Garland Parent Protest Letter Rebuked by 11 State School Boards and Counting

Ivo Fysic October 15, 2021

Eleven state school boards distance themselves from Garland’s parent protest letter

From www.washingtonexaminer.com
2021-10-12 15:17:45
Jerry Dunleavy
Excerpt:

At least 11 state-level school boards are now distancing themselves from or outright condemning a National School Boards Association letter to President Joe Biden that called upon the Justice Department to investigate allegations of threats and violence at school board meetings.

Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memo earlier this month warned of a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against schools and said the DOJ will “discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate.”

The NSBA had argued in late September that “the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

State-level school boards in Florida, Arkansas, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, and Tennessee have now joined Louisiana and Virginia in criticizing the NSBA’s letter and made it clear they had not been…

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BIden Brings US Back to UN Human Rights Council

Parker Davis October 15, 2021

U.S. Regains Seat at U.N. Human Rights Council, 3 Years After Quitting

From www.nytimes.com
2021-10-14 18:47:46

Excerpt:

The United States on Thursday regained a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, which the Trump administration abandoned in 2018 because of what it called the body’s hypocrisy and anti-Israel prejudice.

In seeking to rejoin the 47-member council, the Biden administration, which has taken a far more supportive stance toward the United Nations than its predecessor, argued that American interests would be better served if the United States were a member seeking change from within.

The United States won a three-year term for one of 18 open seats on the council, starting in January, in a vote by the 193-member General Assembly.

Based in Geneva, the council is regarded as the world’s most important human rights body. While it has no criminal enforcement or sanctioning powers, the council can undertake investigations that help shape the global image of countries. It can also exert influence on their behavior if they are deemed to have poor rights records.

But the council has a…

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Enrollment in PA State Universities Take Historic Dive

Freedomist Editor October 15, 2021

State Universities in Pennsylvania See Largest Drop in Enrollment in Decades

From feedproxy.google.com
2021-10-12 16:00:31
Mike LaChance
Excerpt:

Maybe these schools should just hire more diversity administrators. Surely, that will fix the problem.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports:

Pa. State System university enrollment craters to lowest level in over 30 years

Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities lost another 5,000-plus students this fall, dropping total head count enrollment below 89,000 — a level not seen in three-plus decades, dating nearly to the system’s founding — according to just released data Monday.

The 5.4% downturn and anticipated loss of more than $36 million in tuition revenue is likely to further complicate efforts to redesign the State System of Higher Education and merge six of its universities — California, Clarion and Edinboro in the west, plus Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield in the northeast — into two institutions.

However, the drop from a year ago to a degree was anticipated — at least internally. While not offering a number, State System leaders, including Chancellor…

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Chinese Media Faces New Communist Party Restrictions

Mark Clouse October 15, 2021

China Targets News Media in Xi Jinping’s Campaign to Expand Communist Party Control

From www.wsj.com
2021-10-12 15:55:00

Excerpt:

SINGAPORE—China’s Communist Party is ratcheting up its control over news media and online commentary, warning away private investors and cracking down on what it describes as misinformation, as it continues a campaign to assert itself more forcefully across the economy and Chinese society.

The country’s central economic planning agency released on Friday a draft regulation that promised to expand restrictions on the involvement of “nonpublic capital” in swaths of the news industry—a warning to news organizations with private funding to step carefully, according to analysts.

On the same day, authorities in southern China detained a well-known former journalist for allegedly insulting national martyrs in a post on social media that questioned the Communist Party’s account of the Korean War.

Both events come on the heels of other tightening moves, including a decision by China’s internet regulator at the end of August to muzzle over 1,000 independent…

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Taliban Set to get World “Humanitarian Aid,” Including from America

Mark Clouse October 12, 2021

After America’s seeming hasty retreat from Afghanistan, the news coming out from the embattled country has not been good. With critical industries within Afghanistan collapsing, the nation now in the hands of a far-right Islami-fascist regime, the Taliban might be set up to receive massive amounts of humanitarian aid from multiple powers, including the United States, Germany, the EU, and even Russia, with more sure to follow.

Here is how the media is covering the emerging story. For the most part, the headlines tend to be relevently inocuous,, with little context considered for the potential controversy of America now funding an enemy, the Taliban, shortly after losing a war to the same enemy.

US to give humanitarian aid to Afghanistan

From www.dailytelegraph.com.au
2021-10-12 16:30:11

Excerpt:

The United Sates has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan – according to the Taliban.

It follows two days of talks between delegates – the first face to face meeting between the two sides since the Taliban took control of the country in August.

