US Elementary school teacher draws praise with video breaking down his starting salary: ‘Teachers deserve better’

Dillon Thompson
Thu, November 11, 2021

An elementary school teacher in Ohio is sparking a widespread conversation about teachers’ salaries.

The viral moment began when Kyle Cohen, a fourth-grade teacher based in Cleveland, posted a TikTok sharing the total salary he made in his first year of work. The clip, in which Cohen revealed that he made $31,000 before taxes, immediately went viral and sparked a massive debate on the app.

Can we preserve the Earth while maintaining the thrill of being human?

Many of the comments on Cohen’s video were supportive — with users arguing that teachers deserve much higher pay — but a few were critical. One comment, which pointed out that teachers “only” work for eight to nine months of the year, sparked a response from Cohen.

That clip went even more viral than the first. In it, Cohen broke down how many hours he works in a normal week — and how little he makes for each of those hours.

Cohen told In The Know that he posted the video to help “shed light on the current realities educators are facing.” He said he’d shared a similar clip on his YouTube channel (he posts similar content on Instagram as well) and decided to delve deeper into the concept — largely because of how these financial strains impact students.

“Students are experiencing more challenges than ever before as a result of the pandemic,” Cohen said. “If we don’t address these issues, it’s the students, our future leaders, who are going to face the consequences.”

In the TikTok, Cohen begins by explaining that he usually works about 50 hours a week, or roughly 200 hours each month. Then, he adds that he also puts in an “extra” 40 or so hours each month for lesson planning, parent-teacher conferences and other after-school events.

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Elementary school teacher draws praise with video breaking down his starting salary: ‘Teachers deserve better’ (yahoo.com)

“This week, for example, it’s 6 o’clock in the evening,” Cohen says from his classroom. “I have conferences that go until 8 o’clock. I also have conferences next week…”

Then, he crunches the numbers. He multiplies his 240 hours by the nine months he works each year, then divides that number into $31,000 — the salary he made in his first year. The result? Just $14 an hour.

In his video, Cohen was also quick to emphasize that he is “incredibly grateful” for his career and loves being a teacher. He also told In The Know that he knew what he was getting into — and he was never scared off by the job’s salary constraints.

“Teaching is always referred to as being an ‘underpaid job,'” he said. “Family and friends always made comments about the lack of salaries teachers get paid in this country. With that being said, I never allowed these comments to keep me from a field I knew I was meant to be in.”

Instead, Cohen just hopes his clips can start more conversations about how little most teachers make in a year.

“My hope in making these videos is to start some real conversations,” Cohen told In The Know. “Our teachers — and students — deserve the best, and it is the unfortunate reality that we are far from making this dream a reality.”

TikTok users were quick to come to Cohen’s support. His video is now full of praiseworthy comments as well as plenty of outrage.

“It should be $70K minimum for any teacher, regardless of grade level,” one user argued.

“Teachers deserve better,” another added.

“My God, this system needs to change,” another wrote.

The problem spans beyond just the U.S., though. In a recent study of teacher salaries worldwide, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that, in terms of pay, America actually rates higher than several other developed nations.

For example, the average starting salary for an American primary school teacher is close to $42,000, which was actually 10th among the 36 countries surveyed. The U.S. ranked above Canada, Sweden, Japan, Israel and more, while ranking behind nations like Germany, Spain and Denmark.

Japanese-Korean-Turkish language group traced to farmers in ancient China


Japanese-Korean-Turkish language group traced to farmers in ancient China

Wed, November 10, 2021,
By Will Dunham

(Reuters) - A study combining linguistic, genetic and archaeological evidence has traced the origins of the family of languages including modern Japanese, Korean, Turkish and Mongolian and the people who speak them to millet farmers who inhabited a region in northeastern China about 9,000 years ago.

The findings detailed on Wednesday document a shared genetic ancestry for the hundreds of millions of people who speak what the researchers call Transeurasian languages across an area stretching more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km).

The findings illustrate how humankind's embrace of agriculture following the Ice Age powered the dispersal of some of the world's major language families. Millet was an important early crop as hunter-gatherers transitioned to an agricultural lifestyle.

