Katie Pavlich
TownhallTue, 27 Mar 2018 23:17 UTC
When it comes to visa overstays, foreign students are least likely to leave the U.S. upon expiration compared to other visa eligible groups. In fact, in 2016 alone 79,000 students failed to go home when their visas lapsed.
According to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a number of student visas are handled by individuals working at "schools" that have been set up as fronts for other businesses. The visa process at these "schools" is not being handled by proper immigration officials at the Department of Homeland Security, but instead by individuals gaming the system for profit.
In a letter sent to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielson, Grassley says the Student and Exchange Visa Visitor Program is not only lacking oversight, but is acting as a mill to pump out visas to "students" who will likely overstay. Further, these visas make students eligible to work in the U.S. and many individuals apply not to attend school, but to gain employment.
© AFP
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova speaks to the media in Moscow on March 29, 2018.
Russia has slammed a military deal between Poland and the United States to provide Warsaw with the advanced Patriot anti-missile system, saying it poses a serious threat to Russia's borders.
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that Moscow saw Poland's announcement about an agreement with Washington to buy the Patriot as an "element of destabilization of the military and political situation in Europe and a threat to Russia's national security."
Zakharova, however, reiterated that Russia possessed the required means to protect its borders in case of any threat from Poland.
Russia's "defense resources are sufficient to ensure the impregnability of our borders and the protection of our territory," she said.
Frank Sellers
The DuranWed, 28 Mar 2018 13:31 UTC
The U.S.-made F-35 Lightning fighter jet - an embarrassingly expensive, non-functional lemon
Turkey is on the receiving end of a bit of jealousy from their American partners. Washington has sent a formal notification to Ankara informing them that if they purchase Russia's S-400 surface-to-air missiles, that the US will not sell the Turks American F-35 jets.
This isn't the only such instance of Washington throwing its weight around when it comes to telling other countries that they can't purchase military hardware from the Russians. Already this year, a statement was made that if Iraq was to make such a purchase of Russia's S-400 systems,
sanctions would be imposed. Washington's friendly notice was
reported by ekathimerini:
Comment: Turkey should take the U.S. up on that dare. They'd come out ahead.
© Fabio De Paola/the Guardian
‘It’s just a poster’ … artist Jeremy Deller.
Jeremy Deller, the Turner prize-winning artist, has developed an effective sideline in timely political posters. Last week, in the wake of revelations about Cambridge Analytica, posters the artist had designed were handed out at Liverpool's Lime Street and London's Euston stations.
Printed on bubblegum pink paper, they instructed commuters how to delete their Facebook profiles. According to Rapid Response Unit News (RRU), the Liverpool-based news bureau who commissioned and distributed the posters, copies were also plastered inside Facebook's London headquarters.
The posters explain in six steps how to delete a Facebook account, from "Go to Facebook's deletion page" and "type in the captcha code" to suggestions for what to do if the code doesn't work. Step six specifies that "total account deletion can take up to 14 days".
Deller told the Guardian that the impetus for the posters was "a combination of reading about Facebook's involvement in the US election, and Mark Z's faux naive lack of accountability."
Comment: This is why you shouldn't delete your FB account and should continue using it to bypass the MSM.
RTFri, 30 Mar 2018 13:05 UTC
© Hoxton / Paul Bradbury / Getty Images
The Cambridge Analytica scandal put Facebook through the wringer in recent weeks, losing the company $100 billion in stock value and prompting a global debate on internet privacy.
The social media giant was forced to apologize and overhaul its privacy and data sharing practices, but it still remains in the media spotlight and in the crosshairs of the Federal Trade Commission, which says it may be liable for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fines.
Russia was the first country to recognise Irish independence and we have always enjoyed a positive relationship with Moscow, writes Danielle Ryan.
If Leo Varadkar finds it appropriate to expel a Russian diplomat at the behest of Theresa May, it's about time he considered expelling the US military from Shannon. The time has come for Ireland to either drop the pretence of being a neutral country - or to actually start acting like one.
The US and Canada, along with 14 EU countries, have said they will expel Russian diplomats in response to the chemical attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in early March, which the UK has blamed on Moscow.
Ashleigh McDonald
The Journal Fri, 30 Mar 2018 12:04 UTC
The trial lasted nine weeks and was the subject of intense media scrutiny over the period due to the high profile nature of the defendants.
Ulster Rugby Players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding have been found not guilty of the rape of a student at Belfast Crown Court.
The trial lasted close to nine full weeks and was the subject of intense media scrutiny over the period due to the high-profile nature of the defendants.
Seraphim Hanisch
The DuranTue, 27 Mar 2018 23:22 UTC
Moscow has been busily preparing its facilities to host the 2018 World Cup games. Not only has Moscow been part of this but so have other places around the Russian Federation. However,
there is a push on in the Western nations for the officials of six countries (Poland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and Japan) to boycott the event.
That's fine. Stay home. Russia doesn't need you here anyway if you don't want to be here.
The London tabloid
The Sun ran this report in the evening of March 26th, 2018. In its piece it elicited the "outrageous" attack on Sergei Skripal and his daugher Yulia, pinned the blame for this attack on Russia, and on President Vladimir Putin in particular, and then went on weaving false narratives with the
same aplomb as that of a drunken sailor on a rant:
A Toronto chef, apparently exasperated at an animal rights protest outside his restaurant, carried what appeared to be a leg of raw venison to the front windows facing the sidewalk. As the protesters watched, he took a knife and began separating the meat from the bone.
As he worked, one of the protesters videoed the scene and gave frantic commentary: "To taunt the activists," said the man behind the camera in a video posted online and picked up by BlogTO, "he has brought the leg of a recently murdered deer to this dining area."
Michael Hunter, the chef and owner of Antler Kitchen and Bar, didn't look at the protesters, didn't say anything. Some police officers on hand for the protest entered the restaurant to speak with him - though Toronto police deny they asked him to stop what he was doing.
"It's his restaurant he can do what he wants, really," Sgt. Philip Townley said.
Comment: This goes further than mere opposing views. These activists are using pseudo-compassion as a means of control, domination and ultimately as a means of destruction. Such desire for power is blinding, even in being able to see such a desire for what it is. It consumes and becomes the regulator of thought and behavior, disguising itself with misdirected and often impossible 'noble intentions'. It leads to being passively possessed by an idea, a volatile tool of the idea itself rather than its master.
The inevitable weakness that follows prevents foresight, self examination, and any genuine compassion. For example, the protest organizer Marni Ugar said she was 'shocked' at the restaurant owner carving up a meal in front of them, yet she apparently can't comprehend her reprehensible behavior of actively trying to harm a man's livelihood and reputation. Instead of attracting converts to their cause, they expose themselves as petty zealots. It's little wonder why these extremists identify so strong with animals. They reject what it is to be human. That said, they're much worse animals than the animals which they claim to defend. Fortunately, plenty of reasonable people who have never previously heard of the restaurant will now seek it out and support it.
© CCO
"There is no hell where the souls of sinners suffer for eternity," Pope Francis said as quoted by the Italian newspaper
La Repubblica, but did he really?
According to the media, Pope Francis said that the souls of those who repent are pardoned by God and "join in his contemplation" after death, but those who do not show repentance cannot be pardoned and their souls "disappear." The Pope concluded that hell does not exist - "what exists is the disappearance of sinful souls," the newspaper reports.
Comment: See also: