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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Jumping on the bandwagon: Researchers calling for boycott of US scientific meetings in protest of Trump immigration policies

scientist boycott trump immigration

Some members of the International Astronomical Union, meeting here during a 2012 conference, have called on the organization to suspend all meetings in the United States.
A growing number of researchers is calling for a boycott of U.S. scientific meetings to protest the immigration policies of the new Trump administration.

The Organizing Committee of the Commission G2 Massive Stars, part of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), announced today it would not hold any meetings in the United States as long as the ban on entry by persons from seven Muslim-majority countries is in place. The committee asked its parent organization to do likewise after IAU said it was "profoundly concerned by the impact the recent U.S. executive order, and possible reactions to it from other countries, could have on international collaboration in astronomy and the mobility of scientists."

"People in our committee felt that the statement that came from the IAU wasn't strong enough," says Jorick Vink, vice president of the Organizing Committee and an astronomer at Armagh Observatory in the United Kingdom. The committee's seven members "agreed in a minute" to launch the boycott, Vink notes.

Comment: Where was the outrage among these 'concerned' scientists when Obama made similar moves while also bombing and killing millions of Muslims in the process?


Stock Down

Steep decline in signups for fascist Obamacare program under Trump

obamacare sign
© Mike Blake / Reuters
Half a million fewer Americans have enrolled in Obamacare through healthcare.gov since US President Donald Trump took office. This first ever decline in sign-ups follows the new administration's cancelling of millions of dollars worth of advertising.

In the final days of Obamacare open enrollment, President Trump not only pulled advertising and stopped outreach efforts reminding Americans of the deadline to enroll, the president also signed an executive order weakening enforcement of the individual mandate.

Open enrollment for Obamacare ended on January 31, with 9.2 million Americans selecting plans through the website, a decline from the previous year when 9.6 million Americans signed up, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released on Friday.

Comment: Perhaps instead of the cause in decline in Obamacare signups being because Trump cut the advertising, it's because many people only signed up for it because the IRS was going to penalize them if they didn't and with Trump in power and removing Obamacare on his agenda, they're betting that they won't be penalized going forward.

Bottom line: if people really wanted Obamacare, it wouldn't need to advertise and the enrollment wouldn't decrease with Trump getting into office.


Mr. Potato

"Outside World" according to the Western "Progressive Liberals"

liberal type 1
Most likely you have already heard that tune, ten times, or maybe one hundred, depending where you live and the circle of friends you have. But let me remind you how it goes: "I'll never set foot in Singapore, because it is all business there." Or: "Let others go to Gulf countries, I'd never do something like that. They have no culture and it is all showing off and glitz there, purchased with oil money... not to mention all those terrible conflicts they are fueling in the region." Then, there is that big ugly "I" name: "Me going there? Over my dead body! It is illegitimate; it is sitting on other peoples' land."

So it goes...

While genuine criticism is always healthy, it is important to realize that many of those who get ignited by even hearing the names of places like Dubai or Singapore are actually living in the cities like New York, Paris or London. Some are even practicing law, or other mainstream professions that have to be defined as the true mainstays of Western regimes.

Map

Over 48,000 Russians claim free land in Far East

Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky
© Alexandr Piragis / Sputnik
An evening fog and fire smoke over Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky.
Over 48,000 requests have been received this week from Russian citizens responding to a state-backed program giving away a free hectare of land in the Far East.

The program approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin last May is meant to populate and develop the region.


Starting February 1, any Russian citizen can claim their free hectare (10,000 square meters) of land in Russia's Eastern and Pacific regions.

Claims can be registered on the official website: https://надальнийвосток.рф/.

The areas include Yakutia, Kamchatka, Chukotka, Primorye, Khabarovsk, Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin, and the Jewish Autonomous Regions.

Comment: Also see:


Green Light

Hawaii bill would legalize prostitution industry

Hawaii Prostitution Bill

Tracy Ryan, a transgender activist, talked today at the Hawaii Capitol about why she’s pushing a bill to legalize prostitution.
Hawaii lawmakers are considering decriminalizing prostitution in the state after the speaker of the House introduced a bill that would also legalize buying sex and acting as a pimp.

