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French mayor draws Jewish ire for pro-Palestinian street sign

French street sign
© Facebook / Dominique Lesparre
The mayor of a Paris suburb has come under fire for renaming a street in honor of the thousands of Palestinians who were forced to abandon their homes following the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.

Faced with strong pressure from Jewish groups and Tel Aviv, Dominique Lesparre, the Communist mayor of Bezons, has been forced to remove the Nakba Lane plaque from a street that was renamed to commemorate Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, which Palestinians annually mark on May 15.

On Monday, Lesparre officially renamed a street near city hall "Allee de la Nakba" (Nakba Lane) in remembrance of more than 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were evicted from their homeland by Israeli forces 70 years ago.

The street sign, written in French and Arabic, read: "In memory of the expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians and the destruction of 532 villages in 1948 by the war criminal David Ben Gurion for the creation of the state of Israel," referring to the first prime minister of the Jewish State.

Handcuffs

Landmark lawsuit targets billionaire OxyContin family personally for fueling opioid epidemic

sacklers opioid epidemic
© The Free Thought Project
A landmark lawsuit is the first in the country to name the actual owners of Purdue Pharma who makes the deadly drug OxyContin for their role in the opioid epidemic.

Members of the Sackler family, who've made billions pushing their deadly OxyContin drug on the masses are arguably responsible for more deaths than any Mexican drug cartel. Instead of being hunted down at their plush mansions by DEA agents, they are rubbing elbows with members of Congress. Now, however, for the first time, the family is being targeted by a landmark lawsuit for the damages they knowingly caused with their products.

On Tuesday, the state of Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against the multi-billionaire Sackler family over the role their drug OxyContin has played in sparking one of the worst addiction and overdose epidemics in history. The lawsuit accuses the company, Purdue Pharma, and its heirs of spinning a "web of illegal deceit" which fueled the deadly crisis in which America currently finds itself.

Comment:


Yoda

Bassem Tamimi explains 'Why Ahed slapped the soldier'

Ahed Tamimi slapping Israeli soldiers
© Unknown
This interview with Bassem Tamimi was recorded on May 4, 2018 in the occupied village of Nabi Saleh, by International Solidarity Movement activists.

His daughter Ahed Tamimi, 17, is serving an eight-month prison sentence for slapping an Israeli soldier on the family's property on December 15 of last year, after Israeli soldiers shot her cousin in the face.

Bassem reflects on his daughter's choice:

People

The BBC closes the gender gap by introducing inclusive toilets

inclusive restroom
© David Bro/Global Look Press
While it may still need to work on closing its gender pay gap, the BBC beats its rivals on inclusiveness when it comes to gender-neutral toilets, a new report from media regulator Ofcom has found.

According to The Times, Ofcom's investigation into diversity in the radio industry found that the state-run broadcaster has installed gender-neutral restrooms in all of its buildings where practically possible, as well as offering paid leave to those changing their gender in a bid to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for transgender employees.

Diversity statistics provided by the broadcaster on its 21,239 employees found that 417 of those identify as transgender. It also found that 786 are gay men, while there are 206 gay women and 365 people who identify as bisexual.

Gender-neutral cubicles offered to all are often preferred by transgender employees, uncomfortable with sex-segregated lavatories.

While the report praised the BBC for leading its biggest commercial rivals Global (Classic FM, LBC, Heart) and Bauer (Absolute, Magic, Kiss) on inclusion, it warned that ethnic minorities and disabled people are under-represented in the radio industry, including at the BBC.

Cell Phone

Tourist couple in Portugal fall to their death while 'trying to take selfie'

Ericeira in Portugal
© REDA&CO/UIG via Getty ImagesA couple have fallen to their death at the beach town of Ericeira in Portugal.


Authorities say couple may have dropped phone while taking picture on 40-metre-high wall near Ericeira


A couple believed to be from Britain and Australia have fallen to their death from a wall overlooking a popular tourist beach in Portugal, apparently losing their balance after taking a selfie.

Portugal's Correio da Manhã newspaper reported that the couple had died on the Praia dos Pescadores (Fishermen's Beach) near Ericeira, a picturesque seaside resort on the country's west coast.

Rui Pereira da Terra, the head of the rescue service in Cascais port near Lisbon, told the news agency Lusa that officials suspected the man and woman had been taking a selfie on a wall above the beach when they fell.

Comment: Something about taking selfies seems to make people completely unaware of their environment and the danger that they're facing. Maybe the narcissistic impulse takes over and all self awareness goes out the window.

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Mr. Potato

Alec Baldwin says he 'would absolutely win' against Trump in next presidential election

Alec Baldwin
© ReutersSeptember 17, 2017: Alec Baldwin arrives to 69th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California.
Emmy-winning actor Alec Baldwin said Monday he would easily win against President Donald Trump if he'd run in the 2020 presidential election.

