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Deaths of Florida students in fiery Tesla electric car crash prompts investigation by federal agency

Crash Tesla electric car Fort Lauderdale
Two young men, "as close as brothers," were supposed to be attending college in the fall. Instead, their families and classmates are mourning them after a fiery crash of an electric car on a curvy road on Fort Lauderdale beach.

Driver Barrett Riley, of Fort Lauderdale, and front-seat passenger Edgar Monserratt Martinez, of Aventura, both 18 and students at Pine Crest School, were trapped in the burning wreck and died in Tuesday's crash, police and fire officials said. Another passenger, also 18, was taken to a hospital.

The trio was traveling in a Tesla Model S sedan along Seabreeze Boulevard before it crashed into a concrete wall, police said.

Fort Lauderdale Police said excessive speed may have been a factor in the crash, but they could not say how fast the car was going, where the fire began or what caused it.

Attention

Hate crimes target Muslims most in Nottingham, says study

muslim girls
© Dinendra Haria/ Global Look Press
Hate crime perpetrators are targeting Muslims more than any other section of the community in Nottingham, a study reveals. Victims were compared to Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama Bin Laden, while others were called "terrorist s***."

Muslims accounted for 59 percent of hate crime victims recorded by the study by Nottingham University and Nottingham Trent University, which gathered both statistical and harrowing anecdotal evidence of people being abused for reasons including race, culture, sexuality and religion.

One Muslim victim described how she had been harassed for wearing her traditional clothing. "I wear the Islamic dress and the perpetrator was shouting that I was hiding a bomb," one respondent said. "On another incident whilst driving in my car, a passerby was shouting and calling me Bin Laden."

Light Saber

Lee Camp's pointed take on Israel and Trump lying about Iran's nuclear activity

lee camp
Lee Camp
Lee Camp does an excellent analysis on US military policy along with the irony that America now pushes baseless accusations against countries like Iran.

Lee Camp is a bit liberal for our tastes on most issues but he really hits it out of the park with his takedowns of US foreign policy.

America is not in a position to accuse other nations of possessing dangerous weapons. The real weapons of mass destruction are those manufactured by the World Police themselves, the American military. Per capita Americans give over $3,000 per year to the Pentagon's military programs.

Comment:


Attention

Witness claims a Rio councilor and military chief planned the assassination of Brazilian activist Marielle Franco

Marielle Franco assassination
© ReutersA demonstrator holds a t-shirt reading "Marielle is Present" in a protest against the shooting of Rio de Janeiro city councillor Marielle Franco.
The unnamed witness claims councilor Marcello Siciliano and paramilitary chief Orlando Oliviera de Araujo planned the activist's murder.

A key witness in the Marielle Franco case has alleged that a councilor and a military police officer are responsible for the murder of the activist in March.

The witness, whose identity remains protected, says he was part of a powerful paramilitary organization in Rio de Janeiro, and agreed to testify about the case in exchange of personal protection, according to the local newspaper "O Globo."

He claims to have been present at meetings between councilor Marcello Siciliano, from the Solidarity Humanist Party (PHS), and Orlando Oliviera de Araujo, a former member of the Military Police and chief of a paramilitary group, in which they were planning the assassination of Franco.

Comment: See also:


Bad Guys

Study finds half of 'terror suspects' arrested in Spain are Moroccan

spanish police cars
© Les Haines/FlickrSpanish police vehicles
Almost half of people arrested in Spain on terrorism charges are Morocco-born or of Moroccan descent, a study by Spanish think tank Elcano Royal Institute has found.

Based on information from their database of terrorist activities between 2013 and 2017, the study found that approximately 46 per cent of the 233 people arrested or killed for alleged involvement in terrorism-related activities in Spain were Moroccan nationals.

The study also found that six out of ten people were second generation descendants of Moroccan immigrants, who were affiliated with terrorism cells and networks based in Spain. Many of these arrests took place in Catalonia, which the think tank argues is "increasingly known as a centre of extremism, with nearly one third of ISIS-linked arrests in Spain made there," Morocco World News reported using another acronym for Daesh.