The proposal also would end a state law that says police officers cannot have sex with prostitutes in the course of investigations.

Transgender activist Tracy Ryan said she is trying to convince state lawmakers to pass the bill because transgender women are overrepresented in the sex trade and therefore disproportionately affected by criminalization laws.

House Speaker Joseph Souki said in an interview that he does not have a position on the bill and he introduced it as a favor for Ryan.

"I don't like seeing people sent to jail that don't belong there," Ryan said.

But longtime anti-sex-trafficking advocate Kathryn Xian said that legalizing the selling, promoting or buying of sex would make it harder to policethe industry.

Attention

Emergency declared in Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Oversupply of fluoride and a water main break

Water emergency
© Toby Melville / Reuters
An oversupply of fluoride and a water main break in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has resulted in a declared emergency. Without safe drinking water, restaurants, a state university and other schools may be closed until Sunday, officials estimate.

Chapel Hill residents would be ordered not to use their water or would be without water altogether for at least 24 hours, perhaps even until Sunday, Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) executive director Ed Kerwin told reporters Friday.

"This is essentially a worst case scenario," Kerwin said, WRAL reported.

Dollars

Baltimore coffee shop goes cashless in wake of robberies

Coffee and cell phone
© bluestonelaneny.com
After being robbed a handful of times in the past few months, one Baltimore coffee shop is no longer accepting cash to stop the robberies and keep their staff safe.

Nowadays, many people don't carry cash in their wallets day-to-day, and at Park Cafe in Bolton Hill, cash payments are no longer on the menu. "We're not going to accept cash anymore," said Park Cafe & Coffee owner David Hart. "I'm going to take that out of the equation."

Park Cafe was robbed five times from October to January. While the armed suspect is now behind bars, those crimes pushed Hart to ditch the cash drawer altogether. Most patrons are on board.

"I would say virtually 90 percent of them have said, 'Listen, you needed to do what you needed to do to protect yourself and protect your staff. We will continue to support you,'" said Hart. Hart said cash normally makes up 22 percent of Park Cafe's revenue, but so far, they haven't seen any change in their income since going cashless.

Red Flag

Secretive anti-Trump protests planned for Super Bowl weekend in Houston, Texas

Melanie Villela and her children
© Josh Peter/USA Today
They gathered after nightfall at an undisclosed location downtown.

People representing more than a half-dozen protest groups that are set to march and rally here Super Bowl weekend met to coordinate their efforts — in a way New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick would have appreciated. That is to say, the protesters discussed using encrypted communication that would keep opponents from intercepting their messages.

It was so secretive Tuesday night, not all of the group representatives got the full game plan, said Blake Stroud, who created a group called #ResistHouston to connect the protesters and provided USA TODAY Sports with an account of the meeting.

"I guess they're going for the element of surprise,'' he said.

The goal: Present a large, loud, peaceful and, in the end, united front, mostly targeting President Trump and his policies on immigration. No fewer than five marches and rallies are scheduled across Houston for Friday through Sunday, and the protests will culminate on game day outside NRG Stadium, site of Super Bowl LI.

Brian Harrison, a local attorney who has provided support for the protesters, said, "Meanwhile, there's a game being played on Sunday. I haven't had any time to pay attention to it.''

Play

Locals in Donetsk clear debris left from days of shelling

The eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk is dealing with extensive damage done by days-long shelling. RT travelled to the city to find out about the plight of the locals.

"We first heard a huge explosion. Half of the windows were blown out," one man says.

"Within an hour we heard a second explosion, which broke the rest of windows. We rushed out into the corridor. When we returned later we found several bits of shrapnel in our rooms," he adds.

RT's Murad Gazdiev, who is in the embattled Donetsk, says that "you can literally feel the explosions through vibrations and tremors they cause every few seconds." A particularly large blast caused all the car alarms to go off in the city.

