Category Archives: Viva!

Trump Spokesman Is ‘Very Confident’ Wiretapping Evidence Will Emerge – The New York Times I watched the Microwave interview – he is not a very good liar. She was not making a joke – just a fool of herself.

Mr. Spicer also said that Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump who suggested in an interview that the surveillance could have included a microwave oven, made the comment as a joke. “The microwave is not a sound way of surveilling someone, and I think that has been cleaned up,” Mr. Spicer said. “It was made in jest, so I think we can put that to rest.”

German state of Saarland bans all political campaigning by foreign officials | News | DW.COM | 14.03.2017

The small western German of Saarland moved on Tuesday to ban all foreign politicians from campaigning in the state.While the move prohibits all foreign officials from holding campaign rallies, the policy immediately targets Turkish officials. Allies of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been rallying in European cities with large Turkish expatriate populations in a bid to harness the Turkish diaspora vote ahead of a controversial referendum vote next month that seeks to expand the President’s powers.”Internal Turkish conflicts have no place in Germany,” Saarland’s conservative State Premier Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who faces an election of her own next month, said in a statement. “Election appearances which put at risk domestic peace in our country must be banned.”

Source: German state of Saarland bans all political campaigning by foreign officials | News | DW.COM | 14.03.2017

Startups in Mexico: Jalisco, Mexico’s very own Silicon Valley | In English | EL PAÍS

Over the last decade, Mexico’s Silicon Valley has attracted 15 large corporations, mainly from the United States. There are also some 600 small and medium-sized companies, many of them start-ups that export 70% of their materials and content. Firms such as Oracle, HP, Motorola and IBM have found a second home in Jalisco. The state government says that companies are attracted by local talent and world-class infrastructure in Guadalajara and its environs.The state government has worked with US companies to provide Guadalajara with the infrastructure it needs to attract companies like Tesla and Salesforce, both of which are currently thinking about locating part of their operations in the city. Similarly, universities are producing greater numbers of graduates with the skills needed to meet the demands of the marketplace.

Source: Startups in Mexico: Jalisco, Mexico’s very own Silicon Valley | In English | EL PAÍS

Health Groups Denounce G.O.P. Bill as Its Backers Scramble – The New York Times #dropthejoke

In a letter to lawmakers, major hospital groups wrote, “As organizations that take care of every individual who walks through our doors, both due to our mission and our obligations under federal law, we are committed to ensuring health care coverage is available and affordable for all.”The groups, including the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the Children’s Hospital Association, said they could not support the bill “as currently written.”The hospitals and the American Nurses Association joined the American Medical Association and AARP, which rejected the bill on Tuesday.

The Assassination of Basel A’raj

Once… we were cursed with occupation … Today, we are cursed with an arm that is there inside us serving the occupation …

نادية حرحش

You probably never heard this name before. I cannot say I haven’t. Last year, somewhere during this time, a group of young men disappeared in the Ramallah area and were found later by the Palestinian security forces, where they were held with them for more than six months without charges. No one knew anything about what happened. People were speculating, and rumors were spread more than details that could make any sense. The group was made of five or six young activists, and it was said that they attempted attack against Israel. Their disappearance was as strange as their arrest that ended finally after a public unrest after their hunger strike.

The rest of the story is not a surprise. The Palestinian security forces release them and weeks later, or months, Israeli troops arrest them one after the other. The only one that was unarrested and became wanted by the…

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Spanish Peaks Turn Tan : Image of the Day how we are connected – even if Trump wants to pretend that nature does not matter

Two days after it was lofted into the air over the Sahara Desert on February 20, dust blew north into Spain and Europe. As dust particles settled down en masse on the snow-covered peaks of Spain’s Sierra Nevadas, they left the mountains a very different color.From above, satellites captured images of the mountains before and after the dust settled. The European Space Agency’s Sentinel 2-A satellite captured an image of the snow on February 18, 2017, before the dust arrived. NASA’s Landsat 8 shows the same area on February 27. The ski trails in Pradollano, Spain (left side of the top image) stand out as white streaks amidst the tan dust. A wider view of the two images appears below.Ground-based photographers captured images of the dust discoloring the snow atop the Sierra Nevadas, near Granada, Spain. Climbers encountered the dust as they trekked over the mountains, and skiers faced dusty conditions.It is not uncommon for African dust to reach Spain, said Colin Seftor, an atmospheric scientist working for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Sometimes you see the dust in Italy or all the way into Greece,” he said of analyzing satellite imagery. “You’ll see this weather pattern that looks like a storm, with that classic comma shape of clouds. The dust gets entrained and moves right along with the pressure system.”

Source: Spanish Peaks Turn Tan : Image of the Day