The Wandering Who?


Map

Donetsk and Lugansk state their terms for staying part of Ukraine (UPDATE)

novorossiya
© ITAR-TASS/Zurab Dzhavakhadze

Comment: UPDATE: Apparently, leaders of both DPR and LPR have denied these reports (sources in Russian).



Comment: Russia has started using the term 'Novorossiya' to refer to the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in its official statements and documents these last few days. Putin even went so far as to refer to the 'state' or 'statehood' of the Republics in a recent interview, which was immediately picked up by media as an endorsement for the republics' independence. While Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said there was no official endorsement independence, adding that the areas should remain part of Ukraine, we wonder if this was Putin's subtle hint to Kiev: if it comes to it, Moscow will officially recognize Novorossiya. That could lead to more substantial support. Now, DPR and LPR, who have been pounding Kiev forces (retaking Lugansk airport and in the process of taking Donetsk's) -- and who have just recently called for nothing less than full independence -- come back with this compromise.


Representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (LPR and DPR) said on Monday they will make every effort to preserve Ukraine's unity if Kiev accepts their demands.

Representatives of LPR and DNR have made public their position for the meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine in the Belarusian capital Minsk that begins later on Monday.

They say "equal talks are the only acceptable means for the settlement of the conflict and restoration of peace". They also base on principles worked out at the Geneva meeting of representatives from Russia, the US, the European Union and Ukraine on April 17, 2014.

Vice-Premier of the DPR Andrei Purgin said on Monday he brought proposals for the contact group's meeting to reduce the duration of combat operations and the number of victims. "I've arrived here with proposals to find common points. They contain eight or nine points," Purgin said before the contact group's session. "These are initial proposals for the consultations," he added.

Purgin said he did not expect a major breakthrough at the Minsk meeting. "This is an initial stage. It can hardly end with something drastically big," he added.

Comment: Could this be another offer Kiev can't sanely refuse, but which -- if they do refuse -- will end up backfiring and working to Russia and Novorossiya's advantage? (Kind of like the proposed humanitarian corridors for surrendering Kiev troops, rejected by Kiev but accepted by some individual commanders, thus making Putin look the savior to the mothers and wives protesting in Kiev.) However it turns out, it's better than a movie, that's for sure!


Nuke

Nightmare to continue: Fukushima governor okays nuclear waste storages in return for almost $3bn in subsidies

Ice wall construction in Fukushima
© ReutersWorkers conduct operations to construct an underground ice wall at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (Tepco) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture July 9, 2014.
Fukushima's governor has officially agreed to allow the country's authorities to store radioactive waste for 30 years in two municipalities in exchange for 300 billion yen ($2.89 billion) in subsidies.

"It's a difficult decision, but I want to accept the construction plan," Governor Yuhei Sato told journalists on Saturday.

Sato told The Japan Times he accepted the plan because he sees it as "necessary to advance decontamination and realize recovery of the environment."

The mayor's formal acceptance should be also sent to Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara and Reconstruction Minister Takumi Nemoto on Monday, and he is also set to meet with the country's premier Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.

On Wednesday, two Fukushima prefecture municipalities made the decision that they would accept the government's package of subsidies, allowing to build the storages.

"We succeeded in greatly deepening (local officials') understanding (of our storage facility plan)," Nobuteru Ishihara, environment minister, told journalists on Tuesday, as quoted by The Asahi Shimbun media outlet, following his meeting with members of the town assemblies of Futaba and Okuma.

Comment: Oh good, they are going to store the nuclear waste near the damaged reactor in the area affected by the earthquake and the tsunami. Sounds like good sense. Should be REALLY safe there.


Handcuffs

Ashya King case: Missing boy with brain tumor alive in Spain, parents arrested

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Naghemeh King and Brett King, the parents of five-year-boy Ashya King in this combination of undated handout photos released by Britain's Hampshire Police on Aug. 29.
The parents of an ill 5-year-old British boy suffering from a brain tumor are under arrest and the child is receiving medical care at a Spanish hospital after police in that country stopped their car Saturday and ended a furious two-day international manhunt, authorities said.

The ill boy, Ashya King, was found safe with "no visible signs of distress" after police in the Malaga region of Spain pulled over their Hyundai at just before 10 p.m. local time, Hampshire constable Chris Shead told reporters. It is unknown why his parents, Brett King, 51, and Naghemeh King, 45, took the child, whose condition requires complex care that police feared the couple would be unable to safely provide on their own.

Comment: If interested, there is a petition located here asking for both the release of Brett and Naghemeh and allowing them to choose the most appropriate care for Ashya.

The withholding of children from their parents by medical institutions is becoming a common theme as is illustrated in this article.


Calculator

U.S agricultural inspectors seize 1,304 giant African snails

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© Wikimedia commons
Agricultural inspectors have seized 1,304 giant African snails, one of the world's most destructive invasive species, from sites around the United States, the Department of Agriculture said on Friday.

