It's so cold in Florida that Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park is also closed.  

MISNAMED 

 USA TODAY•January 21, 2020

Heads up if you're vacationing in Florida this chilly week: Several water parks in Florida are closing due to cold temperatures in the Sunshine State.

Volcano Bay at Universal Orlando Resort and Aquatica Orlando have shut down, according to the parks' respective social media platforms. Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park is also closed.  

On the whole, the Southeast had been experiencing a warmer winter, according to AccuWeather. However, cold air has now made a pit stop. As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, the temperature in Orlando was 45℉, according to Accuweather. 
The high will only hit the low 50s.

ROFLMAO HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF THE POLAR BEAR SWIM 

AOC criticises Democratic Party: ‘We don’t have a left party in the United States’

AND CANADIANS WOULD AGREE WITH THAT
 I KNOW I DO 

SINCE WE HAVE A LEFT PARTY A UNION BASED PARTY OPENLY SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC WITH DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS IN THE MINORITY THE NDP

Alex Woodward, The Independent•January 21, 2020

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referenced Donald Trump's

 remarks in a fiery Democratic rally speech: Alex Wong/Getty Images

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained that the Democratic party does not represent the political left in the United States, calling the organisation a “centre or centre-conservative” party that “can’t even get a floor vote” on nationalising health care.

She said: “We can’t even get a floor vote on Medicare for All — not even a floor vote that might get doubled down.”

In an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates during an event honouring Martin Luther King Jr Day, the progressive politician said there are “left members inside the Democratic party” — including freshman congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, among others — ”who are working to try to make that shift happen”.

But the establishment party’s ideology remains firmly within the economic realities of capitalism as a means to address systemic issues like poverty in the US, she explained, saying, “We don’t have a ‘left party’ in the United States.”

She said: “There are a lot of true believers that we can ‘capitalism’ our way out of poverty. If anything, that’s probably the majority.”

Ms Ocasio-Cortez said she agreed with the late civil rights leader, who warned in speeches and in interviews that there is “something wrong with capitalism” and questioned the economic status quo and whether a broader distribution of wealth could begin to repair its failures.

Two weeks before his death, Dr King warned that if America “does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to hell”.

During her interview at Blackout for Human Rights: MLK Now 2020, Ms Ocasio-Cortez also questioned whether the US is more interested in protecting “capital over human beings”, pointing to the 20 January protest in Virginia that attracted thousands of armed protestors, including far-right militia members, demonstrating against the state’s proposed gun-control legislation.

The congresswoman said protesters who took to the streets to call for justice following the police killings of black men were met with a larger display of force from US police than the armed and armoured demonstrators in Virginia.

She said: “There’s this gun rights protest that’s happening down in Richmond ... on MLK Day, but here’s the image that has struck me the most about that, is that when we go out and march for the dignity and the recognition of the lives of people like Freddie Gray and Eric Garner, the whole place is surrounded by police in riot gear without a gun in sight. And here are all of these people flying Confederate flags with semi-automatic weapons, and there’s almost no police officers at that protest. So who or what are our institutions protecting, from whom? That image conveys it all.”

AND FOX NEWS GETS ALL HER GREAT QUOTES RIGHT

AOC: 'No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars'

Evie Fordham

,

Fox Business•January 21, 2020

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said that "no one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars" during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day discussion with author Ta-Nehisi Coates on Monday.

"No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars," Ocasio-Cortez said, receiving applause. "I'm not here to villainize and to say billionaires are inherently morally corrupt. ... It's to say that this system that we live in, life in capitalism always ends in billionaires."

Ocasio-Cortez said billionaires make their money "off the backs" of "undocumented people," "black and brown people being paid under a living wage" and "single mothers."

She addressed a hypothetical "widget" billionaire in her remarks.

WALL STREET THINKS A WARREN PRESIDENCY COULD BE CATASTROPHIC, NEW REPORT FINDS

"You didn't make those widgets, did you? Because you employed thousands of people and paid them less than a living wage to make those widgets for you," Ocasio-Cortez said. "You didn't make those widgets. You sat on a couch while thousands of people were paid modern-day slave wages, and in some cases real modern-day slavery."

Ocasio-Cortez, who advocates for democratic socialism, is not the only Democrat in Washington, D.C., honing in on billionaires these days.

Ocasio-Cortez joined in on presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren's criticism of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in November by saying he's a billionaire "asking for a safe space" amid Democrats' desire for economic disruption.

