#salvadoran bank collapse

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Canada Battles More Than 180 Wildfires With Hundreds Dead In Heat Wave (NPR) Emergency responders in Canada are currently battling more than 180 wildfires in British Columbia amid an intense heat wave that has left hundreds dead in the Pacific Northwest. About 70% of the active fires were likely caused by lightning strikes, according to the British Columbia Wildfire Service’s dashboard. Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist with the company Vaisala, says a lightning detection network uncovered more than 700,000 lightning strikes in the area between June 30 and July 1. The fires come amid a massive heat wave for the region.

Canada, US are easing pandemic border-crossing restrictions (AP) Pandemic restrictions on travel between Canada and the U.S. began to loosen Monday for some Canadians, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said plans to totally reopen the border would be announced over the next few weeks. Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have had a full dose of a coronavirus vaccine approved for use in Canada can skip a 14-day quarantine that has been a requirement since March 2020. Eligible air travelers also no longer have to spend their first three days in the country at a government-approved hotel. Restrictions barring all non-essential trips between Canada and the United States, including tourism, will remain in place until at least July 21.

Summer swelter trend: West gets hotter days, East hot nights (AP) As outlandish as the killer heat wave that struck the Pacific Northwest was, it fits into a decades-long pattern of uneven summer warming across the United States. The West is getting roasted by hotter summer days while the East Coast is getting swamped by hotter and stickier summer nights, an analysis of decades of U.S. summer weather data by The Associated Press shows. State-by-state average temperature trends from 1990 to 2020 show America’s summer swelter is increasing more in some of the places that just got baked with extreme heat over the past week: California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Oregon and Colorado. The West is the fastest-warming region in the country during June, July and August, up 3 degrees on average since 1990. The Northwest has warmed nearly twice as much in the past 30 years as it has in the Southeast.

Collapsed Florida condo demolished ahead of storm (Reuters) The partially collapsed Miami-area condo where 24 people are confirmed dead was demolished on Sunday night, ahead of the possible arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa. Search-and-rescue efforts for 121 people missing have been suspended. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters earlier on Sunday that rescue efforts would resume after the demolition, noting it was 11 days since the collapse.

Loved and decried, El Salvador’s populist leader is defiant (AP) In the narrow, gang-controlled alleys of the Las Palmas neighborhood, struggling Salvadorans are untroubled by actions of their president that so infuriate his critics. They are not bothered by Nayib Bukele’s dictatorial maneuvers—sending armed troops into congress to coerce a vote, or ousting independent judges from the country’s highest court, paving the way to control all branches of government. They praise his relentless attacks on the politicians who governed El Salvador for nearly 30 years before him, and the elites who benefited from their rule. In this neighborhood they are grateful for the boxes of food staples they’ve received from Bukele’s government during the pandemic. Adults proudly pat their shoulders and say they got both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine long before most other people in Central America. For all the observers and critics who condemn a dangerous concentration of power by a charismatic leader who sports down-home blue jeans and leather jackets, Bukele enjoys an approval rating of more than 90% among people who saw three of four previous presidents jailed or exiled for corruption. “They talk about democracy... I don’t know what else,” said Julio César López, 60, a street artist in Las Palmas. “It makes me really happy that they’re kicking out that class of people.”

Fraud Claims, Unproved, Delay Peru’s Election Result and Energize the Right (NYT) They showed up for the rally by the thousands in red and white, the colors of their right-wing movement, swapping conspiracy theories and speaking ominously of civil war. On the stage, their leader, the presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, let loose on her headline issue: election fraud. Though electoral officials say her opponent, the leftist union leader Pedro Castillo, leads by more than 40,000 votes with all the ballots counted, they have yet to declare a victor a month after the polls closed, as they consider Ms. Fujimori’s demand that tens of thousands of ballots be thrown out. No one has come forward, even weeks later, to corroborate Ms. Fujimori’s claims of fraud; international observers have found no evidence of major irregularities; and both the United States and the European Union have praised the electoral process. But Ms. Fujimori’s claims have not only delayed the certification of a victor, they have also radicalized elements of the Peruvian right in a way that analysts say could threaten the country’s fragile democracy.

Britain plans to end legal mandates for masks and social distancing on July 19, Boris Johnson says (Washington Post) Boris Johnson on Monday announced that Britain was set to soon end virtually all government mandates to control the spread of the coronavirus, telling people that in two weeks it would likely be completely up to them whether to wear a face mask or socially distance. At an evening news conference, the British prime minister said England was ready to move beyond one of longest, most restrictive series of lockdowns on the planet, turning away from legally binding rules to personal responsibility. He cautioned that the pandemic was not over, but it was time for restrictions to end soon. If the current trends hold, and Johnson suggested they would, then he expected the full reopening for July 19.

Lobsters’ feelings loom large as British Parliament debates animal welfare bill (Washington Post) How does a lobster feel when it’s dropped into the boiling pot? The British Parliament wants to know. Is an octopus sad, sometimes? Does the squid learn its lessons? The bee feel joy? The earthworm anxiety? The peers in the House of Lords are currently debating the matter. These questions arise because Prime Minister Boris Johnson is trying to make good on his electoral pledge to enshrine into law the idea that animals are “sentient beings,” meaning the government would be obligated to not only safeguard creatures’ physical well-being but also take into account their feelings—of pleasure, pain and more. The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill is a potentially sweeping piece of legislation that could require all arms of government—not just the agriculture ministry—to consider animal sentience when forming policy and writing regulations. The implications could be moral and profound, supporters hope—or cumbersome and bureaucratic, critics say, with some seeing a power play by vegan activists and animal rights radicals.

Indian dowries still common despite being illegal (BBC) A new World Bank study has found that dowry payments in India’s villages have not decreased over the past few decades even though the practice was made illegal in 1961. The researchers found that in 95% of the 40,000 marriages that took place in rural India between 1960 and 2008, dowry was still paid. Paying and accepting dowry is a centuries-old tradition in South Asia where the bride’s parents gift cash, clothes and jewellery to the groom’s family.

80 people feared missing in deadly ‘tsunami’ mudslide in central japan (CNN) Japanese rescue workers continued to search for survivors Monday, two days after a devastating “tsunami” of mud swept through a coastal city, killing at least three people and leaving 80 feared missing. Of the people currently unaccounted for, it’s possible that some may not have been in the city at the time of the mudslide, a city official said.

Malaysians suffering amid lockdown fly white flag for help (AP) When Mohamad Nor Abdullah put a white flag outside his window late at night, he didn’t expect the swift outpouring of support. By morning, dozens of strangers knocked on his door, offering food, cash and encouragement. Malaysia’s nationwide lockdown to curb a coronavirus surge was tightened further on Saturday, banning people in certain areas from leaving their homes except to buy food and necessities. It lurched Mohamad Nor into desperation. He ekes out a living by selling packed nasi lemak, a popular dish of coconut milk rice with condiments, at a roadside stall every morning, but that income has vanished and government aid was insufficient. The white flag campaign that emerged on social media last week aims to help people like Mohamad Nor, who is 29 and was born without arms. By chance, he saw the campaign on Facebook and decided to try to seek help. “It was so unexpected. So many people reached out to help, support and also encouraged me,” Mohamad Nor said, sitting in his dingy room amid boxes of biscuits, rice, cooking oil and water that were swiftly donated to him. He said kind Samaritans offered to help pay his room rental and that the assistance should be enough to tide him through the next few months.

New Zealand records warmest-ever June as ski fields struggle (AP) New Zealand has recorded its warmest June since recordkeeping began, as ski fields struggle to open and experts predict shorter southern winters in the future. A range of factors led to the record, including more winds coming from the milder north rather than the Antarctic south, and unusually warm ocean temperatures, said Gregor Macara, a climate scientist at the government-owned National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. He said the vagaries of weather will change from month to month. “But the underlying trend is of increasing temperatures and overall warming,” Macara said.