There are 98 Transeurasian languages. Among these are Korean and Japanese as well as: various Turkic languages including Turkish in parts of Europe, Anatolia, Central Asia and Siberia; various Mongolic languages including Mongolian in Central and Northeast Asia; and various Tungusic languages in Manchuria and Siberia.

This language family's beginnings were traced to Neolithic millet farmers in the Liao River valley, an area encompassing parts of the Chinese provinces of Liaoning and Jilin and the region of Inner Mongolia. As these farmers moved across northeastern Asia, the descendant languages spread north and west into Siberia and the steppes and east into the Korean peninsula and over the sea to the Japanese archipelago over thousands of years.

The research underscored the complex beginnings for modern populations and cultures.

"Accepting that the roots of one's language, culture or people lie beyond the present national boundaries is a kind of surrender of identity, which some people are not yet prepared to make," said comparative linguist Martine Robbeets, leader of the Archaeolinguistic Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

"Powerful nations such as Japan, Korea and China are often pictured as representing one language, one culture and one genetic profile. But a truth that makes people with nationalist agendas uncomfortable is that all languages, cultures and humans, including those in Asia, are mixed," Robbeets added.

The researchers devised a dataset of vocabulary concepts for the 98 languages, identified a core of inherited words related to agriculture and fashioned a language family tree.

Archaeologist and study co-author Mark Hudson of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History said the researchers examined data from 255 archaeological sites in China, Japan, the Korean peninsula and the Russia Far East, assessing similarities in artifacts including pottery, stone tools and plant and animal remains. They also factored in the dates of 269 ancient crop remains from various sites.

The researchers determined that farmers in northeastern China eventually supplemented millet with rice and wheat, an agricultural package that was transmitted when these populations spread to the Korean peninsula by about 1300 BC and from there to Japan after about 1000 BC.

The researchers performed genomic analyses on ancient remains of 23 people and examined existing data on others who lived in North and East Asia as long as 9,500 years ago.

For example, a woman's remains found in Yokchido in South Korea had 95% ancestry from Japan's ancient Jomon people, indicating her recent ancestors had migrated over the sea.

"It is surprising to see that ancient Koreans reflect Jomon ancestry, which so far had only been detected in Japan," Robbeets said.

The origins of modern Chinese languages arose independently, though in a similar fashion with millet also involved. While the progenitors of the Transeurasian languages grew broomcorn millet in the Liao River valley, the originators of the Sino-Tibetan language family farmed foxtail millet at roughly the same time in China's Yellow River region, paving the way for a separate language dispersal, Robbeets said.

(Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

WAGE THEFT

Japan train driver sues over 49 cents in docked wages

Wed, November 10, 2021

Japan's railways are famously punctual

A Japanese train driver is suing his employer after he was docked 56 yen ($0.49; £0.36) in wages for causing a brief delay to the country's famously punctual rail system.

Train company JR West fined the man after a work mix-up in June 2020 caused a one-minute delay to operations.

It argued that no labour had been performed during the stoppage.

The employee is seeking 2.2 million yen ($19,407; £14,347) in damages for mental anguish caused by the ordeal.

According to the Japanese news site, Soranews24, the unnamed man was scheduled to pilot an empty train to Okayama station in the south of the country, but arrived at the wrong platform while waiting to take over from the previous driver.

By the time he realised his mistake and had rushed to the correct platform, the transfer between the two drivers had been delayed by two minutes, leading to a one-minute delay in the train's departure and a one-minute delay in warehousing the train at the depot.

JR West initially docked the man 85 yen ($0.75; $0.55), but later agreed to reduce the fine to 56 yen after the driver took the case to the Okayama Labour Standards Inspection Office.

However, the employee refused to accept the reduction and has argued that the delay caused no actual disruption to the timetables or passengers as the train was empty during the incident.

But the company says it applied the "no work, no pay principle", as it would for an employee's late arrival or an unexplained absence.

The driver took his case to the Okayama District Court in March, where he is now seeking damages.

Japan's rail system is known for its reliability. In 2017 a rail company issued an apology after one of its trains left a station 20 seconds early.

And if a train delayed by more than five minutes, passengers are issued with a certificate they can use as an excuse for being late.