AOC ACCEPTED TOM STEYER CONTRIBUTION, DESPITE ACCUSING BUTTIGIEG OF 'BEING FUNDED BY BILLIONAIRES'

"Y'all, the billionaires are asking for a safe space — you know, in addition to the entire US economy and political lobbying industry," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter.

Ocasio-Cortez's tweet included a link to a news article about Dimon responding to Warren's criticism by claiming she "vilifies successful people."

The Massachusetts senator frequently rails against the ultra-wealthy and has proposed a wealth tax to fund a number of sweeping plans, including Medicare-for-all, canceling student loan debt for the majority of Americans and providing universal child care, that she’s introduced.

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COULD NOT HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF

Swiss police say Davos 'plumbers' were Russian spies sent to install surveillance gear at key facilities

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF WATERGATE 

Alerted to their unusually long stay in the high-end resort, police picked up two Russian men in Davos in August

BUT THEY ONLY TELL US NOW
 

The sun rises behind snow-covered mountains as morning breaks on the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020.Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

National Post Wire Services
Sam Jones, Financial Times
January 21, 2020

Russian plumbers do not tend to summer in Davos. Even those with diplomatic passports.

Five months before world leaders began their pilgrimage to the annual World Economic Forum this week — among them U.S. president Donald Trump — Swiss police interrupted what reports on Tuesday claimed was the beginnings of a Russian spying operation in the secluded Alpine town.

Alerted to their unusually long stay in the high-end resort, police picked up two Russian men in Davos in August, the Graubünden cantonal police department confirmed to the Financial Times.

The men claimed diplomatic protections, but had not been registered as official diplomats with Bern, the police said.

No indications of criminal acts were found at the time, the police added.

Donald Trump takes veiled swipe at environmental ‘alarmists’ in Davos as Greta Thunberg looks on

According to Zürich’s Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, which carried a detailed report of the incident, police and Swiss federal officials suspected the pair of being Russian intelligence agents, posing as tradesmen in order to install surveillance equipment at key facilities around the town to monitor the private conversations of the world’s powerful and wealthy during the World Economic Forum on behalf of the Kremlin.

The Russian embassy in Bern did not respond to a request for comment.

Though many may doubt how much actionable intelligence even the most subtle of agents could lift from the World Economic Forum, the gathering is nevertheless a rare concentration of global power and influence that is tempting to spymasters. Alongside Mr Trump — and his retinue, among them his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner — other leaders of potential interest to the Kremlin attending this year include president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky and Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam, not to mention hundreds of chief executives and senior government officials.

Attendees spend tens of millions on their personal security at Davos. The total costs for Mr Trump — who gave the conference’s keynote speech on Tuesday — are not fully broken down, due to their classified nature. But some disclosures give a sense of their scale: the cost of car rental alone for officials from the White House Communications Agency — who ensure the integrity and encryption of presidential communications — will be $266,000 for the two-day trip.  

 

World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab attends a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of World Economic Forum during the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos, on January 20, 2020. FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images

Switzerland’s security services have been particularly jumpy about increased Russian intelligence activity in the country in recent years. While Switzerland has long been a playground for Russia’s wealthy émigrés, more recent reports have identified the state — by long tradition a diplomatically neutral no man’s land, at the heart of Europe — as a hub of Russian intrigue.

The Swiss Federal Intelligence Service concluded in a 2018 report that one in four Russian diplomats based in Switzerland was a spy.

Since 2017, a probe by the Swiss attorney-general has been investigating a huge Russian spying organisation against the World Anti-Doping Agency and other sporting bodies, including the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based in Lausanne.

Russia’s feared military intelligence directorate, the GRU, has been particularly active in the country: as well as hitting WADA, agents it sent to target the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague were working from Swiss bases in 2018.

The open-source investigative website Bellingcat has showed that Switzerland was a key liaison ground for GRU operatives responsible for the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal — and the inadvertent killing of Dawn Sturgess — in Britain in March 2018 using the lethal nerve agent novichok. The two principal suspects in the incident — Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov — claimed to run a sports nutrition business and said the six trips they had made to Geneva immediately before the assassination attempt in Salisbury were in order to relax.