Nigerian Baptist Students Kidnapped in Kaduna (CT) More than 100 students at a Christian boarding school in Nigeria’s northern state of Kaduna were kidnapped early Monday morning. Shooting wildly, armed assailants breached the walls of Bethel Baptist High School in Maraban Rido on the outskirts of the state capital, Kaduna, at about 2 a.m. on July 5 and took students in the school hostel away at gunpoint, area residents told Morning Star News (MSN). Efforts were still underway to determine exactly how many students were abducted. A Bethel teacher told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that 140 students were kidnapped while 25 students escaped, but area residents living close to the school told MSN that 179 children were abducted of which only 15 escaped. The attack was the fourth mass school kidnapping in Kaduna state since December, according to AFP.

[schraubd]

The Problem of "Centering" and the Jews

Note: I wrote this piece quite a few months ago, shopping around to the usual Jewish media outlets. None were interested, and I ended up letting it slide. But it popped back into my mind -- this Sophie Ellman-Golan article helped -- and so I decided to post it here. While I have updated it, some of the references are a bit dated (at least on an internet time scale). Nonetheless, I continue to think a critical look at how the idea of "centering" interacts with and can easily instantiate antisemitic tropes is deeply important. * * * In the early 2000s, Rosa Pegueros, a Salvadoran Jew, was a member of the listserv for contributors to the book This Bridge We Call Home, sequel to the tremendously influential volume This Bridge Called My Back. Another member of the listserv had written to the group with "an almost apologetic post mentioning that she is Jewish, implying that some of the members might not be comfortable with her presence for that reason." She had guessed she was the only Jewish contributor to the volume, so Pegueros wrote back, identifying herself as a Jew as a well and recounting a recent experience she perceived as antisemitic. Almost immediately, Peugeros wrote, another third contributor jumped into the conversation.  "I can no longer sit back," she wrote, "and watch this list turn into another place where Jewishness is reduced to a site of oppression and victimization, rather than a complex site of both oppression and privilege—particularly in relationship to POC." Pegueros was stunned. At the time of this reply, there had been a grand total of two messages referencing Jewishness on the entire listserv. And yet, it seemed, that was too much -- it symbolized yet "another place" where discourse about oppression had become "a forum for Jews." This story has always stuck with me. And I thought of it when reading Jews for Racial and Economic Justice's guidebook to understanding antisemitism from a left-wing perspective. Among their final pieces of advice for Jews participating in anti-racism groups was to make antisemitism and Jewish issues "central, but not centered". It's good advice. Jewish issues are an important and indispensable part of anti-racist work. That said, we are not alone, and it is important to recognize that in many circumstances our discrete problems ought not to take center stage. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be heard. It just means they should not be given disproportionate attention such that they prevent other important questions and campaigns from proceeding. Ideally, "central, but not centered" in the anti-racism community means that Jewish issues should neither overwhelm the conversation nor be shunted aside and ignored outright.

Yet it also overlooks an important caveat. Too often, any discussion of Jewish issues is enough to be considered "centering" it. There is virtually no gap between spaces where Jews are silenced and spaces where Jews are accused of "centering". And so the reasonable request not to "center" Jewish issues easily can, and often does, become yet another tool enforcing Jewish silence. Pegueros' account is one striking example. I'll give another: several years ago, I was invited to a Jewish-run feminist blog to host a series of posts on antisemitism. Midway through the series, the blog's editors were challenged on the grounds that it was taking oxygen away from more pressing matters of racism. At the time, the blog had more posts on "racism" than "antisemitism" by an 8:1 margin (and, in my experience, that is uncommonly attentive to antisemitism on a feminist site -- Feministing, for example, has a grand total of two posts with the "anti-Semitism" tag in its entire history). No matter: the fact that Jewish feminists on a Jewish blog were discussing Jewish issues at all was viewed as excessive and self-centered.

Or consider Raphael Magarik's reply to Yishai Schwartz's essay contending that Cornel West has "a Jewish problem".

Schwartz's column takes issue with West's decision to situate his critique of fellow Black intellectual Ta-Nehisi Coates by reference to "the neoliberal establishment that rewards silences on issues such as Wall Street greed or Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people." Magarik's reply accuses Schwartz of making the West/Coates dispute fundamentally "about the Jews", exhibiting the "the moral narcissism in thinking that everything is about you, in reading arguments between Black intellectuals about the future of the American left and asking: How can I make this about the Jews?" Now, Magarik is surely correct that the Jewish angle of West's critique of Coates is a rather small element that should not become the "center of attention" and thereby obscure "the focus [on] Black struggles for liberation." But there is something quite baffling about his suggestion that a single column that was a drop in the bucket of commentary produced in the wake of the West/Coates exchange could suffice to make it the "center of attention". If Magarik believes Schwartz overreacted to some stray mentions of Jewish issues in an otherwise intramural African-American dispute, surely Magarik equally brought a howitzer to a knife fight by claiming that one article in Ha'aretz single-handedly recentered the conversation about the West/Coates feud onto the Jews.

What's going on here? How is it that the "centering" label -- certainly a valid concern in concept -- seems to routinely and pervasively attach itself to Jews at even the slightest intervention in policy debates?

The answer, as you might have guessed, relates to antisemitism.

As a social phenomenon, antisemitism is very frequently the trafficking in tropes about Jewish hyperpower, the sense that we either have or are on the cusp of taking over anything and everything. Frantz Fanon described antisemitism as follows: "Jews are feared because of their potential to appropriate. ‘They’ are everywhere. The banks, the stock exchanges, and the government are infested with them. They control everything. Soon the country will belong to them.” If we have an abstract understanding of Jews as omnipotent and omnipresent, no wonder that specific instances of Jewish social participation -- no matter how narrow the contribution might be -- are understood as a complete and total colonization of the space. What are the Jews, other than those who are already "everywhere"?

Sadly, the JFREJ pamphlet does not address this issue at all. When "central" crosses into "centering" will often be a matter of judgment, but while the JFREJ has much to say about Jews making "demands for attention" or paying heed to "how much oxygen they can suck out of the room", it does not grapple with how the structure of antisemitism mentalities often renders simply being Jewish (without a concurrent vow of monastic silence) enough to trigger these complaints. It doesn't seem to realize how this entire line of discourse itself can be and often is deeply interlaced with antisemitism. JFREJ's omission is particularly unfortunate since Jews have begun to internalize this sensibility. It's not that Jewish issues should predominate, or always be at the center of every conversation. It's the nagging sense that any discussion of Jewish issues -- no matter how it is prefaced, cabined, or hedged -- is an act of "centering", of taking over, of making it "about us." When the baseline of what counts as "centering" is so low, I know from personal experience that even the simplest asks for inclusion are agonizing. As early as 1982, the radical lesbian feminist Irene Klepfisz identified this propensity as a core part of both internalized and externalized antisemitism. She instructed activists -- Jewish and non-Jewish alike -- to ask themselves a series of questions, including whether they feel that dealing with antisemitism "drain[s] the movement of precious energy", whether they believe antisemitism "has been discussed too much already," and whether Jews "draw too much attention to themselves." Contemporary activists, including many Jews, could do worse than asking Klepfisz's questions. For example, when Jews and non-Jews in the queer community rallied against the effort by some activists to expel Jewish and Israeli LGBTQ organizations from LGBT conference "Creating Change", Mordechai Levovitz fretted that they had "promoted the much more nefarious anti-Semitic trope that Jews wield disproportionate power to get what we want." Levovitz didn't support the expulsion campaign. Still, he fretted that even the most basic demand of inclusion -- don't kick queer Jews out of the room -- was potentially flexing too much Jewish muscle. In this way, the distinction between "central" and "centering" collapses -- indeed, even the most tertiary questions are "centering" if Jews are the ones asking them. This is bad enough in a world where, we are told, oppressions are inextricably connected (you can tell whose perspective is and isn't valued in these communities based on whose attempts to speak are taken to be remedying an oversight and whose are viewed as self-centered derailing). But it verges on Kafka-esque when persons demand Jews "show up" and then get mad that they have a voice in the room; or proactively decide to put Jewish issues on their agenda and yet still demand Jews keep silent about them. Magarik says, for example, that Jews "were not the story" when the Movement for Black Lives included in its platform an accusation that Israel was creating genocide; we shouldn't have made it "about us". He's right, in the sense that this language should not have caused Jews to withdraw from the fight against police violence against communities of color. He's wrong in suggesting that Jews therefore needed to stop "wringing our hands" about how issues that cut deep to the core of our existence as a people were treated in the document. Jews didn't demand that the Movement for Black Lives talk about Jews, but once they elected to do so Jews were not obliged to choose between the right's silence of shunning and the left's silence of acquiescence. To say that Jews ought not "center" ourselves is not to say that there is no place for critical commentary at all. We are legitimate contributors to the discourse over our own lives. I'm not particularly interested in the substantive debate regarding whether Cornel West has a "Jewish problem" -- though Magarik's defense of West (that he "has a good reason for focusing on Palestine" because it "demarcates the difference between liberalism and radicalism") seems like it is worthy of some remark (of all the differences between liberals and "radicals", this is the issue that is the line of demarcation? And that doesn't exhibit some sign of centrality that Jews might have valid grounds to comment on, not the least of which could be wondering how it is a small country half a globe away came to occupy such pride of place?). The larger issue is the metadebate about whether it's valid to even ask the question; or more accurately, whether it is possible -- in any context, with any amount of disclaimers about relative prioritization -- to ask the question without it being read as "centering". The cleverest part of the whole play, after all, is that the very act of challenging this deliberative structure whereby any and all Jewish contributions suffice to center is that the challenge itself easily can become proof of our centrality.

