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☆ College Protests Over Gaza Deepen Democratic Rifts
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-28 | by ( Katie Glueck | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nearly seven months after the Israel-Hamas war began, the demonstrations convulsing college campuses nationwide are exposing fresh tensions within the Democratic Party over how to balance free speech protections and support for Gazans with concerns that some Jewish Americans are raising about antisemitism. From New York and Los Angeles to Atlanta and Austin, a surge in student activism has manifested in protest encampments and other demonstrations, drawing significant police crackdowns and sometimes appearing to attract outside agitators. The protests also have emerged as the latest flashpoint in the internal Democratic debate over the war. “The real question is, can the Democrats again portray themselves as the steady hand at the helm?” said Dan Sena, a veteran Democratic strategist. “Things that create national chaos like this make that harder to do.”

Persons: ”, Dan Sena Organizations: Hamas, Democratic Party, Democratic Locations: Israel, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Austin

☆ Migrant children in open-air desert camps are suffering from hunger and hypothermia, court documents say
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Blake Ellis | Melanie Hicken | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The episode was one of many highlighted in a court filing Thursday that takes aim at the living conditions at open-air camps near the U.S.-Mexico border in California. Federal immigration officials have directed migrants to those camps but have failed to provide adequate food, water, shelter and medical services, children’s rights lawyers say. More than 3.3 million immigration court cases remain in the cue, according to according to data from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which tracks immigration court data. The declarations also described instances in which aid workers had to orchestrate emergency medical care for children in serious distress. Some alleged that Border Patrol agents saw that children were suffering but did little about it.

Persons: —, Adriana Jasso, Joe Biden, ” Neha Desai, “, Jasso, ” Desai, ” Theresa Cheng, ” Organizations: CNN, Border Patrol, National Center for Youth Law, CBP, Department, Homeland, Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, Security, “ Locations: Colombia, porta, U.S, Mexico, California, Venezuela, China, India, Mauritania, Syracuse, San Diego, Colombian

☆ Alabama execution using nitrogen gas, the first ever, again puts U.S. at front of death penalty debate
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

It marked the first time a new execution method was used in the U.S. since 1982, when lethal injection was introduced and later became the most common method. The state had predicted the nitrogen gas would cause unconsciousness within seconds and death within minutes. After he had a chance to make a final statement, the warden, from another room, was to activate the nitrogen gas. And experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council cautioned they believe the execution method could violate the prohibition on torture. Smith's attorneys had raised concerns that he could choke to death on his own vomit as the nitrogen gas flows.

Persons: Abraham Bonowitz, Kenneth Smith, Kenneth Eugene Smith, Smith, gurney, Kay Ivey, Elizabeth Sennett, Ivey, Elizabeth Sennett's, Mike Sennett, Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Steve Marshall, John Q, Hamm, Jeff Hood, Hood, Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, he's, Sennett, John Forrest Parker, Charles Sennett Organizations: Holman Correctional, Alabama Gov, European Union, Human, EU, U.S, Supreme, State, Justice, Catholic, Prosecutors Locations: Columbus , Ohio, Holman, Atmore , Alabama, U.S, Alabama, United States, Geneva, gurney, Hamm, Vatican, Rome, Mississippi, Oklahoma

In protests, open letters, staff revolts and walkouts, liberal Democrats are demanding that Mr. Biden break with decades-long American policy and call for a cease-fire. The political power of the Israel skeptics within the party is untested, with more than a year remaining until the 2024 presidential election. Their efforts have been fractious and disorganized, and they have little agreement on how much blame to lay at Mr. Biden’s feet or whether to punish him next November if he ignores their pleas. His margin of victory in key battleground states was just a few thousand votes — hardly enough to spare a significant drop-off from young voters alienated by his loyalty to a right-wing Israeli government they see as hostile to their values. Perhaps most concerning for Mr. Biden is that in the halls of Congress, the most critical Democratic voices are Black and Hispanic Democrats who helped fuel his 2020 victory.