 

Iran wants guarantee US will not leave renewed nuclear deal

TEHRAN, Nov. 12 (MNA) – Iran's top negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Ali Bagheri Kani said that Iran requires a commitment that the US will not again leave the nuclear deal (JCPOA).

Ali Bagheri Kani in an interview with Guardian said that talks in Vienna between Iran and other signatories had failed to reach an agreement on a means of verifying that US sanctions had both been lifted and had a practical impact on trade with Iran.

“We need verification, and this remains unresolved. It is one of the issues that remains not finalised. It is not enough for the ink to be put on the agreement,” he said. Bagheri Kani did not rule out an independent body being responsible for verification.

Defending Iran's demand that the US give a guarantee that it will comply with the agreement, Bagheri Kani said, “This is about an agreement, not a policy. If there is a peace agreement between two states, it has the effect of a treaty. This is international law. It is not intended that domestic laws of the US can prevail over an international agreement. That is against international law.”

He added he wanted European powers to give their own guarantees that they will trade with Iran, regardless of the US position, possibly by using a blocking statute nullifying the effect of US sanctions on European firms that trade with Iran.

Bagheri Kani rejected that Iran had been stalling on the talks’ resumption in an effort to develop its own nuclear program, saying it was natural for a new government to take time to prepare its negotiating position and to hold bilateral talks with the other parties.

He reiterated calls for all US sanctions linked to the nuclear deal to be lifted.  “We are just saying that in accordance with the JCPOA the sanctions should be lifted. We did a deal, and our view is that it should be implemented.”

Bagheri Kani also ruled out discussions on Iran’s missile and security program being included in the agreement. He said, "The JCPOA has a clear framework and other issues are not relevant. We are not going to negotiate on our defence capabilities or our security.”

Asked if he was requiring the Vienna talks to go back to the start, he said, “What is important is not from where we started, but what is important is that we achieve a deal that has practical results for the parties. Our main objective is to remove the illegal sanctions that they have imposed on the Iranian nation in breach of UN resolutions. Any sanctions in breach of the JCPOA imposed by President Obama and President Trump have to be lifted. That is the agreement set out the JCPOA.”

The 2015 deal, more formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the US, the UK, China, Russia, and France — plus Germany and the EU. Despite the International Atomic Energy Agency's acknowledgement of Iran's adherence to all of its obligations, the US government unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in May 2018.

The US government has imposed sanctions under various pretexts in line with its hostile goals against Iran and the advancement of its economic war against Iran.

Amid the indifference of the JCPOA parties toward continued US violations of the JCPOA, in December 2020, the Iranian Parliament passed the Law on "Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions and Protect Rights of the People" that prompted the Iranian administration to restrict the IAEA’s inspections and accelerate the development of the country’s nuclear program beyond the limits set by the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.

Iran has also increased the level of uranium enrichment beyond the level allowed under the JCPOA in accordance with the accord itself.

The current US administration has not yet fulfilled the promises Joe Biden made during his presidential elections campaigns to undo Trump's actions and return to the deal. In the meantime, Tehran has also stressed that the Biden administration's return to the agreement without lifting the sanctions is not important at all.

Meanwhile, Iran and the remaining signatories to the JCPOA known as the P4+1 with the indirect involvement of the United States have held six rounds of talks so far with no results. The Western powers made excessive demands during the talks and the talks were halted amid the change in the government in Iran till last Wednesday, the Iranian deputy foreign minister and the new top negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani announced that the Vienna talks will start on November 29 after a five-month halt.

ZZ/PR/ FN14000821000015

 

Arab states admit to Syria's victory in war: Nasrallah

TEHRAN, Nov. 11 (MNA) – Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Thur. that the rapprochement of Arab states to the Syrian government shows that they have been defeated in their war on the country.

According to Al-Manar, Hezbollah marks Martyr’s Day yearly on November eleventh. The day is considered an opportunity to recall the great martyr, Ahmad Kassir, who blew himself up in November 11, 1982, targeting the center of the Israeli military governor in the southern city of Tyre, and killing dozens of Zionist officers and soldiers.

At the start of his speech, Nasrallah hailed the role the martyrs played in the history of Islam and Resistance.

"Hezbollah has selected November 11 as Martyr Day because it refers to the date of the first martyrdom bombing operation carried out by the martyr Ahmad Kassir against the Israeli occupation forces in 1982," he said.

"Our Islamic values call on us to glorify the martyrs," he said.

The Hezbollah leader pointed to the visit of officials of Arab states to Damascus and said, "In recent days, it has been reported that the leaders of several Arab countries have contacted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad... An Emirati official traveled to Syria. These are achieved by the martyrs."

According to Nasrallah, Hezbollah martyrs liberated the prisoners as well as the occupied territories, deterred the enemy’s aggression, prevented the civil war in Lebanon, and defeated the takfiri terror in Syria.

Israeli enemy is periodically carrying out military drills for fear of Hezbollah capabilities, he said, adding that ‘Israel’ is worried about Hezbollah infantry’s ability to invade Galilee and fire precision-guided missiles.

He pointed to the US plots to create unrest in Lebanon and said that Hezbollah has foiled the US attempt to fully dominate Lebanon.

However, he said that Washington has influence over the Lebanese political factions while the country is standing on its feet and is still an independent entity thanks to Hezbollah's efforts.

Hezbollah will rely on the martyrs’ legacy and military power to deter any Israeli aggression on Lebanon, Nasrallah added.

Referring to the current dispute with Saudi Arabia, the Hezbollah leader said that he disagreed with the resignation of the Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi.

He noted that Riyadh has problems with Hezbollah rather than the information minister.

Nasrallah added that Saudi Arabia's demands from Lebanon will not end after the resignation of Kordahi.

"The crisis that Saudi Arabia has started is part of a struggle against the Resistance," he said.

Nasrallah added that Riyadh serves the interest of Washington and Tel Aviv in Lebanon. 

He rejected Saudi Arabia's claim on Hezbollah's control over Lebanon, while he acknowledged that the Resistance group is the biggest political force in the country.

He pointed to the Saudi war on Yemen, saying that "Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars in Yemen over the past seven years. Today, the Saudis know very well that the defeat in Ma'rib would mean their total defeat in Yemen."

He also called for an impartial investigation on the blast in Beirut Port.

KI/Live

The truth about 3 core lies of American fascism

Brandon Bradford
November 11, 2021

The US has a fascism problem. In its culture, in its hero worship, in its ideological makeup. Donald Trump was the culmination of that.

His supporters tried to whitewash the specifics, but they believed in a fascist hierarchy. There's no other explanation. Even for the current Republican Party, made of power-craving vultures whose only plan for America is inflaming white race hatreds and removing rights (voting, reproductive, et al.), January 6 should have been too far.

Fascism isn't something I say lightly.

Abuses of power and cults of personality can happen across the spectrum, but the current version of conservatism is something fascism easily maps over. The starting point on the right is "fascism now or fascism later," and it's intertwined with conversations about politics and society we have everyday. They are repeated and fundamentally false.

 A few ideas you've heard more than once:

You'll get more conservative as you get older.

I'm socially liberal but fiscally conservative.

We need a race-blind society.


These ideas build off of one another, because their foundations aren't rested on ideals, but ends.

You'll get more conservative …

It's generally believed the left is young and idealistic while the right is pragmatic and logical. The presumption is as generations age and accumulate wealth, they give up challenging political and social systems because it's in their best interest to keep things going as-is. I've always found this idea unconvincing for a few reasons.

What it means to be a conservative has shifted drastically as the far-right radicalization of the Republican Party has progressed to the mainstream over the last two decades.
Society has tended to get more liberal each generation. The arc of US history, in attempts to live up to the ideals we preach, is constantly moving left.
Society is more aware of systemic issues in education, finance, law, energy, and societal exploitation. The GOP has no plan for any of these. It hasn't for 20 years. Its stance is to figure it out when in office. Hope the Democrats actually put some plans in place while they pivot for more power. It's culture wars all the way down.

Maybe if Millenials and Gen Z had the same access to wealth, the same investment in wealth's political advantages and the same ignorance to the power structures that mold American society — maybe if all that, then yeah. Maybe they would skew more conservative as they age.

