Rim Banna, a famous Palestinian singer who translated Palestine's most moving poetry to song passed away on March 24, 2018, at the age of 51. Rim captured the struggle for Palestinian freedom in the most dignified and melodious ways. If we could imagine angels singing, they would sound like Rim.

When Rim died, all Palestinians mourned her death. Although a few international outlets carried the news of her passing at a relatively young age, her succumbing to cancer did not receive much coverage or discussion. Sadly, a Palestinian icon of cultural resistance who had inspired a whole generation, starting with the First Palestinian Intifada in 1987, hardly registered as an event worthy of remembrance and reflection, even among those who purport to champion the Palestinian cause.

Compare Rim to Madonna, an 'artiste' who has stood for self-aggrandizing personal fame and money-making. She has championed the most debased moral values, utilizing cheap entertainment while catering to the lowest common denominator to remain relevant in the music world for as long as possible.

While Rim had a cause, Madonna has none. And while Rim symbolized cultural resistance, Madonna symbolizes globalized cultural hegemony - in this case, the imposition of consumerist western cultures on the rest of the world.

Commentary

Why is it that a kid wearing a MAGA hat smiling at a Native American drumming in his face can become a national scandal, but a mainstream performance can have a performer surrounded by demonic figures, dancing in flames, and show depictions of the Statue of Liberty in ruins-and nobody seems to bat an eye?

I'm, of course, referring to Madonna's performance at Eurovision 2019 in Israel. Keep in mind that Eurovision is no minor event. In 2018, it had almost 190 million viewers, which is nearly double the Super Bowl's 98 million.

Openly Satanic imagery is fairly common in Madonna's performances-and with performances by major pop singers, overall-so this wasn't especially unusual for her. But the seeming lack of attention these issues receive says something about how warped the standards in entertainment have become.

A parade of adoptable children held in a Brazilian shopping center drew condemnation Thursday, with some comparing the event to the sale of animals or slaves.

"Adoption on the Catwalk" in the central-west state of Mato Grosso was designed to "give visibility to children and adolescents who are eligible for adoption," according to an official statement promoting Tuesday's show.

The parade -- organized by the local chapters of the Brazil Bar Association's Childhood and Youth Commission (CYC) and the Adoption Research and Support Association (AMPARA) -- was held in the Pantanal shopping mall in the capital Cuiaba.

"As we always say, what the eyes see, the heart feels," Tatiane de Barros Ramalho, president of the CYC and a lawyer, was quoted as saying.

"It's a night for potential adopters to get to know the kids and teens. The population can have more information about adoption and the children themselves will have a special day in which they will get done up for the parade."

An undated photo published on G1 news site purportedly showed a girl wearing a white t-shirt and a short pink skirt walking down a catwalk in front of onlookers, who were recording images with their smartphones.

But the bar association said the photo was taken during a previous "Adoption on the Catwalk" event in 2016.

Some American presidential candidates have endorsed free tuition for American public universities. It's an understandable demand. I attended private and public American universities and had the eye-watering student loans to prove it. However, my experience teaching at German universities for over a decade introduced me to some of the tuition-free model's drawbacks, many of which may not be obvious to outsiders.

Drastically simplified, the German model is as follows: in their early teen years, the brightest German students are sent to the most prestigious form of German high school, the Gymnasium. Currently, over 50 percent of German students earn this privilege (this number has jumped in the last 30 years, prompting charges of grade inflation). Gymnasium graduates with reasonable grades are guaranteed a place in a German university; there is no entrance exam. 95 percent of German students attend public universities, where they are charged fees, but not formal tuition. All professors at public universities are civil servants. Needy students can apply for a modest stipend. After graduation, students must pay back one-half of the amount, beginning 5 years after graduation. The total repayment amount is capped at €10,000.