Persons: Biden, Biden’s, Israel, ”, Bonnie Watson Coleman, resolution’s Organizations: Democratic, Mr, Democrats Locations: Israel, Hollywood, America, Palestine, New Jersey

☆ Be very wary of the Telegram account claiming Putin was found convulsing from a heart attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Kremlin has issued a denial after a prominent Russian Telegram account said Putin had a heart attack. The anonymous account, General SVR, regularly pumps out fascinating claims about Putin. There's good reason to be highly skeptical of the account, experts have told Insider. They originated in a post by the anonymous Russian Telegram account General SVR, an infamous source of juicy but unsubstantiated tales about Putin and his circle. The General SVR Telegram account, with more than 390,000 followers across three accounts, is a major purveyor of such rumors.

Persons: Putin, —, breathlessly, Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, General SVR —, pooped, Lucy Birge Organizations: Russian Telegram, SVR, Service, Kremlin, TASS, General SVR Telegram, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, General SVR, New York Times Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Russia

☆ Opinion | War in a Time of Informational Chaos
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

As a few bleak anecdotes illustrate, it is often impossible, in real time, for outsiders to know what is happening in the ceaselessly reigniting war between Israel and the Palestinians. Politicians issued impassioned condemnations of what some called Israeli war crimes. In May of last year, the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp. Israeli officials said she was either shot by a Palestinian or by an Israeli soldier aiming at a Palestinian gunman. It is the myth of a massacre at the Jenin refugee camp in 2002.

Persons: Elon Musk, Biden, I’d, didn’t, Shireen Abu Akleh, Abu Akleh, Israel, Saeb Erekat, “ Organizations: Elon, Twitter, Gaza Health Ministry, New York Times, Haaretz, Islamic, Israeli Defense Forces, West Bank, Palestinian, CNN, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, United Nations, Rights Watch, IDF, Guardian Locations: Israel, Al, Ahli, Gaza, That’s, Tunisia, Berlin, Jordan, Egypt, Palestinian, American, Jenin, Netanya, “ Jenin, America

☆ Israel judicial overhaul: protests mount against Benjamin Netanyahu after bill passed
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Dan Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The bill curbing Supreme Court review of some government decisions passed in a stormy Knesset parliament on Monday after a walkout by lawmakers. Protest leaders said growing numbers of military reservists would no longer report for duty if the government continued with its plans. First elected to top office in 1996 and now in his sixth term, Netanyahu, 73, is facing his biggest domestic crisis. A Lebanese source familiar with the development said the men were members of a Hezbollah elite unit on a patrol that had nothing to do with Israel's domestic crisis. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday said Israel's domestic crisis showed it was on a "path of collapse and fragmentation".

Persons: Netanyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu, Yair Lapid, Zion Hagay, Kan, Corinna Kern, striding, Hassan Nasrallah, Bezalel Smotrich, Dan Williams, Ari Rabinovitch, Henriette Chacar, Andrew MacAskill, Laila Bassam, Tom Perry, Andrew Cawthorne, Nick Macfie Organizations: Israeli Democracy, Israel Bar Association, Israel Medical Association, Health Ministry, REUTERS, BANK, Orthodox Jewish, West Bank, Hamas, Hezbollah, Finance, Army Radio, Thomson Locations: JERUSALEM, Israel, Histadrut, United States, Britain, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Washington, Nablus, Palestinian, Lebanese, Iran, London, Beirut

☆ Lebanon's Hezbollah sees Israel on path of 'collapse'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIRUT, July 24 (Reuters) - The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Monday its arch-foe Israel was on a "path of collapse and fragmentation," referring to divisions in Israeli society over a contested overhaul of its judiciary. "Today, in particular, is the worst day in the history of the entity, as some of its people say," Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech, referring to Israel. "This is what puts it on the path of collapse, fragmentation, and disappearance, God willing," he added. Shi'ite Hezbollah has fought numerous conflicts with Israel since being established by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982. Reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut Writing by Tom Perry Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Netanyahu, Laila Bassam, Tom Perry, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Monday, Iran's, Guards, Thomson Locations: BEIRUT, Iran, Lebanese, Israel, Beirut

