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Airbnb prevents Palestinian hosts from listing homes in occupied West Bank

Tumna Patel
Mondoweiss
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 16:03 UTC
Ariel Gold disrupts Ashton Kutcher's Airbnb presentation.

Ariel Gold disrupts Ashton Kutcher's Airbnb presentation.
Mondoweiss has learned that Airbnb is currently preventing Palestinian hosts from listing their homes in the occupied West Bank.

When attempting to list a property for rent in a Palestinian city in the West Bank, users are denied by the website, and given a message saying "country code is invalid."

Mondoweiss attempted to post a listing in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Nablus, and received the same notification.

Airbnb and other websites that require addresses and GPS coordinates have historically had issues with users in places like the West Bank, where many Palestinian areas do not have formal residential addresses.

But when speaking with an Israeli Airbnb customer representative, the rep told a Mondoweiss reporter that the issue was not with the lack of a formal address for the listing, but that their listing in the city of Bethlehem was not being approved because they were in the West Bank.

When asked if it was a possible website glitch, and that Palestinian listings were accidentally being affected due to their proximity to settlements, the representative said "it is not an issue with the algorithm."

Comment: It looks like the courage of airbnb's convictions only goes so far. Their original justification was the illegality of the Israeli settlements. The Palestinians being denied new accounts have broken no laws.

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Bad Guys

US court documents in 'foreign agent' Butina case suggest deal made - UPDATE - Putin says she was jailed for nothing, has no ties to Russian intel


RT
Mon, 10 Dec 2018 16:28 UTC
Maria Butina
© Reuters / Alexandria Sheriff's Office
Maria Butina, after months in solitary confinement
Maria Butina, a Russian national detained in the US and accused of failing to register as a foreign lobbyist under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), appears to have reached a deal with prosecutors.

Documents entered on Monday request that a federal judge schedule a hearing this week so Butina can change her not guilty plea which she entered in July. There is still no indication what Butina intends to plead guilty to.

Butina's accusations stem from her rubbing shoulders with Republican operatives and gun-rights advocates in the US. Prosecutors initially attempted to paint Butina as a cold-blooded seductress who traded sex for influence in the corridors of power, but later retracted these more salacious allegations.

Butina denies the charges, and the Russian government has complained about her detention to the US State Department.

Butina's father Valery told RT that he has "no information" about any deal between his daughter and the US prosecutors. Media reports on it are nothing but "speculations" at the moment, he said.

Comment: Meanwhile there's another trial involving a Chinese executive who, on US request, has been imprisoned in Canada, is receiving similar inhumane treatment, and which is also serving to degrade relations with China: Break-in at jailed Chinese tech CFO's house in Canada, pending extradition to the US

UPDATE Dec 12 - Putin, in his first comments since Butina was arrested has said she has no ties to Russian intelligence and the whole case against her was thin. He admitted that she has had some links to the Russian Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament and that she could have actually worked with some officials there, but said that still does not justify the US legal action against her. Putin also said he asked all the heads of the Russian intelligence and security services about who she is and whether she had any links to their work. "No one knows anything about her at all."

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Snowflake

Parents outraged after children hit the stage in KKK costumes for well-known play 'The Foreigner'

Zach Crenshaw
KGUN 9
Mon, 10 Dec 2018 13:05 UTC
KKK Costume controversy
A high school play with controversial costumes has some parents outraged.

Three students at the Arizona State University Preparatory Academy Phoenix campus dressed in Ku Klux Klan costumes for a school play. Parents say the school never notified them or the rest of the student body that was not in the drama class.

The popular play, "The Foreigner," was performed at an assembly for all high school students.

"Three students dressed as the KKK walked down the middle of the assembly as part of a play," explained one parent, who wanted to remain anonymous at his daughter's request. "They were in hooded robes."
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Ambulance

Nine-year-old girl takes her own life after facing relentless bullying and racism at school

Jackie Salo
NY Post
Mon, 10 Dec 2018 12:54 UTC
McKenzie Adams
© Facebook
McKenzie Adams
A black 9-year-old girl in Alabama allegedly took her own life after facing relentless bullying and racism in class, according to reports.

McKenzie Adams' relatives said she hanged herself Dec. 3 in her home in Linden, about 100 miles west of Montgomery, and was discovered by her grandmother, according to the Tuscaloosa News.

Since the start of the school year, the fourth-grader had been the target of bullying at US Jones Elementary School, where she was teased over her friendship with a white male classmate, according to her family.

Her aunt, Eddwina Harris, said the group of students taunted McKenzie by telling her to commit suicide.

"She was being bullied the entire school year, with words such as 'kill yourself,' 'you think you're white because you ride with that white boy,' 'you ugly,' 'black bitch,' 'just die,'" Harris told the newspaper.

Harris said she's speaking out about her niece's death because she wants to promote anti-bullying.

"There are so many voiceless kids," Harris said. "God is opening great doors for justice for my niece."
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Heart - Black

Sick! Video gamer arrested after accidentally livestreaming assault of pregnant partner


The Guardian
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 12:20 UTC
MrDeadMoth livestream video game
A man will face court after he allegedly assaulted a woman at a home in Sydney's south-west while livestreaming to an online gaming site.

The 26-year-old was arrested at a home in Oran Park on Sunday night, three hours after he unintentionally streamed the attack and it was reported to police by fellow gamers.

