Biden prevented Israeli 'occupation' from appearing in Democratic platform

Democratic presidential nominee reportedly prevented a move to mention Israeli “occupation” in the Democratic Party’s platform.

THIS IS THE BIDEN STORY THE REST IS FLUFF

Elad Benari , 07/08/20 03:10

Joe Biden
Reuters

Former US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden prevented a move to mention Israeli “occupation” in the Democratic Party’s platform, Foreign Policy reported on Thursday.

In early July, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and other influential progressives were convinced that they had secured a critical concession from Biden’s campaign by having the platform assert that Palestinian Arabs had a right to live free of foreign “occupation,” a scarcely veiled reference to Israel.

But days before a draft platform was released on July 15, the presumptive Democratic nominee personally weighed in, according to three sources familiar with the discussion, ordering his advisors not to include any reference to Israeli “occupation.”

The decision, according to these sources, followed heavy last-minute lobbying by pro-Israel advocacy groups. Biden aides subsequently phoned progressive leaders and urged them to drop their demand to declare Israel an occupying power, arguing that the inclusion of the phrase threatened to undermine unity within the Democratic Party.

“The question of whether to allow the text to refer to ‘occupation’ or use the phrase ‘end the occupation’ was taken to the vice president and he said ‘no,’” Jason Isaacson, the chief policy and political affairs officer at the American Jewish Committee, told Foreign Policy. “This is not an issue on which the party can bend because it would be contrary to the position of Joe Biden.”

The retreat reflected the reluctance of the former vice president to reverse decades of staunch support for Israel, even as Biden and his party are expressing growing support for reestablishing diplomatic ties with the Palestinians and reinforcing the need to pay greater heed to Palestinian rights.It also marked something of a victory for the party’s establishment, which has sought to preserve close relations with Israel.

The draft 2020 platform, which was released in late July, includes language that opposes an Israeli move to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and supports the rights of Palestinian Arabs.

FALSE EQUIVALENCY

The draft document states, “Democrats oppose any unilateral steps by either side—

including annexation—that undermine prospects for two states. Democrats will continue to stand against incitement and terror. We oppose settlement expansion. We believe that while Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations, it should remain the capital of Israel, an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.”

Democrats have been vocal in their opposition to Israel’s plan to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria, a move which could have been carried out on July 1, in accordance with the coalition agreement signed between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

Recently, four House Democrats, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, wrote to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling on the United States to cut assistance to Israel should it proceed to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

Previously, a group of Democratic Senators, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), issued a statement in which they expressed their opposition to the sovereignty move.

The senators noted that direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians are “the only path for a durable peace.” They warned that annexation “could undermine regional stability and broader US national security interests in the region.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a prominent Democrat, recently proposed legislation that would ban US assistance to Israel from being used to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

LONG LIVE THE BOURGEOIS DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION!

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: The teacher challenging Lukashenko — Europe's last dictator

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a teacher, is the greatest challenge yet to the reign of Alexander Lukashenko, who vies for a sixth term as Belarus' president. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has had a staggering and unprecedented rise.

LOVE POWER PEACE/VICTORY


Svetlana Tikhanovskaya does not describe herself as a politician. Indeed, she says she just wants her family back and to be able to cook for them. Yet, for now, she is running for election, and observers consider the 37-year-old stay-at-home parent, a teacher and interpreter by profession, perhaps the greatest challenge yet to the reign of President Alexander Lukashenko, who is seeking a sixth term on Sunday.
Tikhanovskaya ended up in this position almost by chance. It was initially her husband, the 41-year-old video blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, who wanted to challenge the president. However, he was arrested before the election campaign even kicked off and charged with taking part in an unauthorized demonstration at the beginning of the year.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya eyes an end to Lukashenko's grip on power

Read more: Anti-government protesters rally ahead of Belarus vote

When Tikhanovsky was formally disqualified, Tikhanovskaya decided to run instead. And, surprisingly, she was able to collect the 100,000 required signatures and made the ballot. After her husband was released, he ran her campaign for a few days before being arrested again. He is currently in detention and accused of violence against the police. His supporters say that he was provoked.
Read more: Tikhanovskaya challenges Lukashenko's power in Belarus vote

Tikhanovskaya (center) at a campaign rally in Minsk

An inauspicious start

Tikhanovskaya, who is from a small southwestern town, studied foreign languages before going on to work as a translator in Gomel, the second-biggest city in Belarus. This is where she met her husband, with whom she has two children. She stopped working to look after her family. Though she says she was never interested in politics, she says that she learned a lot about her country and its inhabitants traveling with her husband. He had to travel a lot for a video blog that he launched on YouTube at the beginning of 2019.

Read more: Belarus blocks Lukashenko's rival Babariko from presidential vote

It's the first time that such an outsider has taken part in the authoritarian country's electoral process. It's almost as if an amateur runner were suddenly in a position to win the Olympics. However, in this case, Tikhanovskaya could be excluded at any time. So far, however, she is still in the race and the preparations have gone so well that she is considered one of the favorites. Her election campaign team was boosted by support from two political heavyweights: the former banker Viktor Babariko and the former diplomat Valery Tsepkalo, who were also barred from running.

Tens of thousands of people have turned up to Tikhanovskaya's rallies — breaking records in a country where people have long been discouraged from taking part in politics and tend to be either dispassionate or scared. Tikhanovskaya's election program is rudimentary, but she has a few clear goals: Belarusian independence and the release of all political prisoners, including her husband. If she wins, she has pledged to hold free elections within six months later so that currently barred opposition candidates can run and she can return to raising her family.
Read more: Lukashenko accuses Russian mercenaries, critics of plotting attack

Tens of thousands of supporters have flocked to rallies for Tikhanovskaya

An unusual approach

It is clear that Tikhanovskaya is an unusual candidate with an unusual approach to the task at hand. At the beginning she came across as unsure, but honest and this went down well. The more used to her role she became, the more her self-confidence grew. She was not afraid of saying that she did not have all the answers and admitted that she was no expert regarding foreign policy or economic reform.

