Israel’s minister of strategic affairs is gathering intelligence and compiling blacklists on Israeli citizens who support the boycott movement. By Amnon Portugaly These days Gilad Erdan, Israel’s minister of public security and strategic affairs, is promoting a new law that would exclude his ministry from governmental oversight. This is a step meant to help fight the BDS movement, while also granting legitimacy to gathering intelligence on Israeli citizens who are involved in the movement to boycott Israel. [tmwinpost] In June, Haaretz reported that the Strategic Affairs Ministry, which Erdan heads, would essentially be shielded from certain provisions in the Freedom of Information…
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Israeli police confirm Netanyahu is suspect in fraud investigation | World news | The Guardian
According to a statement from the Israel Police, Harow is expected to receive six months of community service and a fine of $193,000 on separate breach of trust charges – rather than a prison sentence – in exchange for his testimony.The latest dramatic twists in the series of long-running investigations into Netanyahu, his family and close circle, have led some commentators in the Israeli media to suggest that an indictment may now be inevitable.Amid mounting calls from politicians for Netanyahu to stand down if he is charged in any of the investigations, commentators even in media usually friendly to the Israeli prime minister – including the rightwing Jerusalem Post – have begun beginning to talk about ‘alternatives’ to him.The confirmation of the seriousness of the allegations comes on the day after his wife, Sara, was again interviewed by police in a separate case relating to claims for household costs in the prime minister’s residence.
Source: Israeli police confirm Netanyahu is suspect in fraud investigation | World news | The Guardian
US Salmonella papaya outbreak more than doubles | CIDRAP
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers to avoid all Caribena brand Maradol papayas. The FDA took this step after Texas-based Grande Produce, which distributes the brand, issued a limited recall on the fruit.According to the latest CDC update, the FDA has also identified Maradol papayas from the Carica de Campeche papaya farm in Mexico as a likely source of the outbreak. The agency is working to identify other brands of papayas that may have originated from Carica de Campeche and facilitate recalls.The FDA tested other papayas imported from Mexico and isolated, in addition to the two outbreak strains, Salmonella Agona, Salmonella Gaminara, and Salmonella Senftenberg.Maradol papayas are large, oval fruits that weigh 3 or more pounds and have green skin that turns yellow when ripe and salmon-colored flesh. The CDC recommends avoiding and discarding all Maradol papayas at this time.
Source: US Salmonella papaya outbreak more than doubles | CIDRAP
Openness to foreigners essential to U.S. identity, say most Americans | Pew Research Center
Many Americans say the country’s openness to foreigners is a defining characteristic of the nation.
Source: Openness to foreigners essential to U.S. identity, say most Americans | Pew Research Center
For Josh Mandel, no gutter is too deep, no shot too cheap: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com
Back in 2003, it was hard not to be impressed with the polite young man who launched his political career with a tireless, door-to-door campaign for a seat on Lyndhurst City Council. Eddie Haskell had nothing on the fresh-faced kid who sat in the kitchen of then-Mayor Joe Cicero and broke bread with his family. Looking back, Cicero now knows: “Josh was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”He fooled everyone in the city. He was opportunistic from the start, one of the worst things that ever happened to Lyndhurst. Josh Mandel is inadequate as a human being.”
Source: For Josh Mandel, no gutter is too deep, no shot too cheap: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com
Gulf of Mexico dead zone is largest on record | Ars Technica
This year’s “dead zone,” where oxygen levels are so low they threaten fish and other small aquatic life, is about 50 percent larger than normal. The average size of the dead zone over the last 31 years has been 14,037 square kilometers, according to Nancy Rabalais, a researcher at Louisiana State University who has long studied the issue. The dead zone was likely even larger than what the scientists found, but there was insufficient time on board the ship to measure its entire extent.
Source: Gulf of Mexico dead zone is largest on record | Ars Technica
IRIN | Occupied labour: The treadmill of Palestinian work in Israel
All told, these checkpoints are a heavy burden for the workers: several thousand Palestinians push through here every morning – so many that a team of 70 volunteer “herders” must keep the masses in order.“I leave my house at 3am so I can cross the checkpoint on time,” said Ahmed, a construction worker outside the crossing.Each day, he travels from Tubas, on the other side of the West Bank, and makes a long but short journey to Tel Aviv: four hours just to get 60 kilometres as the crow flies. After a rough day of burning tar on building sites, he is back in bed around 8pm, to wake up at 2am when the treadmill spins on. “I only see my children asleep,” he said.
Source: IRIN | Occupied labour: The treadmill of Palestinian work in Israel
Trump’s Russian Laundromat
“Russians love the Trump brand,” said developer Gil Dezer, (left, with Trump). One Florida tenant, Anatoly Golubchik (right) was busted in a major money-laundering ring run out of Trump Tower. Billy Farrell/Patrick McMullan/Getty; John Marshall Mantel/ New York Times/ReduxMany of the units were sold by a native of Uzbekistan who had immigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1980s; her business was so brisk that she soon began bringing Russian tour groups to Sunny Isles to view the properties. According to a Reuters investigation in March, at least 63 buyers with Russian addresses or passports spent $98 million on Trump’s properties in south Florida. What’s more, another one-third of the units—more than 700 in all—were bought by shadowy shell companies that concealed the true owners.Trump promoted and celebrated the properties. His organization continues to advertise the units; in 2011, when they first turned a profit, he attended a ceremonial mortgage-burning in Sunny Isles to toast their success. Last October, an investigation by the Miami Herald found that at least 13 buyers in the Florida complex have been the target of government investigations, either personally or through their companies, including “members of a Russian-American organized crime group.” Two buyers in Sunny Isles, Anatoly Golubchik and Michael Sall, were convicted for taking part in a massive international gambling and money-laundering syndicate that was run out of Trump Tower in New York. The ring, according to the FBI, was operating under the protection of the Russian mafia.
The Earth is exhausted – we′re using up its resources faster than it can provide | DW Environment | DW | 01.08.2017
We’ve already used up more resources this year than our planet can regenerate. That’s bad news for our climate and for poorer countries in the Global South, which stand to lose out the most. Anne-Sophie Brändlin reports.
Alaska trip to attend hepatitis B meeting a first for NT Indigenous health workers – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
A group of Indigenous health workers from Galiwinku prepare to head to Alaska to share their stories and hepatitis B treatment methods.














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