☆ Israeli financial markets slide after judicial overhaul vote
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Steven Scheer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

JERUSALEM, July 24 (Reuters) - Israeli financial markets tumbled on Monday, with the shekel hitting a two-week low versus the dollar, after lawmakers ratified the first bill of a judicial overhaul sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In protest at the vote, a forum of some 150 of Israel's largest companies held a strike on Monday. Azrieli (AZRG.TA) and Big (BIG.TA), two of Israel's largest malls, said stores in their shopping centres would be closed. But news that compromise talks collapsed erased early gains and sent the shekel weaker, with losses deepening after the vote. The shekel has weakened some 10% versus the dollar since late January when the government unveiled its controversial judicial overhaul plan, setting off mass protests and harming foreign inflows.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Nir Elias, Arnon Bar, Netanyahu, Steven Scheer, Bansari Mayur, Karin Strohecker, James Mackenzie, Christina Fincher, Sharon Singleton Organizations: REUTERS, Bank of Israel, MPC, Supreme, Thomson Locations: Tel Aviv, Washington

But officially colour-blind France has long refused to acknowledge any racial factor was at play. "From that point on, unions were involved in everything that's co-managed, including the managing of human resources," he told Reuters. But these fines are rare and rights groups say police officers often end up with light sentences, fuelling a sense of impunity. A rise in lethal police shootings over the last few years has been linked to a law reform in 2017, which broadens the circumstances in which an officer can use their firearm. "It is completely vague, and it allows to shoot much more freely," said Caille of the left-wing CGT police union.

Persons: Cedric Mas, Olivier Cahn, that's, " Cahn, Christophe Castaner, Gerald Darmanin, Franck Louvrier, Nicolas Sarkozy, Darmanin, Ravina Shamdasani, Anthony Caille, –, Sebastian Roche, Michel Rose, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Rights, Twitter, Cergy University, Reuters, Socialists, United Nations, Police, CGT Police, of, Society, CGT, Thomson Locations: PARIS, Britain, France, United States, Paris, Moroccan, – France, U.S, Nice

☆ The Fed is secretly stress testing the US economy against nightmare scenarios
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

When asked how the Fed plans for the worst case scenarios on the geopolitical front, he first responded in Fedspeak. At every Fed policy meeting, he said, “our staff works up six or seven or eight alternative simulations,” he said. The market impact: The policy scenarios considered by the Fed are quite sensitive. That’s likely why when Powell was asked about the scenarios the Fed had most recently considered, he stayed mum. They’re posting elaborate TikToks where they pretend that the McDonald’s Grimace shake has killed them, of course.

Persons: Jerome Powell, Powell didn’t, ”, they’re, Joe Brusuelas, Stacey Tevlin, Ben Bernanke, Philippa Dunne, “, Danielle DiMartino Booth, That’s, Powell, “ I’m, Joe Biden, Biden, “ Bidenomics, Elisabeth Buchwald, Bryan Mena, Read, McDonald’s, Scottie Andrew, Grimace’s, Ronald McDonald, Andrews, it’s, Matthew Prince, “ It’s Organizations: New, New York CNN — Federal, European Central Bank, Federal, RSM, “, Fed, Bloomberg, TLR, QI Research, Federal Reserve, Chapman University, CNN Locations: New York, Portugal, Fedspeak, China, Chicago, America, California, ”

☆ McDonald’s bet on viral success with its Grimace shake. TikTok users are pretending it killed them
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Since the debut of the Grimace shake earlier this month, TikTok users have been excitedly ordering the shake, released in honor of McDonald’s character Grimace’s “birthday,” and then pretending to die on camera after consuming the purple beverage. They often dump the shake over their convulsing bodies, apparently signaling that Grimace, that bumbling bestie of Ronald McDonald, killed them. The Grimace shake, though, has become more infamous than beloved. In a typical “Grimace Shake” TikTok, an enthusiastic young person, Grimace shake in hand, will wish the big purple mascot a happy birthday before taking their first sip. When reached for comment, McDonald’s referred CNN to a tweet from Grimace: “meee pretending i don’t see the grimace shake trendd,” along with a photo of the purple one himself, eyebrows raised.