— The Financial Times

OR MAYBE THEY WERE FORMER BRIT POLISH EMIGRE PLUMBERS PREPARING FOR LIFE AFTER BREXIT

Ex-reservist wished he had booby-trapped his home to blow up RCMP officers: U.S. court document

FOR MORE ON PATRIK MATHEWS SEE Anti-Racist Canada: The ARC Collective

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/fascists-march-in-virginia.html

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/fbi-busts-members-of-neo-nazi-group.html

 

© FBI; RCMP via AP Law-enforcement agents obtained videos of former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Mathews espousing violent, anti-Semitic and racist language. In one he is wearing a gas mask and attempting to distort his voice.

A Canadian ex-soldier and alleged white supremacist told cohorts in the U.S. that he wished he had booby-trapped his Manitoba home before RCMP searched it last year so the officers “got f—ing exploded,” say dramatic new court documents filed by American prosecutors.

Patrik Mathews and fellow alleged members of the hate group The Base also talk graphically about shooting civilians and police at an event in Richmond, Va., this week, the Canadian suggesting they could “be literally hunting people,” says the bail motion.


Unspecified intelligence about possible violence at a Richmond gun rally Monday prompted the state’s governor to declare a state of emergency around the demonstration.

Mathews, 27, and two co-defendants were arrested last week just days before the event started, with another three members of The Base picked up a day later in Georgia. Despite the presence of thousands of protesters, many toting firearms, the rally unfolded peacefully.
FBI arrests fugitive Canadian reservist after tapping into encrypted neo-Nazi chatroom
Three alleged neo-Nazis caught with machine gun ahead of Virginia gun rally: FBI
RCMP, feds pressed to find missing reservist with alleged links to neo-Nazis

The new court document submitted by a U.S. Attorney’s office in Maryland also details one of several videos allegedly made by Mathews. Wearing a gas mask, the former Manitoba-based reservist promotes derailing trains, murdering people and poisoning water supplies as part of a “revolution” to save the white race.

Mathews and alleged accomplices Brian Mark Lemley, 33, and William Bilbrough, 19, appear in court Wednesday for a bail hearing. Prosecutors indicate in the motion they want the trio be kept behind bars until their trial.

“The defendants in this domestic terrorism investigation must be detained,” said the memorandum. “No condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of any defendant or the safety of any other person.”

Mathews was exposed as an alleged member of The Base – a new but seemingly burgeoning group that espouses trying to trigger a race war – last August after a Winnipeg Free Press reporter infiltrated the organization.

He had been a combat engineer with a Winnipeg-based reserve unit but was released by the Armed Forces after the allegations surfaced.

RCMP later searched his home in Beausejour, Man., and briefly detained him. Soon after, he disappeared. His whereabouts were a mystery until his arrest last week.

The freshly filed motion provides more detail about the extensive U.S. police investigation, which included a “sneak-and-peak” warrant that allowed officers to enter the apartment where Mathews and Lemley stayed until their arrest.

They also installed a hidden camera and microphone in the apartment, which allegedly captured Mathews’ discussion of the RCMP raid of his home last Aug. 19.

“I could really wish they f—ing all started searching my place, accidentally trip a pin, and boom and the whole house goes boom,” the document quotes him as saying. “Boy, wouldn’t that be terrible, a bunch of f—ing RCMP search experts got f—ing exploded.”

© Handout-RCMP Patrik Mathews

He then muses that “you reach the most violent extreme solution first and you talk yourself out of doing that and then little by little you lose all inhibitions.”

The physical search of the apartment and electronic devices in it turned up several videos in which he espoused violence and used anti-Semitic and racist language, the prosecutors allege.

The filing includes a transcript and screengrab from one video in which he wears the gas mask in an attempt to disguise his voice. He says violent revolution is needed for the white race to survive.

“Derail some f—-ing trains, kill some people and poison some water supplies,” he says, according to the document. “You better be f—ing ready to do those things.”

But perhaps the most ominous evidence contained in the memorandum details statements the men allegedly made about an event in Richmond, Va., Monday, an apparent reference to the gun rally.

Mathews is quoted as saying into the concealed recording device that while events are unfolding in Virginia, they could shut down shut down highways and derail trains to create instability.

“You can kick off the economic collapse of the U.S. within a week,” he says, according to the motion.

Experts call The Base an “accelerationist” white supremacist group, meaning that its purported goal is to bring about social collapse and a race war.

The document also sheds more light on the police investigation of Mathews and his cohorts. It traces the Canadian’s journey across the Manitoba-Minnesota border late last August, with Lemley and Bilbrough eventually picking him up in Michigan. He then travels first to Georgia, spending time there with other Base members, then Maryland and Delaware.

