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Islamist extremism: Why young people are being drawn to it - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-35060020

people being bbc news

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  • Islamist extremism: Why young people are being drawn to it
  • She was speaking after a 15-year-old boy was charged with conspiracy in connection with an alleged terror plot in Australia.
  • Last month, reports said one of two girls who ran away from their home in Austria to join the so-called Islamic State in Syria had been beaten to death while trying to escape. She was 17.
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  • The number of under-18s arrested for alleged terror offences in the UK almost doubled from eight to 15 from 2013-14 to 2014-15. The total number of arrests for all age groups was 315 - an increase of a third on the previous year.
  • The main target for groups like Islamic State is said to be young people between 16 and 24 years old.However the radicalisation process can start as early as 11 or 12, says Daniel Koehler, director of the German Institute on Radicalization and Deradicalization Studies (GIRDS).
  • "The internet is essential…. IS produces an average of 30 to 40 high-quality videos per day in almost every language," says Mr Koehler."They have an estimated Twitter network of 30,000 to 40,000 accounts, and guides for carrying out jihad or how to join IS are easily available online."
  • "While the internet does play an important role, what is different with IS is that it is much more outward facing," says Mr Winter, a senior research associate at Georgia State University.
  • "IS is really trying to push this idea of a counter culture. They have crafted this idea of state building, of democratic jihad.
  • "Ideology is very important but it is also about how people feel about the society they live in.
  • "What we have seen a lot of times is people being enlisted by friendship groups," says Mr Winter.
  • Experiences are whitewashed to hide the iniquities and hypocrisies of the group's mission.Young people are particularly impressionable when they hear these stories, Mr Winter says.
  • "It is about when and how you come across a certain ideology and group, and what you are currently looking for in your life."
redavistinnell

Putin vows 'extremely tough' action on Syria threats - BBC News - 1 views

www.bbc.com/...world-europe-35070354

Putin Syria crisis threat

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  • Putin vows 'extremely tough' action on Syria threats
  • President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian military to take "extremely tough" action against any threat to its forces in Syria.
  • Turkey said the bomber had entered its airspace, something denied by Russia.
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  • Russia 'now supports FSA'
  • In an update on Russian operations, Mr Putin said the military was now supporting Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces.
  • That includes "contacts to ensure flight safety with the Israeli air force HQ and the US-led coalition forces," he said.
  • Syrian opposition politicians meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh have also agreed a statement to guide peace talks with the government.
redavistinnell

North Korea claims it has hydrogen bomb - CNN.com - 0 views

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north korea claims hydrogen bomb

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  • North Korea claims it has hydrogen bomb as U.N. discusses human rights abuses
  • North Korea has added the hydrogen bomb to its arsenal, state media said Thursday, a development that, if true, would represent a major leap in its nuclear weapons capabilities.
  • Analysts in recent years have believed that North Korea may have been working toward -- but didn't yet have the capability to produce -- a hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb. It can be hundreds of times more powerful than an atomic bomb.
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  • North Korea had become "a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate [a] self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation," Kim said, according to the KCNA report.
  • Experts have responded to Pyongyang's claim with skepticism.
  • But its conventional weaponry is dated, with limited effectiveness, and it has looked to developing its nuclear capabilities to project power internationally.
  • North Korea had previously used plutonium in nuclear tests, one of the elements used in more "small fry" fission weapons such as atomic bombs, Nilsson-Wright said, and a leap to thermonuclear capability would be surprising.
  • Kim's regime generally cloaks its efforts in secrecy and occasionally boasts of advances through propaganda outlets, leaving the rest of the world to attempt to connect the dots.
  • Pyongyang is a "black box", said Ewha's Kim. He added that the regime was well versed in using uncertainty about its true capabilities to generate fear and strengthen its hand in terms of negotiations.
  • "It's hard to regard North Korea as possessing an H-bomb. I think it seems to be developing it," Lee said, according to a report by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
  • In May, it said it had the ability to miniaturize nuclear weapons, a development that would allow it to deploy nuclear weapons on missiles. A U.S. National Security Council spokesman responded that the United States did not think the North Koreans had such a capability.
  • A hydrogen bomb produces a fusion reaction -- the energy source of the sun and the stars -- in which colliding nuclei form a new nucleus. Fusion devices produce explosions "orders of magnitude more powerful than atomic bombs," according to the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.
  • By comparison, the world's first thermonuclear test, conducted by the U.S. in the Marshall Islands in 1952, yielded the equivalent of 10.4 million tons of TNT, a blast 700 times more powerful.
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Connecticut to Ban Gun Sales to Those on Federal Terrorism Lists - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...n-federal-terrorism-lists.html

