Anti-Israel item shot down by largest US teachers' union

The business item calls for public support of Palestine and is similar to business items that have been proposed in the past.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
JULY 6, 2021 

Classroom
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The National Education Association (NEA), a teachers' union with over three million members, defeated New Business Item 29, which calls to publicize support for Palestinians and their issues.

The NEA is active in Democratic politics and able to influence the US's overall education policy.

The item was co-sponsored by more than 50 members of the NEA and was defeated 77% to 33%.

Head of the Jewish Affairs Council, Patrick Crabtree, spoke to Cleveland Jewish News and said “I’m almost positive 29 is so divisive, it will go down in flames."

Crabtree also wrote a three-page letter detailing the affairs council's position on the items.

He believed the items could lead Jewish students “to feel uncomfortable."

“In our years of attending the various NEA representative assemblies, we have seen offensive antisemitic, anti-Israel (new business items) and I even rose to the microphone to object to consideration,” Crabtree wrote, “but never have we seen (a new business item) reverberate like these two (new business items) throughout the Jewish community.”

A similar item, New Business Item 26, was proposed in 2019, calling to "educate members and the general public on the apartheid, atrocities, and gross violations of human rights of Palestinian children and families by the State of Israel, funded directly by the United States." This item was also defeated.

Another item, New Business Item 51, is tabled for 2022. It proposes to "recognize the existence and sovereignty of Palestine," as well as publicly advocate for Palestinian children and their access to education.

Taiwan's migrant workers scapegoated for spread of COVID

Canadian writer and Taiwan resident Joe Henley 

says country operates form of 'apartheid'

By Chang Ya-chun, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

2021/07/03 13:45

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Migrant workers in Taiwan have been exploited and treated as "scapegoats" for spreading COVID-19, a Taiwan-based Canadian reporter claims.

In early June, due to cluster infections, 202 of 249 confirmed cases in Miaoli County were migrant workers at high-tech factories. Locals accused workers of venturing out and spreading the coronavirus despite the Level 3 restrictions in place.

On June 7, the county government announced a lockdown for all migrant workers in the area, confining 22,952 people to their quarters except to go to work. The measure was condemned by local human rights groups.

In an Apple podcast called Excuse英國腔! ("Excuse English Accent") on June 24, Joe Henley, a writer and singer who has been living in Taiwan for 16 years, shared his perspective on the dilemma faced by migrant workers in this country.

Henley said it was poor treatment of migrants that led to the cluster infection in the first place. Dozens were forced to live in a "grossly overcrowded dorm," with narrow bunks, restrictions, and curfews. As a result, "one person in the room gets affected, then it spreads to the entire room," said Henley.

He added that migrant workers are exploited by being made to work long hours for low wages, with fewer freedoms and protections during the pandemic. Even so, they were turned into "scapegoats" as Taiwanese looked for someone to blame for the outbreak.

Compared with their Taiwanese coworkers, the unfair treatment of migrant workers is Taiwan's version of "apartheid," according to Henley. He continued that blue-collar migrant workers are a vulnerable minority in Taiwan and treated differently from white-collar, highly-valued Western professionals: “There is racism in Taiwan.”

He added that migrant workers in the social welfare and domestic helper industries are ignored and vulnerable. Up to 99 percent of caregivers and domestic workers are female and live with their employers, according to the Ministry of Labor.

The U.S. Department of State released a global report on Friday (July 2) on human trafficking. It said Taiwan meets the minimum standards but needs to improve labor laws to prevent exploitation.

Henley has focused on the plight of migrant workers as a journalist since 2015. He recently wrote a book about migrant fishermen called “Migrante.”

He has compared the treatment of migrant workers in Miaoli County to what happened in Singapore last year. He said people in both countries have a negative attitude toward migrant workers and try to “keep them separated from the society.”

He called for an improvement in the treatment of migrant minorities, as “it can help us do better in crisis.”

According to the Ministry of Labor, in May, there were 711,015 migrant workers in Taiwan, 467,763 of whom were working in industry, while 243,252 were caregivers and domestic workers. About 71 percent were from Indonesia and Vietnam, with around 21 percent from the Philippines and 8 percent from Thailand.

 'They're not thinking right': GOP governor rips anti-vaxx Republicans for trying to win 'death lottery'

David Edwards

July 04, 2021

 

ABC/screen grab

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) warned Republicans who refuse to get vaccinated that they are playing "the death lottery."

During an interview on ABC's This Week program, host Martha Raddatz noted that people in states with Republican majorities are less likely to get vaccinated.

