‘Badass Librarians’ Foil al Qaeda, Save Ancient Manuscripts
Such a cool story
Cyntoia Brown was released from a Tennessee prison today. Here are 4 things to know about her case
At 16 she was solicited for sex by Johnny Mitchell Allen.
He brought her back to his house, Brown testified, where she saw a gun cabinet. Brown testified that she had been forced into prostitution by a pimp and resisted Allen. But then, she said she saw him reach under the bed, and she believed he was going to kill her.
In self-defense, she reached for a gun in her purse and shot him, she said.
…Rihanna posted on social media: “Imagine at the age of 16 being sex-trafficked by a pimp named ‘cut-throat.’ After days of being repeatedly drugged and raped by different men you were purchased by a 43-year-old child predator who took you to his home to use you for sex. You end up finding enough courage to fight back and shoot and kill him.”
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Hong Kong protests: Police fire tear gas at activists
Beijing and the Chinese army have issued stern warnings about the unrest.
Two months of demonstrations sparked by a controversial extradition bill show no signs of abating, with both sides hardening their stance.
Although the government has now suspended the bill, which would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, demonstrators want the bill fully withdrawn.
Their demands have broadened to include calls for more democracy and for Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam to resign.
…Saturday’s march comes after a group of civil servants – ordered to be politically neutral – joined demonstrations in their thousands on Friday.
The rally followed the publication of an anonymous letter on Facebook complaining about “extreme oppression” and listing five key demands – the complete withdrawal of the extradition bill; waiving charges against those arrested; an end to descriptions of protests as “rioting”; an independent inquiry into the unrest; and resuming political reforms.
…More than 40 activists appeared in court on Wednesday, charged with rioting after protests last Sunday turned violent.
They could face up to 10 years behind bars if convicted.
Tensions rose further when the military – which has not yet intervened in the unrest – posted a video on social media network Weibo showing soldiers conducting anti-riot drills.
Hong Kong protests: Police fire tear gas at activists – BBC News
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India revokes disputed Kashmir’s special status with rush decree
Home Minister Amit Shah told parliament on Monday that the president had signed a decree abolishing Article 370 of the constitution that gave a measure of autonomy to the Muslim-majority Himalayan region.
…Regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir had earlier called attempts to revoke Article 370 an aggression against the 7 million people living in the disputed region.
The law dates to 1927, when an order by the administration of the-then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir gave the state’s subjects exclusive hereditary rights.
Two months after India won independence from the British rule in August 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, signed a Treaty of Accession for the state to join the rest of the union, formalised in Article 370 of the Indian constitution.
Further discussions culminated in the 1952 Delhi Agreement, a presidential order that extended Indian citizenship to the residents of the state but left the maharaja’s privileges for residents intact.
…Critics of such a measure say that in doing away with Article 370, the government hopes to change India-administered Kashmir’s Muslim-majority demographics by allowing in a flood of new Hindu residents.
Shah said the government also decided to split the state into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir, which will have a legislature, and Ladakh, which will be ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of its own.
…On Sunday, parts of India-administered Kashmir were placed under lockdown and local politicians reportedly arrested amid growing tensions following a massive deployment of troops by the Indian government.
…The measures came after the Indian government moved about 10,000 troops to the region last week, followed by an unprecedented order asking tourists and Hindu pilgrims to leave the Himalayan valley.
India revokes disputed Kashmir’s special status with rush decree | India News | Al Jazeera
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Iran seizes another foreign oil tanker
Seven sailors were detained.
No details about the crew’s nationalities or who owns the ship were given. The ship was reportedly seized near Farsi Island, a small, barren enclave in the Persian Gulf.
It is the second ship in less than a month seized by Iran for allegedly smuggling oil.
Iran seizes another foreign oil tanker
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Hawaiian protesters started a school on Mauna Kea to teach local culture to the next generation
Presley Keʻalaanuhea Ah Mook Sang, a Hawaiian language instructor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said she first came up with the idea to start a community-led school or “teach-in” after witnessing the crowd swell in that first week from hundreds of protesters to thousands.
…The classes at the community-run Puuhonua o Puuhuluhulu University focus on topics including indigenous rights, history and a variety of other subjects taught through a Hawaiian perspective.
….The school quickly grew to a daily schedule of four one-hour blocks with five concurrent classes.