The slimy pests, which can grow as big as rats, eat up to 500 different kinds of plants and can damage buildings and humans' health. They are a particular problem in Florida, where an extermination campaign is under way.

The Agriculture Department said in a statement that officials with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service seized an adult giant African snail and 284 juvenile snails on New York's Long Island on June 26.

The snail came from a seller in Georgia who owned 949 of them. He told officials they were originally bought from a British source and were sent to the United States by mail.

All the snails were seized. Based on information from the Georgia man, the inspection service also confiscated one giant snail apiece in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Albany, New York.

Inspection service officials also seized 67 snails in July that had been imported from Nigeria to theUnited States via Los Angeles.

Airplane

Death under strange circumstances: Small plane, headed for Manassas, crashes into Atlantic Ocean off Virginia coast

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© Unknown
A single-engine airplane that was scheduled to land in Manassas crashed Saturday into the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia coast, authorities said.

The Coast Guard said the pilot, the only person on board, appeared unconscious as the plane flew southeast, at about 13,000 feet, through Washington's restricted airspace and eventually across Virginia's eastern shore.

The plane eventually ran out of fuel and crashed about 50 miles southeast of Chincoteague, the Coast Guard said.

Life Preserver

Yet another act of kindness made in Russia: Russian plane arrives in Syria with 15 tons of aid delivery

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A Russian aid airplane carrying 15 tons of humanitarian aid arrived in Syria on Thursday, the official SANA news agency reported.

The plane landed in the international airport of the coastal city of Latakia, the latest shipment from Russia in a bid to alleviate some of the suffering of the Syrian people.
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Separately, SANA said the Syrian government sent on Thursday a total of 15 truckloads of aid rations to the western and northern parts of the northern city of Aleppo.

Comment: Russia is rapidly replacing the USA/West as the benefactor and arbiter of what is good and right. Countries change with their governments; the USA changed for the worse, Russia changed for the better.While US and the West defame Putin, Russia quietly helps others and delivers a regular shipment of relief aid for Serbia's flood-stricken regions


X

Indian girl, seven, is buried alive but manages to claw her way to safety

A horrified villager rescued a young girl who had been buried alive in a cane field after hearing her crying for help.

Alok Kumar, from Maanpur village, Sitapur district, was returning from his fields on Monday evening when he heard the girl's desperate cries.

He followed the muffled sounds to the middle of a cane field, where to his shock he found the soil moving as the girl tried to dig her way out.
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© Headlines todayTanu was buried alive in a cane field in UP's Maanpur village, but was rescued by chance when a passing village man heard her cries

Mr Kumar started digging and unearthed a small girl who was in a semi-conscious state. He quickly pulled her out and rushed her to the nearby Maanpur police station.

Light Sabers

Injuries as neo-Nazi march provokes clash with anti-fascists, police in Stockholm

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© Reuters/Frederik PerssonDemonstrators clash with the police during a protest against an election meeting organised by right-wing political group The Party of the Swedes (Svenskarnas Parti), at the Kungstradgarden square in central Stockholm August 30, 2014.
Seven people suffered injuries after riot police clashed with anti-fascists at a neo-Nazi rally in Stockholm. Police say four law enforcement officers needed treatment, along with three civilians.

The march was organized by the Party of Swedes, a far-right organization, and attracted around 150 members. They were far outnumbered by those protesting against the gathering, with thousands gathering in the city center. The vast majority of protesters were well-behaved, but a minority attacked the police with firecrackers, bottles, eggs and panels from a security fence.


"We have had violent riots with people throwing objects at police," police spokesman Lars Bystrom said, according to AP. He also mentioned that two arrests were made, one for "preparation of aggravated assault," and another for climbing onto the roof of the Royal Opera House, where the neo-Nazi group started and ended their march.

The rally took place with Swedish parliamentary elections set to take place in two weeks. Just last week, on August 23, violence broke out at another march held by the Party of Swedes in Malmo, which has a high immigrant population with 31 percent of the city's residents having been born abroad, according to the city's official website.

The trouble started after anti-fascists tried to block the neo-Nazi march and clashed with the police ahead of a speech by Stefan Jacobsson, the leader of the Party of Swedes. Ten people were injured during the clashes, with many of the demonstrators critical of the heavy-handed tactics used by the police, which includeda charge by officers mounted on horseback at the participants.


Bullseye

Novorossia fighters put Ukrainian gunboat out of action in Sea of Azov

Novorossiya fighter
© ITAR-TASS/Zurab Dzhavakhadze

Donetsk militiamen on Sunday knocked out of action a Ukrainian patrol gunboat in the Sea of Azov, Nororossia news agency said.

According to the report, the incident took place in the Gulf of Taganrog near the townships of Shirokino and Bezymennoye, ten to twenty kilometers to the east of the coast city of Mariupol.

In the meantime, some Ukrainian media said two coastal guard gunboats had undergone gunfire. They indicated that the incident occurred at around 15:20 East-European Daylight Saving Time (12:20 GMT).