The filing includes security-camera screen grabs of Lemley and Mathews in a truck passing through a tunnel near Norfolk, Va., and of the pair exiting a store where they had bought ammunition for an assault rifle they made.

It also reports that the secret camera at one point caught Mathews manipulating the home-made rifle “while making imaginary gunshot noises.”

---30---

3-year-old boy has just become the youngest member of Mensa UK, the largest international high IQ society
 I THOUGHT MENSA WAS THE ONLY HIGH IQ SOCIETY (OF SELF DESCRIBED ELITISTS)

A THREE YEAR OLD FINALLY MAKES A MOCKERY OF THE FAKERY OF THESE

IVORY TOWER EGOS 

 

© Mohd Hilmy Naim Haryz with his mom, Nur Anira Asyikin.

A 3-year-old Malaysian boy living in the UK has become the youngest member to join Mensa UK, the largest and oldest international high IQ society in the world, Mensa officials said.

Muhammad Haryz Nadzim was invited to join Mensa after meeting with a psychologist and scoring 142 on the Stanford-Binet IQ test, placing him in the 99.7th percentile, his mother, Nur Anira Asyikin, told CNN.


"Well done to Haryz on his invitation to join Mensa," John Stevenage, the chief executive of British Mensa, said in a statement to CNN. "He is obviously a very bright young man and we are delighted to welcome him to Mensa."

To become a member of British Mensa, an individual must "demonstrate an IQ in the top two per cent of the population," according to their website.

The supervised Mensa IQ test is designed for children and adults above 10 and a half years old. For children less than 10 years, they have to be assessed by an educational psychologist to determine their IQ score.

Along with his evaluation by a psychologist, Haryz' score on the Stanford-Binet played a large role in his acceptance to British Mensa, Mensa spokesperson Charles Brown told CNN. The test consists of a combination of math, reading, memorization, and logical thinking questions.

Just your 'typical' 3-year-old

Haryz mom, an engineer living in Durham, England, says her family knew that he was special even before Mensa. At Kumon, the after school math and reading program, he was named last September to the honor roll for advanced students in both subjects. Although she refers to him as her "mini brainbox," the little genius is a normal kid by all other standards.

"He's very much your typical 3-year-old," Asyikin said. "He really loves painting and reading books, really anything arts and crafts. He loves playing with Legos and Play-Doh especially ..."

ANNUAL MENSA MEETING WILL NOW INCLUDE PLAY-DOH SESSION
And when he isn't painting or building, Haryz enjoys singing.

"We are so proud and happy for Haryz," Asyikin told CNN. "He's not only good at academics, but he's just like other children who loves playing and growing up. We know he will give so much back to society in the future."

 

© Nur Anira Asyikin

Abused circus animals arrive at South African sanctuary

LIONS, TIGERS, AND CHEETAHS, OH MY

HOW ABOUT SENDING THE STARVING LIONS AT THE KHARTOUM ZOO THERE

A campaign under the hashtag #SudanAnimalRescue calling for help to save the lions is growing. https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/01/one-of-five-sick-and-starving-lions.html

MOGOMOTSI MAGOME,Associated Press•January 21, 2020




Guatemala South Africa Animal Rescue
Stripes, one of 17 rescued tigers and lions from Guatemala circuses is released at the Animal Defenders International Wildlife Sanctuary in Winburg, South Africa, Tuesday Jan. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

WINBURG, South Africa (AP) — Twelve tigers and five lions have been relocated to a sanctuary in South Africa after being rescued from circuses in Guatemala following years of abuse and confinement.

The animals, both cubs and adults, are among 200 that have been rescued from the circus industry in Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia since 2018. The countries have banned the use of animals in circuses.

Enforcement of the law in Guatemala has been a challenge, so the government has partnered with animal rights groups such as the London-based Animal Defenders International to help.

"These animals have suffered a lifetime of deprivation and abuse," ADI president Jan Creamer said in a statement. The group runs the South Africa sanctuary, which is already home to 26 rescued lions.

The lions and tigers were transported with chartered aircraft to South Africa, arriving Tuesday morning, then were carried to the sanctuary in large trucks.

They were released into their new habitat soon after their arrival. As rain poured down, they calmly walked around their enclosures on the 455-acre (184-hectare) farm, enjoying their first encounter with nature after years of confinement.

According to the ADI, the animals were kept at a vehicle scrapyard in Guatemala for years and physically abused to make them submissive.