But clever as it is, it can't and shouldn't be a satisfactory retort. There needs to be a lot more introspection about whether and how supposed allies of the Jews are willing to acknowledge the possibility that their instincts about when Jews are "centered" and when we're silenced are out-of-whack, without it becoming yet another basis of resentment for how we're making it all about us. And if we can't do that, then there is an antisemitism problem that really does need to be addressed. When discussing their struggles, members of other marginalized communities need not talk about Jews all the time, or most of the time, or even all that frequently. But what cannot stand is a claimed right to talk about Jews without having to talk with Jews. The idea that even the exploration of potential bias or prejudice lurking within our political movements represents a deliberative party foul is flatly incompatible with everything the left claims to believe about how to talk about matters of oppression. West decided to bring up the Jewish state in his Jeremiad against Coates. It was not a central part of his argument, and so it should not be a central part of the ensuing public discussion. But having put it on the table, it cannot be the case that Jews are forbidden entirely from offering critical commentary. One might say that a column or two in a few Jewish-oriented newspapers, lying at the tertiary edges of the overall debate, is precisely the right amount of attention that should have been given. If that's viewed as too much, then maybe the right question isn't about whether Jews are "centering" the discussion, but rather whether our presence really is a "central" part of anti-racism movements at all.

Drawing the line between "central" and "centering" is difficult, and requires work. There are situations where Jews demand too much attention, and there are times we are too self-effacing. But surely it takes more than a single solitary column to move from the latter to the former. More broadly, we're not going to get an accurate picture of how to mediate between "central" and "centering" unless we're willing to discuss how ingrained patterns of antisemitism condition our evaluations of Jewish political participation across the board.

via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/2MjQd84

[importanttigercreation]

Welcome to the news channel of the Angry Nature,Today we will tell you about Hurricane Julia,Central America! Former Hurricane Julia has dissipated, but is still drenching Guatemala and El Salvador with torrential rains Monday after it reemerged in the Pacific following a pounding of Nicaragua. At least 28 people were reported dead as a direct or indirect result of the storm. Guatemala's disaster prevention agency said five people died after a hillside collapsed on their house in Alta Verapaz province, burying them. And in Huehuetenango province, near Mexico, nine people died, including a soldier killed while performing rescue work. Authorities in El Salvador said five Salvadoran army soldiers died after a wall collapsed at a house where they sought refuge in the town of Comasagua, where hundreds of police and soldiers have been conducting anti-gang raids. Another soldier was injured. Two other people died in the eastern El Salvador town of Guatajiagua after heavy rains caused a wall of their home to collapse. Another man in El Salvador died when he was swept away by a current, and another died when a tree fell on him. Rivers overflowed their banks and El Salvador declared a state of emergency and opened 80 storm shelters. In neighboring Honduras, a 22-year-old woman died when she was swept away by currents, and three people died when their boat swamped or capsized in northern Honduras. A man in Nicaragua was killed by a falling tree. Julia hit Nicaragua's central Caribbean coast early Sunday as a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph) and survived the passage over the country's mountainous terrain, entering the Pacific late in the day as a tropical storm. By Monday, Julia had moved inland over Guatemala and its winds were down to 30 mph (45 kph). The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Julia was centered about 80 miles (125 kilometers) west-northwest of Guatemala City, and was moving west-northwest at 15 mph (24 kph). The center said floods and mudslides were possible across Central America and southern Mexico through Tuesday, with the storm expected to bring as much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain in isolated areas. In Guatemala, two people were listed as missing and two were hospitalized, and about 1,300 people had to leave their homes because of flooding and rising streams. Julia was expected to dissipate later Monday as it passes along the Guatemalan coast. #tropical_storm_julia #storm_julia #angry_nature #julia #hurricane_julia #cyclone_julia ________________________________ The channel lists such natural disasters as: 1) Geological emergencies: #earthquake  #volcanic_eruption  mudflow, #landslide landfall, avalanche; 2) Hydrological emergencies:  #flash_flood #tsunami  Limnological catastrophe, floods, flooding; 3) Fires: Forest fire, Peat fire, Glass Fire, Wildfire; 4) Meteorological emergencies: #tornado, #cyclone #blizzard  Hail, Drought, Hail, #hurricane #storm, Thunderstorm, typhoon Tempest, Lightning. ATTENTION: All videos are taken from open sources. The selection is based on publication date, title, description, and venue. Sometimes, due to unfair posting of news on social networks, the video may contain frames that do not correspond to the date and place. It is not always possible to check all videos. We apologize for any errors! Thank you for watching, don't forget to subscribe our channel, We Wish you good Weather,

[sfnewsvine]

Julia Drenches Central America After Landfall in Nicaragua NBC Bay Area

Former Hurricane Julia has dissipated, however remains to be drenching Guatemala and El Salvador with torrential rains Monday after it reemerged within the Pacific following a pounding of Nicaragua. No less than 28 folks had been reported useless as a direct or oblique results of the storm. Guatemala’s catastrophe prevention company mentioned 5 folks died after a hillside collapsed on their home in Alta Verapaz province, burying them. And in Huehuetenango province, close to Mexico, 9 folks died, together with a soldier killed whereas performing rescue work. Authorities in El Salvador mentioned 5 Salvadoran military troopers died after a wall collapsed at a home the place they sought refuge within the city of Comasagua, the place lots of of police and troopers have been conducting anti-gang raids. One other soldier was injured. Two different folks died within the japanese El Salvador city of Guatajiagua after heavy rains brought on a wall of their residence to break down. One other man in El Salvador died when he was swept away by a present, and one other died when a tree fell on him. urricane Julia introduced with it torrential rain and powerful winds because it made landfall in Nicaragua. Rivers overflowed their banks and El Salvador declared a state of emergency and opened 80 storm shelters. In neighboring Honduras, a 22-year-old girl died when she was swept away by currents, and three folks died when their boat swamped or capsized in northern Honduras. A person in Nicaragua was killed by a falling tree. Julia hit Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast early Sunday as a hurricane with most sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph) and survived the passage over the nation’s mountainous terrain, getting into the Pacific late within the day as a tropical storm.. By Monday, Julia had moved inland over Guatemala and its winds had been all the way down to 30 mph (45 kph). The U.S. Nationwide Hurricane Heart mentioned Julia was centered about 80 miles (125 kilometers) west-northwest of Guatemala Metropolis, and was transferring west-northwest at 15 mph (24 kph). The middle mentioned floods and mudslides had been doable throughout Central America and southern Mexico via Tuesday, with the storm anticipated to carry as a lot as 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain in remoted areas. In Guatemala, two folks had been listed as lacking and two had been hospitalized, and about 1,300 folks needed to depart their properties due to flooding and rising streams. Julia was anticipated to dissipate later Monday because it passes alongside the Guatemalan coast. Colombia’s nationwide catastrophe company reported Sunday that Julia blew the roofs off a number of homes and knocked over timber because it blasted previous San Andres Island east of Nicaragua. There have been no instant reviews of fatalities In Nicaragua, Vice President Rosario Murillo advised TN8 tv that 9,500 folks had been evacuated to shelters. Heavy rains and evacuations had been additionally reported in Panama, Honduras and Costa Rica, the place some highways had been closed because of the downpours. Supply hyperlink Originally published at SF Newsvine

[primorcoin]

New Post has been published on https://primorcoin.com/this-week-in-coins-virtually-every-top-100-cryptocurrency-sinks-as-luna-scrapes-bottom/

This Week in Coins: Virtually Every Top 100 Cryptocurrency Sinks as LUNA Scrapes Bottom

This week in coins. Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt

A cursory glance at the Decrypt home page this week would have been enough to see that the global crypto industry is a hive of panic.

