Images of stripped and humiliated Palestinians draw condemnation
From Washington Post
By Kareem Fahim, William Booth, Sufian Taha and Hazem Balousha
Updated December 14, 2023 at 10:17 a.m. EST | Published December 13, 2023 at 8:42 p.m. EST
The images of thePalestinian men, stripped to their underwear, forced to kneel, some bound, some blindfoldedin the custody of Israeli soldiers,were certain to provokeextreme emotions.
When they exploded on social media, similar language across multiple tweets suggested a campaign — organized or spontaneous — to get them to the public.
As photos and video spread on X, Facebook and other platforms last week, they were picked up by Israeli media. “Images circulate of dozens of Hamas terrorists surrendering in Gaza,” the Jerusalem Post trumpeted in a typical headline. Israel’s military, which censors the Israeli media, did not object to the characterization or prevent the images’ spread.
Taiwan is driving China-U.S. tensions. Meet the person right in the middle
From NPR
When President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met at the APEC summit this November, one of the top agenda items was Taiwan, an island China claims as its own. Xi called Taiwan the “most important” and “most sensitive” issue driving U.S.-China tensions.
The top U.S. representative in Taiwan, Sandra Oudkirk, is trying to navigate that tricky terrain.
Who is she? Oudkirk became the director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) — the U.S. office in Taipei — in July 2021.
- The AIT functions much like an American embassy – but it is decidedly not one.
- That’s because the U.S. does not formally recognize Taiwan as a country, choosing since 1979 to instead recognize Beijing.
- The U.S. still maintains close trade and political exchanges with Taiwan however, and Taiwan has become an important high-tech economy.
The massive meteor shower that convinced people the world was ending
From Boston.com
This week’s Geminid meteor shower is expected to be one of the most impressive of the year. According to astronomers, this stellar show — peaking Wednesday night — could produce up to 150 “shooting stars” per hour in white, yellow and even green hues.
As dramatic as that might be, it can’t hold a candle to the Leonid Meteor Shower of 1833. On the night of Nov. 12-13, so many meteors burned through the Earth’s atmosphere that they seemed to turn the night sky into morning. Eyewitnesses claimed the air was filled with brilliant “snowflakes,” while newspapers dubbed it “the shower of stars.” In oral histories, Native American tribes referred to it as “the night the stars fell.”
“It appeared so grand and magnificent as to be truly exhilarating,” Joseph Harvey Waggoner, a Pennsylvania teenager, recalled later. “It was a sight never to be forgotten.”
On the basis of contemporary descriptions, researchers estimate that as many as 240,000 meteors lit up the sky in a nine-hour period that night. In one hour, as many as 70,000 shooting stars streaked across the sky. The brightness of the shower caused countless citizens to rise from their slumber, in turn waking neighbors with loud exclamations of the vivid sight before them.
The spectacular scene had another effect on people: Many believed that it foretold a disaster of biblical proportions and that their lives were all but over.
Civil rights charges filed in N.H. against NSC-131 for anti-LGBTQ intimidation tactics at drag event
The group chanted, raised a racist banner, and performed Nazi salutes in what the state now argues constituted an intentional effort to “terrorize” those who gathered inside
By Steven Porter Globe Staff,Updated December 13, 2023, 4:22 p.m.
From Boston.com
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella announced Wednesday a fresh round of civil rights charges against the Nationalist Social Club-131, or NSC-131, accusing the neo-Nazi group of intentionally terrorizing families who gathered at a business for a drag queen story hour event over the summer.
Formella’s office brought the allegations against NSC-131, founder Christopher Hood, and 19 unnamed defendants for engaging in intimidation tactics outside Teatotaller Café, an eatery and venue in Concord, on June 18, in alleged violation of New Hampshire’s nondiscrimination law.
The complaint accuses the group of seeking to coerce the venue to cancel its drag story hour event based on the sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity of the drag performers.
Two former State Police supervisors convicted of corruption charges
From NBCBoston.com
Lieutenant Daniel J. Griffin and Sergeant William W. Robertson are scheduled to be sentenced March 20 following their convictions on conspiracy, theft, and wire fraud charges, according to Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy’s office.
Two former Massachusetts State Police troopers were convicted on Tuesday in connection to an overtime fraud scheme that dated back to 2015, according to federal prosecutors.
Former State Police Lt. Daniel Griffin and former Sgt. William Robertson were each convicted of one count of conspiracy, one count of theft concerning a federal program and four counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Both men are scheduled to be sentenced in March.
From 2015 to 2018, Griffin, 60, Robertson, 61, and others plotted to steal thousands of dollars in overtime pay for hours not worked and destroyed evidence, said prosecutors.
Amid heightened scrutiny into the department, Griffin, Robertson and others shredded and burned records and forms related to the scheme, said prosecutors. Griffin also claimed to superiors that missing forms had been “inadvertently discarded or misplaced.”