"There's some truth to that," Justice agreed. "Because the red states probably have a lot of people that, you know, are very, very conservative in their thinking and they think, 'Well, I don't have to do that.'"

"But they're not thinking right," he said. "When it really boils right down to it, they're in a lottery to themselves. You know, we have a lottery that basically says, if you're vaccinated, we're going to give you stuff."

He added: "But you've got another lottery going on and it's the death lottery."

Southern pastors are scared to promote vaccines as white Evangelicals reject science: report

Bob Brigham
July 03, 2021

The conspiracy originally took root in the United States but has spread to Europe

 Joseph Prezioso AFP


As formerly Confederate states struggle with low vaccination rates as the Delta variant of coronavirus spreads across America, pastors stuck between the science of what is best for their flocks and superstitions that their congregants believe.


"Biden administration and state officials hoped that pastors would play an outsized role in promoting Covid-19 vaccines, but many are wary of alienating their congregants and are declining requests to be more outspoken. Politico spoke with nearly a dozen pastors, many of whom observed that vaccination is too divisive to broach, especially following a year of contentious conversations over race, pandemic limits on in-person worship and mask requirements. Public health officials have hoped that more religious leaders can nudge their congregants to get Covid shots, particularly white evangelicals who are among the most resistant to vaccination," the publication reported Saturday.

"State health officials are conducting informal focus groups and outreach to try to ease pastors' concerns about discussing vaccination, but progress is often elusive, they said. Many pastors said they have already lost congregants to fights over coronavirus restrictions and fear risking further desertions by promoting vaccinations. Others said their congregations are so ideologically opposed to the vaccine that discussing it would not be worth the trouble," Politico explained. "The pastors Politico spoke with are located across Virginia and Tennessee, mostly in predominantly white communities. Some in rural areas lead overwhelmingly conservative congregations while some in more suburban areas said their churches were more politically mixed. Each pastor had been vaccinated but not all were eager to discuss it with their congregations."

Polls have shown white Evangelical Christians are among the groups most opposed to vaccination.



NIH Director Francis Collins worried about the public health implications as some Americans reject vaccines.

"It's heartbreaking that it's come to this over something that is potentially lifesaving and yet has been so completely colored over by political views and conspiracies that it's impossible to have a simple loving conversation with your flock," Collins told Politico. "That is a sad diagnosis of the illness that afflicts our country, and I'm not talking about Covid-19. I'm talking about polarization, tribalism even within what should be the loving community of a Christian church."

SCHADENFRUEDE

Taliban seizes key districts in Afghanistan as gov’t forces flee

Taliban captures districts in Badakhshan and Kandahar provinces as Afghan troops flee into neighbouring Tajikistan.

Afghan security personnel patrol during fighting with Taliban in Kunduz city, north of Kabul, Afghanistan [File: Samiullah Quraishi/AP Photo]

4 Jul 2021
|

The Taliban’s march through northern Afghanistan has gained further momentum with the capture of several districts from fleeing Afghan forces, several hundred of whom fled across the border into Tajikistan, officials said.

More than 300 Afghan military personnel crossed from Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province as Taliban fighters advanced towards the border, Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said in a statement on Sunday. The Afghan troops crossed over at about 6:30pm local time on Saturday.

“Guided by the principles of humanism and good neighbourliness,” the Tajik authorities allowed the retreating Afghan government forces to cross into Tajikistan, said the statement.

Since mid-April, when US President Joe Biden announced the end to Afghanistan’s “forever war”, the Taliban has made strides throughout the country. But its most significant gains have been in the northern half of the country, a traditional stronghold of the US-allied strongmen who helped defeat them in 2001.

The Taliban now controls roughly a third of all 421 districts and district centres in Afghanistan.

Gains in northeastern Badakhshan province in recent days have mostly come to the armed group without a battle, said Mohib-ul Rahman, a provincial council member. He blamed Taliban successes on the poor morale of troops who are mostly outnumbered and lacking supplies.

“Unfortunately, the majority of the districts were left to Taliban without any fight,” said Rahman. In the last three days, 10 districts fell to Taliban, eight without a fight, he said.

Hundreds of Afghan soldiers, police and intelligence troops surrendered their military outposts and fled to the Badakhshan provincial capital of Faizabad, said Rahman.

Even as a security meeting was being held early on Sunday to plot the strengthening of the perimeter around Faizabad, some senior provincial officials were leaving the city for the Afghan capital Kabul, he said.