All have needed veterinary treatment for health issues due to inbreeding, and some needed dental surgery to repair smashed teeth. Some had had their claws and teeth removed. Some have scars from the abuse.

Because of the rough treatment and confinement, the animals will not be released into the wild.

“South Africa obviously has the perfect climate for the lions, and it's an advanced country in that it has good infrastructure, airports and roads so it helps us to manage the animals and to bring them here,” Creamer said.

---30---



The Aspinall Foundation: World First as Cheetah Brothers Are Relocated From UK to South Africa

PR Newswire•January 21, 2020

The Aspinall Foundation are leading the groundbreaking project to 'rewild' two cheetahs from Howletts Wild Animal Park, Kent

HYTHE, England, Jan. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Two 2.5 year-old cheetahs from Howletts Wild Animal Park, near Canterbury will leave the park in early spring 2020 for a new life in South Africa.
 

Saba and Nairo at Howletts Wild Animal Park

After a 6,000 mile flight, the pair will first settle in at Ashia's Cheetah Center in South Africa's Western Cape before eventually moving to Mount Camdeboo Private Game Reserve, a 14,000 hectare property in Great Karoo. There, they will undergo a rewilding process developed and successfully applied by Ashia over the last two years. Mount Camdeboo is home to many rescued and rehabilitated animals, including a bull elephant rescued by The Aspinall Foundation in partnership with the Mount Camdeboo team in October 2019.

Saba was hand-reared by Aspinall Foundation Chairman Damian Aspinall and his wife, Victoria in their home.

Damian and Victoria will accompany Saba & Nairo on their journey from the UK to South Africa and will personally release them into their new home. The groundbreaking project is the first time a captive-born, hand-raised cheetah has left the UK for rewilding in Africa.

Cheetahs are listed as Vulnerable by the ICUN, with an estimated 6,674 individuals remaining in the wild. Habitat loss, conflict with humans and increasing pressure from the illegal pet trade means that cheetah only inhabit around 10% of their historic range. Saba & Nairo's rewilding and participation in a breeding programme will bring vital new genetics to the South African population.

A major fundraising campaign has been launched to support the move. Big cat-fans will have the opportunity to donate, adopt Saba & Nairo or purchase limited edition merchandise on The Aspinall Foundation website. All profits will go directly to the move and ongoing care and monitoring of Saba & Nairo.

Damian Aspinall, Chairman of The Aspinall Foundation said: 'It will be difficult to say goodbye to Saba & Nairo but finding ways to return animals to the wild is something I believe in passionately. This approach may challenge the zoo community, but it is the right thing to do and I sincerely hope more zoos around the world finally take notice and follow suit.

With fewer than 7,000 cheetah remaining in the wild, it is more important than ever to support the wild population by bringing captive bred animals back to their ancestral homes for rewilding. We at The Aspinall Foundation have proven time and time again that it can work. We have already successfully rewilded animals in Congo, Gabon, Java, South Africa, Tanzania and China.

We have selected our partners for this project very carefully and I have complete faith in the teams at Ashia and Mount Camdeboo Private Reserve, who we will work closely with every step of the way.'

For further information about The Aspinall Foundation, please visit www.aspinallfoundation.org

Editors' Notes

The Aspinall Foundation manages conservation projects in Congo, Gabon, Indonesia, Madagascar and Southern Africa, as well as providing financial support to various partner projects around the world. The conservation charity's important work helps prevent some of the most endangered species on the planet from becoming extinct.

The Aspinall Foundation works closely with two wildlife parks in Kent - Port Lympne Hotel and Reserve and Howletts Wild Animal Park. The parks are breeding sanctuaries for some of the world's most endangered species. Where possible, animals born at the parks are released into protected areas of their natural habitat, as part of The Aspinall Foundation's Back To The Wild programme.

The Aspinall Foundation team are working closely with Ashia (www.ashia.co.za) and Mount Camdeboo Private Reserve (www.mountcamdeboo.com) to rewild Saba & Nairo.

Ashia, a world-class cheetah centre near Cape Town in South Africa's Western Cape, was founded to help prevent the further decline of cheetah populations and to increase the genetic gene pool through its captive Breeding, Wilding and Release Program. Ashia is successfully returning captive born cheetahs into the protected wild of South African game reserves and national parks. The relatedness of the reserve populations is becoming an issue and preventing inbreeding without supplementation from outside will be practically impossible.