Tikhanovskaya has avoided controversial subjects, but she has not allowed the president to bully her with his frequent attacks. When he said that someone who had not served in the army could not be head of state, she responded with the suggestion that only mothers should be allowed to run. Though she refuses to be intimidated, she did send her children abroad after an anonymous threat.

The campaign is a sign that Belarus is changing. Tikhanovskaya success has come as a surprise to many in a country that has been under the president's control for 26 years. People want to see a new face at the top — and it almost doesn't matter whose.

Read more: Lukashenko is playing games to keep his grip on power

At the moment, however, it looks like Lukashenko still has the advantage. Once again, there will be no independent election observers. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has not been invited.


Belarus elections: Lukashenko's authoritarian grip faces test

Alexander Lukashenko is seeing his dominance challenged in an election campaign that has held several surprises. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's campaign has given the opposition in Belarus a clear female profile




It has been a long time since a presidential election in Belarus promised to be as exciting as the vote scheduled for Sunday. Initially, the election looked as if it would be a routine victory for the authoritarian incumbent, Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet republic on the European Union's eastern border since 1994.

The 65-year-old former director of a large Soviet agricultural enterprise, Lukashenko is the longest-serving president in Europe. EU media refer to him as "Europe's last dictator."

The 2020 election campaign has not turned out the way Lukashenko likely expected. In just a matter of weeks, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old teacher and interpreter and the wife of the imprisoned blogger and activist Sergei Tikhanovsky, has become a symbolic figure for Lukashenko's opponents. When her husband, whom Amnesty International describes as a "prisoner of conscience," was not permitted to run in the election, Tikhanovskaya entered the race — and tens of thousands of people attended her rallies. "I'm tired of being silent," she said at a rally in the capital, Minsk, at the end of July.

Read more: Lukashenko is playing games to keep his grip on power

An emerging opposition

Unlike in neighboring Ukraine, people in Belarus were long thought of as politically passive by international observers, partly thanks to Lukashenko's relatively successful economic policies, which benefited from close ties with Russia. In the past years, however, there have been repeated disputes with Moscow over energy shipments.

Now, people's willingness to protest seems to have increased. Voters stood in long lines to give their signatures in support of opposition candidates, as required under Belarusian election law, and they took to the streets in nationwide protests when candidates were arrested.

Leaders of the nationalist opposition parties, who have fought Lukashenko without success for years, were unable to agree on a candidate. Some of them have been arrested.

One of the new social phenomena associated with this election is the involvement of the urban middle class, which had tended to steer clear of public political statements. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why two representatives of the ruling elite announced that they, too, wanted to run for president: Viktor Babariko, the longtime head of Belgazprombank — a subsidiary of the Russian energy giant Gazprom — and Valery Tsepkalo, a former diplomat and the founder of Belarus Hi-Tech Park.

Tikhanovskaya has become a symbol of the opposition in Belarus

The willingness of these two men to challenge Lukashenko was one of this campaign's biggest surprises. They did not get far and were not admitted as candidates on procedural grounds. Babariko was accused of economic crimes and arrested and remains in custody, and Tsepkalo left for Russia with his family.

The fact that Babariko and Tsepkalo's campaigns, led by young women, joined Tikhanovskaya's has given the opposition in Belarus a clear female profile. Women have been showing up for rallies to put an end to Lukashenko's presidency. Two of the five candidates on Sunday's ballot are women.

With no independent polling, it is hard to say how much of a challenge Tikhanovskaya will pose for Lukashenko. State media claim that Lukashenko has the support of about 70% of Belarusians. Some opposition politicians and media report that the president's approval rating is, in fact, in the single-digit range.

The coronavirus campaign

Many of the approximately 9.5 million Belarusians have been angry about how the state has dealt with the pandemic. As the novel coronavirus spread in Belarus, Lukashenko ignored it.

The president recommended vodka and sauna visits as protective measures. Lukashenko refused to impose a lockdown.

At the end of July, Lukashenko admitted that he had contracted COVID-19. The president's opponents, who had taken the problem seriously from early on, had worn masks and kept their distance. .

Belarus opposition hosts largest rally in a decade

Where is Russia?

In previous presidential elections in Belarus, there was a geopolitical division of roles: Lukashenko advocated closer ties to Russia, while the opposition urged better relations with the European Union. That division is not as pronounced ahead of the current election. Relations with Russia have been tense for months — partly because Lukashenko himself has balked at a still closer integration between the countries.


Lukashenko's strained ties with Putin have raised questions over his ability to hold onto power

The president has accused Russia of interfering in past election campaigns and supporting opposition candidates. Just days before Sunday's election, news of the arrest of 33 Russians accused by Belarusian authorities of being "mercenaries" with a private Russian combat squad caused a stir. Belarus accuses them of plotting mass unrest, which Russia has denied.

Read more: Journalists under pressure in Belarus as Lukashenko runs for presidency

It is unlikely that Lukashenko will lose the election — but it no longer seems impossible. The head of state has never shied away from holding on to power by force. Protests after the 2010 presidential election were brutally suppressed and opposition leaders arrested.

Back then, the United States and EU reacted with sanctions that were left in place until just a few years ago. Now history may repeat itself. Some observers fear the emergence of a police state.

The future of Belarus will become apparent after Sunday's election whether and how much he has changed in that regard.

What's behind Israel's growing protests?

Israelis have been taking to the streets in increasing numbers for weeks, protesting against the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The country is at a crucial juncture.



Last Saturday, a rally in Jerusalem drew more than 10,000 protesters, with thousands more protesting elsewhere in the country, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation.