In late June, the Afghan government resurrected volunteer militias with a reputation of brutal violence to support the beleaguered Afghan forces but Rahman said many of the fighters in the Badakhshan districts put up only a half-hearted fight.

The Taliban also captured a key district in its former bastion of Kandahar after fierce night-time fighting with Afghan government forces, officials said on Sunday.

The fall of the Panjwai district in the southern province of Kandahar comes just two days after US and NATO forces vacated their main Bagram airbase near Kabul, from where they led operations for 20 years against the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies.

Over the years, the Taliban and Afghan forces have regularly clashed in and around Panjwai, with the armed group aiming to seize it given its proximity to Kandahar city, the provincial capital.

The province of Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, which went on to rule Afghanistan until being overthrown by a US-led invasion in 2001.

Panjwai district Governor Hasti Mohammad said Afghan forces and the Taliban clashed during the night, resulting in government forces retreating from the area.

“The Taliban have captured the district police headquarters and governor’s office building,” he told the AFP news agency.

Kandahar provincial council head Sayed Jan Khakriwal confirmed the fall of Panjwai, but accused government forces of “intentionally withdrawing”.

Strategic gains

The areas under Taliban control in the north are increasingly strategic, running along Afghanistan’s border with Central Asian states. Last month, the group took control of Imam Sahib, a town in Kunduz province opposite Uzbekistan and gained control of a key trade route.

The inroads in Badakhshan are particularly significant as it is the home province of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was killed by a suicide bomber in 2011. His son, Salahuddin Rabbani, is part of the current High Council for National Reconciliation.

The slain former president also led Afghanistan’s Jamiat-e-Islami, which was the party of famed anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud, killed by a suicide bomber two days before the 9/11 attacks in the US.

The Interior Ministry issued a statement on Saturday saying the defeats were temporary, although it was not clear how they would regain control.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the fall of the districts and said most were taken without a fight. The Taliban in previous surrenders has shown videos of Afghan soldiers taking transport allowance and returning to their homes.

KEEP READING

US forces leave Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase after 20 years

Top US general says security in Afghanistan deteriorating

Afghanistan: Taliban fighters launch attack on Ghazni

Taliban gains drive Afghanistan gov’t to arm local volunteers

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‘This is hell’: 1,500 rescuers search mud for Japan missing

About 80 people are still unaccounted for after torrential rain at the weekend sent mud and rocks onto the streets of Atami.

Firefighters conduct search and rescue operations at a mudslide site in Atami. Some 1,500 people are combing the mud for survivors [Shizuoka City Fire Department - Fire and Disaster Management Agency via Reuters]

5 Jul 2021

Some 1,500 rescuers combed through crumbled houses and buried roads in Japan on Monday in an enormous effort to find some 80 people believed still missing two days after a series of landslides tore through the seaside city of Atami, not far from Tokyo.

Torrential rain during the weekend – more than a usual July’s worth in 24 hours some areas – touched off a succession of landslides, sending torrents of mud and rock through the streets of the city which is situated 90km (60 miles) southwest of Tokyo. Three people have been confirmed dead.

KEEP READING

Rescuers search for survivors in landslide-hit Japan town

At least two dead after heavy rains trigger landslide in Japan

“My mother is still missing,” one man told NHK public television. “I never imagined something like this could happen here.”

One 75-year-old evacuee said the house across from his had been swept away and the couple that lived there was unaccounted for.

“This is hell,” he said.

By Monday, the number of rescuers at the site had risen to 1,500, officials said, and could increase.


“We want to rescue as many victims … buried in the rubble as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters, adding that police, firefighters and members of the military were doing all they could to aid the search.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency said the number of missing stood at 80 by about noon. Earlier, spokesperson Hiroki Onuma told the Reuters news agency that 113 people were believed to be missing.

“We’re in touch with various groups and pushing forward with the searches,” Onuma said.

An aerial view shows the site where the landslide is believed to have started in Atami [Kyodo via Reuters]

The number of people unaccounted for rose sharply on Monday as officials began working from residential registers rather than phone calls from people unable to reach family and friends, he said.
Approximately 130 buildings were affected on Saturday morning when landslides ripped through Atami, a hot springs resort set on a steep slope that leads down to a bay.

The water, mud and debris are thought to have flowed along a river for about two kilometres (1.2 miles) to the sea, local media said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato called on residents to remain vigilant, noting that the saturated earth has been weakened and even light rain could prove dangerous.

Though Onuma said rain had stopped in Atami for now, more is forecast, raising the possibility of further landslides.

