A children's speech pathologist who has worked for the last nine years with developmentally disabled, autistic, and speech-impaired elementary school students in Austin, Texas, has been told that she can no longer work with the public school district, after she refused to sign an oath vowing that she "does not" and "will not" engage in a boycott of Israel or "otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic harm" on that foreign nation. A lawsuit on her behalf was filed early Monday morning in a federal court in the Western District of Texas, alleging a violation of her First Amendment right of free speech.

The child language specialist, Bahia Amawi, is a U.S. citizen who received a master's degree in speech pathology in 1999 and, since then, has specialized in evaluations for young children with language difficulties (see video below). Amawi was born in Austria and has lived in the U.S. for the last 30 years, fluently speaks three languages (English, German, and Arabic), and has four U.S.-born American children of her own.

Amawi began working in 2009 on a contract basis with the Pflugerville Independent School District, which includes Austin, to provide assessments and support for school children from the county's growing Arabic-speaking immigrant community. The children with whom she has worked span the ages of 3 to 11. Ever since her work for the school district began in 2009, her contract was renewed each year with no controversy or problem.

But this year, all of that changed. On August 13, the school district once again offered to extend her contract for another year by sending her essentially the same contract and set of certifications she has received and signed at the end of each year since 2009.

She was prepared to sign her contract renewal until she noticed one new, and extremely significant, addition: a certification she was required to sign pledging that she "does not currently boycott Israel," that she "will not boycott Israel during the term of the contract," and that she shall refrain from any action "that is intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with Israel, or with a person or entity doing business in Israeli or in an Israel-controlled territory."

Thanks to the Gilets jaunes in France, a few astute social theorists are finally being heard on YouTube, despite mainstream resistance and diversion. They are finding words more lucidly than could be achieved in the absence of such revolutionary upheaval.

I'm referring to the renowned French economic analyst and essayist Charles Gave who, in his near-twilight years, has broken rank with his class in order to impart a penetrating and devastating analysis of the current French melt-down, based on the original work of French social geographer and author Christophe Guilluy.¹

Guilluy has been describing an emerging Gilets jaunes backlash for some fifteen years, through his analysis of the class structure, and its geographical, demographic and ideological basis, in France; which is virtually identical in most Western nations, certainly the UK, Canada, the USA and many more.²

Basically, what was a relatively stable, balanced and integrated post-second-world-war working-class / middle-class / professional-class / managerial-class societal structure, has, over the course of several decades, and accelerated by the fall of the Soviet Union, devolved into three classes separated by large geographical, wage, ideological and mobility gaps.

As mayhem descended on the streets of Brussels, one man, apparently a protester, was seen being pepper-sprayed in the face at very close range by police officers. He then collapsed on the pavement and was given no help.

Over 5,000 people gathered in Brussels to voice their anger over the controversial UN migration pact, which was signed earlier in December in Marrakech, Morocco. Dubbed the 'March against Marrakech,' the rally quickly descended into chaos, with protesters scuffling and clashing with police. Officers resorted to using water cannon and tear gas.

However, one of the videos that emerged from the scene is particularly unsettling. It shows a man, probably a demonstrator, running towards a group of police officers in full riot gear. It's not clear whether he wanted to shout something or hit a policeman. But he's not given a chance to do anything.

A 48-year-old Disney Channel actor on a family show that films in Utah was arrested Friday after allegedly arranging online to have sex with someone he believed was 13 years old.

Stoney Westmoreland was arrested for investigation of enticing a minor by internet or text, a second-degree felony, and four counts of dealing in materials harmful to a minor, a third-degree felony, court documents state.

According to an affidavit filed in 3rd District Court, the actor began communicating online with a user he believed was underage "on an internet app used for dating and meeting people for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity."

Donald Trump has lashed out at Saturday Night Live, suggesting its "one-sidedness" should be tested in courts. It comes after SNL did a take on the film "It's a Wonderful Life" which imagined a world where Trump wasn't president.

The spoof on the classic Christmas flick, in which actor Jimmy Stewart gets a visit from an angel named Clarence, turned Trump (played by Alec Baldwin) into the lead character. The angel took the leader on a journey to see what the world would be like if he wasn't president.

But if there's no Muslim ban, what about a potential terrorist attack?" Trump asked in the sketch. "It was foiled by a team of transgender Navy seals," Clarence the angel responds, referencing the ban that was announced by Trump in threesurprisetweets in July 2017.

A federal jury has awarded more than $6 million in damages to an Independence teen who was nearly killed by a former Independence officer with a stun gun during a 2014 traffic stop.

Bryce Masters was 17 at the time of the September 2014 confrontation with former Officer Timothy Runnels.

Witnesses testified that Masters went into cardiac arrest when Runnels shot him in the chest with a Taser after Masters refused to get out of his car.

Masters filed a federal lawsuit in 2017 against the city, Runnels and TASER International, the company that makes the stun gun used by police.

The Norwegian military has shared underwater footage of the KNM Helge Ingstad, a warship that collided with an oil tanker and sank while returning from a massive NATO drill hosted by the country.

The eerie images of the wrecked frigate were taken by Norwegian divers and robotic submersibles earlier this month during an operation to recover anti-ship missiles from the 134-meter sunken vessel. One video clip shows the damage caused to the Helge Ingstad's hull and lower decks when she collided with an oil tanker on November 8.

Bags of shredded documents, electronics and hundreds of files were among the items investigators seized from a Montgomery County treatment center as part of its sexual assault investigation into a local priest.

Listed among the items taken from the Shalom Center in Splendora in September are files for at least 200 people, according to an evidence log filed in the case and obtained by KHOU. The vast majority of the files are only identified by a last name, but among the few full names listed, at least six are priests who have been publicly accused of sexual misconduct.

It's unclear how many of the other people listed are priests or why they were seeking treatment. The Shalom Center offers residential, sabbatical and outpatient programs for priests, deacons and male and female members of a religious order.

The center has 20 residential beds and treats more than 400 people a year, according to the Official Catholic Directory. It offers treatment for, "psychological difficulties, interpersonal conflicts, emotional or sexual problems, grief and loss issues, stress and exhaustion, transitional trauma, sexual abuse, addictions," according to its website.

Undocumented migrants in Paris have come out to demand authorities grant them asylum. But they chose a peculiar destination to bring their request to - the historic Comedie Francaise theater, which they attempted to storm.

The protesters wanted a meeting with Comedie Francaise director Eric Ruf, believing he could get them a tete-a-tete with Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. "We are here for the [theatre's director] appointed directly by those who give the order to chase us," the leaflets distributed by the demonstrators said.

French road operator VINCI Autoroutes says it has become the latest victim of the nationwide Yellow Vest protests. It claims weeks of rallies and attacks on highways and facilities resulted in tens of millions of euros in damages.

The company reported on Sunday that the wave of demonstrations had affected some 250 of its sites since the beginning of the anti-fuel tax hike movement in November. Angry crowds burned at least 6 buildings and more than 30 vehicles, and vandalized several facilities and interchanges in addition to other destruction.

The latest major highways which suffered from the Yellow Vest blockades on Saturday were A7, A9 and A20. Last weekend, the movement's actions were reportedly calmer and fewer participants hit the streets compared to the week before. The protesters lit fires right in the middle of the road, blocking traffic, and turned one of the entry points to the highway into their "camp."