Crypto’s craziest week saw some $200 billion of total market capitalization evaporate between Wednesday and Thursday, while industry leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum crashed to lows not seen since 2020, putting institutional whales like Elon Musk and Michael Saylor back underwater. What’s more, according to analysts at Huobi, we haven’t reached the bottom.

Terra’s leading cryptocurrency LUNA—last week one of the top 10 in the world—fell to zero. LUNA posted an all-time high of $118.19 only last month, and it’s now trading for a fraction of a penny.

LUNA’s demise was driven by the collapse of Terra’s other leading coin, the greenback-pegged UST, which bottomed out at 13 cents on Friday, according to CoinMarketCap. It rose slightly today to 19 cents, as of this writing.

The week’s numbers

It’s now the sixth consecutive week of market decline as virtually every top 100 cryptocurrency by market capitalization starts the weekend down by double-digit percentages. Bitcoin is down 20% from last week, trading at $28,809, and Ethereum fell by 27% to $1,968.

Among the week’s biggest losers: Cosmos sank 43% to $9.68, Algorand dropped 43% to $.42, NEAR Protocol fell 43% to $6.05, Polygon fell 40% to $.62, and Avalanche plummeted 48% to $29.83.

The only top 100 coin that gained this week was Maker, the 42nd biggest cryptocurrency by market cap at $1.4 billion, which rose 7.1% to $1,419. 

The week’s news

Aside from Terra’s meltdown, the news cycle carried on much as the last few months, albeit with heightened talk of stablecoin regulation.

On Monday, Instagram announced it’s testing NFT connectivity with a handful of U.S.-based collectors and creators. The pilot allows testers to link crypto wallets to their accounts and display verified collectibles. Parent company Meta also said Facebook NFT support is expected soon.

Economist and former no-coiner Nouriel Roubini has begun working on an inflation-proof dollar-pegged stablecoin, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday. Roubini’s Atlas Capital has tapped Andreessen Horowitz-backed Web3 developer Mysten Labs to develop tech for the “United Sovereign Governance Gold Optimized Dollar.” The project is a total about-turn for Roubini, who in 2018 delivered a 37-page speech calling crypto the “Mother of All Scams.”

Also on Monday, Salvadoran dictator Nayyib Bukele purchased 500 BTC at around $15.3 million. This took the total number of El Salvador’s Bitcoin stash to 2,300, or around $66 million—currently $6.25 million (9%) shy of its value when Decrypt reported the purchase. In total, Bukele is $37 million in the hole today.

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen highlighted Terra’s collapse as an example of why stablecoins need to be imminently regulated. On Thursday, Yellen mentioned crypto again, this time to say that the industry’s $1.23 trillion market cap poses no systemic risk to the U.S. financial system, and by extension, neither do stablecoins, “but they’re growing very rapidly and present the same kind of risks we’ve known for centuries from bank runs.”

Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler leveled sharp criticism at cryptocurrency exchanges and stablecoins during an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. Taking issue with the fact that many big exchanges run custody, market making, and trading services without separating them as traditional exchanges are required to, Gensler accused them of “trading against their customers often because they’re market-marking against their customers.”

That same day, Germany’s federal finance ministry (BMF) issued the country’s first guidance on the income tax treatment of cryptocurrencies. Parliamentary State Secretary Katja Hessel said in a statement that the sale of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum is now tax-free for individuals after one year of owning the assets.

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[coincolumnist-dot-com]

Opposition poses constitutional challenge to El Salvador's Bitcoin law

El Salvador’s grand plans to promote Bitcoin adoption could be turned on their head if President Bukele’s Bitcoin law is proven to be unconstitutional in the country’s courts.A group of citizens joining forces with political party, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), has filed a lawsuit claiming President Bukele’s Bitcoin adoption program is unconstitutional.FMLN legislator, Jaime Guevara, led the move along with citizens including plaintiff Óscar Artero, who characterize the country’s Bitcoin law as “lacking in legality, foundation, and did not consider the significance and harmful effects that such a law will cause to the country,” according to a rough translation from local media outlet El Mundo.Guevara stated the complaint will test the newly appointed magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.The FMLN came third in February’s legislative election with nearly 7% of the vote, while Bukele’s New Ideas established a dominant lead with two-thirds of votes. Second-placed Nationalist Republican Alliance secured nearly 8%.Salvadorian lawyer, Enrique Anaya, commented that the Presidential House was not clear on how to implement the Bitcoin Law, which was approved on June 9, and suspects that the lawmakers may have even initiated the lawsuit internally.Guevara stated it is “widely rumored” the Bitcoin law advances the agenda of President Nayib Bukele and his New Ideas (Nuevas Ideas) Party at the expense of the public interest, stating, describing the lawsuit as “simply representing the people”.A survey of 1,600 individuals conducted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador between June 11 and 15 indicated that more than eight out of ten Salvadorans would not agree to receive payments and salaries in Bitcoin. On June 16, El Salvador’s Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Rolando Castro, said the country is not yet ready to adopt Bitcoin for salary payments.Related: Steve Hanke warns BTC could ‘completely collapse the economy’ of El SalvadorThe Bitcoin adoption plan has already experienced pushback from the World Bank, which refused to assist the country in its transition, citing “the environmental and transparency shortcomings” associated with the digital asset.As reported by Cointelegraph, even if the Bitcoin law remains in place, there are still many hurdles to mainstream adoption by an entire nation due to its scaling limitations. At the time of writing, Bitcoin prices had slumped 7% over the past 24 hours to trade at $32,800. Source Read the full article

[omgstupendousbouquetbasement]

(Im)migration Recap: Immigration Year in Review

Editor's note: We want you to know what's happening, and why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

Country agreements

VOA's immigration team in July broke a story about the Trump administration forging a "safe third country agreement" with Guatemala, where asylum-seekers from Central America could be sent to that country instead of admitted to the U.S.

Former acting U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary Kevin McAleenan and Guatemalan officials outlined details of the pact a month later.

Deaths in detention and at the border

A June photo of a Salvadoran father and his daughter lying face down in the water of the Rio Grande separating the United States and Mexico sparked sorrow and outrage on both sides of the border.

The bodies of Salvadoran migrant Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his nearly 2-year-old daughter Valeria lie on the bank of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, June 24, 2019, after they drowned trying to cross the river to Brownsville, Texas.

At least three children are believed to have died of the flu while in CBP custody over the last two years, including 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez. A video shot earlier this year and published by ProPublica showed Vásquez motionless after collapsing in his cell at 1:36 a.m. The migrant Guatemalan boy died May 20.

A day later, the border station was temporarily closed amid reports that a "large number" of detained migrants had flu-like symptoms.

Remain in Mexico

During a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, VOA's immigration team spoke with a broad sampling of migrants and asylum seekers in early August. Many departed their home countries months before U.S. policy changes went into effect, under assumptions that no longer apply. All were awaiting immigration court hearings.

Mexicans camping near the Cordova-Americas international border crossing bridge while waiting to apply for asylum to the U.S., gather their belongings as they are moved to a shelter due a storm forecast, in Ciudad Juarez, Sept. 30, 2019.

Historic low refugee admittances

The United States reached its self-imposed cap of 30,000 refugee arrivals on Sept. 30, the last day of the 2019 fiscal year, as the Trump administration further lowered the cap for refugee admittances for 2020.

Decline in new international student enrollments

For the second year after decades of growth, the number of international students coming to the U.S. sharply declined from some countries.

The President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele speaks at a conference on the 2019 Forecast on Latin America and the Caribbean on Oct. 1, 2019, in Washington.