“The situation is unpredictable,” he said.

Costa Rica’s Turrialba Volcano: An Unforgettable Video
The Tico Times 

July 4, 2021

Tourists look at the ash spewed out by Volcan Turrialba in Cartago, 35 km east

 of San Jose, on January 6, 2017. (Ezequiel Becerra / AFP Photo)

If your daily experience of Costa Rica’s Turrialba Volcano, like that of many residents of central Costa Rica, consists of dusting layers of volcanic ash from your windshield, plants or patio – or if, like this writer, you have lost a laptop to persistent ashfall – it can be easy to forget that the source of this daily annoyance is actually awesome, in the true sense of that word.

This video will change all that. Cusuko Fotografía compiled the images from several months of its footage. Shot in part at the Hacienda La Central – Volcán Turrialba, the video provides a closeup view and breathtaking time-lapse footage of the active volcano, east of San José.

“I’ve gone many times to take in this imposing colossus… the weather has not always been optimal, but I always enjoy being there,” photographer Iván Salazar Cusuko’s wrote in the Facebook post where he shared the video. “I’ve experienced sun, water, ashfall or strong volcanic odors. Then I began working with Volcanes Sin Fronteras-VSF, an important NGO, where I have been helping with the collection of samples and some footage.”

This video article was first posted in 2018. Since then we have updated information on Turrialba and what there is to and do there, you can check out this article at 72 Hours in Turrialba

Mapuche woman to lead body drafting Chile’s new constitution

Constitutional assembly picks academic Elisa Loncon to lead body drafting new text to replace Pinochet-era constitution.

Indigenous academic and activist Elisa Loncon was elected as president of the Constituent Convention during the body's first session on July 4 in Santiago [Javier Torres/AFP]

4 Jul 2021

The architects of Chile’s new constitution have chosen an Indigenous Mapuche woman to lead the process, as the country’s constitutional assembly was inaugurated on Sunday in the capital, Santiago.

University professor and activist for Mapuche educational and linguistic rights Elisa Loncon, a 58-year-old independent constituent, was picked by 96 of 155 delegates, including 17 Indigenous people, who make up the constitutional body.

The delegates were elected to draft a new text to replace Chile’s previous Magna Carta, which was produced during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

“I am grateful for the support of the different coalitions that placed their trust and their dreams in the hands of the Mapuche nation, who voted for a Mapuche person, a woman, to change the history of this country,” Loncon said.

Fed up with the political status quo and urging systemic reforms, Chilean voters in May elected dozens of progressive, independent delegates to redraft the constitution – dealing a surprise blow to conservative candidates who failed to secure a third of the seats to veto any proposals.

“The idea of this 155-member assembly is that it tries to encompass and represent all the diverse elements of Chilean society,” Al Jazeera’s Daniel Schweimler reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Two-thirds of the assembly must approve each article of the new constitution, he explained. The body will have nine months, with a possible three-month extension, to draft a new document that will be then put to a referendum.

“No group is big enough to veto those articles at the moment,” Schweimler said. “What we’re going to see over the next nine months to a year are a lot of negotiations; alliances, coalitions being formed, people trying to decide the best way forward.”

Although amended during the last decades, the previous version of Chile’s constitution was widely unpopular and viewed as a source of social inequality.

The start of the inaugural session on Sunday was delayed for several hours after protesters and a special police unit clashed in the streets of Santiago near where the ceremony was held.

Demonstrators rallied as constitutional assembly members held their first session to draft a new constitution, in Santiago, Chile on July 4 [Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters]

Demonstrations were also held in the nearby Plaza Italia, which emerged as the centre of mass social justice protests that broke out in 2019 and ultimately led the country to establish the constitutional assembly.

“I greatly hope that this process will help us build a country for all,” 47-year-old bank employee Carolina Vergara told the AFP news agency.

Experts told Al Jazeera in advance of the session that the biggest challenge facing the constituents will be to build trust and learn to work together.

“We must understand that we are facing something completely new for which we do not have the practice,” said independent constituent Malucha Pinto. “It is a huge and beautiful challenge that we also face as a country in the future.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Why Championship Chess Sets Are So Expensive 

Jul 3, 2021

An inexpensive chess set can sell for $20, but a handcrafted wooden set certified for the World Chess Championship costs $500. Much of the set's value lies in just one piece: the knight. Each knight must be carved by hand to look exactly the same. Making this one piece takes two hours, and there are fewer than 10 people trained to carve knights for the championship chess sets. So, how are these chessmen made? And why are they so expensive?