ban gun sales federal terrorism lists new york times politics us crisis

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  • “Like all Americans, I have been horrified by the recent terrorist attacks in San Bernardino and Paris,” Mr. Malloy, a Democrat, told reporters. “This should be a wake-up call to all of us. This is a moment to seize in America, and today I’m here to say that we in Connecticut are seizing it.”
  • Connecticut to Ban Gun Sales to Those on Federal Terrorism Lists
  • While Democrats in Congress have been calling almost daily for a fix to the so-called watch list loophole, Republicans have succeeded in defeating measures that would prevent people on the lists from buying guns. Democrats say they intend to keep pushing the issue, and on Thursday the House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, introduced a motion demanding a vote to restrict the sale of guns from anyone on a federal terrorism watch list. House Republicans swiftly shelved it.
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  • “What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon?” Mr. Obama said. “This is a matter of national security.”
  • “Seems to me that the greatest importance of this is to get the ball rolling so more people follow, and ideally the federal government,” Mr. Webster said. “I suspect more states will do this.”
  • own a gun.
  • Connecticut has passed some of the strictest gun laws in the country, including measures enacted after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, when a gunman killed 20 schoolchildren and six staff members before killing himself.
  • The National Rifle Association “does not want terrorists or dangerous people to have access to weapons,” said Jennifer Baker, a spokeswoman for the organization’s lobbying arm. “But this is a constitutional issue,” she said, adding that mere suspicion should not be enough to take away the righ
  • The no-fly list is a subset of the watch list.
  • Correction: December 10, 2015 An earlier version of this article, using information from state officials, erroneously attributed a distinction to the proposed measure in Connecticut. It would not be the first such law in the nation; at least one other state has such a ban.
  • “These are everyday Americans that have nothing to do with terrorism,” Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican candidate for president, told CNN. “They wind up on the no-fly list, there’s no due process or any way to get your name removed from it in a timely fashion, and now they’re having their Second Amendment rights being impeded upon.”
  • Abe Mashal, a former Marine and a Muslim of mixed Palestinian-Italian background who lives in the Chicago area, was on the no-fly list until last year, for reasons he said were still a mystery to him.
  • “Never had any trouble with that,” he said of the gun purchase.
  • Since 2004, there have been 2,233 people who, like Mr. Mashal, landed on the government’s no-fly list because of terrorism suspicions and applied to buy a gun, according to a recent review of F.B.I. data by the Government Accountability Office.
  • But only rarely are legal reasons found to prohibit the sale, according to federal auditors. Since the F.B.I. began tracking the data, only 190 gun sales to people on the list — or 8.5 percent of all the attempted sales — have been blocked for other reasons, including mental illness or criminal convictions, auditors found.
  • But Democrats say increased fears of domestic terrorism stoked by the recent gun attacks in San Bernardino and in Paris are reason enough to stop people on a watch list from being able to buy a gun.
  • Mr. Malloy has lobbied federal lawmakers on the issue. “I have previously written to Congress on this matter,” he said. “But inaction is not an option. So here in Connecticut, we are acting.
  • The federal government’s terrorism watch list is a database maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center, an arm of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
redavistinnell

America's iconic war machine - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...magazine-33766644