TPS extends

Nationals of six countries living and working in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status will be able to remain in legal status until early 2021. The Trump administration's attempt to end TPS for El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan was met with several lawsuits in the last year, and the cases remain pending, buying TPS holders more time. 

Public charge

The Trump administration finalized a rule to expand the definition of a person who might become dependent on the government for support, known as a public charge, allowing immigration officials to decide who is admitted into the United States or is allowed to adjust his or her status to that of lawful permanent resident (LPR) based on the likelihood of consuming public resources.

Migrants make their way to US-Mexico border to request asylum.

Asylum guidelines

The Trump administration expedited initial screenings of immigrants seeking asylum, moving to interview immigrants within one calendar day.

The government also proposed a regulation to bar immigrants convicted of a new list of crimes from claiming asylum. The proposal must go through a public comment period before it is finalized.

FILE - A view of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Nov. 11, 2019.

DACA

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the Trump administration's bid to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shields immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allows them to work in the United States legally. A decision is expected by June 2020.

American citizenship for Liberians

Liberian nationals living in the U.S. since Nov. 20, 2014, without legal residency status are eligible to apply for green cards and eventually U.S. citizenship under terms of a defense spending bill passed by Congress.

From the Feds:

— U.S. Customs and Border Protection released data for Fiscal Year 2019.  

— USCIS expanded guidance related to naturalization requirements of good moral character.

— USCIS proposed to adjust fees to meet operational needs.

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[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.14

756 – An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Xuanzong flees the capital Chang'an as An Lushan's forces advance toward the city.[citation needed] 1223 – Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II. 1420 – Battle of Vítkov Hill, decisive victory of Czech Hussite forces commanded by Jan Žižka against Crusade army led by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor. 1769 – An expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá leaves its base in California and sets out to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey, California). 1771 – Foundation of the Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra. 1789 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille. 1789 – Alexander Mackenzie finally completes his journey to the mouth of the great river he hoped would take him to the Pacific, but which turns out to flow into the Arctic Ocean. Later named after him, the Mackenzie is the second-longest river system in North America. 1790 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris celebrate the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation in the Fête de la Fédération. 1791 – The Priestley Riots drive Joseph Priestley, a supporter of the French Revolution, out of Birmingham, England. 1798 – The Sedition Act becomes law in the United States making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government. 1853 – Opening of the first major US world's fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City. 1865 – First ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom die on the descent. 1874 – The Chicago Fire of 1874 burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20, and resulting in the fire insurance industry demanding municipal reforms from Chicago's city council. 1877 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in Martinsburg, West Virginia, when wages of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers were cut for the third time in a year. The strike was ended on Sept 4 by local and state militias, and federal troops. 1881 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner. 1900 – Armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion. 1902 – The Campanile in St Mark's Square, Venice collapses, also demolishing the loggetta. 1911 – Harry Atwood, an exhibition pilot for the Wright brothers, lands his airplane at the South Lawn of the White House. He is later awarded a Gold medal from U.S. President William Howard Taft for this feat. 1915 – World War I: The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and the British official Henry McMahon concerning the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire begins. 1916 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Delville Wood as an action within the Battle of the Somme, which was to last until 3 September 1916. 1928 – New Vietnam Revolutionary Party is founded in Huế, providing some of the communist party's most important leaders in its early years. 1933 – Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties are outlawed except the Nazi Party. 1933 – The Nazi eugenics begins with the proclamation of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring that calls for the compulsory sterilization of any citizen who suffers from alleged genetic disorders. 1938 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world. 1940 – People's Seimas held parliamentary elections, and the Union of Labor Lithuania (ULL) won, paving the way for Lithuania to become Lithuanian SSR; Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, consolidating into the Soviet Union on July 21, 1940. 1943 – In Diamond, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American. 1948 – Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is shot and wounded near the Italian Parliament. 1950 – Korean War: North Korean troops initiate the Battle of Taejon. 1957 – Rawya Ateya takes her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, thereby becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world. 1958 – Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy is overthrown by popular forces led by Abd al-Karim Qasim, who becomes the nation's new leader. 1960 – Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild. 1965 – The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the first close-up photos of another planet. 1969 – Football War: After Honduras loses a soccer match against El Salvador, riots break out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. 1969 – The Federal Reserve Banks begins removing large denominations of United States currency from circulation. 1976 – Capital punishment is abolished in Canada. 1992 – 386BSD is released by Lynne Jolitz and William Jolitz beginning the Open Source operating system revolution. Linus Torvalds releases his Linux soon afterwards. 2002 – French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations. 2003 – Hurricane Claudette gathers strength over the Gulf of Mexico and heads for the Texas coast, killing two people. 2013 – The dedication of statue of Rachel Carson, a sculpture named for the environmentalist, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 2015 – NASA's New Horizons probe performs the first flyby of Pluto, and thus completes the initial survey of the Solar System. 2016 – A terrorist vehicular attack in Nice, France kills 86 civilians and injures over 400 others.

[djgblogger-blog]

Inside Venezuela's crisis: 8 essential reads

http://bit.ly/2zbbBSo

AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan

Since December 2014, a recession turned national emergency has left millions of Venezuelans impoverished, hungry and desperate. An estimated 54 percent of Venezuelan children are now malnourished.

As an editor on the Americas desk, this year I’ve asked numerous Venezuelan scholars to help readers understand the many different dimensions of this devolving situation. Here, their insights on Venezuela’s crisis.

1. Venezuela is running out of cash

To understand how a country that was once South America’s richest can no longer feed its citizens, just follow the oil, advises Venezuelan economist Henkel García U.

“In 1998, the year before the late Hugo Chávez came into power, Venezuela was rich,” he notes. “It produced roughly 60 barrels of oil per inhabitant per year.”

Chávez – a populist who promised to lift millions out of poverty – took advantage of relatively high international oil prices to spend lavishly, funding social programs and importing basic goods like food and medicine.

But after Chávez’s 2003 state takeover of Petróleos de Venezuela, then Latin America’s biggest oil producer, oil production steadily decreased, even as government expenditures stayed high.

Over time, the imbalance between income and outlay would upend Venezuela’s entire economy.

By 2015, Venezuela was no longer selling enough oil to keep importing basic necessities like food and medicine. Banco Central de Venezuela, FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis), National Statistics Institute and Econométrica IE, C.A., CC BY, CC BY

2. It has an unpayable national debt

Rather than balance the budget by cutting expenditures and imports, however, the Chávez regime just piled up foreign debt, says García U. Between 2005 and 2006, Venezuela’s foreign debt jumped from US$25 billion to $120 billion.

Then, in late 2014, international oil prices plunged. The country, by then led by Chávez’s uncharismatic successor, Nicolás Maduro, entered recession. Today, estimates of Venezuela’s public sector debt put it at $184.5 billion.

Domestic oil production has also declined, dropping 66 percent between 1998 and 2017, according to Garciá U’s analyses.

Selling less oil at lower prices has sapped government coffers. Imports of basic necessities like food and medicine have dropped to historic lows, meaning many grocery store and pharmacy shelves are empty.

Meanwhile, hyperinflation – which is anticipated to reach 2,700 percent by the end of this year – has left most Venezuelans unable to purchase what products are available. Treatable infections routinely kill Venezuelans who can’t get antibiotics, and children are now dying of hunger

In November, Venezuela defaulted on some of its national debt.

3. Thousands have fled hunger and violence

To escape this crisis, many Venezuelans have sought refuge abroad, says Emilio Osorio Alvarez, a migration scholar at the Central University of Venezuela.

In 2016, over 14,700 Venezuelans requested asylum in the United States, according to U.S. government data – a 150 percent increase over 2015. For the first time ever, Venezuelan topped the list of asylum-seekers, above Mexicans, El Salvadorans or Guatemalans.

Those who can credibly claim they are fleeing political persecution at home stand a strong chance of getting in, says Osorio. President Maduro has cracked down hard on dissent. At least 124 people were killed during protests against the regime in 2017, and human rights groups estimate that there are some 600 political prisoners in Venezuela.

Hunger and poverty, on the other hand, are not themselves grounds for asylum under international law.