#Chess #SoExpensive #BusinessInsider

'The First Iranian Vampire Western' Is A Must-See Horror Gem

Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is one of the most unique and original horror movies in recent memory.

BY BEN SHERLOCK

PUBLISHED 1 DAY AGO



In recent years, the term “elevated horror” has been coined by critics who feel insecure about giving a positive review to a scary movie. After horror cinema devolved into “torture porn” throughout the 2000s, movies like The Witch and It Comes at Night have taken the genre back to basics with low-key production value and character-driven storytelling. Auteurs like Jordan Peele, Ari Aster, and Robert Eggers have revitalized cinematic horror with fiercely original stories and sharp social commentary, and as a result, horror fans are currently enjoying a wave of spooky, suspenseful masterpieces including some of the genre’s all-time greatest entries.


While plenty of praise has been rightly directed at Peele, Aster, and Eggers, one filmmaker that deserves to be included under this banner but often slips under the radar is Ana Lily Amirpour. Amirpour’s 2014 directorial debut A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, described in its marketing as “the first Iranian vampire western,” is one of the most unique and original horror movies in recent memory, and a must-see gem for fans of the genre. It has a subversive take on vampire lore that flips the female victim trope on its head, as well as effective scares, stylish black-and-white visuals, and an awesome soundtrack.






RELATED: The Best Horror Movies Use Social Commentary For Scares

Set in the fictional dystopian crime-ridden ghost-town of Bad City, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night stars Sheila Vand as “The Girl,” a vampire who spends her nights prowling the streets, looking for despicable men to drain the blood from. Traditionally, vampire fiction paints its female characters as victims, either as the object of a vampire’s desire or their “familiar.” In A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, The Girl’s vampirism allows her to feel safe, giving her much more agency than horror stories usually allow their female protagonists


Unsurprisingly, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night has been praised as a highlight of feminist cinema. Amirpour positions The Girl as a sort of antihero. She spends her nights sucking people’s blood and leaving them for dead, but she mostly targets reprehensible, abusive men. While horror movies from Rosemary’s Baby to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre have focused on women being tortured and terrorized by men, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night offers the exact opposite.

There’s a surprisingly sweet love story that perfectly balances the horror, western, and dystopian elements. After the movie establishes The Girl’s violent hobbies, it introduces her to a romantic interest: Arash, played by Arash Marandi. The idea of a vampire romance might have Twilight alarm bells ringing, but unlike Stephenie Meyer’s lukewarm Y.A. fantasy, Amirpour’s movie avoids tired clichés at every turn and explores the dark implications of romance with the bloodsucking undead. The moment that The Girl falls for Arash is expressed when his neck is exposed and she resists biting it and instead nestles into his chest.



Vand brings an unsettling calmness to The Girl’s demeanor as she builds up to a kill. When her fangs come out and she sinks them into somebody’s neck, they scream in terror. But for her, it’s like tying her shoelaces or brushing her teeth – she’s been doing it so often for so long that it no longer has any impact. After she’s introduced as a bloodthirsty monster, The Girl’s blossoming love for Arash humanizes her.


Amirpour and cinematographer Lyle Vincent chose to shoot the movie in black-and-white. This bleaker palette brought out the bleakness of Bad City, making images like a pile of bodies building up under a bridge even more unnerving than they would be in color. Since the majority of the movie takes place at night, the gorgeous high-contrast monochromatic visuals are used to juxtapose the creepy foreground action against the pitch-black of the night sky.


The movie’s soundtrack is one of its greatest assets. Mixing in a wide variety of musical styles, Amirpour creates the perfect mood for each scene with well-placed musical accompaniment. In addition to the foreboding original score provided by Bei Ru, Amirpour included licensed tracks by such disparate artists as Kiosk, Dariush, and White Lies. The latter’s post-punk hit “Death” beautifully underscores the first intimate moment between The Girl and Arash. Every time The Girl gets her fangs out and targets somebody, there’s a disturbing, almost David Lynchian ambiance on the soundtrack.

Tonally, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night pays homage to plenty of classic vampire films – namely the groundbreaking 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu – but it’s far more than just a vampire movie. With its lone antihero, lawless setting, and the music of Federale evoking Ennio Morricone on the soundtrack, it’s as much of a spaghetti western as a horror movie. There’s nothing quite like it. While most movies fit neatly into a familiar category, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night proudly sits in its own category: the vampire spaghetti western vigilante thriller romance. For vampire fans who got disillusioned by the post-Twilight rut the genre found itself in, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is essential viewing.