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British academic accused of spying for UK gov't sentenced to life in prison in United Arab Emirates

Nazia Parveen and Patrick Wintour
The Guardian
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 18:31 UTC
Matthew Hedges with his wife, Daniela Tejada
© Daniela Tejada/EPA
Matthew Hedges with his wife, Daniela Tejada
A British academic who was accused of spying for the UK government in the United Arab Emirates after travelling to Dubai to conduct research has been sentenced to life in jail.

Matthew Hedges, 31, has been in a UAE prison for more than six months. The University of Durham PhD candidate went to the country to research his thesis and was sentenced at an Abu Dhabi court on Wednesday in a hearing that lasted less than five minutes, with no lawyer present.

His wife, Daniela Tejada, 27, who was present in the courtroom, said Hedges began shaking when the verdict was read out.

"I am in complete shock and I don't know what to do," she said. "Matthew is innocent. The Foreign Office know this and have made it clear to the UAE authorities that Matthew is not a spy for them."

Comment: Previously:

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Star of David

Israel to evict 700 Palestinians from Silwan district in Jerusalem


Middle East Monitor
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 18:15 UTC
silwan evictions israel jerusalem
© silwanic.net
Israeli settlers took over a Palestinian house in Silwan after Israeli occupation officers forced the Palestinian inhabitants out using gunfire on October 24, 2018
The Israeli Supreme Court yesterday rejected a petition submitted by 104 Palestinians against claims by a right-wing Israeli organisation paving the way for 700 Palestinians to be forced from their homes, Haaretz reported.

The 700 Palestinians, who make up 70 families, have been going through a legal battle to protect their right to remain in their homes since 2002. Last June, lawyers for the occupation admitted that the process by which settlers organisation Ateret Cohanim received rights to the land was flawed. In spite of this, the judge ruled in favour of the settlers' rights to siege the area.

Comment: Trust Israel to try to hide behind a legalistic figleaf. Military force is the reality and the Palestinians pay for Zionist rapaciousness.

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Life Preserver

Amtrak train from Montreal to New York breaks in 2, passengers stranded Thanksgiving eve

Adam Frisk
Global News
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 10:06 UTC
Amtrak
© Chuck Reeves via Twitter
U.S.-bound travellers were left briefly stranded after an Amtrak train from Montreal to New York City separated into two on the eve of U.S. Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel days of the year.
U.S.-bound travellers were left briefly stranded after an Amtrak train from Montreal to New York City separated into two on the eve of U.S. Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Amtrak Train 68, also known as the Adirondack, experienced what officials called a "mechanical issue" after two of its cars separated just outside of Albany around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"I'm on an #Amtrak train going down to NYC for Thanksgiving. About ten minutes out of Albany, heard a pop smelled electrical burning and felt a rush of cold air," passenger Chuck Reeves tweeted along with a photo. "Turned around and looked back and saw the rat of the train is missing."

There were 287 passengers and crew members onboard the train at the time and no injuries were reported.
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Footprints

Chico, California Walmart asks Camp Fire evacuees to vacate their parking lot 'for their own good'

Molly Sullivan, Ryan Lillis & Dale Kasler
The Sacramento Bee
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 17:38 UTC
camp fire evacuees
Wallywood may be fading to black.

Tuesday evening, hundreds of fire survivors bedded down for another cold night in the parking lot of the Walmart in Chico, where a community of Camp Fire evacuees has set up an unofficial and unorganized shanty town.

Shortly after 7 p.m., employees of Walmart began posting signs instructing the campers it was time to go.

By Wednesday morning, as rain began falling, many had heeded the signs and left. About 50 tents remained pitched on the grass lot.

But some campers remained resolute, saying they would rather stay in the Walmart lot than take a chance on getting sick or winding up someplace unfamiliar. More than 140 people have contracted norovirus at official shelters, according to reports from Butte County officials.
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USA

Killers, drinkers & traumatized for life: What it means to be a US drone operator in the 'war on terror'

Danielle Ryan
RT
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 18:10 UTC
us drones yemen
© Reuters / Khaled Abdullah
They sit in rooms resembling hi-tech shipping containers. Joysticks in hand, they spend hours watching grainy screens, displaying people in faraway lands going about their daily lives - and they hold life and death in their hands.

They are the men and women who operate the United States' controversial drone warfare program - and they frequently get it disastrously wrong.

A newly-released report by the Associated Press claims that one third of people killed by US drones in Yemen this year were civilians with no association to terror groups like Al-Qaeda, the intended targets.

But intention and reality often diverge sharply when it comes to death by US drones - and the horror is not confined to Yemen. From Pakistan to Afghanistan, to Iraq, Syria and Somalia, US drone strikes - which are often hailed by the US military and government as "precise" and even "surgical" - have killed scores of innocent civilians.
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Wolf

Drug cartels finding new smuggling routes while Border Patrol deals with migrants

Sara Carter
saraacarter.com
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 17:52 UTC
us forces mexico border

U.S. beefs up border personnel ahead of the arrival of the migrant caravan
Officials said Tuesday's court ruling against Trump's asylum executive order is making things much more difficult for law enforcement. Former acting ICE director Tom Homan said his agency is completely overwhelmed and needs the military's help.

Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officials fear the growing number of migrants amassing along the United States border in Tijuana, Mexico will try to rush the U.S. port of entry as the situation has been exacerbated in recent days by the increased conflict between the migrants and locals, former and current U.S. law enforcement officials said.
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Passport

Asylum-seeking migrants must 'wait in Mexico' for hearing - WaPo

Neil Munro
Breitbart News
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 17:33 UTC
migrants california border
© Guillermo Arias/Agence France-Presse/Getty
The White House will reduce the catch-and-release of economic migrants by returning them to Mexico until their asylum pleas are decided by U.S. judges, says an article in the Washington Post.

The asylum reform is sketched in the article which says:
Central Americans who arrive at U.S. border crossings seeking asylum in the United States will have to wait in Mexico while their claims are processed under sweeping new measures the Trump administration is preparing to implement, according to internal planning documents and three Department of Homeland Security officials familiar with the initiative.

According to DHS memos obtained by The Washington Post on Wednesday, Central American asylum seekers who cannot establish a "reasonable fear" of persecution in Mexico will not be allowed to enter the United States and would be turned around at the border.

The plan, called "Remain in Mexico," amounts to a major break with current screening procedures, which generally allow those who establish a fear of return to their home countries to avoid immediate deportation and remain in the United States until they can get a hearing with an immigration judge. Trump despises this system, which he calls "catch and release," and has vowed to end it.

Comment: The Daily Caller reports intentions of some migrants to storm the border:
An aid group sympathetic to the migrant caravan currently parked in Tijuana says some members of the group are planning to scramble across the U.S. border en masse.

According to Fox News, Angels without Borders founder Sergio Tamai talked to San Diego's Spanish-language media Telemundo 20 and said, "They have that intention. I believe that thousands could make that jump."

There are about 3,000 migrants camping out in Tijuana with many more on the way. The locals have not exactly been welcoming, with the mayor and an angry mob calling the would-be Central American refugees "an invasion" and calling them "criminals" and "freeloaders."

The Department Of Homeland Security is warning Americans that the migrants are not an innocuous collection of women and children.

It is uncertain what happens next. A federal judge nixed President Donald Trump's plans to order a temporary halt to illegal immigrants obtaining refugee status. If the migrants are allowed to apply for asylum, it could take six months to assess their claims.

But many of the migrants aren't prepared to wait for due process and tell Telemundo that they are prepared to break-in to the United States.

"Most of us, yes - we want to be on the other side," said Jorge Molina, from Honduras. "Some want to jump over the wall, others to go another way, and others want to wait and see what kind of response they get."

The migrant caravan has attracted controversy and notoriety from the beginning of its trek from Honduras. There have been numerous clashes with Mexican authorities.

A Reuters report detailed how some of the migrants are armed with guns and Molotov cocktails that could be still be used in any border confrontation. One migrant offhandedly told a reporter about his conviction for attempted murder, but said he was sure a pardon awaited him in the United States.


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TV

Snowflakes in China? Dolce & Gabbana face backlash over 'racist' advertisement


Time
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 17:10 UTC
D&G ad

This is racist?
The Chinese uproar over Dolce & Gabbana's controversial ad campaign raged on as thousands of products from the Italian luxury fashion house were removed from China's biggest shopping websites and calls to boycott the brand gained traction.

The high-fashion brand faces a growing storm in China after a video campaign it made was criticized as racist and insensitive, and incendiary messages from co-founder Stefano Gabbana's Instagram account went viral.

Cross-border e-commerce site Yangmatou said late Wednesday night that it had taken 58,000 D&G products off its site, saying that "the motherland is more important than anything else." On Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Tmall shopping portal, a search for D&G in both English and Chinese returned no results. Searches on popular shopping sites JD.com and NetEase's Kaola also returned no results for D&G items.

Alibaba, JD.com Inc. and NetEase Inc. did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Dolce & Gabbana didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the pulled items.

Comment: Hold on to your pearls. Here's the full ad with RT commentary:



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Attention

'We're afraid': Palestinian villagers speak to RT as Israel prepares to bulldoze their homes


RT
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 14:34 UTC
Children
© Reuters / Mohamad Torokman
Children are pictured in the village of Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank.
Residents of a Palestinian village are dealing with constant uncertainty, terrified of the moment when Israeli bulldozers come in to destroy their homes. Villagers spoke to RT about being scared for the fate of their families.

Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank is facing demolition by Israel, which says the residents haven't obtained building permits. Some of the villagers spoke about the psychological and emotional toll that the situation is having on them.
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People 2

Hearing this one thing was a light bulb moment in terms of my opinion on feminism

Amy Nolan
Her
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 12:18 UTC
men women 50/50
Last weekend, my boyfriend and I took a road trip to Mayo. From Cork, it's quite the spin so we had plenty of time to chat.

The conversation somehow landed on feminism and we spoke about everything from abortion legislation to Ariana Grande's new song, Thank u, next and what kind of message it conveys.

Comment: See also:

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