4. Protests became ‘a low-grade war’

Among those who remain in Venezuela, millions organized earlier this year to fight for their country’s future. From March to July, hundreds of thousands of citizens marched daily in major cities across the country.

Under government orders, soldiers and police officers responded with force.

“Each day, acting spontaneously and with no clear leadership, fighting factions in cities across Venezuela…block streets…penetrate university campuses and crush their opponents,” reported Venezuelan political analyst Miguel Angel Latouche back in July.

Describing scenes of masked young demonstrators doing battle with state forces, Latouche said his home city of Caracas was living out “a low-grade war.”

“What else can you call a country in which…citizens routinely swallow tear gas?,” he asked. Latouche and his family have now left Venezuela – temporarily, they hope.

6. The once-powerful opposition has all but collapsed

For months, those huge daily marches seemed to be shifting the balance of power between the Maduro government and the resistance. But by October, the opposition – an alliance of numerous parties that began working together in 2008 to counterbalance Hugo Chávez’s regime – had been all but crushed.

Despite the opposition’s 75 percent approval rating, on Oct. 15 its candidates lost 17 of 23 governors races to candidates from Maduro’s Socialist Party. This stunning defeat showed that participating in the gubernatorial elections had been a critical strategic misstep, says Prof. Marcos Moreno-Aponte of St. Mary’s College California.

Many analysts expected the opposition to boycott them, Moreno-Aponte says. Domestic and international observers, including the U.S. State Department, believed that the regime’s control over electoral agencies would “make free and fair elections impossible.”

The opposition emerged from its loss on Oct. 15 profoundly divided, disheartened and quite possibly defeated.

7. Elections are fake

Maduro’s triumph in October was a blow to democracy, but not a surprising one, reckons political analyst Benigno Alarcón of the Andres Bello Catholic University, in Caracas.

The regime spent months – during which it refused to hold any elections– preparing a strategy for winning at the polls, he says. Maduro’s success on Oct. 15 derived from two carefully deployed tactics, says Alarcón: “Suppressing turnout among opposition voters and using pork-barrel incentives to motivate his own base.”

Dirty tricks included keeping candidates who’d withdrawn from the governor’s race on the ballot and relocating voting centers in opposition-dominated areas into high-crime neighborhoods.

Government operatives also spread fake news about supposedly successful negotiations with opposition parties, stoking doubt among the many Venezuelans who oppose engagement with Maduro’s authoritarian regime.

“In other words,” assesses Alarcón, Maduro’s electoral strategy was “less about winning democratic legitimacy” than about “ensuring that his opponents los[t] it.”

8. Hope for regime change is dimming

Maduro reprised that winning strategy in the country’s mayoral elections in December, which were boycotted by the opposition.

The fact that Socialist Party candidates won 300 of 339 mayoral races on Dec. 10 thus shouldn’t be misinterpreted as voter support for Maduro’s regime, Alarcón cautions. Maduro’s approval ratings are still 20 percent approval ratings.

“The vast majority of Venezuelans want a change in government,” he says, adding that Maduro also faces opposition within his own Socialist Party.

Still, hope for regime change is dimming. In addition to using dirty tricks, Maduro has effectively been buying votes, handing out benefits like food and medicine in exchange for loyalty to the regime.

In late November, the president announced he would run for reelection in 2018. It’s unclear who can stop him.

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/fact-checking-donald-trumps-latest-claims-fake-news-plants/

Fact checking Donald Trump's latest claims and 'fake news' plants

It's a known fact that many things that come from either President Donald Trump or his White House staff will be found to be untrue after vetting, but now they've taken it a step further with attempting to send out 'fake news.' It's actually a smart thing to do, but this is something that would have been wiser to do right from the beginning of his administration. Trump has always loved to claim that The New York Times, CNN, Washington Post put out fake news, so it would have been a sleazy-smart move if he'd done this much earlier so he could have caught them. The only problem is that these are real news organizations that vet the material. https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/866374018051584005 We've actually been sent a dozen stories that didn't ring true and were completely false when we checked them out from 'new White House sources," so we can confirm that they have, in fact, resorted to this form of sleaze now. Below are the latest 'Donald Trump facts' that have been proven wrong with some simple fact checking. In his speech in Saudi Arabia on Sunday during his first foreign trip as president, Trump claimed to have accomplished record spending on the armed forces, even though Congress has yet to pass a budget that reflects his plans and promises. Trump releases a detailed budget proposal Tuesday after having come up only with an outline before, and nothing is achieved until and unless Congress passes something. Trump often takes credit for accomplishments that have yet to be realized or that were the work of his predecessor, as he did last week when boasting about a Coast Guard icebreaker that the Obama administration started. But it was his first opportunity to do so abroad. Trump's foreign trip came as something of a break from the storm over the investigation into his 2016 campaign's relationship with Russia. That episode prompted a number of questionable statements by the president and his aides. Here's a review of claims on various matters over the past week: TRUMP: "In just a few months, we have created almost a million new jobs ... and made record investments in our military." - speech in Riyadh on Sunday THE FACTS: He's getting ahead of developments on military spending, with no budget passed. He also not proposing a record increase in military spending as his remarks might imply. The 10 percent increase he called for in his March budget outline has been exceeded three times in recent history - the base military budget went up by 14.3 percent, in 2002, 11.3 percent in 2003 and 10.9 percent in 2008, according to the Pentagon. Looked at another way and deeper into history, military spending consumed 43 percent of the economy in 1944, during World War II, and 15 percent in 1952, during the Korean War. It was 3.3 percent in 2015, says the World Bank. Trump's claim that almost 1 million jobs have been added is in the ballpark, though it's taken more than a "few months" and Barack Obama was president for most of one of them, January. Job creation has averaged 185,000 a month from January through April. But that is the same pace of hiring as occurred in 2016, when Obama was president, and slower than in 2014 and 2015, when more than 225,000 jobs a month were added, on average. TRUMP: "I'm proud to say that under my administration, as you just heard, we will be building the first new heavy icebreakers the United States has seen in over 40 years." - Coast Guard Academy speech Wednesday THE FACTS: Trump is claiming credit for something that started under his predecessor. Obama's homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, spoke about modernization of the Coast Guard fleet and design work on a new heavy polar icebreaker a year ago in a speech to graduating Coast Guard cadets. DONALD TRUMP, on his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey: "I actually thought when I made that decision - and I also got a very, very strong recommendation, as you know, from the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein." - news conference Thursday with his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos. THE FACTS: The recommendation he cites came after Trump decided to fire Comey, according to Rosenstein and to Trump's own previous statement taking sole ownership of the decision. In an interview with NBC two days after the May 9 Comey dismissal, Trump said he had been planning to fire Comey for months, and linked it with the FBI's Russia investigation. "In fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.'" On Thursday, Rosenstein told senators in a closed-door briefing that he had been informed of Trump's decision to fire Comey before he wrote his memo providing a rationale for that act, said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. TRUMP: "Even my enemies have said there is no collusion." - Thursday news conference THE FACTS: Democrats have not absolved Trump on whether his campaign and Russian officials coordinated efforts last year to disadvantage his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Several have said they have not seen evidence of collusion, but that's not to say they are satisfied it did not happen. Trump has cited James Clapper, the director of national intelligence until Trump took office Jan. 20, among others, as being "convinced" there was no collusion. Clapper said this past week that while a report he issued in January did not uncover collusion, he did not know at the time that the FBI was digging deeply into "potential political collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians" and he was unaware of what the bureau might have found. The FBI inquiry continues, as do congressional investigations and, now, one by the special counsel. TRUMP: "Obamacare is collapsing. It's dead. It's gone. There's nothing to compare anything to because we don't have health care in this country. You just look at what's happening. Aetna just pulled out. Other insurance companies are pulling out. We don't have health care. Obamacare is a fallacy. It's gone." - Thursday news conference THE FACTS: He's venting and not to be taken literally. Obama's health care law remains in effect and people are using it. As of last count 12.2 million signed up for private health plans through HealthCare.gov and state markets that offer federally subsidized coverage. Separately another estimated 12 million were made eligible for Medicaid through the law's expansion of that program. It's true that many people who buy their own health insurance are facing another year of big premium increases and shrinking choices. Trump worked with House Republicans to pass a bill that would roll back much of the health law and the Senate is considering the legislation. DONALD TRUMP, speaking of the MS-13 gang presence in the U.S.: "A horrible, horrible large group of gangs that have been let into our country over a fairly short period of time. ... They've literally taken over towns and cities of the United States." - Thursday news conference. THE FACTS: His depiction of the gang as a foreign one "let into" the U.S. is not accurate. The gang actually began in Los Angeles, according to a fact sheet from Trump's own Justice Department, and "spread quickly across the country." And it started not recently, but in the 1980s, according to that same fact sheet. The department indirectly credits the Obama administration, in its early years, with helping to rein in the group, largely made up of first-generation Salvadoran-Americans and Salvadoran nationals. It said: "Through the combined efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement, great progress was made diminishing or severely (disrupting) the gang within certain targeted areas of the U.S. by 2009 and 2010." The U.S. carried out record deportations during the Obama administration and, on MS-13 specifically, took the unprecedented action of labeling the street gang a transnational criminal organization and announcing a freeze on its U.S. assets. Such actions were not enough to bring down the group and the Trump administration says it will do more. TREASURY SECRETARY STEVEN MNUCHIN: "I believe that a goal of 3 percent GDP or higher economic growth is achievable if we make historic reforms to both taxes and regulation." - Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing Thursday THE FACTS: Several quarters or a year of 3 percent growth may be possible, but few economists expect the changes Mnuchin has proposed would result in sustained growth at that pace. That's because the U.S. economy is facing long-term constraints. As baby boomers retire, fewer people are working. As well, workers' productivity is growing at historically weak levels. An economy can only grow as fast as the size and productivity of its workforce. If Trump's policies reduce immigration, the U.S. workforce would grow even more slowly. Trump's goal of cutting corporate taxes could encourage companies to spend more on computers and machinery, making employees more productive, accelerating growth and lifting wages. Liberal economists argue that corporate profits are already high and any tax cut probably would go to shareholders instead of equipment. TRUMP: "I won't talk about how much I saved you on the F-35 fighter jet. I won't even talk about it." - Coast Guard Academy speech THE FACTS: He shouldn't. Trump has repeatedly taken credit for cost savings that began before his presidency on this jet. Pentagon officials took steps before the election to reduce costs on the Lockheed contract and announced savings Dec. 19, a month before Trump was sworn in. NIKKI HALEY, ambassador to the U.N.: "I believe the Western Wall is part of Israel and I think that that is how, you know, we've always seen it and that's how we should pursue it ... we've always thought the Western Wall was part of Israel." - interview on Christian Broadcasting Network on Wednesday THE FACTS: That's a misstatement of U.S. policy and diplomatic history. The wall is in the Old City, a part of east Jerusalem, which the U.S. and most of the world consider to be occupied territory. So the U.S. position is that the wall is part of Jerusalem, not specifically Israel. Since Israel's founding, the U.S. has maintained that no state has sovereignty over Jerusalem and its ultimate status must be resolved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. That stance has not changed. In addition to misstating U.S. policy, Haley stepped outside diplomatic norms in asserting a personal view at variance with that policy - that the Western Wall is or should be considered part of Israel.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