Maybe if they had been raised without the awareness of how power structures pool resources, and of how laws around housing and finance exacerbate compounded advantages coming from wealth.However, given that Millenials and Gen Z on average are three to four times poorer than Baby Boomers, grew up with multiple financial crises as well as a melting planet in an interconnected world, they are far less inclined to be skewing to the right. Which leads to:

"I'm socially liberal but …"

What is presumed is that equality is disconnected from equity. The modern generation knows that's false. There's no equality without equity and without access. In an intertwined, positive-sum economy, there is no such thing as socially liberal but fiscally conservative.

That phrase is about prioritizing money. Infrastructure they dislike? Waste. Infrastructure they like (i.e., that supports their own wealth)? Vital. It's an amorphous, 10,000-foot term that falls apart under any scrutiny. It justifies propping up defense contractors while cutting down education. It's a smokescreen and it always has been.

"We need a race-blind society"

You've heard this from the right in phrases like, "I don't believe race exists, so I'm not going to acknowledge it," and on the left in, "If we fix class issues, we will fix race issues." They never seem to get to how, because you can't fix problems made specifically with race in mind by ignoring that it exists. All their solutions require magic or time travel.

It's this: Completely change the past and the inequities it contains. Or this: Completely change the minds and experiences of everyone on the planet, all at once. A race-blind society without fixing engrained inequities ends up treating democratic baselines — like freedom, respect and empathy — as finite resources that those in power will dole out at their convenience. Or the "market" will dole out to those who are deserving of them. I call this trickle-down equality.

Trickle-down equality is the same magical nonsense as trickle-down economics. It focuses on changing society in superficial ways that ultimately protect the systems exacerbating the root problems.

On the right, trickle-down equality manifests itself in respectability politics — the model minority myth or means-testing food stamps. On the left, trickle-down equality deradicalizes and undermines the core goals of a movement to placate entrenched communities in power.

If you find yourself rising up to the subjectively elite class, they will placate your worries with comforts instead of community. This often happens with movement leaders who find themselves with a captive audience, a platform, but didn't find the amount of political success they hoped for. Slowly whitewashed down to be toothless representations of the political group they are now paid to speak for, as pundits and podcast hosts whose brand is "fight the power" in-between appearances on CNN panels, "both sidesing" slavery.

Real equality — real equity — is about specifics. About actionable, comprehensive plans. About making sure plans address issues in ways that really do raise all boats. In the sometimes fractured coalition that is the American left, a sizable portion, over decades of in-fighting, has been centered around policies that leave communities behind.

Move left

Fascism paves over nuanced challenges inherent in fixing our country's problems — by ensuring those out of power don't have a choice.

To combat this, we must try to be cognizant of our worldview. We must be targeted in our support. We must listen to community allies. Most importantly, we have to be aware of how conservatives control the conversation. We cannot meet a mentality that doesn't believe in a democratic society in the middle. You want to fight fascism and push America towards the values it preaches? Move left, friend. Move left.

Meet 'Paul Gosar the Titan slayer' -- Arizona's white nationalist icon and 'an awful human being'

James E. Garcia, Arizona Mirror
November 11, 2021

PAUL GOZAR ONE SICK FUCK 

Congressman Ruben Gallego got it right when he recently described his House colleague, Paul Gosar, as “Just an awful human being."

Gallego was commenting on the news that Gosar had posted an altered anime video of himself on Twitter, which he's since removed, that depicted him executing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, by slashing the back of her neck with a sword and nearly decapitating her, and then attacking President Joe Biden — the animated version of “Gosar" freezing a split second before his blades make contact with the president's head.

Gosar, a Prescott Republican and white nationalist icon, later said it all a big joke.

It was. A very sick and repugnant joke.

White supremacy is for extremely fragile people (and) sad men like him, whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior, because deep down he knows he couldn't open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself.

– Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY

And while his “joke" may not mean that Gosar actually wants to kill Ocasio-Cortez, it's the latest illustration of just how far Gosar and a growing contingent of the Republican Party are willing to go when it comes to trivializing and often outright encouraging violence against anyone who disagrees with them.

Gosar has also described the throngs who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to block the certification of Biden's 2020 election as “peaceful patriots." Really? Those peaceful patriots left more than 140 Capitol and D.C. police officers injured, and one officer dead. Others also died as a result of the attack.