The meetings focused on security and terrorism concerns, the rights of women and girls – as well as continuing evacuations out of Afghanistan.

The US has insisted the talks did not amount to formal recognition of the Taliban.

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EU announces 1bn euro aid package for Afghanistan | News

From www.aljazeera.com
2021-10-12 13:30:35

Excerpt:

The bloc’s chief makes the pledge at a G20 summit addressing humanitarian and security situations in Afghanistan.

The European Union has pledged a one-billion-euro ($1.15bn) aid package for Afghanistan, “to avert a major humanitarian and socioeconomic collapse”, the bloc’s chief Ursula von der Leyen has said.

The money adds 250 million euros ($288m) to a 300-million-euro ($346m) sum the EU previously announced for urgent humanitarian needs, with the remainder going to Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries taking in Afghans fleeing Taliban rule, a statement said on Tuesday.

Von der Leyen made the pledge at a virtual G20 summit hosted by Italy dedicated to discussing the humanitarian and security situation in Afghanistan.

After a previous G7 meeting on Afghanistan following the August takeover by the Taliban, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi had been pushing for a broader discussion involving other world powers.

The G20 includes the United States, EU, China, Turkey,…

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Afghanistan crisis: Merkel warns against descent into chaos

From www.bbc.com
2021-10-12 16:18:02

Excerpt:

“Then humanitarian aid can no longer be provided. Of course it’s never easy to draw the line, so to speak, but to look on as 40 million people descend into chaos because there’s no electricity supply or financial system – that cannot and must not be the goal of the international community.”

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Russia To Propose Holding UN-Led Conference On Humanitarian Aid To Afghanistan – Lavrov

From www.urdupoint.com
2021-10-12 09:31:22

Excerpt:

NUR-SULTAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – 12th October, 2021) Russia and several other countries want to propose holding a new conference under the auspices of the United Nations on humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

“With regard to humanitarian aid, we, together with a number of other countries, want, in particular, during the Moscow format meetings to propose holding a conference under the auspices of the UN to provide assistance, including humanitarian assistance to this country,” Lavrov told reporters.

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La Palma Volcano Becoming Major World Event

Ivo Fysic October 12, 2021

An ongoing volcano on the Canary Islands is causing local destruction and threatens the American East Coast with some degree of disruption as well. The volcano is called the La Palma Volcano. It has been spewing for over 2 weeks now, but there does seem to be an end in sight. Here is the latest on this developing story.

Blocks of magma ‘three-storeys high’ flow from La Palma volcano

From www.irishtimes.com
2021-10-11 11:17:20

Excerpt:

Europe

Oct 11, 2021

Drone footage has captured blocks of red-hot magma – some of which were the size of three-storey buildings, the Spanish Institute of Geology and Mining said – flowing down the hillside from La Palma’s Cumbre Vieja volcano.

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La Palma volcano: Lockdown following fears over air quality

From www.bbc.co.uk
2021-10-12 15:38:05

Excerpt:

Authorities in La Palma ordered 2,500 people into lockdown over fears of inhaling toxic gases caused by volcanic fumes.

Residents of El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane were advised by local emergency services to shut their windows, air conditioning devices and shades.

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La Palma volcano: Lava engulfs cement factory forcing new lockdowns | Watch News Videos Online – Globalnews.ca

From globalnews.ca
2021-10-11 19:04:56

Excerpt:

La Palma volcano: Lava engulfs cement factory forcing new lockdowns | Watch News Videos Online Globalnews.ca

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Satellites capture reinvigorated La Palma volcanic eruption

From www.space.com
2021-10-12 11:12:51

Excerpt:

Satellites have captured stunning new images of the intensifying volcanic eruption on the Spain-owned island of La Palma as new streams of lava spilled out over the weekend.

The revitalized volcanic eruption was accompanied by boulders the size of a house rolling out of the Cumbre Vieja volcano’s crater, where part its cone collapsed on Saturday (Oct. 9), as locals reported dozens of Earth tremors up to 3.8 magnitude since Sunday. The reports signal Cumbre Vieja was still far from going to sleep.

The European Earth-observing satellite Sentinel-2 caught a glimpse on Sunday of the new lava streams that squirted out of the fiery volcano after the partial collapse of its conical crater that had formed since the beginning of the eruption on Sept. 19. The collapse freed the way for the up to 2,264 degrees Fahrenheit (1,240 degrees Celsius) hot lava to spill in new directions. A powerful sizzling stream quickly formed north of the original lava river and found a path downhill toward the…

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Biden Tanking Among Independents

Parker Davis October 7, 2021

It seems Joe Biden is losing critical support among independents according to a new Associated Press-NORC poll that shows President Biden’s approval rating among independents is at an all-time low of 38 percent, with 62 percent disapproving.