[omgstupendousbouquetbasement]

(Im)migration Recap: Immigration Year in Review

Editor's note: We want you to know what's happening, and why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

Country agreements

VOA's immigration team in July broke a story about the Trump administration forging a "safe third country agreement" with Guatemala, where asylum-seekers from Central America could be sent to that country instead of admitted to the U.S.

Former acting U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary Kevin McAleenan and Guatemalan officials outlined details of the pact a month later.

Deaths in detention and at the border

A June photo of a Salvadoran father and his daughter lying face down in the water of the Rio Grande separating the United States and Mexico sparked sorrow and outrage on both sides of the border.

The bodies of Salvadoran migrant Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his nearly 2-year-old daughter Valeria lie on the bank of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, June 24, 2019, after they drowned trying to cross the river to Brownsville, Texas.

At least three children are believed to have died of the flu while in CBP custody over the last two years, including 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez. A video shot earlier this year and published by ProPublica showed Vásquez motionless after collapsing in his cell at 1:36 a.m. The migrant Guatemalan boy died May 20.

A day later, the border station was temporarily closed amid reports that a "large number" of detained migrants had flu-like symptoms.

Remain in Mexico

During a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, VOA's immigration team spoke with a broad sampling of migrants and asylum seekers in early August. Many departed their home countries months before U.S. policy changes went into effect, under assumptions that no longer apply. All were awaiting immigration court hearings.

Mexicans camping near the Cordova-Americas international border crossing bridge while waiting to apply for asylum to the U.S., gather their belongings as they are moved to a shelter due a storm forecast, in Ciudad Juarez, Sept. 30, 2019.

Historic low refugee admittances

The United States reached its self-imposed cap of 30,000 refugee arrivals on Sept. 30, the last day of the 2019 fiscal year, as the Trump administration further lowered the cap for refugee admittances for 2020.

Decline in new international student enrollments

For the second year after decades of growth, the number of international students coming to the U.S. sharply declined from some countries.

The President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele speaks at a conference on the 2019 Forecast on Latin America and the Caribbean on Oct. 1, 2019, in Washington.

TPS extends

Nationals of six countries living and working in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status will be able to remain in legal status until early 2021. The Trump administration's attempt to end TPS for El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan was met with several lawsuits in the last year, and the cases remain pending, buying TPS holders more time. 

Public charge

The Trump administration finalized a rule to expand the definition of a person who might become dependent on the government for support, known as a public charge, allowing immigration officials to decide who is admitted into the United States or is allowed to adjust his or her status to that of lawful permanent resident (LPR) based on the likelihood of consuming public resources.

Migrants make their way to US-Mexico border to request asylum.

Asylum guidelines

The Trump administration expedited initial screenings of immigrants seeking asylum, moving to interview immigrants within one calendar day.

The government also proposed a regulation to bar immigrants convicted of a new list of crimes from claiming asylum. The proposal must go through a public comment period before it is finalized.

FILE - A view of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Nov. 11, 2019.

DACA

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the Trump administration's bid to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shields immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allows them to work in the United States legally. A decision is expected by June 2020.

American citizenship for Liberians

Liberian nationals living in the U.S. since Nov. 20, 2014, without legal residency status are eligible to apply for green cards and eventually U.S. citizenship under terms of a defense spending bill passed by Congress.

From the Feds:

— U.S. Customs and Border Protection released data for Fiscal Year 2019.  

— USCIS expanded guidance related to naturalization requirements of good moral character.

— USCIS proposed to adjust fees to meet operational needs.

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[omgstupendousbouquetbasement]

(Im)migration Recap: Immigration Year in Review

Editor's note: We want you to know what's happening, and why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

Country agreements

VOA's immigration team in July broke a story about the Trump administration forging a "safe third country agreement" with Guatemala, where asylum-seekers from Central America could be sent to that country instead of admitted to the U.S.

Former acting U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary Kevin McAleenan and Guatemalan officials outlined details of the pact a month later.

Deaths in detention and at the border

A June photo of a Salvadoran father and his daughter lying face down in the water of the Rio Grande separating the United States and Mexico sparked sorrow and outrage on both sides of the border.

The bodies of Salvadoran migrant Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his nearly 2-year-old daughter Valeria lie on the bank of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, June 24, 2019, after they drowned trying to cross the river to Brownsville, Texas.

At least three children are believed to have died of the flu while in CBP custody over the last two years, including 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez. A video shot earlier this year and published by ProPublica showed Vásquez motionless after collapsing in his cell at 1:36 a.m. The migrant Guatemalan boy died May 20.

A day later, the border station was temporarily closed amid reports that a "large number" of detained migrants had flu-like symptoms.

Remain in Mexico

During a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, VOA's immigration team spoke with a broad sampling of migrants and asylum seekers in early August. Many departed their home countries months before U.S. policy changes went into effect, under assumptions that no longer apply. All were awaiting immigration court hearings.

Mexicans camping near the Cordova-Americas international border crossing bridge while waiting to apply for asylum to the U.S., gather their belongings as they are moved to a shelter due a storm forecast, in Ciudad Juarez, Sept. 30, 2019.