This was just the latest in a series of weekly demonstrations which have rocked Israel for months, drawing a growing number of people who are angry with the government's handling of a second wave of COVID-19 infections and the economic impact of the pandemic.

Political dissatisfaction is at the heart of these protests.

"To put it in two words, the main goal is 'Bibi – resign,' says 59-year-old Tali Etzion from Tel Aviv, who's been participating in anti-government demonstrations since the country's 2011 social protests, which saw hundreds of thousands in the streets demanding economic justice and an end to corruption.

"In more than two words, we all believe, each one from their own angle, that Netanyahu is the wrong person to lead a country — in so-called normal times and even more so in times like these," Etzion explains, referring to the management of the coronavirus crisis.

Read more: Israel's anti-government protests deepen Netanyahu's problems

Tali Etzion says Israelis are increasingly fed up with Netanyahu's failed policies

"The gap between citizens whose lives have been so badly damaged and people who claim to be leaders but pad themselves to no end is unbearable," says Ofer Shelley, 50, a pianist and concert producer from Jerusalem, whose livelihood as a musician has been severely affected by the government's "complete detachment from the people," as he calls it.

"None of our leaders stand up and say 'I see your suffering, I see the distress.' They don't even bother talking to the people protesting. Not once."

No central organization 

DIY THIS IS WHAT ANARCHY LOOKS LIKE
Both Netanyahu and ministers from his right-wing Likud party have labeled the demonstrations as "Leftist protests," and called their participants "anarchists." This view is shared by some in the Israeli public, but many — including the protesters themselves — beg to differ.

"Netanyahu denies the nature of the demonstrations, their scope and even the identity of their participants," says Efrat Safran, 57, a longtime protester and a trained lawyer from the central city of Ramat Hasharon, who's also a member of a protest group called "Mothers Against Police Violence," meant to serve as a buffer between protesters and police.

"No single body or person is organizing this," she says. "The protests have grown organically and include people from across the political spectrum," including what she refers to as "disillusioned" Netanyahu voters.

And indeed, in a now-viral tweet, a protester called Arnon Grossman, a self-declared Likud voter, is seen explaining on video why he'd been attending the anti-government rallies, while other Likud supporters are holding a sign which reads "Bibi, also Likud voters are against dictatorship."

Grossman told Israeli blogger Or-ly Barlev that he has been voting Likud for years, but "as long as Netanyahu is leading it" he would no longer do so. "I would expect a leader to treat people with compassion in such difficult times," he explained. "To be honest, I feel guilty. It's because of people like me that he's in his position now."

Judging by the various signs spotted in the protests — especially those in Balfour street in Jerusalem, the official residence of the Israeli prime minister — the discontent is widespread.

"For some, it's the economic situation, for others it could be the decaying democracy or the endless corruption scandals," Safran says. "There is room for everyone, but one message is clear: Bibi, go home."

Where are the young ones?


Safran says until Netanyahu steps down democracy in Israel is at risk

For years, longtime protesters couldn't understand why the younger generation wasn't joining them. After all, "we've already built our homes and careers, but what about them? It's their future," says Safran.

"My children, who are in their twenties, were born into a Bibi-reality. They don't know anything else and they didn't believe anything could be different," says Etzion.

But three election rounds in the span of one year, mounting corruption scandals involving Netanyahu, rising unemployment in the shadow of a global pandemic, and finally, the arrest of a former army general-turned protester, all seem to be changing young Israelis' previous apathy.

One such young protester is Amir Gertmann, a 22-year-old student from Jerusalem, who attends the Balfour demonstrations regularly. "I have no real hope for these protests. I don't see Netanyahu resigning or his coalition partners distancing themselves from him," he says.

"And yet it's important to me to come, mainly because I can't accept an attempt to crack down on a legitimate demonstration against the government a mere five-minute walk from my home without trying to oppose it."

One step from a dictatorship

Many young Israelis like Gertmann have little chance of entering the workforce after finishing their studies. If you ask Shy Engelberg, a 36-year-old protester who works in hi-tech, it's no surprise that these young people are now leading the protests.

"Netanyahu has caused only harm to Israel. He lies, sows hatred and uses dark methods, learning from people like Trump, Putin and Erdogan," he says. "I wouldn't want my children to grow up in a country where their vote has no meaning. Eventually, people feel that democracy is slipping through their fingers."

Although the protests have largely been peaceful, in some cases they have ended with clashes between demonstrators and police. In others, small gangs of Netanyahu supporters and individuals affiliated with far-right groups or groups of football ultras have assaulted the anti-government demonstrators.

At a recent Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also slammed the media for "inflaming" the protests and for misrepresenting incidents of violence. "There has never been such a distorted mobilization — I wanted to say Soviet-style but it has already reached North Korean terms — of the media in favor of the protests," he said.

Etzion maintains that for Netanyahu it's all about political survival, "and if he needs to turn Israel into a dictatorship in the process — so be it."

It's left the country at a crucial juncture, says Safran. "It's impossible to even start talking about left or right here when in a moment, for the first time in 72 years, we might no longer be a democracy. No reconciliation will start until he steps down, and the danger to democracy will not go away. Soon, there will be no country left."

Police arrest 44 over eviction of left-wing Berlin bar

The "Syndikat" bar, has become a center of a major anti-gentrification campaign. Demonstrators set fires and posted barricades in front of the bar to stop bailiffs from entering on Friday morning. 


German police arrested 44 demonstrators who were protesting the eviction of a left-wing bar in Berlin that has become a center of an anti-gentrification campaign.

Hundreds of officers faced off on Friday against the demonstrators, who erected barricades and set several fires in front of the establishment in a bid to stop bailiffs from entering the Syndikat bar in the capital's Neukölln district.