…”The morning is more indigenous peoples and native rights and towards afternoon is more Mauna-focused,” Ah Mook Sang said.
…Since 1968, the University of Hawaii has been leasing the land at the summit of Mauna Kea. The area is on “crown lands,” land that belonged to the Hawaiian kingdom before it was overthrown in 1893 and is now managed by the state with the intended purpose of benefiting Hawaiians. The crown lands are still debated, as many Hawaiian groups believe they were illegally stolen. The university has been accused several times over the years of mismanaging the land, including in the ‘90s when the Sierra Club filed a complaint about the trash from the observatories.
Puniwai said teaching at Puuhuluhulu is a way to show she doesn’t condone her employer’s actions and to show her support for the protest.
…As for Ah Mook Sang, she’s hoping to keep the spirit of Puuhuluhulu alive and maybe see it expand to the other islands, where there’s already interest in forming branches of the community-led school.
Hawaiian protesters started a school on Mauna Kea to teach local culture to the next generation
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Lā Ho‘iho‘i Ea Observed at Maunakea
The demonstration started 18 days ago by various groups who believe that Maunakea is sacred and say construction atop the mountain will further desecrate the site. On Tuesday, the governor rescinded an emergency proclamation at Maunakea and the state issued a two-year extension to Sept. 26, 2021 on the deadline to initiate construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope project atop the mountain.
Maui Now : Lā Ho‘iho‘i Ea Observed at Maunakea, Jason Momoa Visits
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Dayton Police Chief Says Gunman Was Killed Within 30 Seconds Of First Shot
Dayton Police Chief Says Gunman Was Killed Within 30 Seconds Of First Shot : NPR`
With that headline you’d almost think he wasn’t white.
8chan: Cloudfare terminates ‘lawless’ online message board
Founded as an alternative to the more well-known 4chan message board, 8chan, or “Infinite Chan,” has nearly 20,000 public boards. The website’s welcome is, “Welcome to 8chan, the Darkest Reaches of the Internet.”
…8chan, “remained on the fringes until 2014, when some supporters of GamerGate — a loose reactionary collection of anti-feminist video gamers — flocked to 8chan after being kicked off 4chan.
…The Washington Post called the website “one of the Web’s most venomous refuges for extremist hate.”
One anonymous 8chan user, for example, praised the El Paso shooting in a thread.
…In March, a New Zealand man posted a lengthy manifesto to Twitter and to 8chan before killing 50 and injuring dozens in a rampage that was live-streamed on Facebook and Twitter.
In April, a shooter posted a manifesto to 8chan before killing one woman and injuring three others at a California synagogue.
…The site’s founder called for its end.
Cloudfare will cut off services for 8chan at midnight PDT, CEO Matthew Prince said in a statement, though he noted that another network provider could bring 8chan back online.
8chan: Cloudfare terminates ‘lawless’ online message board
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Beto O’Rourke to visit inmates inside San Quentin prison
President Barack Obama visited El Reno Federal Correctional Institution, a medium-security facility for male offenders in Oklahoma, in July 2015, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to set foot inside a federal prison. Obama was calling then for shortening the sentences of non-violent drug offenders and advocating for the reduction, or outright elimination, of severe mandatory minimum sentences.
O’Rourke’s visit follows his attending a roundtable Thursday in Las Vegas, where he spoke with formerly incarcerated people about restoring voting rights, providing better training and education for former prisoners and overhauling the criminal justice system.
…O’Rourke visited the Harris County Jail in Houston and met with inmates. He has long called for ending the federal prohibition on marijuana and expunging the criminal records of those arrested solely for possession, and also supports ending mandatory minimum sentences and cash bail systems, as well as closing all private and for-profit prisons nationwide. Many of the Democrats now running for president hold similar positions.
Beto O’Rourke to visit inmates inside San Quentin prison
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Edible film made from essential oils can protect foods better than plastic
Using low-speed mixing and ultrasonication techniques, the researchers formed coarse emulsions and nanoemulsions, respectively, of both clove bud (Syzygium aromaticum) and oregano (Origanum vulgare). They then added methylcellulose, a type of edible fiber, in order to create film sheets out of the essential oils.