america war machine bbc news

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  • America's iconic war machine By James Morgan
  • Her name is "Cajun Fear" - painted on her nose with a snarling alligator.
  • This bomber was built in 1960 - the year JFK won the US presidential election, Hitchcock's thriller Psycho was released in cinemas and the USSR successfully sent two dogs into space.
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  • The pilots joke that if you flew upside down "chicken bones from Saigon would fall out."
  • "It is a symbol of American might," says Capt Erin McCabe. "Wherever we go in the world, people take notice."
  • In the era of drones, stealth aircraft, and cyberwarfare, a chunky old behemoth sketched out on a napkin three years after the end of World War Two still strikes fear into the enemy.
  • "Knocking down doors" in an aircraft this size - 159ft (48.5m) long, and with a wingspan of 185ft (56.4m) - is a team sport, performed by a crew of five.Sitting downstairs in the dark, with no windows, targeting and r
  • We hear a roar and look up. A dark bird is looming heavily over us, blocking out the sunlight.Plumes of smoke from eight engines fill the sky and eardrums vibrate to a distinctive sound. Not just a rumble but almost a scream from the turbofans. "The sound of freedom" as Schultz likes to say.
  • It can refuel in mid-air - giving it a potentially unlimited strike range. This created a "nuclear umbrella" for the United States during the Cold War, back in the era of Mutually Assured Destruction.
  • The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
  • But internally, over the years it has been refitted with computers and GPS/INS (Inertial Navigation System).
  • The pointy tip of the spear
  • "You can't even stand upright, except on the ladder if you want to stretch your back. Though if you're creative you can sling up a hammock, he says.The ejection seats are "like sitting on a concrete sidewalk".
  • "Every B-52 I flew in smelled like stale sweat, piss and engine oil," he writes.
  • From this sleepy corner of Louisiana, Ward took part in one of the longest and most devastating bombing raids of the 20th Century.
  • He and 56 other crew entered seven bombers - his was the Grim Reaper, with a painting of Bugs Bunny carrying a sickle on its nose - and flew 14,000 miles to Baghdad to drop a wave of cruise missiles, which obliterated Saddam Hussein's air defences.
redavistinnell

The Middle Class Is No Longer The Majority in the U.S. | TIME - 0 views

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class longer majority u s time

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  • The Middle Class Is No Longer The Majority in the U.S.
  • The middle class dropping below 50% could mark a 'tipping point' for the U.S.
  • Americans as those with annual household incomes between two-thirds and double the national median – or from about $46,000 to $126,000. Under this definition, the middle class is now only 50% of the U.S. adult population, down from 61% in 1971.
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  • he report shows that the percentages of adults in both upper and lower income households have grown since 1971, but the upper tier has grown faster – a sign of economic progress
  • But the hollowing out of the middle class certainly marks a change in the nature of American society
  • But the report does say that the middle class dropping below the 50% threshold could mark a “tipping point” for the U.S
redavistinnell

Canada Prepares to Accept First Plane of Syrian Refugees | TIME - 0 views

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canada plane refugees time

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  • Canada Prepares to Accept First Plane of Syrian Refugees
  • Canada will take in the first flight of Syrian refugees as part of the government’s resettlement plan on Thursday evening when a military plane of 150 refugees touches down at the Pearson International Airport.
  • “Resettling refugees demonstrates our commitment to Canadians and to the world that Canada understands that we can and must do more,”
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  • The first refugees arrive following promises from Trudeau’s Liberal party to take in 25,000 refugees in all ten of Canada’s provinces. A second military aircraft is due to land on Saturday, according to the Star, as part of the government’s plan to accept 10,000 refugees before the end of 2015 and 15,000 more in the first two months of 2016. [The Toronto Star]
redavistinnell

Donald Trump Solidifies His Lead, but Leaves Many Nervous - First Draft. Political News... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...s-lead-but-leaves-many-nervous

donald donald trump leaves draft

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  • Donald Trump Solidifies His Lead, but Leaves Many Nervous
  • Donald J. Trump occupies his strongest position yet in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, yet nearly two-thirds of American voters say they are concerned or frightened about the prospect of a Trump presidency, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News nationwide poll.
  • On the Democratic side, the poll found Hillary Clinton is maintaining her 20-point lead over Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The possibility of her winning the presidency in 2016 is only marginally more palatable to American voters than that of Mr. Trump.
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  • . While Mr. Carson’s support was cut in half since the last time The Times and CBS News polled on the race in late October, Mr. Cruz has quadrupled his share. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida’s support stands at 9 percent, with the rest of the candidates at 4 percent or less.
  • Over all, 24 percent of voters expressed concern and 40 percent fear about what Mr. Trump would do if elected president, whereas 23 percent said they are concerned and 34 percent scared about the possibility of a Clinton presidency. Not surprisingly, voters were sharply divided along partisan lines.
  • The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Dec. 4-8 with 1,053 registered voters, including 431 Republican primary voters and 384 Democratic primary voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for registered voters and plus or minus 6 percentage points each for Republican and Democratic primary voters.
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Senate rejects gun control amendments offered following San Bernardino shooting - The W... - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...of-the-san-bernardino-shooting

