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Light Sabers

Pulwama terror attack mastermind killed in encounter in Jammu & Kashmir

terrorist
The mastermind of the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel, has been killed in an encounter in south Kashmir's Tral area, officials said Monday.

Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist Mudasir Ahmed Khan was one of the two militants killed in the encounter in Tral's Pinglish area that started Sunday evening and went on till the early hours of Monday, they said.

The body of the second militant has not been identified yet, said the officials, who had earlier claimed he was Sajjad Bhat, a JeM operative whose car was used in the Pulwama attack.

Bhat's brother refused to take the body, saying it was charred beyond recognition. Khan's body has been taken by his family members, the officials said.

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Dollar

Shareholder files suit against Google after two execs accused of sexual harassment are paid $105 million

work protest
© Bebeto Matthews / AP
Google paid a total of $105 million to Andy Rubin and Amit Singhal after they were accused of sexual harassment at the company, The Wall Street Journal first reported. This confirms The New York Times report that Google paid $90 million to Rubin and reveals Google also paid $15 million to Singhal, who left Uber after it was revealed that he did not disclose the sexual harassment allegation.

The suit, filed by shareholder James Martin, confirms the board of directors approved a $90 million exit package for Rubin "as a goodbye present to him. No mention, of course, was made about the true reason for Rubin's 'resignation' - his egregious sexual harassment while at Google."

In a statement to TechCrunch, Rubin's lawyer denies these claims.

"This lawsuit simply repeats much of the recent media coverage, mischaracterizes Andy's departure from Google and sensationalizes claims made about Andy by his ex-wife," Ellen Winick Stross, Rubin's lawyer, said. "Andy acknowledges having had a consensual relationship with a Google employee. However, Andy strongly denies any misconduct, and we look forward to telling his story in court."

The suit goes on to describe how Singhal "was allowed to quietly resign at Google in 2016 in the wake of credible allegations of sexual harassment, and was paid millions in severance."

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Handcuffs

Feds arrest dozens, including actresses and ex-Pimco CEO, in 'largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted'

felicity huffman and lori laughlin
Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and a slew of chief executives are among 50 wealthy people charged in the largest college cheating scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice, federal officials said Tuesday.

Those indicted in the investigation, dubbed "Varsity Blues," allegedly paid bribes of up to $6 million to get their children into elite colleges, including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Southern California, federal prosecutors said.

"This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud," Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said at a news conference.

"There can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy and, I'll add, there will not be a separate criminal justice system either," Lelling said.

Eye 2

Media investigation finds Swedes who fought in Waffen-SS during WWII still receive 'Hitler pensions'

german troops Waffen SS
© Global Look Press / ScherlA reconnaissance troop of the Waffen SS in the southern sector of the Eastern front.
Seventy-four years after the fall of the Third Reich, the German government is still paying foreign soldiers injured while assisting the Nazi war effort, including two Swedes who served in the armed unit of the SS.

Last week, Berlin assured that none of the 15 Swedish citizens receiving compensation for war-injuries had been members of the paramilitary Schutzstaffel organization. However, Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter has determined that at least two of those receiving monthly payments from Germany are indeed former Waffen-SS members

Karl von Zeipel and Jan Dufv fought in the SS' Aryan-only 'Viking' tank division which directly engaged in the destruction of civilian populations in Nazi-occupied territory, although the data does not indicate if the two mentioned personally participated in the war-crimes.

Tornado2

Piers Morgan 'identifies as hippo' in response to Alyssa Milano's 'trans, immigrant, gay' tweet

piers morgan and alyssa milano
© Reuters / Henry Nicholls / Danny Moloshok
Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan has jokingly said he identifies as a hippopotamus while dissecting actress Alyssa Milano's recent tweet, in which she identified as trans, gay, immigrant and disabled.

The 53-year-old host and controversial tweeter mocked the 'Charmed' actress - who he described as a rich, white, hetrosexual female born in New York - by reading her tweet in a fake American accent.

In fact, Morgan argued that Milano is simply suffering from "TDS: Trump Derangement Syndrome," which, he claims, has sent many "liberal actors completely barking mad."

When Morgan's co-host Susanna Reid pointed out that he once identified as a hippopotamus on the show, he clarified: "I called their bluff, if we can self-identify as she just did then we can all be anything.

"So I therefore identified as a hippopotamus. Does that make me a hippopotamus? No, it doesn't. I'm not a hippopotamus."

Milano sparked a fierce backlash with her tweet on Saturday, evoking a response from many people who actually are from one of her mentioned minority groups. They pointed out that empathizing with people does not allow someone to identify as one of them.


Pirates

The westerners surrendering to the SDF from ISIS's last stronghold in Syria

ISIS flag
As Kurdish and Syrian Democratic Forces pound the last remaining ISIS stronghold, a stream of foreign jihadists have poured out of the village of Baghouz, Syria. Who are the captured Westerners and what happens to them next?

US-backed Kurdish and SDF troops launched an all-out assault on the Syrian hamlet of Baghouz on Sunday evening, pummeling the village with airstrikes and killing "dozens" of militants overnight.

Nestled on the banks of the Euphrates near the Iraqi border, Baghouz is the last redoubt of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), whose 'caliphate' once spanned much of Iraq and Syria.

SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali told Reuters that 4,000 IS militants in Baghouz have surrendered in the last month, and tens of thousands of their wives, children, and family members have evacuated the village. Only a dedicated few fighters remain inside, ready to defend the caliphate to the death.

Among the dregs emerging from Baghouz are a curious mix of Westerners who had become radicalized and made the journey to Syria to fight for IS.