The system is popular with students, for obvious reasons. However, many education officials and professors crave the financial flexibility granted by tuition fees. In 2005, the federal government passed a law allowing German states to charge tuition, and some states started doing so, generally charging well under €1000 per year. However, large-scale strikes and protests by students and allies eventually forced a policy change, and no German state now charges formal tuition. Supporters of the tuition-free system note that 65 percent of Germans say university should be tuition-free, "even if this means the quality of education is slightly worse." Reasons for this support include a long history of exclusionary patrician education in Germany, and Germans' ingrained aversion to debt. The system also gives students extra freedom: you can study art history or sociology, knowing that you won't be hounded by creditors if you later find only spotty employment. Tuition-free universities are also seen as an important tool for social mobility, although the picture is more complex, as we will see.

The lack of detail in the scandal over a breach in EU chemical safety laws by major producers is "a big danger" and gives only a glimpse into the real scale of the issue, Jurgen Maier, the head of a German environmental NGO, says.

"I think there is a big possibility that we have chemicals now on the market that have not been sufficiently checked," Maier, who is the director of the German NGO Forum on Environment and Development, said in an interview with RT. "All the information we've got was full of deficits, it's far from complete and this is playing with the lives of people."

Earlier this week an investigation from German environmental group BUND revealed that more than 650 companies "have been disregarding the law for years and getting away with it, selling substances that might cause hormonal cancers, brain disorders and other severe health problems."

Are the consequences of Google complying with the US' Huawei ban as serious as they are made out to be? While some claim the move spells the end of the Chinese tech giant, they say they have only begun to fight.

Looking at the coverage following Google's bombshell decision to suspend one of Android's largest distributors, one would get the impression that things are very bleak indeed.

Whereas just last month Huawei surpassed Apple to become the world's second largest cell phone vendor, just as the company began working around the world to install history changing 5G technology, suddenly the company's entire future is being declared "uncertain."

While some are even claiming Google's blow might be "fatal," the rumors of Huawei's death have likely been grossly exaggerated.

Among children reported as likely victims of child sex trafficking upon running away from home, most have one thing in common-they were supposed to be looked after by the government.

In 2014, some 10,000 endangered runaway children were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a nonprofit that serves as a clearinghouse for reports on missing children. Nearly 1,700 of them were likely victims of sex trafficking and of those, 68 percent were in the care of social services when they went missing, be it a group home, a government facility, or foster care.

While these sobering statistics have been reported for years by the NCMEC, more recent data suggests that the problem is even more acute.

In 2017, nearly 25,000 runaways reported to NCMEC and nearly 3,600 were likely victims of sex trafficking. Of those, 88 percent came from the social services system.

The US border control agency has halted intake at a migrant holding facility in Texas after an outbreak of a "flu-related illness." The closure comes just one day after a 16-year-old detainee died in custody.

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency said it would temporarily suspend operations at its primary migrant facility in McAllen, Texas, citing an unknown virus.

"To avoid the spread of illness" the agency has "temporarily suspended intake operations" at the McAllen facility, CBP said in a statement Tuesday, adding that medical staff had "identified a large number of subjects in custody with high fevers whom are also displaying signs of a flu-related illness."

New arrestees will be diverted to other holding centers "until this situation is resolved," the statement said.

"This is a nutcase who is addicted to f*cking with the trains."

That was how one MTA New York City Transit source with knowledge of the situation described the latest curiosity to befall the city's beleaguered subway.

Someone-no one really knows who-has been disrupting the train system, sneaking into cabs, pulling the emergency brakes, and grinding not just one train, but entire lines in the system to a halt during the busiest hours of the day.

And just like that, they then melt into the darkness between the tunnels, waiting to strike again.

And on Tuesday evening, the official New York City Transit account alerted the public to this person's existence, although the tweet made it sound like yesterday was an isolated incident.

It was not.

Boys in poor urban areas around the world are suffering even more than girls from violence, abuse and neglect, groundbreaking international research published Monday suggests.

The study in the Journal of Adolescent Health, along with similar new research, suggests an adequate focus on helping boys is critical to achieving gender equality in the longer term.

"This is the first global study to investigate how a cluster of traumatic childhood experiences known as ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences, work together to cause specific health issues in early adolescence, with terrible life-long consequences," Dr. Robert Blum, the lead researcher for the global early adolescent study, said in a statement. "While we found young girls often suffer significantly, contrary to common belief, boys reported even greater exposure to violence and neglect, which makes them more likely to be violent in return."