senate gun control offered following san bernardino shooting washington post

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  • Senate rejects gun control amendments offered following San Bernardino shooting
  • The Senate on Thursday voted down two gun control proposals put forward by Democrats in response to this week’s deadly shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., in a series of votes that highlighted the intractable party divide over how to respond to gun violence.
  • Feinstein’s amendment was identical to legislation she previously filed on the same topic, while the expansion of background checks for gun purchases mirrored language championed by Sens. Manchin and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) in 2013, following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School three years ago this month.
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  • “We have an opportunity to do it now with the height of  everything happening,” Manchin said. “For us not to do anything, just sit here and be mum would be just as bad.”
  • “We need to renew the assault weapons ban. We need to end the sale of high capacity magazines. We need to make gun trafficking a federal crime and give law enforcement the tools they need to get illegal guns off of the streets. We need to close the gun show loophole as well as loopholes that allow gun purchasers to buy a gun after the waiting period expires without a completed background check.”
  • That episode remains the closest the Senate has come to a consensus on gun control and will likely remain a big part of the debate.
  • “The problem with these mass shootings, which seem to be happening with increasing frequency, is too often we propose either more restrictions on gun ownership or more background checks for gun purchasers, versus mental health reform — when in fact we need both. That’s what I would like to see.”
  • To counter Feinstein’s amendment, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) proposed a measure that would give the attorney general the power to impose a 72-hour delay for individuals on the terror watch list seeking to purchase a gun and it could become a permanent ban if a judge determines there is probable cause during that time window.
  • “To use Sen. Kennedy – let him be on the watch list, he’s not going to go buy a gun and hurt anybody,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) argued, calling Cornyn’s alternative “dangerous” and “ridiculous.”
  • Democratic leaders said Grassley’s proposal would roll back gun laws, not improve them
  • Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Collins and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) also voted in favor of Manchin’s amendment to expand background checks. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), who is facing a tough reelection campaign in 2016, abstained from the vote on Manchin’s proposal, though he voted with Republican Party on the other gun control amendments Thursday.
  • Pelosi said she believes there are sufficient votes in the House to expand background checks to Internet sales and gun shows and to block individuals on the terrorist watch list from purchasing weapons.
  • Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chair Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) pledged Democrats won’t give up the battle.
  • With the San Bernardino rampage marking the 355th mass shooting this year, Congress has repeatedly talked about action but hasn’t taken it. Senate Democrats recently tried unsuccessfully to jump-start a campaign to pass gun control legislation in the wake of a deadly shooting at a college campus in Roseburg, Ore.
  • “To be honest with you, I don’t see it moving now,” said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who noted he has been sponsoring the bill for the last nine years.
  • Overall, Democrats do not support the budget reconciliation package, which would repeal large portions of Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood.
redavistinnell

Donald Trump: UK 'should be thanking me' for Muslim comments but Muhammad Ali condemns ... - 0 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...petition-latest-news-live.html

donald donald trump trump muslim comments ali politician

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  • Donald Trump cancels Israel trip 'until I'm president' and insists UK in denial about 'massive Muslim problem'
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Senate scraps No Child Left Behind; education battle moves to states - POLITICO - 0 views