Read more: Last orders for Berlin bar at center of capital's rent wars

Neukölln, the neighborhood where Syndikat is located, was initially a working-class neighborhood, but rents have been on the rise due to an influx of professionals and international students, who often pay higher rent prices than locals. 

The 35-year-old bar has become a symbol in recent years for activists who say that rents in Berlin are becoming unaffordable. Neighbors living next to the bar stood on balconies banging on pots and pans in solidarity, and Friday's protests remained largely peaceful. 

Read more:Berlin-Neukölln: Low income and migrant families in coronavirus lockdown

A rally against the eviction last Saturday turned violent, with police and protesters clashing as demonstrators played loud music, set off fireworks, threw stones at officers and chanted "Berlin hates police."

According to a police statement, six officers were injured in the standoff.

Berlin's state government recently ordered a five-year rent freeze on 1.5 million apartments, while campaigners have been calling on the state to buy properties owned by wealthy landlords. 

The bar is operated by a collective, but the property that the bar is located in belongs to a company linked to London-based real estate Mark Pears. 
lc/rc (AP, dpa)

The only Texas prison reporting zero coronavirus cases is where inmates make soap. But that’s not what’s credited with protecting it.

PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, 
PRISONS PROFIT FROM FREE LABOURAugust 7, 2020 Jolie McCullough, The Texas Tribune


Of more than 100 Texas prison units, the Roach Unit’s apparent ability to avoid the virus has been attributed to a remote location and a warden who strictly enforces precautionary measures.

The only Texas prison that hasn’t had any staff or inmates test positive for the new coronavirus is the same one where inmates make soap and package hand sanitizer for the state’s lockups. Prisoners aren’t allowed to use the latter.

How this one unit seemingly remains untouched by a virus that has ravaged the state’s prison system, however, has been credited not to its soap factory, but to the prison’s location and the warden’s strict enforcement of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s coronavirus policy. Meanwhile, those inside prisons with hundreds of infected inmates have long reported dangerous practices. In lawsuits and letters, they have described officers without face masks, forced intermingling between infected and healthy prisoners, and limits to soap and cleaning supplies.
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Texas leads the nation in prison deaths connected to the coronavirus, with a higher death toll than the federal lockups or any other state prison system. At least 112 Texas prisoners and 16 people who worked in prison units have died with the virus.

The Roach Unit is one of Texas’ more than 100 state-run prisons and jails, housing about 1,300 incarcerated men in the rural town of Childress in the Texas Panhandle. But none of the more than 17,700 state inmates who have tested positive for the virus were housed at Roach, according to a prison spokesperson. Nor have any of the nearly 3,700 infected prison employees worked at the unit.

“We’ve been lucky so far that here in the community of Childress there hasn’t been a big number of coronavirus cases,” said Ricardo Gutierrez, a 36-year-old inmate at the Roach Unit, in response to questions sent by The Texas Tribune. “I think that helps out a lot to not get the staff infected.”

After inmate visitation was canceled statewide, and most prison system transfers and all intake from county jails were temporarily halted in March and April, epidemiologists said most new prison infections were likely coming in through prison employees who contracted the virus in their communities. Childress County, with a population of about 7,000, has had only 37 people test positive for the coronavirus, according to data from the state health department.




TDCJ spokesperson Jeremy Desel said being geographically isolated helps protect the unit from the virus, but he added there is still “significant traffic there for distribution of materials they produce.”

In a March promotional video, TDCJ highlighted the Roach Unit’s soap and detergent factory as an essential tool to protect against the coronavirus, showing factory machines and some of the 84 inmates who work without pay to produce things like bar soap, laundry detergent, dish soap and bleach to distribute throughout the Texas prison system and sell. “Soap? We have plenty!” the video title boasted.

The next month, inmates in the factory also began repackaging hand sanitizer for prison employees to use, Desel said. TDCJ has steadfastly refused to allow inmates access to hand sanitizer, part of what prompted a federal lawsuit and four-week trial scrutinizing TDCJ’s handling of the pandemic. Prison attorneys have argued inmates could get drunk from the hand sanitizer or use it as an accelerant to set fires. Inmates’ attorneys have rejected those premises, saying such abuses are rare in lockups that allow it.

Aside from its location, though, Desel said “Roach is doing the same things that all units are doing to stop COVID.” But prisoners tell a different story.

Since March, inmates at numerous other prisons have told their loved ones and the Tribune that staff members have only partially enforced the policies put in place by prison officials to wear masks, regularly sanitize, and stay a safe distance apart in places like dorms, showers and hallways. Many inmates have reported that officers wore masks pulled down to their chins, prisoners were taken to the showers in large groups, and inmates who tested positive for the virus were sometimes housed with those who tested negative.

But at Roach, Gutierrez said the staff “are not messing around.” He said in a few instances where coronavirus was suspected, the sick inmate would be promptly removed and tested, and the men on the wing the inmate lived in would be quarantined for a few days until the tests came back negative, with nurses in protective gear regularly checking them for symptoms.

“They’re doing everything that the government has mandated: social distancing, the masks, sanitizing everything,” he said. “This warden has gone above and beyond to make sure that everything is being done right.”

Gutierrez said he gets the typical weekly amount of soap — five small bars stuffed into a toilet paper roll on Friday. But since the pandemic hit the state, he said Roach inmates also get more soap and a surface cleaner every Tuesday, and more is available at lunch in the dining hall. He said inmates also were still able to go to recreation and go to common rooms, but in much smaller groups.

Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer and prison conditions expert at the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs and law school, said Gutierrez’s description could make the Roach Unit a powerful example of the ways in which following TDCJ policies can help prevent an outbreak. On Thursday, 20 TDCJ lockups each had more than 300 inmates who had tested positive for the virus, with active infections often reported in large clusters of hundreds of people at once. Three units housed more than 700 inmates who had tested positive.