Bizarro Earth

IDF revives anti-Semitic trope, depicts Iranians as evil puppet masters

puppet master
© WIN-Initiative / Getty Images
Using "puppet master" and "Jew" in the same sentence will likely land you on an Anti-Defamation League blacklist, but it seems to be okay when the Israeli military rolls out the tired trope against others - that is, against Iran.

The Israeli Defense Forces' (IDF) official Twitter account pulled back the veil on the Iranian global conspiracy on Thursday. It posted a poorly edited picture showing Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei pulling the strings of a Bashar Assad marionette, against the backdrop of a ruined city ravaged by explosions. One may already start to wonder what the message is, given that the photo actually shows Kobane, the northern Syrian city that was seized by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in 2014, and liberated by Kurdish fighters a year later. But most importantly, the MS Paint masterpiece is accompanied by the caption: "WHO REALLY CONTROLS YOUR LIFE?"


Snakes in Suits

Red Ants: Meet South Africa's private security firm violently evicting squatters

red ants SA
© Alaister Russell/The Sunday Times
The Red Ants are a South African private security company specialising in clearing "illegal invaders" from properties. Two, sometimes three times a week, a convoy of trucks drives out of the gates of a sprawling farm in Gauteng province, carrying hundreds of men and led by "officers" armed with shotguns and handguns.

The company is rarely out of the headlines in South Africa and has been repeatedly accused of crimes ranging from theft to murder. It is fiercely criticised by human rights campaigners. But the attitude of the general public is more ambivalent - and the Red Ants themselves are fiercely loyal to each other and their employers. "We are a family. We look after each other ... We have built a community," says Johan Bosch, the farmer who founded and owns the company.

Comment: While illegally squatting in buildings is a criminal act, reports suggest that the Red Ants have carried out evictions without court notices and without allowing people adequate time to vacate the properties. In addition to that, it's not surprising that allegations of murder and theft have been made against them if they are hiring ex-cons!


Star of David

Elor Azarya returns home as a 'hero' after 9-month prison term for killing Palestinian

Elor Azarya
"I'm glad it's over", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, as Elor Azarya, the soldier-medic who shot the incapacitated Palestinian suspect Abdel Fatah Al Sharif, returned home from his prison term served for 'manslaughter', after merely 9 months.

The release was early on several counts: First, what was clearly murder got reduced to a 'manslaughter' charge to begin with. Then, despite the court noting that Azarya showed no remorse and in fact had said that Al Sharif "deserved to die", despite the court noting "we have dealt with a case in which the committing of the felony and the level of guilt of the defendant are of excessive egregiousness", noting that "the reason for shooting by the defendant was not rooted in a sense of danger", the court gave him a ridiculous sentence of 1.5 years, at the low end of the term suggested even by the prosecution (14-48 months).

Newspaper

Black Fridays: Spanish public broadcaster employees mourn the death of independent news

Spanish public broadcaster employees
© mariola.cubells / Instagram
For the third week in a row, journalists at the Spanish public-service broadcaster RTVE wore black on Friday to protest PM Mariano Rajoy's party meddling in their news coverage, which they fear damages the channel's credibility.

The staff at Radio Television Espanola rebelled against the refusal of the Spanish ruling conservative Popular Party (PP) to support the opposition's bid for a public contest to appoint a new, independent chairman for the channel.

According to RTVE staff, this kind of management casts doubt on its credibility, following numerous cases of deliberate news manipulation in favor of the ruling party, whether by withholding information or inaccurate coverage.

Women at RTVE, who were supported by many male colleagues, said they dressed in black to show they want "a public broadcaster that includes all colors, one that is diverse, independent and professional."

Bad Guys

Palestinian Prisoners Centre spokesman: Israel arrested 500 Palestinians over Facebook posts

Facebook logo
© West McGowan/FlickrFacebook logo
Palestinian Prisoners' Centre (PPC) said yesterday that Israel had arrested 500 Palestinians, including women and children, as a result of their social media posts, Al-Resalah newspaper reported.

PPC spokesman Riyadh Al-Ashqar said that the Israeli occupation began arresting Palestinians because of their social media posts following the start of the Jerusalem Intifada claiming such uploads incite terror against Israel.

Israel is using its recently formed "Cyber Unit" to monitor Palestinian social media posts, the centre said.