Mount Camdeboo, which will be Saba & Nairo's final home, is a 14,000 hectare private reserve.

Information:

The Aspinall Foundation
Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve,
Aldington Rd,
Nr Hythe,
Kent,
CT21 4PD

Photo - https://media.zenfs.com/en/prnewswire.com/18a251d84bf527f93ea88a16176d1137
Photo - https://media.zenfs.com/en/prnewswire.com/3594d4d604be0c574d47631cee118a9e
Photo - https://media.zenfs.com/en/prnewswire.com/a5e8ba42c5f2e4f3766b6ebc9be3ca37

Saba and Nairo at Howletts Wild Animal Park

Saba and Nairo at Howletts Wild Animal Park

Advocates: Honduran mother, children deported to Guatemala

NOMAAN MERCHANT, Associated Press•January 21, 2020

HOUSTON (AP) — A Honduran mother and her two children who had been hospitalized have been deported to Guatemala under a Trump administration policy of sending some people seeking asylum in the U.S. to third countries, advocates for the mother said Tuesday.

Lawyers had asked a federal judge last week to stop the U.S. government from deporting the family. U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez did not rule on their request prior to Tuesday, the day the government had said it intended to remove the mother and her two children, ages 1 and 6, under a plan to send families to different countries so they can seek asylum elsewhere.

The 1-year-old was diagnosed with the flu, while the 6-year-old had diarrhea and a fever, according to Dr. Amy Cohen, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Every Last One. Cohen says the children fell sick while in U.S. Customs and Border Protection Custody after the family crossed the border without authorization in December.

Both children were hospitalized over the weekend. In a court filing, government lawyers said the infant was being monitored to ensure she could be deported.

Cohen said Tuesday that the children were released from the hospital Monday and a nurse had certified they could travel. According to Cohen, the family was flown to Guatemala and is now staying at a shelter in Guatemala City. They will have to request asylum in Guatemala or leave the country immediately.

“The cruelty was beyond the pale — not only in the removal itself but also in the details of the treatment of this mother and her small children," she said.

CBP did not respond to several requests for comment on the case.

President Donald Trump's administration reached a deal last year with Guatemala to take in asylum-seekers from Honduras and El Salvador. It has since said it will send Mexican asylum seekers to Guatemala as well. The U.S. has also announced similar agreements with Honduras and El Salvador.

The Trump administration says the deals, known as asylum cooperative agreements, allow migrants from Central America to “seek protection within the region," even though thousands of people flee El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras annually due to endemic poverty, crime, and political or religious persecution. The American Civil Liberties Union and other legal groups have sued to try to prevent the agreements from being enforced.

As of last week, at least 115 people originally from Honduras and El Salvador had been sent by the U.S. to Guatemala.

Mothers who occupied vacant Oakland house will be allowed to buy it

HOME OWNERSHIP IS BETTER THAN RENTING

PROPERTY IS THEFT, PROPERTY IS FREEDOMhttps://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/proudhon/property/

LANDLORDS ARE THIEVES, 

HOME OWNERSHIP IS A RIGHT

Vivian Ho in Oakland,The Guardian•January 20, 2020

Photograph: Marisa Kendall/AP

The homeless mothers who took over a vacant house in Oakland, California, and occupied it for almost two months will be allowed to purchase the property – a major victory in a movement working to keep such homes out of the possession of speculators.

The group Moms 4 Housing entered the house on Magnolia Street on 18 November with the intent to stay. The house had sat vacant for more than two years before it was purchased in July at a foreclosure auction for $501,078 by Wedgewood Properties, a real estate investment company with a history of buying up foreclosed-upon houses cheaply, evicting the tenants, renovating the homes and then putting them back on the market at much higher prices.

Related: The Oakland women who took over a vacant lot to house the homeless

Housing advocates say companies such as Wedgewood fueled the housing crisis that now grips the state, which needs anywhere between 1.8m and 3.5m new housing units by 2025. More than 15,500 units remain vacant in Oakland alone, according to the latest US Census Bureau data, while 4,071 people are homeless. House-flipping has led to rapid gentrification, which then in turn led to the widespread displacement of black residents.

In Oakland, 78% of the homeless population reported that their last place of residence before becoming homeless was within county limits. Seventy per cent were black.

Moms 4 Housing chose the Magnolia Street house in part to try to force Wedgewood to negotiate the sale of the home back to the community.