Persons: McDonald’s, Grimace’s, ”, Ronald McDonald, Matthew Prince, “ It’s, it’s, Grimace, J Balvin, Travis Scott, they’ve, Grimace wasn’t, execs, Ronald McDonald’s, Hamburglar, Bell’s, grimace, “ Organizations: CNN, Chapman University, buzzy, Wine, Wednesday Locations: California, ”

☆ Jeffrey Epstein's brother remains convinced the financier was murdered, calling new DOJ report 'blatant bullshit'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The DOJ inspector general released a long-awaited report concluding Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. Mark Epstein, his brother, isn't convinced. On Tuesday morning, the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General published its long-awaiting report into Jeffrey Epstein's death. Epstein's body was examined by Kristen Roman, a medical examiner for the city of New York. Investigators also spoke to three other inmates in the cell block who could see directly into Epstein's cell from their own cells.

Persons: Jeffrey Epstein, Mark Epstein, isn't, —, Epstein, I've, Jeffrey Epstein's, Epstein —, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew —, Kristen Roman, Michael Baden, Baden, Roman, Mark Epstein isn't, Michael Thomas, Spencer Platt, Epstein Mark Epstein, Mark, they're, debrief, Nobody, EMTs, intubated Organizations: Service, Department's, Bureau of Prisons, Metropolitan Correctional Center, Getty, Justice Department, jail's Health Services Locations: Manhattan, New York, Baden, Epstein

☆ Trump and Johnson Were Accused of Breaking Rules. One Lost Party Support.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Mark Landler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An angry, aggrieved former leader attacks the institutions he once led for accusing him of flouting the rules and lying about it. And yet, Britain’s Conservative Party has regularly stood up to Mr. Johnson while the Republican Party is still mostly in thrall to Mr. Trump. On Monday, the House of Commons will vote on whether to accept or reject the committee’s findings. The government said it would not pressure Tory lawmakers to vote one way or the other. That sets up a potential repudiation of Mr. Johnson by his party that could go far beyond the token number of Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives who voted to impeach Mr. Trump in 2019 and 2021.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Boris Johnson, Johnson, thrall, Johnson’s, preemptively, Mr Organizations: Britain’s Conservative Party, Republican Party, Conservative Locations: Britain, United States, Downing

☆ To Truly Understand the Past, Pick Up an Old Magazine
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Brian Dillon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

And not a single mention yet of AIDS; in a Wrangler ad, a model’s speech bubble announces, oblivious: “I’m Positive.” In these magazine pages, it both is and is not the 1984 of my memory. “Priceless flotsam they seemed to us then,” Elizabeth Hardwick once wrote, recalling her youthful fascination with old jazz records. I’ve long felt the same way about magazines, old and new. Old magazines are cheap time machines, archaeologies of collective desire. Find a print issue, specialist or popular, preferably more than 20 years old (though 10 may do the trick), and read it from cover to cover.

Persons: Kate Bush, won’t, ” It’s, Roland, ” Elizabeth Hardwick, Joan Didion, ”, Hardwick, Alberto Giacometti, Gordon Parks, William Klein Organizations: Vogue Locations: London, New York, Dublin, ., Mexico City

☆ Remains Match Traits of Missing Call Center Workers in Mexico, Officials Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Emiliano Rodríguez Mega | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

More than 110,000 people are missing in Mexico, their fate uncertain. The figures have become a political sore spot for Mr. López Obrador, particularly as Mexico heads toward a presidential election in 2024, when one of the president’s closest allies is likely to be on the ballot. When Mr. López Obrador came to office in December 2018, he promised to root out the violence convulsing Mexico. The president has defended himself against the alarming numbers by saying his government has gotten better at counting and investigating the missing. “No government had ever taken care of the disappeared as we are doing now,” Mr. López Obrador said last year.