The scale of damage is harrowing: five schools, two kindergartens, shops, a lot of homes were hit, Gazdiev says, citing local authorities.
Donetsk civilian rubble
© Sergey Averin
Civilian resident of Donetsk in her home destroyed by shelling.
"Everything is broken... I was so lucky not to be home at the time of the shelling... My bed was here..." an elderly woman says.

Reconstruction and repairs are underway in Donetsk, and OSCE monitors are at the scene, cataloging the damage.

The humanitarian plight of the locals is not the only thing that worries the monitors.

Pistol

"Grave public security incident"- French soldier shoots attacker outside Louvre, Paris - Update: suspect identified as Egyptian national

louvre shooting
© Jacky Naegelen / Reuters
An armed French soldier patrols near the Louvre Museum
The Louvre museum in Paris has been cordoned off, after a French soldier opened fire on an attacker, wounding him, local media report.

The attacker armed with a knife reportedly cried out "Allahu Akbar."

The French Interior Ministry reported that there has been a "grave public security incident" in the vicinity of the Louvre museum.

The attacker tried to assault the soldier with a knife, according to Reuters. The man was also carrying a suitcase and tried to enter the Louvre museum with it through the Carrousel du Louvre area, the agency said citing police sources.

Comment: Update: Louvre attacker identified as '29yo Egyptian tourist'
Initial investigations into the Louvre attack have identified the suspect as an Egyptian national who arrived in Paris on a tourist visa from the UAE. The alleged terrorist wielded a pair of quite expensive 'machetes,' according to French officials.

One French soldier suffered a head injury in the attack. The machete-wielding suspect was shot and wounded and was later identified as a 29-year-old Egyptian national, according to Paris Prosecutor François Molins. He did not, however, disclose the name of the suspect.

Yet, according to AP, citing an interior ministry official, the perpetrator is a 28-year-old Egyptian-born man named Abdullah Reda Refaie al-Hamahmy. The source told the news agency that investigators have so far found no evidence of the man being involved in political activism, criminal activity, or any particular militant group.

In a Saturday interview with Dubai-based TV channel al-Hadath, the suspect's father said he was shocked by the attack, AP reports. He told the TV channel that his son has a wife and a seven-month-old child. Al-Hamahmy apparently wanted to make a tour of Paris before departing from France.

The attack was "obviously of a terrorist nature" according to the French PM Bernard Cazeneuve. It is impossible to determine at the moment, if the suspect "acted on instructions" from abroad or if he acted "alone and spontaneously," Molins told reporters.

There were some indications in the initial findings, though, that the attack might have been premeditated. The suspect arrived in France from Dubai on January 26 after acquiring a one-month tourist visa. On January 27, the attacker rented a car until February 5, and the next day bought two expensive machetes from an arms store near the Place de la Bastille, according to Molins.

"He bought two machetes from an arms store located near the Place de la Bastille of more than €600," Molins said.

The suspect did not have anything else with him besides the pair of 40cm machetes, a "bag of paint cans" and a mobile phone when searched after being shot. Police traced his activity back to an apartment, presumably rented by the suspect, and the flat did not contain much either, according to Molins.

Investigators uncovered a sum of €965, the invoice of the two machetes, a number of prepaid sim cards, some clothes and an Egyptian passport stamped with visas for Saudi Arabia and Turkey in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The suspect also had a resident permit from the United Arab Emirates.

The attack at the Louvre occurred early on Friday when four soldiers prevented the suspect from entering Louvre shopping area with two bags. The suspect attacked them, bruising one soldier with the machete and was subsequently shot and wounded. The soldiers fired five shots in total. The attacker's condition was described as "life-threatening," but stable, and the injured soldier has been advised to take 10 days leave.

The group of soldiers belonging to the 1st Paratrooper Regiment was patrolling the Louvre as a part of 'Opération Sentinelle' - a nationwide security endeavor aimed at "protecting against and dissuading" attacks in France.
Paris Machete Attacker Said To Be In Critical Condition
Authorities in France say that the machete-wielding man who was shot by a security guard at Paris's Louvre Museum is in critical, life-threatening condition.

Officials say the man was shot five times during the February 3 incident.