New poll shows Joe Biden is hemorrhaging support among critical voter demographics

From www.theblaze.com
2021-10-03 20:45:00
Chris Enloe
Excerpt:

The Associated Press-NORC poll shows that Biden’s approval rating sits at 50% while his disapproval rating stands at 49%. In this particular poll, Biden’s approval has tanked nearly 10 points since July when the same survey found Biden’s approval rating to be 59%.

But the real story is how poorly Biden is viewed by independent voters, the demographic critical to winning the White House.

Since July, Biden has hemorrhaged more than 20 points among independent voters; only 38% of independents now approve of Biden, according to the poll, whereas 62% approved of him just two months ago. Biden even lost seven points among Democrats, down to 85% approval from 92% in July.

Among black Americans, Biden’s support has cratered from 86% to 64% in just two months. The AP tried to soften…

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Class-Action Suit Claims Facebook Job Ads Violate Israel Law

Ivo Fysic October 7, 2021

The Silicon Valley giant, Facebook, faces a class-action lawsuit in Israel for allegedly violating its anti-discrimination job advertising laws. Facebook’s allowance of advertisers to target certain demographics for job advertising is a violation of Israel’s anti-discrimination advertising laws.

Israeli class-action suit against Facebook targets job ads

From www.jpost.com
2021-10-03 16:00:00

Excerpt:

A class-action lawsuit filed in Israel against Facebook charges that ads on the social media giant violate the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, which prohibits the posting of discriminatory job ads.

Israeli employment law, like that in most Western countries, states that a job advertisement cannot discriminate by age, gender, race, political beliefs or other variables. The law allows for anyone affected by such discrimination to be compensated for NIS 50,000, without proof of damage.

“Years ago that meant that a company couldn’t write explicitly in a job ad that it was only looking for, say, white males aged 25-40,” explained attorney Dr. Matan Gutman, who filed the case at the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court. “But Facebook’s ad system allows companies to discriminate in a more elegant way – by offering the options to target only certain types of people. That would be equivalent to a newspaper offering its clients the option to target only certain readers, which would clearly be prohibited. But Facebook publishes thousands of such job ads in Israel every year.”

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Telegram Auto-Delete Bug Information Released by Dmitrii

Parker Davis October 7, 2021

A researcher that goes by the name Dmitrii decided that the bouty award, coupled with the delay in response, from Telegram after he disclosed a safety flaw in the app, was enough for him to release an auto-delete bug, Telegram had offered a bounty award to Dmitrii of $1,159 if he chose not to release the information. Due to Telegram failing to fix the problem, and the low amount of money Telegram offered, it is assumed Dmitrii chose to release the information.

Researcher refuses Telegram’s bounty award, discloses auto-delete bug

From arstechnica.com
2021-10-04 14:12:18
Ax Sharma
Excerpt:

Telegram patched another image self-destruction bug in its app earlier this year. This flaw was a different issue from the one reported in 2019. But the researcher who reported the bug isn’t pleased with Telegram’s months-long turnaround time—and an offered $1,159 (€1,000) bounty award in exchange for his silence.

…mononymous researcher Dmitrii discovered a concerning flaw in how the Telegram Android app had implemented self-destruction.

Because each instance of self-destruction takes at least 24 hours to run, Dmitrii’s tests spanned a few days.

“After only a few days… having shown diligence, I achieved what I was looking for: Messages that should be auto-deleted from participants in private and private group chats were only ‘deleted’ visually [in the messaging window], but in reality, picture messages remained on the device [in] the cache,” the researcher wrote in a roughly translated blog post published last week.

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Record Number of Sorties Near Taiwan for China Through Air Show

Mark Clouse October 7, 2021

China stages aerial ‘military parade’ with record sorties near Taiwan

From www.washingtontimes.com
2021-10-03 14:17:20
David R. Sands
Excerpt:

China‘s military staged a massive show of intimidation over the Taiwan Strait over the weekend, dispatching bombers, fighter jets and other aircraft into Taiwan‘s defensive air space in two waves Friday and Saturday, by far the biggest such incursion in recent years.

The sorties, which brought a warning from the Biden administration condemning Beijing’s “coercion,” were hailed by China‘s nationalistic, state-controlled Global Times as the equivalent of staging a “National Day military parade” in the skies above the 100-mile…

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