“This is what happens when we organize, when people come together to build the beloved community,” Dominique Walker, one of the mothers who lived in the house with her two children, said in a statement, on the day that America marked Martin Luther King Day. “Today we honor Dr King’s radical legacy by taking Oakland back from banks and corporations.”

With the housing and homelessness crisis worsening each day, the mothers received widespread support for their cause, from local lawmakers to California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, who praised the activists.

Moms 4 Housing had brought the issue to court, but a judge ruled in favor of Wedgewood. Sheriff deputies arrived in the early hours of 15 January to evict them, arresting two of the mothers and two of their supporters.

Wedgewood has maintained that the mothers had committed a criminal act in breaking into the house, and the house legally belonged to the company.

“Wedgewood has always been and continues to be open to thoughtful and purposeful discussions,” spokesman Sam Singer said in a statement.

“After regaining possession of Magnolia Street, we engaged in discussions with governor Gavin Newsom, mayor Libby Schaaf and councilman Larry Reid. These led to progress that everyone should agree is a step in the right direction in helping to address Oakland’s homelessness and housing crisis.”

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Outcry grows over 28 missing or murdered Native American women in a Montana county as 16-year-old Selena Not Afraid is found dead

The body of 16-year-old Selena Shelley Faye Not Afraid was found Monday

The Montana teenager vanished New Year's Day and was last seen at the eastbound Interstate 90 rest area

Her discovery Monday morning makes her the 28th missing or murdered indigenous woman (MMIW) from Big Horn County since 1990

A Department of Interior search team found Selena's body around 10.30am during a 'systematic grid search' but cops said foul play wasn't suspected 

Police have been labelled negligent in the cases of MMIW or girls, and in some cases the perpetrators of violence 

Studies have found that law enforcement in rural communities where many Native Americans live have not been able to properly document MMIW

A demographer who grew up in Big Horn County said: 'Native women have been dehumanized from the very beginning'

By LEAH SIMPSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 20 January 2020 

Native Americans across the country have appealed for immediate and thorough investigations into missing or murdered women of the community, as the body of 16-year-old Selena Shelley Faye Not Afraid was found.

The Montana teenager vanished New Year's Day and was last seen at the eastbound Interstate 90 rest area between Billings and Hardin, Montana that afternoon.

Her discovery Monday morning makes her the 28th missing or murdered indigenous woman (MMIW) from Big Horn County since 1990, but she was one of 42 in the state of Montana where 152 people were missing.

'Native women have been dehumanized from the very beginning,' Desi Rodriguez-Lonebear, a demographer who grew up in Big Horn County told the New York Times. 'The law has failed us time and time again. We're tired of it. We're tired of our people dying, of our kids going to jail.'



The body of 16-year-old Selena Shelley Faye Not Afraid was found Monday. Her discovery Monday morning makes her the 28th missing or murdered indigenous woman (MMIW) from Big Horn County since 1990


The Montana teenager vanished New Year's Day and was last seen at the eastbound Interstate 90 rest area

The Sovereign Bodies Institute (SBI) board member spoke shortly before Selena was found dead.

Police said Selena was last seen leaving a vehicle near a rest stop after returning home from a party in Billings. They reported she was last seen leaving a disabled vehicle and walking into a field.

Information from the FBI shared on January 8 described her as not dressed for the weather conditions.

The girl's mother Jackie Big Hair and father Leroy Not Afraid were desperate for her safe return and search teams scanned the area in hopes of locating her.

Amid snow blizzards, her family and community held candlelit vigils and took part in rallies outside the courthouse as the urged law enforcement to do more.

'We're here demanding it,' Selena's aunt Cheryl Horn told the Times. 'We're not being quiet. We're not leaving.'

A Department of Interior search team found Selena's body around 10.30am during a 'systematic grid search' of an area southwest of the rest stop she had vanished from.

Big Horn County Sheriff Lawerence Big Hair confirmed Monday afternoon that teen from Hardin was found about three quarters of a mile from where she went missing.

'Please keep Jackie, Leroy and their extended family members in your thoughts and give them the time and space to grieve and come to grips with this terrible loss,' he said.

The sheriff said the cause of death is being investigated but foul play was not suspected.

It's the latest in a spate of tragic MMIW cases.



It's the latest in a spate of tragic MMIW cases. According to SBI, which has created its own database of cases, in November 2019, 37 percent of missing girls were Indigenous. However Indigenous girls only make up 6 percent of the population

Mother-of-six Bonnie Three Irons was found dead in the mountains in April 2017.

