With Scarlett Johansson front and centre, finally it’s Black Widow’s time to shine

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Long-delayed plans for a female-led Marvel superhero movie following Wonder Woman’s triumph should deliver one of the studio’s biggest hitters

It’s not difficult to follow Hollywood’s logic in avoiding female-led superhero movies for most of the past 20 years. Whenever studios have taken risks on characters such as Catwoman (in 2004, with Halle Berry in the leathers) and Elektra (2005, with Jennifer Garner as the famed assassin), the box-office results have been paltry and the critical brickbats relentless.

Of course, when I say it is possible to follow the logic, this is not the same thing as saying such blinkered thinking is logical, which led us to a point where there were no major female-led comic-book flicks released in cinemas between 2005 and the debut of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman last year. For, by the same rationale, Hollywood ought to have banned all male-led sci-fi romps following the failure of Cowboys and Aliens to light up multiplexes in 2011. It did not, of course. When a female-led movie fails, the gender of the lead protagonist is immediately flagged up. When a male-led film heads straight for the DVD bargain bin, other aspects are highlighted.

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US border patrol routinely sabotages water left for migrants, report says

Why?

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Humanitarian groups report agents routinely destroy supplies left in Arizona desert, condemning people to die of thirst

United States border patrol agents routinely vandalise containers of water and other supplies left in the Arizona desert for migrants, condemning people to die of thirst in baking temperatures, according to two humanitarian groups.

In a report published on Wednesday, the Tucson-based groups said the agents committed the alleged sabotage with impunity in an attempt to deter and punish people who illegally cross from Mexico.

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CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens

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A Gulfstream jet from a quiet airport south-east of Raleigh flew captives to be tortured around the world. The government failed to act but local people have refused to let the issue die

A year after he was released from captivity in Guantánamo, Binyam Mohamed received a letter from Christina Cowger, an agricultural researcher from North Carolina. Enclosed was a petition of apology signed by nearly 800 visitors to the North Carolina State Fair.

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Peter Madsen charged with murder of Kim Wall on submarine

Hope they have airtight case

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Danish prosecutor says inventor cut Swedish journalist’s throat or strangled her on board vessel

The Danish inventor Peter Madsen has been formally charged with the murder of the Swedish journalist Kim Wall, a public prosecutor has said.

Jakob Buch-Jepsen said the 46-year-old either cut Wall’s throat or strangled her after she boarded his self-built submarine for an interview in August last year.

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ICE targets immigrant rights leaders in shift “from law enforcement into a political-oppression…

ICE targets immigrant rights leaders in shift “from law enforcement into a political-oppression apparatus”

Sign this petition to rescind the deportation order against Maru Mora Villapando

Maru Mora Villalpando speaks to supporters during a press conference in Seattle on January 16, 2018. Photo Credit: Enrique Cerna/Crosscut

From NWDC Resistance and Mijente:

The Seattle office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has served a “Notice to Appear,” otherwise known as a deportation notice, to Washington-based community activist and mother, Maru Mora-Villalpando.

Maru leads Northwest Detention Center Resistance (NWDCR), an organization that was co-founded when immigrants held at the Northwest Detention Center began a series of hunger strikes in 2014 protesting their inhumane treatment. Mora-Villalpando’s efforts have transformed the NWDC from an ignored facility in an out-of-the-way location to a key site of local resistance, with weekly rallies and vigils outside its gates.

Now, in an unprecedented and arbitrary act of retaliation ICE has chosen to target Mora-Villalpando directly. ICE is now purposely targeting people such as Mora-Villalpando who are organizing against the agency and the Trump administration’s racially-motivated deportation agenda.

“ICE only knows about me because of my political work,” explains Mora-Villalpando. “I have spoken out to defend immigrants in detention and shared my story as an undocumented mother. I have sat in meetings with immigration officials and challenged their practices. They are an agency whose actions have already been devastating to my community. But with the letter they delivered to my house, they are showing themselves to be an agency that silences any opposition to their practices,” she concluded.