But in case you're wondering, Gosar's mock-murder of Ocasio-Cortez isn't really about politics, in the same way that rape isn't really about sex.

This isn't Gosar's way of saying he disagrees ideologically with the congresswoman's progressive stances on issues like climate change, universal pre-K or paid family medical leave.

Gosar's assault on Ocasio-Cortez is about race and gender — and especially race.

Ocasio-Cortez is everything Gosar and his ilk detest and fear: an intelligent Brown woman with power.

Gosar wouldn't dare circulate an anime video of him pretending to behead Rep. Lynn Cheney, and not because she's a fellow Republican — though she's recently turned her back on many of her Republican colleagues — but because she's a white woman, and even the most racist members of today's Trumpian GOP wouldn't stand for it.

“After all, Paul," I can just imagine some of them saying, “you wouldn't want to encourage anyone to do anything crazy now would you? You know, like chop Lynn's head off!!!"

Nevermind that that's precisely what Gosar's cartoon caricature of himself does to Ocasio-Cortez.

The video also goes out of its way to tie Ocasio-Cortez, who was born in Bronx, to the theme of illegal immigration.

The video repeatedly cuts to grainy clips showing immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, as Border Patrol agents, including some galloping on horseback, valiantly “defend" America.

And just so you know how dangerous these immigrants are, the video screen is splattered with anime blood stains, though I'm not sure if the implication is that the immigrants have sparked a murderous bloodbath or if “Gosar the Titan slayer" is slashing them as they cross.

Either way, the message is clear: Menacing Brown immigrants are invading the U.S. and our evil villain, Ocasio-Cortez, is leading the charge. But never fear, hard-right, neo-fascist white America, Gosar is here!

For her part, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted soon after landing in Scotland to attend an ongoing global climate conference about the “creepy" colleague “who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups" that shared his fantasy of killing her: “This dude is just a collection of wet toothpicks anyway. White supremacy is for extremely fragile people (and) sad men like him, whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior, because deep down he knows he couldn't open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself."

Ocasio-Cortez predicted that Gosar, given the Republican Party's recent track record, is unlikely to face any serious consequences for what's become his pattern of reprehensible behavior.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for a Congressional ethics inquiry and criminal investigation into Gosar's depiction of violence against Ocasio-Cortez and Biden.

Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu added this: “In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired."

Even the congressman's sister, Jennifer Gosar, has labeled him a “sociopath" and demanded that he be held accountable.

But Gosar won't be held accountable. He won't be fired by the Republican Party. He won't be castigated by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. And he won't be voted out by a majority of voters in his shamefully gerrymandered Arizona district.

Why? Because Gosar is a white supremacist, male member of a political party that's now dominated by white supremacists and whose core agenda has almost nothing to do anymore with so-called traditional Republican values.

The party's singular agenda today is the preservation, at all costs, of this country's historically white, male-dominated power base, and Gosar has become a sociopathic foot-soldier for cause.


Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.

ROFLMAO

Fugitive MAGA JAN 6 rioter pleads for asylum on Belarus State TV: 'I’m not strong enough to withstand torture'

John Wright
November 11, 2021


MAGA rioter Evan Neumann has become "a convenient pawn" for Russian President Vladimir Putin since fleeing from California to Belarus to avoid prosecution for repeatedly assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Neumann appeared on state television in Belarus on Thursday, during a special called "Goodbye, America," where he bemoaned "political repressions" in the U.S. and "claimed that the criminal charges against him are totally unfounded," the Daily Beast reports.

"He accused the federal government of staging an elaborate set-up on Jan. 6 and claimed that the doors of the Capitol 'were opened from the inside and we were invited to come in,'" the site reports, adding that Neumann is seeking political asylum in Belarus because he says the U.S. is no longer a country of law and order.

Neumann claimed in the interview that he would "face certain torture" if he returns to the U.S. "I'm not strong enough to withstand torture," he said.

"Ironically, Neumann's flagrant resistance to lawful authority led him to seek asylum in authoritarian Belarus—often described as 'Europe's last dictatorship,'" the Daily Beast notes, adding that for Belarusian and Russian state TV, Neumann has become "a convenient pawn for besmirching the U.S. government."

"Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, repeatedly used the Capitol insurrection to take jabs at the U.S.'s election integrity and to claim that the rioters are facing 'political repressions,' in an attempt to deflect from domestic issues plaguing Russia and Belarus under their authoritarian leadership," the site reports. "Russian state TV is already using Neumann's saga as a basis to claim that the Kremlin is more lenient towards the protesters than the U.S. government."

Neumann was charged in July on six counts, including assaulting officers and violent entry, after he was identified in video recorded during the riot, but he had already sold his Mill Valley home for $1.3 million and fled to Ukraine before going to Belarus.

Italy grants citizenship to top Afghan woman prosecutor

11 November, 2021

Italy granted citizenship to Afghanistan's first woman chief prosecutor who fled her country when the Taliban took over

Italy was one of five countries most involved with NATO's US-led mission in Afghanistan [Getty]

Italy has granted citizenship to Afghanistan's first woman chief prosecutor after she fled the Taliban takeover of her war-torn country, a minister said on Thursday.

Maria Bashir, 51, was evacuated in September after the United States withdrew its last troops on August 30.

As chief prosecutor in the western province of Herat since 2009, she had battled corruption, violence against women and child marriage.

The US State Department recognised her with an award in 2011 for showing courage in the face of Taliban threats, and Time magazine listed her among its 100 most influential people the same year.

Justice Minister Marta Cartabia said Italy, through giving her Italian nationality, wanted to show its "support to all the other Afghan women, who continue to fight for their freedom and rights at a high price".

Cartabia had welcomed Bashir when she landed in Italy on September 9.

As it approved the decision late on Wednesday, Italy's cabinet said Bashir had "worked closely with the Italian authorities while they were in (Afghanistan), contributing to reinforcing institutions and, more generally, the rule of law".

In comments relayed by the ANSA news agency, Bashir said she was "honoured" and hoped to be able to continue working for Afghan women, "with the help of our Italian friends".

Bashir lived under Taliban rule in the 90s, which she described in 2010 to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime as "a particularly grim time for women".

"Everybody was scared to go to work and I, too, had to stay at home. So, I started a secret school at home, for the neighbourhood girls," she told the UN body.

Italy was one of five countries most involved with NATO's US-led mission in Afghanistan along with Germany, Britain and Turkey.

In early September, Rome said it had evacuated almost 5,000 Afghans following the Taliban takeover.

UK caves, allows Assange to get married in jail

12 Nov, 2021 00:29
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FILE PHOTO: Julian Assange and partner Stella Moris 

are seen in an undated photo shared by Moris on social media November 11, 2021. 

© Twitter / @StellaMoris1 / screenshot

Imprisoned WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange will tie the knot with the mother of his children at a maximum security UK prison, after Stella Moris sued the “creepy” British government for denying them the right to marry.

“Julian and I now have permission to marry in Belmarsh prison,” Moris tweeted on Thursday evening, explaining that the UK government “backed down” 24 hours before the legal deadline.

“I am relieved but still angry that legal action was necessary to put a stop to the illegal interference with our basic right to marry,” she added.

Moris, who has two sons with Assange, filed a lawsuit against Justice Secretary Dominic Raab and Belmarsh Governor Jenny Louis on Friday, arguing that “creepy elements of the UK government” engaged in “unfair, irrational and sinister” behavior to illegitimately interfere in their plans.

READ MORE: Assange & fiancée sue ‘creepy elements of UK government,’ and here’s why

Assange and Moris have been engaged for five years, and have been asking officials at the maximum-security prison for permission to arrange a wedding since May. When they finally received a reply, they were told the matter was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

As the CPS represents the US government in the extradition proceedings against the Australian-born publisher, putting them in charge of the marriage basically gives Washington veto powers, which is “completely outrageous,” Moris told Democracy Now.

Speaking with the Independent, Moris said the interference with the marriage request was a bid to “break [Assange] psychologically” and that there were no legitimate reasons for it.

“It’s a really basic, essential thing, a human thing, and it’s not for the intelligence services, our politicians or anyone else,” she said