www.politico.com/...o-child-left-behind-law-216595

senate child behind education battle moves states

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  • Senate scraps No Child Left Behind; education battle moves to states
  • The Senate sent a bill to the president’s desk Wednesday that replaces much of the widely disliked No Child Left Behind Act and shifts more power over education to states and school district
  • The bill — which the president is scheduled to sign Thursday — would dump the current law’s intense focus on test scores and the well-intentioned but impossible goal of having all students reading and calculating at grade level.
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  • The Every Student Succeeds Act (S.1177) allows states to set their own guidelines for rating schools and improving them, with federal oversight and restrictions.
  • The bill would “put education back in the hands of those who understand their needs best: parents, teachers, states and school boards,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday. “It’s conservative reform designed to help students succeed instead of helping Washington grow.”
  • Senate Republicans supported the bill, with the exception of a handful of conservatives including 2016 presidential candidates Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, who don’t think it walks back the federal role in education far enough.
  • August 2016. States would have more than a year to shift to the new system, which would take hold starting in the 2017-18 school year.
  • For example, the department could place broad parameters on when a group of students would be considered “consistently” low-performing, signaling a need for intervention.
  • Since the bill returns power to states, advocates plan on waging state-by-state battles over education policy that were previously fought in Washington.
  • “With all of this wonderful flexibility comes great responsibility” for states, said Cheryl Oldham, vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is highlighting the need to continue to focus on minorities this week with a conference it is co-hosting with the NAACP on African-American student achievement.
  • Unions pushed all year to ditch No Child Left Behind’s embrace of testing, which they’ve dubbed a “test-and-punish” approach.
  • “This is a vast improvement over what we have right now.”
  • The Obama administration, too, has begun positioning itself for an intense new phase — designing regulations to implement the law.
  • Senators celebrated the bill’s passage, but the next steps already loom on the horizon. Senate HELP Committee ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) pledged Tuesday to keep close watch on implementation now that the work in Congress is done.
redavistinnell

Affirmative action at universities in doubt as U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments - LA ... - 0 views

www.latimes.com/...ive-action-20151209-story.html

action universities doubt u s supreme court

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  • Affirmative action at universities in doubt as U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments
  • It was clear that the court's conservatives, including Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., believe that using affirmative action in admission decisions is unneeded and unconstitutional.
  • In the past, when the high court has upheld affirmative action, it did so with the understanding that it was a "temporary" measure, the chief justice said. "When do you think your program will be done?" he asked.
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  • “There are some who contend it does not benefit African Americans to get them into the University of Texas, where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less advanced school, a slower-track school, where they do well,” he said.
  • Washington attorney Gregory Garre, the lawyer for the university, who served as solicitor general, the government's top appellate lawyer, under President George W. Bush, said the court had rejected that thinking when it upheld limited use of affirmative action in a case from Michigan in 2003.
  • "We're just arguing the same case again," Kennedy said at one point, referring to the fact that the court had heard the same case two years ago and sent it back to a lower court for closer review.
  • The Texas case is complicated because the state has a law guaranteeing admission to the top 10% of students in each of its more than 1,000 high schools based on their grades only, with no consideration to race. Under that policy — which now accounts for about 75% of all admissions to the Austin campus — about one-third were Latino or African American in recent years.
  • A decade ago, when the top-10% policy was providing far fewer minority admissions than it is today, the university decided to use race as one of several factors to choose additional freshmen for the class. It's this policy that was challenged in a lawsuit by Abigail Fisher, a white applicant who was turned down in 2008.
  • The Texas case looks unlikely to yield a broad ruling for or against affirmative action because of the unique nature of the state's top-10% law.
  • Education experts point to UCLA, UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan as three premier state universities where the enrollment of minority students went down and stayed down after affirmative action policies were repealed by voters.
  • Since 1978, the high court has been closely split on whether colleges and universities may use race as a factor in deciding who is admitted. That year, in the famous Bakke case, the court struck down a quota at the University of California Medical School, but said in a separate opinion by Justice Lewis Powell that colleges and universities could use a race as a “plus factor” in order to achieve a diverse class of students.
  • n the wake of the 2003 decision, the University of Texas adopted the “holistic review” policy that is at issue now. The state’s top 10% law was slowly increasing the numbers of Latino and black students at Austin, but university officials said they needed to give an extra edge to other minority students to achieve diversity on campus.
  • He argued that the university’s affirmative action policy should be upheld because it was small and carefully targeted — and nearly identical to what the high court had approved in 2003
  • The outcome almost certainly turns on Kennedy’s vote. Because the Obama administration filed an early brief on the university’s side when Elena Kagan was the U.S. solicitor general, now-Justice Kagan sat out the case. If Kennedy votes with the three liberals, the court will be split 4-4, which would affirm the lower court’s ruling although without a majority opinion.
  • If the court writes an opinion in Fisher vs. University of Texas, it is not likely to be handed down until the late spring
redavistinnell