“The official protocols may be the same throughout the system, but ultimately there are huge differences in the degree to which particular facilities are following those protocols,” she said. “If they are taking the steps that they should be taking, they can reduce the spread of it within the facility if it does come in … it doesn’t have to become like a spread of wildfire.”

The University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Oprah erects 26 billboards around Louisville — demanding the cops who killed Breonna Taylor get arrested

23 MORE THAN ERECTED AROUND EBBING, MISSOURI



Media mogul Oprah Winfrey continues to keep people talking about the killing of Breonna Taylor by the Louisville Metro Police Department.

“For the first time ever, just last week, Oprah Winfrey dedicated the cover of her magazine to someone other than herself — Breonna Taylor. Now, that cover will be all over Louisville in the form of billboards big and small,” WLKY-TV reported Thursday.

“She and the O Magazine team say they are amplifying Taylor’s story and the fight for justice by erecting 26 billboards across the city. That’s one for every year of her life,” the station reported.

Taylor, a BLack EMT, was fatally shot in March by plainclothes officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove while they were executing a so-called “no-knock” search warrant.

“Demand that the police involved in killing Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged,” the billboards read.
Oprah erecting 26 billboards of Breonna Taylor around Louisville https://t.co/zyQqnm2rxY
— WLKY (@WLKY) August 7, 2020

WAYNE FONTANA OF THE UK BAND THE MINDBENDERS,
 PASSED AWAY AT THE AGE OF 74
WHAT IS INTERESTING IN THIS PICTURE FROM 1965 
IS HE HAS ONE OF THE EARLIEST SKATEBOARDS WHICH BEGAN IN THAT ERA.
WHAT YOU THOUGHT SKATEBOARDS WERE GENX FERGET ABOUT IT.
HATE TO TELL YOU BUT SKATEBOARDS ARE BOOMER TOYS

Wayne Fontana, singer with the Mindbenders, who hit the big ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk › obituaries › 2020/08/07 › wayne-fontana-si...

3 hours ago - After a couple of hits he stormed offstage and out of the band, struggled ... of Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, a Manchester-based band who shot ... of Love, which topped the charts in the US and went to No 2 in the UK.

The Mindbenders - Wikiwand

  https://www.wikiwand.com › The_Mindbenders

Wayne Fontana founded the band in June 1963 with Bob Lang, Ric Rothwell, and Eric Stewart. The name of the group was inspired by the title of a 1963 UK ...

Origin‎: ‎Manchester‎, England

Associated acts‎: ‎Wayne Fontana‎, ‎Hotlegs‎, ‎10cc‎, ...

Past members‎: ‎Wayne Fontana‎; Bob Lang; Ric ...

Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders | Biography & History ...

https://www.allmusic.com › artist › biography

Find Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders biography and history on AllMusic - Wayne ... Renaming the band after Dirk Bogard's then-recently released hit movie The MINDBENDERS... A new version of their debut album, featuring several cuts not on the U.K. ..

MY FAVORITE A GROOVY KIND OF LOVE


THE LETTER



Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders - Road Runner - 1963 ...
Jimmy Page was a session guitarist on this song



TRAILER FOR THE MOVIE MINDBENDERS

SOLIDARITY FOREVER

Shelter cat put in solitary confinement for 'repeatedly' letting other cats out

Quilty the cat has locked up for continually helping other cats at the shelter escape and failed his latest parole board hearing

A cat named Quilty has been sentenced to solitary confinement for continually letting other cats out of their enclosures at his shelter after multiple warnings failed to curb the problem.

The serial offender was caught by staff at Friends For Life Animal Rescue and Adoption Organization jail-breaking other felines out of the senior room 'repeatedly, several times a day'.


Quilty also has a chequered past of consistent offending, after staff at the shelter in Houston discovered he used to let his dog sibling into the house at his old home.

After an online campaign was launched to #FreeQuilty, the shelter said that his review with the parole board had failed but he 'released himself' anyway, before being returned to solitary.

Quilty is a repeat offender (Image: Facebook)

The shelter said: "Quilty will not be contained. And he has no shame.

"Quilty loves to let cats out of the senior room. Repeatedly. Several times a day.


"We have since Quilty-proofed the cat room, while he took a brief hiatus in the lobby.

"His roommates missed him while he was banished to the lobby. They enjoyed their nighttime escapades around the shelter.

"The staff, however, did not miss the morning cat wrangling, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree there."

The shelter continued to post updates in a brilliant thread as Quilty tried, and failed, to escape through a window and a video showed the 'spicy a-hole' being marched back to his holding cell after he got out and crashed a staff meeting.

 

He even escaped solitary to crash a staff meeting (Image: friends4life.org)
READ MORE

Quilty is still looking for a home and although he's unsure about small children his bio reads: "I do know that I like to open closed doors.

"When I see one it challenges me, and I work hard to get it open and I’m usually successful."


His fans were confident he would find a forever home soon.

One wrote: "Will Quilty let our dogs out for us at night? And would he let them back in? We might need him in our lives..."

An online campaign has been launched to free Quilty (Image: Facebook)

Another replied: "I need Quilty! He will love my house! We have an open door policy (except to the outside) so he can go anywhere he wants!"

A third said: "These instructions I'm about to give you are extremely important. This mission is not optional, and is of essential priority.

"I need you to tell Quilty that I love him, and if at all possible, boop his snoot."

