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3 Sputnik employees in Turkey detained - UPDATE: Journalists questioned & cleared by prosecutors, OSCE condemns incident


RT
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 01:08 UTC
Sputnik
© Sputnik / Alexandr Kryazhev
Groups of people descended on homes of three Russia's Sputnik agency staffers in Ankara, Turkey, chanting "Turkey for the Turks" and accusing journalists of treason for working for Moscow, RT Editor-in-Chief reported on Twitter.

What appears to be a coordinated attack on Sputnik employees in the Turkish capital was first reported by Margarita Simonyan, RT and Sputnik's Editor-in-Chief on Saturday, and later confirmed by the agency itself.

Simonyan tweeted that three separate groups, each numbering about 10 hooligans, swooped on the flats of three agency's employees, hurling threats and accusing them of betraying their homeland, Turkey, for doing journalistic work for the Russian outlet.

"They were shouting: 'Turkey for the Turks!' 'Traitors!' and 'Russian spies!'", Simonyan tweeted, comparing the raids to the pogroms against ethnic Armenians by Turks in the Ottoman Empire.

Comment: An update this morning from RT:
Three employees of the Turkish branch of Sputnik News, whose apartments were attacked by Turkish nationalists on Saturday night, have been missing since going to file complaints about the incident to Turkish police.

"We have not been able to contact our employees in Ankara for nine hours now," Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT and Sputnik, said in a tweet on Sunday morning.
Following denials by Turkish police of the whereabouts of these journalists, they were eventually found at Ankara's hall of justice where they were questioned by prosecutors and found to not be involved in any wrongdoing. Turkish media indicated that the reason behind the arrests was an article focused on the Turkish province of Hatay, which has long been disputed by Syria.

Questions arose as to just how these thugs knew of the names and home addresses of these journalists.

Moscow had this to say about the incident:
Moscow said the incident and the suspected detention of the victims by the police constitute a gross attack on the freedom of journalists. "We call on the Turkish authorities to intervene, provide safety to employees of the Russian media and ensure that all circumstances are clarified," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The OSCE condemned the harassment of Russian agency journalists in Turkey.
Sputnik parent organization Rossiya Segodnya appealed to the UN, OSCE, and UNESCO to draw their attention to the case.

Harlem Desir, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, condemned the harassment and suspected detention. "I urge the authorities to ensure the safety of foreign correspondents," he tweeted.
RT provides more detail on the incident:
Shortly after their release, Mahir Boztepe, the head of Sputnik's Turkish branch, was freed from police custody as well. The journalist was briefly detained amid searches of Sputnik's Istanbul office.

The Sputnik employees were released shortly after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu. The top diplomat urged Ankara to "swiftly resolve" the situation with the journalists and called upon the authorities to ensure their safety.

The harassment of the Sputnik journalists has been condemned by seven Turkish journalist associations, as well as by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Harlem Desir, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, urged Ankara to "ensure the safety of foreign correspondents," and raised concerns over reports linking the detention to a Sputnik article.


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People 2

Woman who claims she was rushed into taking 'experimental' puberty-blocking drugs at 16 wins right to take NHS gender clinic to court in landmark case

Sophie Law
Daily Mail
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 15:48 UTC
Keira Bell 1

Keira Bell, 23, (pictured outside the Royal Courts of Justice in January) started gender reassignment at the clinic when she was just 16 after she felt suicidal and asked to be called by a boy's name at school
A woman who claims she was given 'experimental' puberty-blocking drugs at 16 without being warned of the consequences is set to lead as a witness in a landmark case.

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the UK's first gender clinic in London, is being sued over concerns it gave powerful drugs to children as young as 12 without proper consent.

Keira Bell, 23, started gender reassignment at the clinic when she was a teenager after she felt suicidal and asked to be called by a boy's name at school.

She was prescribed hormone blockers to halt the development of her female body after just three one-hour appointments.

But Ms Bell has now stopped transitioning and argues staff did not challenge her want to become a teenage boy.