Smog-hit Beijing residents told to stay positive and drink more tea | World news | The ... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...itive-as-smog-crisis-continues

beijing residents positive drink tea

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  • Smog-hit Beijing residents told to stay positive and drink more tea
  • In a tweet entitled Tips to survive the smog, the state-run network CCTV wrote: “Smile and try to be positive (hopefully there will be less smog tomorrow)
  • Recent days have also seen authorities caution Beijing’s 23 million residents to rinse out their mouths, shun contact lenses and hang up their winter jackets “to reduce contamination indoors”.
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  • Xinhua, China’s official news agency, said environmental authorities were engaged in a “tough” crackdown on firms that continued to ignore the compulsory three-day shutdown, which began at 7am on Monday.
  • One of those drivers, who gave his name only as Mr Qian, was fined 100 yuan (about £10) for taking his car out on the wrong day.
  • “I think we should comply with the government’s policy,” Qian added. “After all, the pollution is really bad.”
  • Still, the government’s unprecedented step was a sign that “the country now faces its problems head-on and respects the public’s appeals and demands”, it said.
  • But many reacted to the latest “airpocalypse” with resignation. “This is modern life for Beijing people,” office worker Cao Yong told Associated Press. “We wanted to develop and now we pay the price.”
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Greece buses 2,000 refugees from border camp to Athens | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

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greece refugees border world news history

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  • Greece buses 2,000 refugees from border camp to Athens
  • Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis continue to be allowed into Macedonia and the Balkans, but people of other nationalities, who make up roughly 10% of the total number, have been stopped at the border since early November. Instead of returning to Athens, many of them set up camp for several weeks – and several sewed shut their mouths – leading to Wednesday’s dispersal.
  • In northern Greece, an activist and an aid worker said hundreds of Greek police arrived in the morning to disperse the camp, which includes asylum seekers from warring countries such as Somalia, as well as peaceful ones like Morocco. The vast majority went without protest, though some Iranians held a short demonstration at around midday, before being bussed back to Athens in a convoy of around 50 coaches.
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  • And you have UNHCR [the UN refugee agency] telling people how to apply for asylum.”
  • Many migrants instead tried their luck on the triple razor-wire fence that lines the borders of the Spanish enclave of Melilla, which more than 2,000 migrants and refugees managed to scale in 2014
  • t was the third boat attempting the crossing in as many days. On Sunday, the Spanish coastguard rescued 51 people making the journey, and on Monday another 47 people.
  • The numbers arriving on the islands nevertheless remain a far cry far from those in 2006, when more than 31,000 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands. Hundreds of others drowned or died of thirst and exposure while attempting the journey, which can take up to two weeks.
  • Meanwhile, the bodies of 11 migrants attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands by boat were recovered on Tuesday, the latest victims of a perilous migration route that appears to be regaining popularity with sub-Saharan migrants desperate to make it to Europe.
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Mark Zuckerberg speaks in support of Muslims after week of 'hate' | Technology | The Gu... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...g-support-muslims-donald-trump

mark zuckerberg support muslims hate technology the guardian

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  • Mark Zuckerberg speaks in support of Muslims after week of ‘hate’
  • “After the Paris attacks and hate this week, I can only imagine the fear Muslims feel that they will be persecuted for the actions of others,” he added.
  • The comments come after Trump was widely criticised for saying on Monday that Muslims should be banned from entering the US. He said in a speech following a mass shooting committed by a Muslim couple in San Bernardino, California, last weekend: “We need a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States while we figure out what the hell is going on. We are out of control.”
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  • In the face of mounting criticism, Trump has said he will never leave the 2016 presidential race.
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Trump's Plan to Deport Undocumented Would Take Texas-Size Economic Bite: Study - NBC News - 0 views