Sign and Share the Petition to rescind Maru’s order of deportation:

ICE Serves Deportation Notice on Undocumented Leader for Organizing Detained Immigrants

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La oficina de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE) de Seattle ha enviado un “Aviso de comparecencia”, también conocido como un aviso de deportación, a la activista y madre en la comunidad de Washington, Maru Mora-Villalpando.

Maru lidera la Resistencia del Centro de Detención del Noroeste (NWDCR), una organización que fue cofundada cuando los inmigrantes detenidos en el Centro de Detención del Noroeste comenzaron una serie de huelgas de hambre en 2014 protestando su trato inhumano. Los esfuerzos de Mora-Villalpando han transformado el NWDC de una instalación ignorada en una ubicación apartada a un sitio clave de resistencia local, con manifestaciones y vigilias semanales en sus puertas.

Ahora, en un acto de represalia arbitro y sin precedentes, ICE ha elegido apuntar directamente a Mora-Villalpando. ICE ahora está apuntando deliberadamente a personas como Mora-Villalpando que se están organizando contra la agencia y la agenda de deportación racialmente motivada de la administración Trump.

“ICE solo sabe de mí por mi trabajo político”, explica Mora-Villalpando. “He hablado para defender a los inmigrantes detenidos y compartí mi historia como una madre indocumentada. Me he sentado en reuniones con funcionarios de inmigración y desafié sus prácticas. Son una agencia cuyas acciones ya han sido devastadoras para mi comunidad. Pero con la carta que entregaron a mi casa, se muestran como una agencia que silencia cualquier oposición a sus prácticas “, concluyó.

More News from Crosscut:

“I believe that ICE sent me this letter and started deportation proceedings against me because they are not so much against my immigration status, but against my political work,” Villalpando said in her first interview since receiving notice from ICE. “This is political oppression. That’s what they’re doing. ICE is finalizing the transition from law enforcement into a political-oppression apparatus.”

Villalpando is one of several well-known activists recently targeted by ICE. Last week, for example, ICE detained Ravi Ragbir, executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City. His arrest sparked protests that led to the arrest of 18 people. That same day, ICE also picked up Eliseo Jurado, the husband of Ingrid Latorre, who is fighting deportation as she takes sanctuary in a Colorado church. Jean Montrevil, co-founder of the New Sanctuary Coalition, was also detained. Villalpando received her letter from ICE last month, just before the Christmas holiday.

ICE targets Maru Mora, prominent immigration activist, for deportation

Maru Mora speaks about ICE initiating deportation proceedings against her:

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ICE targets immigrant rights leaders in shift “from law enforcement into a political-oppression… was originally published in IMM Print on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Mexico: 500 years later, scientists discover what killed the Aztecs

Sin Nombre virus and Andes virus both variations of Hanta get my vote. Same symptoms and could arise from over populations of voles or could have evolved from mice and rats that accompanied Spanish – Hanta is endemic in Europe and Asia which given the right conditions can explode – lots of corn, urban population and lack of local predators for new rodents..

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Within five years, 15 million people – 80% of the population – were wiped out in an epidemic named ‘cocoliztli’, meaning pestilence

In 1545 disaster struck Mexico’s Aztec nation when people started coming down with high fevers, headaches and bleeding from the eyes, mouth and nose. Death generally followed in three or four days.

Within five years as many as 15 million people – an estimated 80% of the population – were wiped out in an epidemic the locals named “cocoliztli”. The word means pestilence in the Aztec Nahuatl language. Its cause, however, has been in questioned for nearly 500 years.

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Flake compares Trump to Joseph Stalin, takes anti-Trump message to MSNBC, CNN

jeffflake26247385123*100xx1066-1066-267-U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., will compare U.S. President Donald Trump’s treatment and rhetoric towards the news media to that of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in an upcoming speech.

Flake is a Trump critic and isn’t running for reelection.

The Arizona Republican went on politically left MSNBC and CNN (one of Trump’s biggest media foils) this weekend to promote his upcoming speech.

Flake doesn’t like Trump calling the press the “enemy of the people.”

Trump has used that when calling…

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