Comment: See also:

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Stormtrooper

Chicago police shoot man at grand-state red line station after he was moving between cars


CBS
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 04:00 UTC
chicago police shooting
© Twitter
The officer with her back to the camera has just drawn her gun. Seconds later, a shot is fired and the suspect runs up the escalator.
Chicago police shot a man Friday afternoon during a struggle at the Grand station on the CTA Red Line, after the officers tried to stop the man from moving between train cars. Video of the incident was posted on social media.

Deputy Police Supt. Barb West on Friday night said the officers were assigned to the mass transit unit and observed the man improperly moving between train cars, which is against city ordinance. They engaged with the suspect on the platform when the struggle ensued. The shooting is being investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the Cook County State's Attorney.

"Due to the criminal nature of this incident, we have asked the state's attorney to respond," West said.

The officers have been placed on administrative duties. Interim Supt. Charlie Beck has been briefed and was decribed as "extremely concerned" about the incident. "We are conducting concurrent administrative and criminal investigations," West said.

Comment: See also:

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Health

France's Louvre closed over coronavirus concerns, leaving blindsided visitors freezing outside


RT
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 23:46 UTC
louvre
© REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
France's Louvre unexpectedly kept its doors shut on Sunday, saying management is discussing the Covid-19 situation. The Twitterati were amused, unlike hundreds of people freezing in the street instead of gazing at the Mona Lisa.

To be fair to the museum, they were themselves apparently caught off guard by "ministerial instructions transmitted by the competent authorities," as a statement explained, prompting the museum to remain closed on Sunday. Three hours after the announcement, the museum said that it would not open at all on March 1, and left people in the dark regarding Monday.
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Brick Wall

Nearly 10,000 migrants 'stopped at Greek border', some have managed to slip through


RT
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 20:15 UTC
migrants greece turkey border
© Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images
Migrants clash with Greek police on the buffer zone Turkey-Greece border, at Pazarkule, in Edirne district, on February 29, 2020
The Greek government said almost 10,000 people were prevented from crossing into the country from Turkey on Saturday. Though stopped at the gate, the migrants are attempting to cut through the border fence or cross the river.

Thousands of people in Turkey rushed to the border with Greece after the government in Ankara announced this week that it will no longer stop them. Athens responded by closing the border crossing and deploying riot police and soldiers to halt the wave.

Around 9,600 attempts were made to cross the border on Saturday alone, Greek Deputy Defense minister Alkiviadis Stefanis told the media. The UN's International Organization for Migration estimated that as many as 13,000 people flocked to the border area in Turkey's Edirne province.

Comment: Greece appears to be more successful than not in turning back the refugees Turkey has cynically dumped on their border. This woman sends a warning message to those who are contemplating the trip.

Thousands of migrants try to cross border to Europe as Erdogan says Turkey will no longer 'close the gates'

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Arrow Down

Video shows last moments of Russian blogger's dry ice pool party stunt that killed 3


RT
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 20:47 UTC
blogger dead
© YouTube / Видео дня
Three people have died and more are in hospital after a birthday surprise at a Moscow party had unforeseen consequences. Video shows dry ice being poured into a pool for effect, inadvertently creating a carbon dioxide gas chamber.

The chilling incident occurred at a Moscow sauna late on Friday. Ekaterina Didenko, an Instagram blogger with over a million subscribers, was celebrating her 29th birthday with her family and friends.

No-one expected the festivities to turn into a tragedy when the blogger's husband Valentin presented the guests with a surprise treat. The man brought out a large amount of dry ice - solid carbon dioxide - and after everyone donned symbolic 'protection', he poured it into a pool to create the fancy mist effect for everyone to take photos and videos.

Comment: It would appear that the motivation behind this event wasn't really the celebration of someone's birthday but a stunt for publicity - how tragically sad.