www.nbcnews.com/...ze-economic-bite-study-n411376

trump plan bite study nbc news

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  • Aug 19 2015, 9:17 am ET Trump's Plan to Deport Undocumented Would Take Texas-Size Economic Bite: Study
  • Because millions of undocumented workers seek to keep a low profile, the economic impact of their presence — and the cost of removing them — is difficult to pin down.
  • Of the 41 million foreign-born people living in the United States in 2012, about 22 million were noncitizens, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of Census data. That noncitizen category includes lawful permanent residents (who are legally allowed to live and work here); temporary residents and visitors, and unauthorized residents. That last category includes some 11 million to 12 million people, a number that has stayed fairly constant, the CBO researchers said.
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  • The most vocal proponent — leading Republican candidate Donald Trump — has proposed various measures, including mass deportations, seizure of remittance payments made with illegal wages, raising fees on temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats and other measures.
  • "The Mexican government has taken the United States to the cleaners," Trump said in a position paper on immigration. "They are responsible for this problem, and they must help pay to clean it up."
  • Once those undocumented immigrants had been removed, it would take another $315 billion in higher enforcing costs to keep them from coming back, according to AAF.
  • AAF estimated the removal of that many people would shrink the pool of U.S. workers by 6.4 percent, which means that 20 years from now the U.S. economy would be nearly 6 percent cent smaller. That works out to a loss of $1.6 trillion in lost wages, spending and other economic activity.
  • While this impact would be felt across the country and throughout the economy, sectors such as agriculture, construction, retail and hospitality would be hardest hit, the AAF report.
  • But the immigration reform plan spelled out in S. 744 would more than offset those costs, thanks to much higher tax collections, both because the workforce would expand and undocumented workers would now pay taxes. Those higher tax receipts would boost federal revenues by $459 billion over the same decade, the CBO estimated.
redavistinnell

Pineapple Pesticide Linked to Parkinson's Disease - NBC News - 1 views

www.nbcnews.com/...ked-parkinsons-disease-n477346

pineapple pesticide linked disease nbc news

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  • Dec 9 2015, 6:55 pm ET Pineapple Pesticide Linked to Parkinson's Disease
  • A pineapple pesticide that made its way into milk in Hawaii also made its way into men's brains, and those men were more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, a new study finds. It's the latest in a very long series of studies linking various pesticides to Parkinson's, which is caused by the loss of certain brain cells.
  • A pineapple pesticide that made its way into milk in Hawaii also made its way into men's brains, and those men were more likely to develop Parkinson's disease, a n
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • For the study, Dr. Robert Abbott of the Shiga University of Medical Science in Otsu, Japan, and colleagues studied 449 Japanese-American men living in Hawaii who were taking part in a larger study of aging. They gave details of how much milk they drank as part of a larger survey, and they donated their brains for study after they died.
  • The researchers also looked for the pesticide heptachlor, which was taken off the market for most uses in the U.S. in 1988.
  • "Among those who drank the most milk, residues of heptachlor epoxide were found in nine of 10 brains as compared to 63.4 percent for those who consumed no milk," the researchers wrote.
  • "The researchers could not test whether the milk the men drank was contaminated with pesticides (heptachlor, in this case), and no one knows how long or how widespread the contamination was before being detected," the Parkinson's Disease Foundation said in a statement on its website.
  • "This study is unique because it brings together two critical but different pieces of information — environmental exposure and physical changes in the brain — to understand potential contributors of Parkinson's disease," James Beck, vice president of scientific affairs at the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, said in a statement.
  • The Parkinson's Disease Foundation estimates that 1 million Americans have the condition, marked by tremor, rigid muscles and problems with movement. There is no cure, although early treatment can delay the worst symptoms.
redavistinnell

Afghan Taliban kill dozens at Kandahar airport - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-asia-35043938

afghan taliban airport

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  • Afghan Taliban kill dozens at Kandahar airport
  • The attack continued until one gunman who had out on his own for several hours was killed late on Wednesday.
redavistinnell

Trump UK ban petition passes 329,000 signatures - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/uk-35052505

trump ban petition passes bbc news

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  • Trump UK ban petition passes 329,000 signatures
  • The petition went on Parliament's e-petition website on Tuesday.
  • Chancellor George Osborne criticised Mr Trump's comments but rejected calls for him to be banned from the UK.
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  • Any petition with more than 100,000 signatures is automatically considered for debate in Parliament.
  • He said on Wednesday he would never leave the 2016 race, despite the volume of calls for him to step aside.
  • People banned from entering the UK under the exclusion policy in recent years include leaders of the Westboro Baptist Church, Islamist preachers and Ku Klux Klan officials, and two anti-Muslim bloggers.
  • Mr Osborne told the Commons that the remarks by Mr Trump flew in the face of America's founding principles and "were not welcome".
  • The full text of the petition - entitled "Block Donald J Trump from UK entry" - reads: "The UK has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech. The same principles should apply to everyone who wishes to enter the UK.
  • On Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry added to the widespread condemnation of Mr Trump's comments, saying they were "not constructive" in the fight against IS.
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