Should Quilty be freed?
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Saudi Crown Prince accused of assassination plot against senior exiled official

By Alex Marquardt, CNN

Updated 6:06 PM ET, Thu August 6, 2020

Washington (CNN)

A former top Saudi intelligence official who fell out with the Saudi Crown Prince is alleging that an assassination squad traveled from Saudi Arabia to Canada to try to kill him just days after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by members of the same group, according to a new legal complaint filed Thursday by the alleged target, Dr. Saad Aljabri, in DC District Court.
Aljabri accuses the Kingdom's powerful crown prince and defacto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, of dispatching the hit team to murder him just over a year after Aljabri fled from Saudi Arabia and he refused repeated efforts by the Crown Prince to lure him back home or somewhere more accessible to the Saudis. Aljabri also names numerous alleged co-conspirators, including two of the men accused of being behind the Khashoggi operation.
MBS, according to previously unreported WhatsApp text messages referenced in the complaint, demanded that Aljabri immediately return to Saudi Arabia. As he repeatedly refused, Aljabri alleges the Crown Prince escalated his threats, saying they would use "all available means" and threatened to "take measures that would be harmful to you." The Crown Prince also barred Aljabri's children from leaving the country.
The Saudi government in Riyadh, the embassy in Washington and the Crown Prince's no-profit foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.



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The US national security community has been tracking the Crown Prince's vendetta against Aljabri "at the highest levels" according to a former senior US official. "Everybody knows it," the former official said, "They know bin Salman wanted to lure Aljabri back to Saudi Arabia and failing that, that bin Salman would seek to find him outside with the intent to do him grave harm."
Nine months before Aljabri says the Saudi team landed in Canada to kill him, his son Khalid was warned by FBI agents about threats on Aljabri and his family's lives, according to the complaint. Khalid had arrived in Boston, and at Logan Airport, he was escorted to a meeting with two FBI agents, the complaint says, where he was purportedly told about bin Salman's "campaign to hunt Dr. Saad and his family in the United States, and urged them to exercise caution."
An adviser to Aljabri says the details on the Saudis who flew to Canada -- but were turned around at the airport -- came from western intelligence sources and private investigators.
Both the CIA and the FBI declined to comment. Officials on Capitol Hill who are aware of Aljabri's new allegations could not corroborate the intelligence behind them.
In a royal court, where proximity to the US is paramount, MBS's chief rival for the crown had been his older cousin Mohammed bin Nayef, similarly known as MBN. He and Aljabri, his longtime number two, had fostered close relationships with US intelligence officials over years of work together fighting terrorism, particularly against al Qaeda after 9/11. Aljabri's commitment and depth of knowledge had impressed US intelligence offers and helped save countless lives, former officials say.


Dr. Saad Aljabri pictured in Riyadh, 2016.
In 2017, MBN was deposed and MBS was made the heir apparent to the throne of his father, King Salman. MBN was placed under house arrest and earlier this year was detained. Sensing trouble for those close to MBN, his right-hand man, Aljabri, who had already been removed from his post, fled to Turkey in mid-2017, leaving behind two of his children, Sarah and Omar.
Aljabri's extensive knowledge would have been more beneficial to the Crown Prince than his death, argues Douglas London, a former Senior CIA Operations Officer who served extensively in the Middle East and retired in 2019. The goal of the Saudi team supposedly sent to Canada, he says, may have been to put Aljabri under observation to be able to render him back to Saudi Arabia, or kill him later.
"MBS is eager to neutralize the threat posed by Aljabri, whose intimate knowledge of the ruling family's skeletons, and everyone else's, and broad network, equipped him to enable any aspiring challenger to the crown," London says. "I don't rule out the possibility that MBS wanted to kill Aljabri, but it's just as likely, if not more so, that were there a team deployed to Canada, MBS wanted to put Aljabri under observation, information from which might provide insight on his contacts and activities."

MBS critic in Congress says allegations are 'credible'
The allegations of the assassination squad are "credible," says fervent MBS critic Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"When somebody who we already know is responsible for the kidnapping, rendition, murder and torture of other people in this category sends you a text message warning that bad things will happen to you, it's fair to assume that he means business," Malinowski said.

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The teenage children Aljabri left in the Kingdom were immediately barred from traveling, their father says, who pleaded with bin Salman to allow them to leave. The Crown Prince responded to the begging, Aljabri says, with WhatsApp messages saying "When I see you I will explain everything to you" and "I want you to come back tomorrow."
A Saudi warrant was issued and a notice was filed with Interpol to limit his movements, Aljabri says, also accusing MBS of pressuring Turkey to extradite him.
In mid-March of this year, according to Aljabri, now-22 year-old Omar and 20-year-old Sarah were abducted from their home and haven't been heard from since. The same month that the children had their travel permissions blocked, a relative of Aljabri's was snatched off the streets of Dubai, taken back to Saudi Arabai and tortured, Aljabri says. The relative says he was told explicitly, according to the complaint, that he was being punished as a proxy for Aljabri.
Meanwhile, since President Donald Trump came into office, his administration has fostered a close working relationship with MBS. In particular, senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly developed direct correspondence with the 34-year-old ruler that continued at least through the Khashoggi ordeal.
Last month, a group of senators -- including the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Marco Rubio -- wrote to Trump calling on him to raise the issue of the Aljabri children with the Saudis, noting Aljabri's ties to US intelligence and saying: "the Saudi government is believed to be using the children as leverage to try to force their father's return to the kingdom from Canada."

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The brutal murder and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul put a spotlight on the Crown Prince's global campaign to violently stifle critics wherever they may be. Despite the US intelligence community assessing with high confidence that the execution was ordered by bin Salman, the failure by the Trump administration to condemn him has highlighted the impunity with which MBS operates. The Crown Prince denies any involvement in the operation while five members of the hit squad were sentenced to death by a Saudi court.
The assassins who killed Khashoggi were part of the Crown Prince's so-called "Tiger Squad," Aljabri says in his complaint, asserting that other members of the same team came after him. He claims the unit was born out of his own refusal to send counterterrorism forces under his command at the Interior Ministry to forcibly render a Saudi an insolent prince from Europe.
The Tiger Squad was formed, Aljabri says in the complaint, as a 50-strong "private death squad ... with one unifying mission: loyalty to the personal whims of Defendant bin Salman."

