Tag Archives: WorldNews

Another Case of Vanishing Latino Children

Fascist child traffickers. It’s the disturbing result of partnerships between local police departments and federal immigration agents.

Trump administration poses new threat to birds in allowing ‘incidental’ killings

Oops I killed another Bald Eagle – Don Jr. grin.

5415.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=forma

Conservationists launch legal attempt to stop interior department from reversing a 100-year-old law that protects migratory birds

The eagle may be America’s mascot, but being a bird today in the United States is tough. Billions die each year in the maws of domestic cats, or after crashing into power lines or skyscraper windows. But on a large scale, climate change is warping the environment of birds that migrate long distances, such as whooping cranes or Arctic terns. And bald eagles, the nation’s regal avatar, are being struck down by lead poisoning.

Bird conservationists are now alarmed by a fresh threat – the Trump administration. In a striking new stance on a longstanding law protecting migrating birds, the federal government will essentially allow the “incidental” killing of birds via buildings, energy production and other developments that act as avian death traps.

Continue reading…

‘Privatizing the coast’: are wealthy Californians seizing public beaches?

Beaches belong to the people! Period!

6720.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=forma

As some try to seal off stretches of coastline for private use, the state wants to tackle a growing divide between rich and poor

Privates Beach is named not for its exclusivity but for its permissive stance on nude sunbathing. This small patch of paradise on the California coastline is adored by locals, and anyone is welcome to enjoy the clean and quiet spot. If, that is, they have a key costing $100 a year.

A 9ft iron gate blocks the path to a beach staircase, set among expensive hillside homes in the tony surf town of Santa Cruz, south of San Francisco. Yet by California law, all the beaches along its 840 alluring miles of coastline belong to the people, and the state is cracking down at Privates and elsewhere in a push to mitigate a growing divide between rich and poor.

Continue reading…

The Brett Kavanaugh case shows we still blame women for the sins of men | Rebecca Solnit

2560.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=forma

From Anita Hill to the victims of Cosby and Weinstein, women are disbelieved, powerful men excused. When will we learn?

We have been here before. We have been here over and over in an endless, Groundhog Day loop about how rape and sexual abuse happen: offering the same explanations, hearing the same kind of stories from wave after wave of survivors, hearing the same excuses and refusals to comprehend from people who are not so sure that women are endowed with inalienable rights and matter as much as men – or, categorically, have as much credibility. We are, with the case of Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s nominee for the US supreme court, who has been accused of sexual assault, revisiting ground worn down from years of pacing. Kavanaugh denies Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that he forcibly held her down and assaulted her when both were at high school. We have only the accounts of the participants, and these, it seems, will always contradict each other. The allegation and the denial put us back in a familiar scenario.

The last five years have been an exhaustive and exhausting crash course in how abusers and rapists (and attempted rapists) and their victims behave, and how they are perceived and treated, but the learning curve of the wilfully oblivious resembles the period at the end of this sentence.

Continue reading…

Ice arrests more than 40 people trying to sponsor migrant children

Just run by neo-fascists!

2575.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=forma

Authorities are using applications to pursue and deport would-be caretakers who are undocumented, an Ice official told Congress

The Trump administration, in its continued immigration crackdown, has arrested more than 40 people who came forward to help undocumented migrant children, in a move that is sparking alarm among advocates.

Parents, relatives and friends of children in federal custody can apply to become sponsors and take in minor detainees from government shelters – but authorities are now using their information to pursue and deport such would-be caretakers when they are themselves undocumented immigrants, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) official told Congress this week.

Continue reading…