Henny Scott, 14, was repeatedly reported missing by her family in December 2018 but it took weeks for a public bulletin to go out. She was found dead two weeks after she vanished.

Her great-grandmother Rose Old Bear was murdered in Hardin in the 1950s, her great-aunt Harriet Wilson was murdered outside Hardin in the 1970s.

Montana girl Kaysera StopsPrettyPlaces, 18, was found dead in a backyard near her home, four days after she went missing in Hardin in August. She had gone missing a total of nine times.

Selena's aunt posted a tribute on Facebook.

'We brought our baby girl home,' Horn said. 'Now she can Rest In Peace. Jackie and I want to thank everyone for helping us bring our girl home.'

She added that she will continue to seek justice for MMIW.

'I'm not done my girl!! I will continue the fight!!' Horn posted as followers commented supporting her fight for justice.

Police have been labelled negligent in the cases of MMIW or girls, and in some cases the perpetrators of violence.

In 2019, Fort Peck tribal police officer Mychal Damon, was charged with abusive sexual contact without permission, allegedly knowing the girl was under the age of 12.



Police said Selena was last seen leaving a vehicle near a rest stop after returning home from a party in Billings. They reported she was last seen leaving a disabled vehicle and walking into a field





Cops had been pushed to investigate the people Selena was seen riding with in a van




'We brought our baby girl home,' Selena's aunt Horn said. 'Now she can Rest In Peace. Jackie and I want to thank everyone for helping us bring our girl home'

Former Bureau of Indian Affairs police officer Dana was found guilty of raping a woman in her home on the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana in 2015.

The federal government dismissed two counts of lying to federal officers and chose not to prosecute him for sexual abuse, as part of a plea deal. The victim's attempt to sue was thrown out.

Selena's brother Preston was shot dead by Billings police officers; her sister Tristen was hit and killed by a car; and her twin sister died by suicide when she was 11 years old.

Cops had been pushed to investigate the people Selena was seen riding with in a van.

Crow tribe member and county prosecutor Jay Harris had said they were looking to create their own police force on the 2.3 million acre reservation amid a state of emergency regarding the investigations of missing women.

'Why does nobody care about this?' one of Kaysera's aunts said to the Times about the girl found dead this summer. The aunt, Grace Bulltail, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison added: 'We're not being given any information.'

Selena's aunt had compared the latest missing girl to Kaysera.

'This is the justice that Kaysera didn't get,' Horn said before her niece was found dead.


Mother-of-six Bonnie Three Irons (above) was found dead in the mountains in April 2017. Henny Scott (below), 14, was repeatedly reported missing by her family in December 2018





Montana girl Kaysera StopsPrettyPlaces, 18, was found dead in a backyard near her home, four days after she went missing in Hardin in August. Kaysera is pictured on a poster as the community asked for justice

Kaysera's aunt, Grace Bulltail (pictured), had said they were 'not being given any information' about the missing teen. Selena's aunt, Horn, compared the new case to Kaysera's before Selena was found dead

According to SBI, which has created its own database of cases, in November 2019, 37 percent of missing girls were Indigenous. However Indigenous girls only make up 6 percent of the population.

A 2017 Harvard Journal of Law and Gender report cites data showing that 'rural communities' such as those in Montana or North Dakota 'do not have the infrastructure, leadership capacity, or expertise to respond to the rapid social changes and population growth' creating the conditions for violent crime to flourish.

The SBI cites another study that found economic development has brought economic opportunity but it has meant an increase in violent crime, drug abuse, and sex trafficking of Native women and children. It adds that the rapid pace of oil and gas development 'overwhelms the existing law enforcement and social services infrastructure on many reservations'.

SBI takes into account cases from 1900 to the present day, but notes 69 percent of the cases have occurred since 2000.

In the Northern Plains, including the Dakotas, Montana, and Nebraska, 411 MMIWG went missing or were killed in those states, or who come from tribal nations in these four states. Four out of five cases remain unsolved with no arrests.

Between 2017 and 2019, there were approximately 30-40 cases per year, not including cases where the missing person was safely located.

SBI estimates the number to be more like 3,500 to 4,700 since 1900.



Selena's brother Preston was shot dead by Billings police officers; her sister Tristen was hit and killed by a car; and her twin sister died by suicide when she was 11 years old

Read more:
Rural Montana Had Already Lost Too Many Native Women. Then Selena Disappeared. - The New York Times