Aljabri alleges Saudi team arrived in Canada with 'forensic tools'
Aljabri's complaint says that around two weeks after Khashoggi was killed on October 2, 2018, 15 Saudi nationals arrived at Ottawa International Airport (the filing originally said Ontario but it has been corrected and is being resubmitted) with tourist visas to allegedly carry out the murder of Aljabri. Among them, he alleges, were multiple forensics specialists carrying "two bags of forensic tools" in their luggage.
According to the complaint, the team split up as they approached the customs kiosks but raised Canadian officials' suspicions who allegedly found photographic evidence showing some of the members together. After a lawyer from the Saudi embassy was called, the brief says, the members of the team agreed to be deported back to Saudi Arabia. One continued into Canada on a diplomatic passport, Aljabri's filing says.

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The mission, Aljabri says, was supervised back in Saudi Arabia by Saud al-Qahtani who was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for planning and executing the killing of Khashoggi. A second official named by Aljabri as an orchestrator, Ahmed al-Assiri, was also part of the Crown Prince's inner circle and relieved of his duties after Khashoggi was murdered. Neither was given a stiffer punishment.
A Canadian cabinet minister declined to comment on the specific allegations made by Aljabri citing the legal proceedings, but said they are aware of foreign nationals having tried to monitor and threaten people in Canada.
"It is completely unacceptable and we will never tolerate foreign actors threatening Canada's national security or the safety of our citizens and residents," said Bill Blair, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
With the complaint, Aljabri is asking for a trial and seeking damages under the Torture Victim Protection Act and Alien Tort Statute. While the plot is said to have been attempted in Canada, a spokesman for Aljabri said the complaint is being filed in Washington because the suit alleges wrongdoing in the US.
Aljabri says the assassination attempt followed a campaign in both the US and Canada to hunt him down. He accuses MBS of using his non-profit foundation -- MiSK -- and the man who leads it, Bader Alasaker, of organizing agents in the US to find Aljabri.
One of them, Bijad Alharbi, a former close associate of Aljabri's, was successful in tracking Aljabri down in Toronto after speaking with his son in Boston, according to the complaint.
Though the attempt by the assassination team to enter Canada to kill him failed, Aljabri says, he believes the mission continues. He claims MBS has now secured a fatwa -- a religious ruling -- that allows him to kill Aljabri. Aljabri also accuses the Crown Prince of making other attempts to get to Aljabri in Canada, including sending agents across the border with the US by land.
This story has been updated to add comment from the Canadian government and reflect a corrected court filing from Aljabri's legal team.

CNN's Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.

VIDEO

https://us.cnn.com/2020/08/06/politics/saudi-assassination-plot-allegations/index.html




Former Saudi intelligence officer accuses prince of ordering his assassination

Spencer S. Hsu and Shane Harris Aug 07 2020

Saudi crown prince sued over alleged hand in murder plot

Mohammed bin Salman is accused of dispatching a group of hitmen to kill a former top Saudi intelligence official - Saad al-Jabari, who is in exile in Canada.

A former top Saudi intelligence officer and close US intelligence ally has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of targeting him for assassination and taking his children hostage because he has knowledge of damaging secrets about the prince's rise to power.

In a federal lawsuit filed in Washington on Friday (NZ time), Saad Aljabri said "there is virtually no one that Defendant bin Salman wants dead" more than him because of his relationship with the American government as "a longtime trusted partner of senior US intelligence officials."

Aljabri - now living in exile in Toronto - is "uniquely positioned to existentially threaten Defendant bin Salman's standing with the US Government," the lawsuit said.

In a detailed complaint running more than 100 pages, Aljabri alleges that the Saudi leader orchestrated a conspiracy to kill him in Canada that parallels one that resulted in the death and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident Saudi columnist and Washington Post contributor.

Khashoggi death: 20 go on trial in absentia

A Turkish court put 20 Saudi officials on trial in absentia on for the gruesome killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which sparked international outrage and tarnished the image of Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler (from 4 July).

The CIA has assessed that Mohammed likely ordered Khashoggi's killing himself, The Washington Post previously reported.

Aljabri says the prince and his allies pressured him to return to Saudi Arabia, with Mohammed sending agents to the United States to locate Aljabri and having malware implanted on his phone. When Aljabri was ultimately located, Mohammed sent a "hit squad" to kill him, the lawsuit asserts.

The team was stopped by Canadian customs officials who, in a grisly echo of the Khashoggi case, were found carrying forensic tools that could have been used to dismember a corpse, Aljabri alleges.

Since March, Saudi authorities have arrested and held one of Aljabri's sons, Omar, 22, and a daughter, Sarah, 20, the suit alleges. Aljabri's brother has also been arrested, and other relatives detained and tortured inside and outside of Saudi Arabia, the lawsuit said, "all in an effort to bait [Aljabri] back to Saudi Arabia to be killed."

A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit. Some of Aljabri's allegations have previously been reported by The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Such explosive claims from a once-high-ranking Saudi official, whom the CIA credits with helping save American lives from terrorist attacks, could further strain Washington's battered relationship with Riyadh.

After Khashoggi's death in 2018, US Democratic and Republican lawmakers once counted as stalwart allies of the kingdom have turned away from the young crown prince and threatened to upend decades of economic and security cooperation between the two countries.

Mohammed has sought to rehabilitate his standing on the world stage. He has benefited from the support of US President Donald Trump, who has refused to accept the CIA's assessment that Mohammed probably ordered Khashoggi's death.

Trump has said the crown prince has assured him that he had nothing to do with what the US president has called "an unacceptable and horrible crime."