Fire

Jerusalem Temple Mount, Old City closed off after firebombing, clashes with police

temple mount
© Waqf Spokesman
Clashes broke out Tuesday on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between Israeli police forces and Muslim worshipers after a firebomb was hurled toward a police post, causing a blaze to break out at the holy site. This adds to heightened tension around the Temple Mount in recent weeks over attempts to reopen a contested building closed off by Israel.

Police broke into the compound following the incident and arrested three people on suspicion of hurling the firebomb. All gates to the Temple Mount have been closed, and police evacuated everyone present. In a rare measure, entrances to Jerusalem's Old City have also been blocked.

Palestinians report that several worshipers and Waqf personnel, the Muslim custodian of the site, have been arrested, and that Israeli forces broke into the Dome of the Rock and mosques in the compound.

Palestinian eyewitnesses said they saw four people being arrested, two of whom were women. According to the Red Crescent, four Palestinians were injured in the clashes and have evacuated to a nearby hospital.

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Bad Guys

Venezuela halts oil operations as power failures persist

venezuela oil
Venezuela's main oil export terminal and heavy crude processing complex in Jose are shut down as a historic blackout persists across much of the country today.

Crude exports were already backed up because of US oil sanctions before the record power outage darkened nearly all of Venezuela on 7 March. Around 14mn bl of crude are backed up in tankers anchored offshore.

Three heavy crude upgraders and a blending operation that national oil company PdV operates with foreign minority partners, as well as petrochemical plants run by Pequiven in Jose, are suspended, PdV officials tell Argus.

The halted upgraders are PetroPiar with Chevron, PetroMonagas with Russia´s Rosneft and PetroCedeño with Total and Equinor. The three plants have nameplate synthetic crude production capacity of around 450,000 b/d.

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Star of David

Wonder Woman v Bibi? Gal Gadot defends TV host berated by Israeli PM

gal gadot netanyahu
© Global Look Press / PLANET PHOTOS; Reuters /Ammar Awad/File Photo
Israeli Hollywood star Gal Gadot, best known for her role as Wonder Woman, has swooped in to defend a TV host who came under fire from Benjamin Netanyahu for suggesting Israel is not for Jews alone.

The movie star spoke out after the prime minister criticized Israeli television presenter Rotem Sela for expressing solidarity with Arab-Israelis and arguing that Israel is a country "for all its citizens."

Netanyahu later issued a rebuke of Sela's comments, stating that "Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, and them alone."

The prime minister's assertion apparently didn't sit well with Gadot, who shared her thoughts on the matter with her 28.3 million Instagram followers.

Comment: Apparently other Israeli stars have been emboldened to speak up. When you lose the celebrities, you know you've got problems.
Celebrity actress Rotem Sela believes that there is nothing wrong with Arabs living in the country, since Israel is a "country for all its citizens" without exception, with the statement prompting a correction from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the State of Israel belongs solely to the Jews, with his statement coming in response to a comment by Israeli actress Rotem Sela on the Israeli culture minister's recent interview.

"Miri Regev sits there and explains to Rina Matzliach that the public needs to watch out, because if Benny Gantz is elected he'll need to form a government with Arabs", Sela wrote in her Instagram story, to the joy of her over 800,000-strong army of followers.

"Rina Matzliach stayed silent. And I ask myself why Rina doesn't ask her in shock - 'and what's the problem with Arabs???' Oh my god, there are also Arab citizens in this country", she wrote, stressing that Israel is "a country for all its citizens".

"And every person was born equal. Arabs, too, God help us, are human beings. And so are the Druze. And so are gays, by the way, and lesbians, and...shock...leftists", she said, admitting though, that despite "disgusting comments", she treats everyone with affection.

The comments prompted Benjamin Netanyahu to respond on Sunday: he uploaded a snapshot of himself posing in front of an Israeli flag, captioning the picture as follows:


"Dear Rotem, an important correction: Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People - and them alone. As you wrote, there's no problem with the Arab citizens of Israel - they have the same rights as us all and the Likud government has invested in the Arab sector more than any other government".

He continued by saying that Likud only seeks to sharpen "the central point of these elections: it's either a strong right-wing government led by me, or Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz's left-wing government with the support of the Arab parties".

He went on to state that Lapid and Gantz have no other way to form a government, while a government "like this will undermine the security of the state and citizens". "The decision - another month at the ballot box. Have a nice day", he rounded off.

The culture minister also weighed in on the debate, addressing Rotem on Sunday: "We don't have a problem with Arabs. Our party has more than a few Arab, Druze, and Christian members. We have a problem with the hypocrisy and masquerade of Lapid and Gantz, who are trying with all their might to hide from the public that they are the left disguised as the centre", he was cited by Israeli media as saying.

Crowds, however, rushed to throw their weight behind the Israeli actress on Twitter, applauding her bravery vis-à-vis "religious extremist Netanyahu":




There were those, meanwhile, who would more likely appreciate Netanyahu's stance:






Attention

Emergency workers summoned to Amazon warehouses 189 times over suicide concerns, breakdowns: report

amazon shipping conveyor
© Getty
Emergency workers were summoned to Amazon warehouses 189 times for employees' "suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts and other mental health episodes" over the last five years, according to a new Daily Beast report.

The incidents reported by The Daily Beast spanned 46 warehouses in 17 states, comprising about a quarter of the company's centers in the United States.

"It's this isolating colony of hell where people having breakdowns is a regular occurrence," Jace Crouch, a former warehouse employee from Florida, told The Daily Beast, adding that it is "mentally taxing to do the same task super fast for 10-hour shifts, four or five days a week."

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