His 21-year-old partner was not seriously injured but was distressed and shaken by the alleged assault, police said.
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Map

Social Contagion: 'Yellow Vest' protests spread among citizens fed up with corruption

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 12:20 UTC
Yellow Vest protests global worldwide
A grassroots movement made up of citizens who have become fed up with the political establishment in France has been growing since early November and it has come to a head this month. The movement, known as "gilets jaunes" or "yellow vests" began as an anti-tax protest but has since merged folks from the left and the right into a much broader anti-government movement. The movement has become so large that political experts are now calling it a "new revolution."

French citizens have used the yellow vests that their government requires they carry in their vehicles as a symbol of this protest. As the Guardian points out, unlike previous French protest movements, it sprang up online through petitions and was organised by ordinary working people posting videos on social media, without a set leader, trade union or political party behind it.

Comment: Also see: Will Macron's Yellow Vest Implosion Spread to Other EU Countries?

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Bomb

Bomb threat at Facebook's Silicon Valley campus, police sound 'all clear'


Reuters
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 03:57 UTC
facebook
© Alexander Koerner/Getty Image
A bomb threat prompted authorities on Tuesday to evacuate a building at the Silicon Valley headquarters of Facebook Inc (FB.O), police said, but gave the "all clear" after an hours-long search turned up no sign of a device.

The New York Police Department had received an anonymous tip about a bomb threat regarding Facebook's campus in Menlo Park, California, and alerted local authorities at about 4:30 p.m., a spokeswoman for the Menlo Park police said.

Late on Tuesday, police said the building was secure, however.

Comment: Whether this bomb threat was due to a disgruntled Facebook user, an employee who went to extreme lengths to get a day off, or some other cause, it's undeniable that a segment of the population is getting increasingly angry and frustrated with social media platforms. With the attack on YouTube back in April, we saw the extent to which a clearly disturbed individual can go to take vengeance on social media companies for their opaque and constantly shifting rules of service and trigger-happy ban-hammer disposition. One hopes we won't see more of these in the future, but it would hardly be surprising.

See also:

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Info

White collar criminologist: Deutsche Bank is largest criminal enterprise in Germany

Greg Hunter
USA Watchdog
Sun, 02 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Deutsche Bank
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has deemed Deutsche Bank as the most systemically dangerous bank in the world. Professor of Economics and Law, William Black, knows why and contends, "Deutsche Bank (DB) poses as what is called a 'National Champion' bank and the largest bank by far in Germany, but it's actually the largest criminal enterprise in Germany. This is quite a statement because VW is such a massive fraud. . . .It is insane that we allow Deutsche Bank to go from fraud to fraud to fraud. . . .They cheat on everything else you can possibly imagine and, typically, they are getting caught, which is also not a very good sign in terms of their competence even as thieves. Even in the United States, there has been reluctance to crack down on Deutsche Bank. . . . When the New York Commissioner tried to crack down, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the premier banking regulator, actually sought to impede that. He disparaged the New York folks and said there really wasn't that big of problems and such, and all of that proved to be lies."

Deutsche Bank was raided by German regulators last week on more allegations of fraud and money laundering.


Comment: And to think that Deutsche Bank is regulated by the same government that would seek to subjugate half of Europe with austerity measures because said countires are 'mismanaging their economies'.

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Candle

Iraqi people mark one year anniversary of victory over Islamic State

Sinan Salaheddin
Washington Tiimes
Mon, 10 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
people flee their homes Iraq
© AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed
In this Monday, April 4, 2016, file photo, smoke rises as people flee their homes during clashes between Iraqi security forces and members of the Islamic State group in Hit, Iraq, 85 miles (140 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq on Monday, Dec. 10, 2018, celebrated the anniversary of its costly victory over the Islamic State group, which has lost virtually all the territory it once held but still carries out sporadic attacks.
Iraq on Monday celebrated the anniversary of its costly victory over the Islamic State group, which has lost virtually all the territory it once held but still carries out sporadic attacks.

The government declared victory last December after a grueling three-year war in which tens of thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. Entire towns and neighborhoods were reduced to rubble in the fighting.

The government declared Monday a national holiday, and a moment of silence is planned for later in the day. Checkpoints in the capital were decorated with Iraqi flags and balloons, as security forces patrolled the streets playing patriotic music.

As part of the celebrations, authorities plan to reopen parts of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone - home to key government offices and embassies - to the public. The move is billed as an act of transparency following protests against corruption and poor public services.

Comment: What this article says little about is that not only had the US helped foster the growth of Islamic State in Iraq (and elsewhere), but when it did finally come to attack IS here and there, it quite often killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis while destroying an incredible amount of infrastructure. This is on top of the fact that the US decimated large swathes of Iraq under the banner of lies claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and needed to be brought under heel, of course.

In short, the Iraqis still find themselves digging themselves out of wanton destruction and carnage because of a country whose main export these days is wanton destruction and carnage; the US. Once the threat of that stops, Iraq and the world will really have something to celebrate.

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Binoculars

New poll indicates rampant racism in Israel


Middle East Eye
Mon, 10 Dec 2018 16:03 UTC
man in the Bedouin village
© AFP/File photo
A man in the Bedouin village of Abu Nuwar in the occupied West Bank with the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the background
Meanwhile, bill calls for increasing size of villages that can implement 'admission committees' to keep out non-Jewish residents

New poll shows racism rife amongst Israelis

A new poll by Israeli Channel 10 TV revealed that deep prejudice against Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, is still the norm amongst Israeli Jews.

Over three-quarters of respondents said they would object to their child forming friendships with Palestinian youth of the opposite sex, and more than half of Israeli Jews in the study said they would be disturbed if their child formed friendships with Palestinian youth of the same sex.

Forty-three percent of respondents said that they were disturbed or very disturbed to hear people conversing in Arabic in a public space, and 42 percent said they believe that Jews should be hired for work over Arabs.
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