Recent Court Rulings Block Deferred Action Programs and Raise Questions for Accessing Birthright Citizenship | migrationpolicy.org

{We cannot go back to a past that promoted hate and inequality or to a time of exclusion based on race, color, religion, ethnicity, gender. Those who wish to do that are delusional and anti-human.}

In a long-awaited ruling, a three-judge panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on November 9 declined to lift an injunction blocking implementation of President Obama’s signature executive action on immigration—a deferred action program that would protect from deportation up to 4 million unauthorized immigrants. The Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program and an expansion of the existing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, announced nearly a year ago, were immediately challenged in court by 26 U.S. states and enjoined by a federal judge in Texas.

Source: Recent Court Rulings Block Deferred Action Programs and Raise Questions for Accessing Birthright Citizenship | migrationpolicy.org

Claremont College Dean Resigns After Writing That Latinos Don’t Fit In: LAist

Espinosa emailed Spellman her op-ed, and Spellman responded on October 25 by telling her that, “[W]e are working on how we can better serve students, especially those who don’t fit our CMC mold.”Telling students who already feel isolated that they don’t fit their school’s mold didn’t go over well. Matters weren’t helped by a photo that began circulating of CMC’s junior class president, Kris Brackmann, posing with two white students who were dressed up like Mexican stereotypes for Halloween. Brackmann has also since resigned from her position.

Source: Claremont College Dean Resigns After Writing That Latinos Don’t Fit In: LAist

Adel Termos: The Lebanese Hero Of the Borj el Barajneh Terrorist Attacks | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Tonight, Haidar lost his mother and father. Shawki Droubi and Khodr Aleddine, a nurse, were lost to their families. Hussein Mostapha passed away with his wife, leaving their son behind. Samer, a Syrian father of two who fled horrors in his country, was killed in what he had feared back home, and Hussein, a Palestinian man whose family sought refuge here, also passed away. Alaa Awad, a third year law student, was also among the victims. Rawan Awad was a school teacher. Hanady Joumaa, Bilal Hammoud, Ahmad Awwada, Rawan Atwi were among the victims too.

Source: Adel Termos: The Lebanese Hero Of the Borj el Barajneh Terrorist Attacks | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Tlatlaya Massacre and U.S. Military Aid

A few weeks ago, for the second time, the Mexican Secretary of National Defense (SEDENA) denied an access to information request that would require documentation related to U.S. training, equipment or support for members of the 102nd Battalion.The 102nd Battalion became famous, or infamous, with the Tlatlaya massacre. On June 30, 2014, 22 young people died at the hands of the Battalion. The day after the massacre, the Army released a communiqué stating that 22 criminals had died in a confrontation in which not one member of the Army was injured.

Source: Tlatlaya Massacre and U.S. Military Aid

Rabobank raids rural Romania | Europe | DW.COM | 12.11.2015

On the unpaved streets of Zarand, a village in Western Romania where hundreds of subsistence farmers scratch a living on tiny plots of land, everyone is telling the same story. In hushed tones, they tell how hundreds of hectares of farmland have been stolen from local families by a corrupt mafia, leaving them with no kind of income and no access to the food source they almost wholly relied on. How it happened, few of them know, but they are aware of one thing: it now belongs to foreign-owned companies, and those companies have little interest in farming.Zarand is one of over 50 Romanian villages where the Dutch banking giant Rabobank now owns large tracts of land, as part of a 315-million-euro ($337-million) investment into farmland in Romania and Poland. Through subsidiaries belonging to a farmland investment fund called Rabo Farm, Rabobank have bought up at least 140 hectares in Zarand since 2011, and over 21,000 hectares in Romania as a whole. In 10 to 15 years, the fund plans to sell at a profit of over 900 million euros, in line with the rapidly soaring price of land in Eastern Europe.

Source: Rabobank raids rural Romania | Europe | DW.COM | 12.11.2015

france 24 – Deadly explosions rock Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut – France 24

{No mention of fact this is a huge Palestinian refugee community that has taken in thousands of Palestinians fleeing the conflict in Syria}

Local media said that the attacks occurred just outside a Shiite centre in the Borj al-Barajneh area.This southern suburb of the Lebanese capital – popularly known as “Dahieh” – is a stronghold of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group and has been hit by several deadly bombings since the 2011 Syrian uprising began.Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV says there were two explosions, about seven minutes apart, in the neighborhood of Burj al-Barajneh.

Source: france 24 – Deadly explosions rock Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut – France 24

france 24 – Undercover Israeli agents stage raid on Palestinian hospital – France 24

Bilal Shalaldeh, Shalaldeh’s brother, told the AFP news agency that he was in the room at the time of the raid, which occurred around 3 a.m.”They arrested my brother and tied me up,” he was quoted as saying. “My cousin was in the bathroom and when he opened the bathroom door, and without any warning or any words, they shot at him five times.”Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency confirmed the incident in a statement, but claimed the man who was shot dead tried to attack the troops, and would not say if undercover forces were behind the deadly raid.

Source: france 24 – Undercover Israeli agents stage raid on Palestinian hospital – France 24