SASHA MORDOVETS/GETTY IMAGES
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is once again accused of ordering an assassination

Aljabri, represented by the Jenner & Block law firm, alleges in the lawsuit that Mohammed believes Aljabri "is responsible" for the CIA's conclusion and sees him as an impediment to further consolidating his power in Saudi Arabia and with the US intelligence community.

Aljabri was a close aide to deposed crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was perhaps the CIA's most trusted ally in the kingdom. Mohammed ousted bin Nayef in 2017 in a manoeuvre that Aljabri says "appeared to receive political cover from President Trump."

Current and former officials familiar with the CIA's assessment in Khashoggi's death, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss sensitive information, said they were sceptical that Aljabri had played such a key role, but did not doubt Mohammed might believe otherwise.

Several officials described Aljabri as a valuable partner to US intelligence operations who modernised Saudi's counterterrorism capabilities after the 9/11 attacks, cracked down on al-Qaida in the kingdom and pursued it into Yemen.

Aljabri has been credited for overseeing a network of informants who exposed a 2010 plot by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to send bombs concealed in computer printer cartridges on American cargo planes bound for Chicago, saving hundreds of lives.

Those who have spoken on Aljabri's behalf include Michael Morell, an acting director of the CIA under US President Barack Obama, and George Tenet, who served as CIA director during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Aljabri and bin Nayef also had a close relationship with former CIA director John Brennan, who was also a chief of station in Riyadh.

"In all of my years at CIA, but most especially when I served as director of the CIA Middle East Division, I never worked with any foreign official who had a better understanding of counterterrorism than Dr. Saad," said Daniel Hoffman, who retired from the agency in 2017.

"He justifiably deserves significant credit for building the US-Saudi counterterrorism partnership following 9/11 to the close partnership on which our national security so deeply relies today. He was key to disrupting numerous al-Qaida plots, which would have caused significant destruction and casualties in the US".

BANDAR ALGALOUD/SAUDI KINGDOM COUNCIL/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
US President, Donald Trump meets Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud a the G20 Summit at INTEX Osaka Exhibition Centre in Osaka, Japan on June 29, 2019.

In a July 7 letter to Trump, four senators called Aljabri "a close US ally and friend" and said the United States had "a moral obligation to do what it can to assist in securing his children's freedom."

"The Saudi royal family is holding Sarah and Omar Aljabri as hostages," Senator Patrick Leahy, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, wrote with Senators Marco Rubio, chairman of the Foreign Relations human rights subcommittee, Tim Kaine, and Chris Van Hollen.

"For a government to use such tactics is abhorrent. They should be released immediately."

Foreign leaders are typically immune from civil suits in US courts while in office. However, Aljabri sued under the Alien Tort Statute and a 1991 law called the Torture Victim Protection Act, which provides recourse in US courts for violations of international law and for victims of "flagrant human rights violations," including torture and summary execution abroad.

The suit also names as defendants Bader Alasaker, who heads the prince's private office and travels regularly to the United States; former Saudi officials linked to Khashoggi's death, the prince's MiSK Foundation, which Aljabri alleged deployed a network of agents to hunt him; as well as alleged agents and hit team members. The foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Aljabri's son Khalid, 36, a cardiologist who moved from Boston to be near his father in Toronto, said in an interview that his father has been an ally of the US government since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"His main goal was the safety of his beloved country Saudi Arabia and its allies," his son said.

WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
A protester dressed as Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, demonstrates with members of the group Code Pink outside the White House in the wake of the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Aljabri stepped down in 2016 and "did not have any kind of experience working with the Trump administration," Khalid Aljabri said, adding, "I think honestly the Trump administration has a role in resolving this whole situation and doing the right thing by securing the release of my siblings."

In a letter Friday (NZ time) responding to concerns raised by U.S. senators, the State Department called Aljabri "a valued partner" to the US government and said it would work with the White House to resolve the situation "in a manner that honors Dr. Aljabri's service to our country."

"Any persecution of Dr. Aljabri's family members is unacceptable," Acting Assistant Secretary Ryan Kaldahl wrote.

He said the department has repeatedly requested that Saudi authorities clarify the nature of his children's detentions and "will continue to urge their immediate release, absent sufficient and compelling justification."

Aljabri's allegations also underscore strains in relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia. In August 2018, Saudi Arabia expelled Canada's ambassador and recalled its own envoy from Ottawa and thousands of government-funded Saudi students after Canada's then-Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland called for the release of civil society and women's rights activists arrested in the kingdom.

Canada imposed a moratorium on new arms-exports permits to Saudi Arabia partly in response to Khashoggi's killing.

The halt was lifted this April, after Canada secured improvements to a highly secretive US$10 billion contract to sell Riyadh light armored vehicles, though current Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters then that Saudi Arabia's human rights record "remains troubling."

UMAR FAROOQ/GETTY IMAGES
A member of the Organisation 'Justice for Jamal Khashoggi' holds a picture of Khashoggi in 2018.

The suit states that on about October 15, 2018, Canadian border officials intercepted a hit team from the prince's personal mercenary group, known as the Tiger Squad, on their way to kill Aljabri.

The alleged plot was foiled when Ontario airport customs officials became suspicious of the men, who initially claimed not to know one another, and then questioned them.

A lawyer from the Saudi embassy was called, and Canada eventually deported all but one of the alleged hit team members back to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials have accused Aljabri and bin Nayef of misspending billions of dollars in operational funds to enrich themselves and of sympathising with the Muslim Brotherhood.

In the lawsuit, however, Aljabri claims that over a 39-year long government career, it was he who was privy to Prince Mohammed's "covert political scheming . . . corrupt business dealings" and use of personal mercenaries.

"Few places hold more sensitive, humiliating, and damning information about Defendant bin Salman than the mind and memory of Dr. Saad - except perhaps the recordings Dr. Saad made in anticipation of his killing," the suit asserted.

The Washington Post's Amanda Coletta and Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.