"If I ran, I would win," Baldwin told Howard Stern during a discussion on his Sirius XM radio show about the potential candidates in the next presidential election, the Daily Beast reported.

"I would absolutely win. One thousand percent," the actor added, though joking that his wife and being a host of a game show is stopping him from actually launching a bid to become the leader of the free world.

Comment: Baldwin is probably thinking that simply because he can imitate Trump he could also do his job. What a delusional Hollywood egomaniac.

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Heart - Black

Newly-built Doctors Without Borders facility in Yemen destroyed by Saudi-led coalition strikes

yemen airstrike hospital
© ReutersPeople inspect damage at an MSF facility after it was hit by an airstrike
A newly built cholera care center, run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the town of Abs, has been hit by Saudi-led coalition planes in yet another airstrike on the medical charity's facilities in war-ravaged Yemen.

The attack has rendered the center "non-functional," MSF said in a statement, with photos from the scene showing that the building's roof and some of the walls were completely destroyed in the airstrike. Luckily, the bombing in the Hajjah governorate did not result in deaths or injuries, because the "facility had not yet received any cholera patients and was empty," the statement read.

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Handcuffs

Texas-born cocaine kingpin sentenced to 50 years for drug trafficking

Edgar Valdez Villarreal
© Alexandre Meneghini/APEdgar Valdez Villarreal is arrested in Mexico City on 31 August 2010.
A Texas-born man who prosecutors say rose to the top ranks of a Mexican drug cartel using ruthless violence to defeat rivals and secure control of drug trafficking routes was sentenced Monday by a federal judge in Atlanta to serve nearly five decades in prison.

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie" because of his light eyes and complexion, was sentenced to serve 49 years and one month and was also ordered to forfeit $192 million, which prosecutors say is a conservative estimate of the value of the cocaine Valdez was responsible for importing into the United States.

Valdez, 44, was accused of bringing trucks full of cocaine from Mexico to the eastern United States and shipping millions of dollars in cash back to Mexico.

He was arrested in Mexico in 2010 and was among 13 people extradited to the US from Mexico in September 2015 to face charges. He pleaded guilty in January 2016 to charges of conspiring to import and distribute cocaine, and conspiring to launder money.

Comment: The DOJ had this to say about Villareal's arrest:
Following his conviction, the US Department of Justice described Villareal as a man who had climbed the cartel ladder in Mexico "leaving in his wake countless lives destroyed by drugs and violence."

"Valdez-Villareal engaged in two decades of drug trafficking crimes and reigned with immeasurable acts of violence and intimidation," DEA agent Robert J Murphy said following the trial.

"His ruthless and violent drug trafficking crimes and activities posed a significant threat to the quality of life in our country and elsewhere. The lengthy sentence he received makes the US a safer place," he added.



Megaphone

Real racism isn't to be found in Trump's Twitter feed, it's in America's elite universities

Harvard
© Elise Amendola/APHarvard is being sued for discriminating against Asian American students, while the Justice Department is conducting an investigation into the school’s possible discriminatory practices.
There is real racism in America. It resides at elite institutions like Harvard, not President Trump's twitter feed.

It has become commonplace for the mainstream media and Trump haters to accuse the president of being racist. Just recently, they found more fodder when President Trump commented on the firing of ABC star Roseanne Barr without condemning Barr's racist tweet that started the controversy.

Instead, the president griped about ABC's biased media coverage against him. Trump haters wasted no time to work up their outrage, accusing the president of stooping to a new low, and normalizing racism.

Comment: The trending normalization of racism is really quite disturbing, and its rather odd that Asians, a clear minority in the US, are one of its victims. All of this is going nowhere good, and it's accelerating.

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Gear

Girls' track meet records being set by transgender biological boys who now claim to be "girls"

track runner loss
One by one, records in everything from the 100 meter dash to the long jump to the pole vault are being broken at female track meets all around the world. But in many cases, it isn't real females who are doing all of this "winning."

It's biological males pretending to be "females" who are actually stealing much of the athletic glory in women's sports these days, including in Connecticut recently where a high school boy claiming to be a "girl" broke two State Open records, one in the 100 meter dash and the other in the 200 meter dash.

Terry Miller was born with a penis, but he now claims to be a girl and self-identifies as a "transgender." This gave him politically correct access to the girls' track team, of course, where "she" now races alongside actual females who, because of their natural biology, aren't as muscular or athletically adept as "she" is.

Comment: It seems this is becoming more and more common and the issue isn't being addressed for what it is: people having an unfair advantage in athletic competition. It should be looked upon in the same light as some athletes taking performance enhancing drugs - it isn't fair to those who are honestly trying to compete.

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