Persons: Andrés Manuel López Obrador, López Obrador, “, Mr, Delia Quiroa, Roberto, ” Locations: Jalisco, Mexico, Tamaulipas

☆ Was mass hysteria behind the mysterious case of 227 middle school students fainting last fall?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Lillian Perlmutter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +22 min

On September 23, 2022, 12-year-old Esmeralda walked out of the girls' bathroom at her middle school in Tapachula, Mexico, and fainted. Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador began including regular updates on the government's investigation into the fainting episodes in his daily press conferences. Dr. Carlos Alberto Pantoja Meléndez, one of Mexico's few field epidemiologists, had taken an interest in the fainting episodes. News of the initial fainting episodes had been shared there, the epidemiologist, who asked to remain anonymous, told Pantoja-Melendez. Both believe that the fainting episodes in Mexico were examples of something new and alarming: mass hysteria spreading online.

Persons: Esmeralda, Diala, Gladys, Esmeralda's, convulsing, Esmeralda Eva Alicia Lépiz, —, Esmerelda, Mami, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, Gladys didn't, Bochil, Luis Villagrán, bristled, Susanna, Tapachula, Diala's, José Eduardo Morales Montes, they'd, Eva Alicia Lépiz, Hidalgo —, I've, Carlos Alberto Pantoja Meléndez, Pantoja Meléndez, Meléndez, Robert Bartholomew, Bartholomew, Lopez Obrador, busily, Simon Wessley, schoolgirls, twitching, we'll, Pantoja, Melendez, Bartholomew said, we're, We've, who's Organizations: Federal, Central America, Journalists, Mexico City —, Mexico City, Universidad Autónoma Nacional, University of Auckland, Roswell, Kings College, New York, Health Department, Pantoja Locations: Tapachula, Mexico, Bochil, Mexican, Chiapas, Mexico City, El Pais, Chiapas —, Central, Esmeralda, Mexico City — Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, México, University of Auckland , New Zealand, Veracruz, London, Southern Mexico, Kanshasa, Tanzania, Blackburn , England, Sweden, Pyuthan, Nepal, Leroy , New York, Tapachula .

☆ Ketamine is being sold as a depression wonder drug. For some, it's making everything worse.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Anna Silman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +42 min

The infusions at the ketamine clinic in his West Texas hometown were a Christmas gift from his grandmother. About five years ago, more and more of my friends started using ketamine recreationally. IV ketamine treatment centers charging $400 to $2,000 an infusion popped up all over the country. "Ketamine used as directed in an appropriate clinical setting very rarely leads to any dependence," Mindbloom says on its website. Like Nadia, most of the people I interviewed said when they started using ketamine, they didn't think it was possible to become dependent on it.

Millions of football fans held their breath for close to 20 long minutes Monday night when Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin had a cardiac arrest after making a routine tackle. In the largest study conducted on the subject, 99% of former NFL players showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a devastating neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head trauma. Another key study showed that 40% of retired NFL players have traumatic brain injury, with no correlation between the number of concussions and the severity of the injury. Seau’s death brought the issue of traumatic brain injury to a boiling point, and yet the league’s steps to address the issue appear to be little more than Band-Aids. He raised his hands in an unnatural movement that can be a sign of traumatic brain injury.

☆ For Iranians, this World Cup is about more than football
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

In the buildup to the World Cup in Qatar, there were calls for Iran to be thrown out of the tournament. Protesting at the World Cup, on the biggest stage of all for football, carries potentially huge risks for the current players in the national team. Nonetheless, players will be free to protest at the World Cup so long as they do not break FIFA rules, their manager Queiroz has said. Iran’s football authorities vowed that “people who have not followed professional and sports ethics … will be dealt with according to the regulations,” a statement published by Iran’s Football Federation after the beach soccer game said. “While this is happening, I cannot see people being overly excited [about the World Cup] when they’re out on the street fighting for freedom,” Mossavat says.

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