Historic low refugee admittances

The United States reached its self-imposed cap of 30,000 refugee arrivals on Sept. 30, the last day of the 2019 fiscal year, as the Trump administration further lowered the cap for refugee admittances for 2020.

Decline in new international student enrollments

For the second year after decades of growth, the number of international students coming to the U.S. sharply declined from some countries.

The President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele speaks at a conference on the 2019 Forecast on Latin America and the Caribbean on Oct. 1, 2019, in Washington.

TPS extends

Nationals of six countries living and working in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status will be able to remain in legal status until early 2021. The Trump administration's attempt to end TPS for El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan was met with several lawsuits in the last year, and the cases remain pending, buying TPS holders more time. 

Public charge

The Trump administration finalized a rule to expand the definition of a person who might become dependent on the government for support, known as a public charge, allowing immigration officials to decide who is admitted into the United States or is allowed to adjust his or her status to that of lawful permanent resident (LPR) based on the likelihood of consuming public resources.

Migrants make their way to US-Mexico border to request asylum.

Asylum guidelines

The Trump administration expedited initial screenings of immigrants seeking asylum, moving to interview immigrants within one calendar day.

The government also proposed a regulation to bar immigrants convicted of a new list of crimes from claiming asylum. The proposal must go through a public comment period before it is finalized.

FILE - A view of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Nov. 11, 2019.

DACA

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the Trump administration's bid to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shields immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allows them to work in the United States legally. A decision is expected by June 2020.

American citizenship for Liberians

Liberian nationals living in the U.S. since Nov. 20, 2014, without legal residency status are eligible to apply for green cards and eventually U.S. citizenship under terms of a defense spending bill passed by Congress.

From the Feds:

— U.S. Customs and Border Protection released data for Fiscal Year 2019.  

— USCIS expanded guidance related to naturalization requirements of good moral character.

— USCIS proposed to adjust fees to meet operational needs.

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[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.14

756 – An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Xuanzong flees the capital Chang'an as An Lushan's forces advance toward the city.[citation needed] 1223 – Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II. 1420 – Battle of Vítkov Hill, decisive victory of Czech Hussite forces commanded by Jan Žižka against Crusade army led by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor. 1769 – An expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá leaves its base in California and sets out to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey, California). 1771 – Foundation of the Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra. 1789 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille. 1789 – Alexander Mackenzie finally completes his journey to the mouth of the great river he hoped would take him to the Pacific, but which turns out to flow into the Arctic Ocean. Later named after him, the Mackenzie is the second-longest river system in North America. 1790 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris celebrate the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation in the Fête de la Fédération. 1791 – The Priestley Riots drive Joseph Priestley, a supporter of the French Revolution, out of Birmingham, England. 1798 – The Sedition Act becomes law in the United States making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government. 1853 – Opening of the first major US world's fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City. 1865 – First ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom die on the descent. 1874 – The Chicago Fire of 1874 burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20, and resulting in the fire insurance industry demanding municipal reforms from Chicago's city council. 1877 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 begins in Martinsburg, West Virginia when Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers have their wages cut for the second time in a year. 1881 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner. 1900 – Armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion. 1902 – The Campanile in St Mark's Square, Venice collapses, also demolishing the loggetta. 1911 – Harry Atwood, an exhibition pilot for the Wright brothers, lands his airplane at the South Lawn of the White House. He is later awarded a Gold medal from U.S. President William Howard Taft for this feat. 1915 – World War I: The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and the British official Henry McMahon concerning the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire begins. 1916 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Delville Wood as an action within the Battle of the Somme, which was to last until 3 September 1916. 1928 – New Vietnam Revolutionary Party is founded in Huế, providing some of the communist party's most important leaders in its early years. 1933 – Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties are outlawed except the Nazi Party. 1933 – The Nazi eugenics begins with the proclamation of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring that calls for the compulsory sterilization of any citizen who suffers from alleged genetic disorders. 1938 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world. 1943 – In Diamond, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American. 1948 – Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is shot and wounded near the Italian Parliament. 1950 – Korean War: North Korean troops initiate the Battle of Taejon. 1957 – Rawya Ateya takes her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, thereby becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world. 1958 – Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy is overthrown by popular forces led by Abd al-Karim Qasim, who becomes the nation's new leader. 1960 – Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild. 1965 – The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the first close-up photos of another planet. 1969 – Football War: After Honduras loses a soccer match against El Salvador, riots break out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. 1969 – The Federal Reserve Banks begins removing large denominations of United States currency from circulation. 1976 – Capital punishment is abolished in Canada. 1992 – 386BSD is released by Lynne Jolitz and William Jolitz beginning the Open Source operating system revolution. Linus Torvalds releases his Linux soon afterwards. 2002 – French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations. 2003 – Hurricane Claudette gathers strength over the Gulf of Mexico and heads for the Texas coast, killing two people. 2013 – The dedication of Rachel Carson, a sculpture named for the environmentalist, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 2015 – NASA's New Horizons probe performs the first flyby of Pluto, and thus completes the initial survey of the Solar System. 2016 – A terrorist vehicular attack in Nice, France kills 86 civilians and injures over 400 others.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.14

756 – An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Xuanzong flees the capital Chang'an as An Lushan's forces advance toward the city. 1223 – Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II. 1420 – Battle of Vítkov Hill, decisive victory of Czech Hussite forces commanded by Jan Žižka against Crusade army led by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor 1769 – An expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá establishes a base in California and sets out to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey, California). 1771 – Foundation of the Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra. 1789 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille. 1789 – Alexander Mackenzie finally completes his journey to the mouth of the great river he hoped would take him to the Pacific, but which turns out to flow into the Arctic Ocean. Later named after him, the Mackenzie is the second-longest river system in North America. 1790 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris celebrate the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation in the Fête de la Fédération. 1791 – The Priestley Riots drive Joseph Priestley, a supporter of the French Revolution, out of Birmingham, England. 1798 – The Sedition Act becomes law in the United States making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government. 1853 – Opening of the first major US world's fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City. 1865 – First ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom die on the descent. 1874 – The Chicago Fire of 1874 burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20, and resulting in the fire insurance industry demanding municipal reforms from Chicago's city council. 1877 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 begins in Martinsburg, West Virginia when Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers have their wages cut for the second time in a year. 1881 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner. 1900 – Armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion. 1902 – The Campanile in St Mark's Square, Venice collapses, also demolishing the loggetta. 1911 – Harry Atwood, an exhibition pilot for the Wright brothers, lands his airplane at the South Lawn of the White House. He is later awarded a Gold medal from U.S. President William Howard Taft for this feat. 1915 – World War I: The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and the British official Henry McMahon concerning the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire begins. 1916 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Delville Wood as an action within the Battle of the Somme, which was to last until 3 September 1916. 1928 – New Vietnam Revolutionary Party is founded in Huế, providing some of the communist party's most important leaders in its early years. 1933 – Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties are outlawed except the Nazi Party. 1933 – The Nazi eugenics begins with the proclamation of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring that calls for the compulsory sterilization of any citizen who suffers from alleged genetic disorders. 1938 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world. 1943 – In Diamond, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American. 1948 – Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is shot and wounded near the Italian Parliament. 1950 – Korean War: North Korean troops initiate the Battle of Taejon. 1957 – Rawya Ateya takes her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, thereby becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world. 1958 – Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy is overthrown by popular forces led by Abd al-Karim Qasim, who becomes the nation's new leader. 1960 – Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild. 1965 – The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the first close-up photos of another planet. 1969 – Football War: After Honduras loses a soccer match against El Salvador, riots break out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. 1969 – The Federal Reserve Banks begins removing large denominations of United States currency from circulation. 1976 – Capital punishment is abolished in Canada. 1992 – 386BSD is released by Lynne Jolitz and William Jolitz beginning the Open Source operating system revolution. Linus Torvalds releases his Linux soon afterwards. 2002 – French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations. 2003 – Hurricane Claudette gathers strength over the Gulf of Mexico and heads for the Texas coast, killing 2 people. 2015 – NASA's New Horizons probe performs the first flyby of Pluto, and thus completes the initial survey of the Solar System. 2016 – A terrorist vehicular attack in Nice, France kills 86 civilians and injures over 400 others.