See also: Future Darwin award recipients: NYC teens film themselves riding atop subway cars

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Star of David

Palestinian Authority: Israel's armed settler militias should be blacklisted


Middle East Monitor
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 11:23 UTC
Israeli settler
© The Levant News
Israeli Settler
On Friday the Palestinian Authority (PA) condemned Israeli settlers' attacks on the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, stressing that settlers are "criminal armed militias" who should be added to the international terror blacklist, Al Watan Voice reported.

A statement issued by the PA's foreign minister announced:
"The armed settler militias who opened fire and threw stones at the Palestinian vehicles and homes in the Nablus neighbourhood of Huwara, should be added to the international terror blacklist. This aggression aimed to cause premeditated murder under the official protection of the Israeli occupation forces."
Israeli occupation settlers and forces raided the south of Nablus and attacked Palestinian protesters, Safa news agency reported, wounding 134 of them. Pointing out that such aggression aims to reinforce the occupation of Palestinian territories, the statement declared:
"These criminal attacks reflect the organised state terror which is carried out by the different arms of the Israeli occupation, including the terror settlement groups.

"The disastrous 'Deal of the Century' affords a political cover for the Israeli expansionist colonial projects and the continuous settlement violations, which are being carried out under the official protection of the Israeli army."
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Newspaper

First confirmed coronavirus death in US, travel restrictions implemented


Science Times
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 00:21 UTC
King county
© Reuters
Washington state health officials speak about the first patient death from novel coronavirus in the United States

Washington State has announced on Saturday three new cases of the virus including the person who died in King County.

The Trump administration has announced on Saturday additional travel restrictions affecting Iran, Italy, and South Korea. This is in response to the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. following its first death from the virus.

The travel ban will be extended to foreign nationals who visited the three countries in the past 14 days, said by Vice President Pence. Furthermore, the State Department is also increasing its travel advisory to Americans not to travel to parts of Italy and South Korea affected by the virus.

Comment: See also:

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Hardhat

Expert says US job situation can improve even more if Trump ends H-4 Visas, OPT Program

John Binder
Breitbart
Fri, 28 Feb 2020 18:50 UTC
india tech sector US jobs
© Associated Press/Aijaz Rahi/File
President Trump can shore up jobs for American professionals and graduates by ending the H-4 visa program and the Optional Practical Training (OPT) that gives away thousands of U.S. jobs to foreign nationals every year, an immigration expert says.

In an exclusive SiriusXM Patriot Breitbart News Daily interview at CPAC, NumbersUSA's Chris Chmielenski said there is still action the Trump administration can take executively to end the outsourcing of Americans' white-collar jobs to foreign workers.

Two of those actions, Chmielenski says, is ending the H-4 visa program — where at least 100,000 foreign family members of H-1B visa-holders take U.S. jobs — and the OPT program that gives discounts to giant tech corporations for hiring foreign graduates over young professional Americans.

Comment:
Trump signs 'Buy American, Hire American' executive order
'Hire Americans': New Trump executive order to crack down on work visas for foreigners
Trump administration to propose ending rule allowing spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in U.S.

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Attention

Humanity is making a very important decision when it comes to Assange

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 00:00 UTC
Assange
The propagandists have all gone dead silent on the WikiLeaks founder they previously were smearing with relentless viciousness, because they no longer have an argument. The facts are all in, and yes, it turns out the US government is certainly and undeniably working to exploit legal loopholes to imprison a journalist for exposing its war crimes. That is happening, and there is no justifying it.

So the narrative managers, by and large, have gone silent.

Which is good. Because it gives us an opening to seize control of the narrative.

It's time to go on the offensive with this. Assange supporters have gotten so used to playing defense that it hasn't fully occurred to us to go on a full-blown charge. I've been guilty of this as well; I'll be letting myself get bogged down in some old, obsolete debate with someone about some obscure aspect of the Swedish case or something, not realizing that none of that matters anymore. All the narrative manipulations that were used to get Assange to this point are impotent, irrelevant expenditures of energy compared to the fact that we now have undeniable evidence that the US government is working to set a precedent which will allow it to jail any journalist who exposes its misdeeds, and we can now force Assange's smearers to confront this reality.

Comment: See also:

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