When they applied the edible sheets to preservative-free bread, the team observed a marked decrease in both yeast and mold counts after 15 days, with the smaller-sized particles providing more enhanced preservation. Compared to calcium propionate and plastic, the essential oil sheets maintained the bread’s freshness for longer and did not wear off like conventional preservatives.
…”Leachables from plastics can include everything from leftover monomer building blocks to additives used to make plastic strong or malleable,” reads a report by Chemical & Engineering News, which is published by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
“Probably the most infamous leachable from plastics is bisphenol A (BPA), which is used as a building block in polycarbonate bottles and in the epoxy-resin liners of metal cans.”
Edible film made from essential oils can protect foods better than plastic – NaturalNews.com
The freshness is nice but a few questions…
What is the shelf-life?
What happens when it gets wet?
How complicated and expensive is it to make?
And last but certainly not least, it’s less about the freshness and more about a substitute for plastic packaging.
The Five-Year-Old Who Was Detained at the Border and Persuaded to Sign Away Her Rights | The New Yorker
A month earlier, the Trump Administration had announced, amid public outcry over its systemic separation of migrant families at the border, that it would halt the practice. But, at a packed processing hub, Christian was taken from Noehmi and placed in a cage with toddlers. Noehmi remained in a cold holding cell, clutching Helen. Soon, she recalled, a plainclothes official arrived and informed her that she and Helen would be separated. “No!” Noehmi cried. “The girl is under my care! Please!”
Noehmi said that the official told her, “Don’t make things too difficult,” and pulled Helen from her arms. “The girl will stay here,” he said, “and you’ll be deported.”
…At the time of her apprehension, in fact, Helen checked a box on a line that read, “I do request an immigration judge,” asserting her legal right to have her custody reviewed. But, in early August, an unknown official handed Helen a legal document, a “Request for a Flores Bond Hearing” …which was filled out with assistance from officials. There is a checked box next to a line that says, “I withdraw my previous request for a Flores bond hearing.” Beneath that line, the five-year-old signed her name in wobbly letters.
…“Well, where is Helen, the five-year-old?”
The judge, Delgado recalled, seemed startled. Both he and the government prosecutor had no idea that Helen existed, let alone where she was being held.
…Now stage three has commenced—one in which separations are done quietly, LUPE’s Tania Chavez asserts, and in which reunifications can be mysteriously stymied. …An uncounted number of separated children in shelters and foster care fall outside the lawsuit’s current purview—including many like Helen, who arrived with a grandparent or other guardian, rather than with a parent. Many such children have been misclassified, in government paperwork, as “unaccompanied minors,” due to a sloppy process that the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General recently critiqued. …Through misclassification, many kids have largely disappeared from public view, and from official statistics.
…The completion of Noehmi’s background check was delayed for unexplained reasons.
On August 17th, Helen was transferred to a foster home in San Antonio. “I feared, did they give Helen away?” Noehmi told me; she worried about the prospect of adoption.
…On September 7th, LUPE was told that Helen would finally be released, nearly two months after she was taken from Noehmi. …“Then she wasn’t released.” ….LUPE’s team adjusted the petition to address a greater number of O.R.R. officials, each of whom received a personal e-mail every time a person signed. …Then, that Monday, Noehmi and Jeny got a phone call: they should be at their local airport at 6:20 p.m.
..The shelter sent a small black backpack that Helen had left behind. It held Helen’s legal paperwork, including the document that the five-year-old had been told to sign, withdrawing her request to see a judge.
South Bend police officer who fatally shot black man resigns
O’Neill shot 53-year-old Eric Logan to death on June 16 after he allegedly approached the officer with a knife,
…A body camera initiative …was intended to help repair frayed relations between the city’s police department and minorities, yet O’Neill didn’t have his camera switched on and Logan’s killing was not recorded.
South Bend police officer who fatally shot black man resigns
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Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI): A Systemic Approach to Complex Developmental Trauma
Children and youth who have experienced foster care or orphanage-rearing have often experienced complex developmental trauma, demonstrating an interactive set of psychological and behavioral issues. Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) is a therapeutic model that trains caregivers to provide effective support and treatment for at-risk children. TBRI has been applied in orphanages, courts, residential treatment facilities, group homes, foster and adoptive homes, churches, and schools. It has been used effectively with children and youth of all ages and all risk levels. This article provides the research base for TBRI and examples of how it is applied.
Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI): A Systemic Approach to Complex Developmental Trauma
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