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New Schizophrenia Genetic Mutation Discovered by Feinstein Institutes Researchers

By
Sholom Schreirber
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Researchers at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, in collaboration with Columbia University, have identified a gene mutation that could result in schizophrenia, a chronic brain disorder that affects nearly one percent of the world’s population.

The findings, published in the journal Neuron, could lead to novel treatment strategies for schizophrenia

By: Matthew Libassi

Researchers at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, in collaboration with Columbia University, have identified a gene mutation that could result in schizophrenia, a chronic brain disorder that affects nearly one percent of the world’s population. The findings, published today in Neuron, could lead to novel treatment strategies.

The research team, led by Todd Lencz, PhD, with Itsik Pe’er, PhD, Tom Maniatis, PhD, and Erin Flaherty, PhD, of Columbia University, carried out an innovative genetic study identifying a single letter change in the DNA code in a gene called PCDHA3 that is associated with schizophrenia. The affected gene makes a type of protein called a protocadherin, which generates a cell surface “barcode” required for neurons to recognize and communicate with, other neurons. They found that the PCDHA3 variant blocks this normal protocadherin function.

Past research has shown that genes play an important role in the disorder, but it has proven difficult to isolate individual genes that contribute substantial effects. These results indicate that further investigation into restoring communication between neurons could be a critical step in developing novel treatment options for schizophrenia.

The discovery was made possible by the special genetic characteristics of the samples studied by Dr. Lencz’s team; patients with schizophrenia and healthy volunteers drawn from the Ashkenazi Jewish population. The Ashkenazi Jewish population represents an important population for study based on its unique history. Just a few hundred individuals who migrated to Eastern Europe less than 1,000 years ago are the ancestors of nearly 10 million Ashkenazi Jews today. This lineage, combined with a tradition of marriage within the community, has resulted in a more uniform genetic background to identify disease-related variants.

“In addition to our primary findings regarding PCDHA3 and related genes, we were able — due to the unique characteristics of the Ashkenazi population — to replicate several prior findings in schizophrenia despite relatively small sample sizes,” said Dr. Lencz, professor in the Institute of Behavioral Science at the Feinstein Institutes. “In our study, we demonstrated this population represents a smart, cost-effective strategy for identifying disease-related genes. Our findings allow us to zero in on a novel aspect of brain development and function in our quest to develop new treatments for schizophrenia.”

Schizophrenia, characterized by delusions, hallucinations and disorganized thoughts and behavior is one of the leading causes for disability in the United States. Schizophrenia usually requires lifelong treatment, including medication and psychosocial therapy.

“Dr. Lencz’s research into the role of genetics in schizophrenia offers a major advance,” said Kevin J. Tracey, MD, president and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes. “This work may open new avenues to developing therapeutics, which are sorely needed.”

This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, as well as grants from the Brain & Behavior Foundation and the Binational Science Foundation. The study emerged from The Ashkenazi Genomics Consortium, a collaborative effort co-led by Dr. Lencz, involving more than a dozen investigators from leading institutions — including Columbia University, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Weill Cornell Medical College — using similar strategies to understand the genetic basis of diseases including cancer, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.

Lev Tahor Leader Yaakov Weinstein Arrested in Guatemala on First Day of Passover

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

(TJVNEWS.COM) On Sunday, an arrest took place of an ultra-extremist leader of a Chareidi Orthodox group in Guatemala. According to a report on the Yeshiva World News web site, police in the central American country arrested Yaakov Weinstein, who represents the infamous Lev Tahor sect on the first day of Passover. Kikar HaShabbat, an Israeli new web site said that he was apprehended on suspicion of kidnapping children.

The bizarre cult has dominated headlines in the past with its leading members and leadership being accused of kidnapping as well as arranging underage marriages. JTA reported that in 2019, four members were indicted for kidnapping two children whose mother had escaped with them, wanting to return the children to Lev Tahor. The group had fled Canada to Guatemala in 2014 after coming under intense scrutiny by Canadian authorities for alleged child abuse and marrying off children.

Founded in Jerusalem in the 1980s by the late Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, the group is known for its rigidity and strict adherence to Jewish laws that no other Chassidic sect practices. The women and girls are required to dress in garments that traditional Muslim women wear such as hijab and burqa along with a long back robe that covers their entire body. Men in the sect are immersed in studying only specific portions of the Torah.

After being ejected from Canada, some members of the Lev Tahor group, which is adamantly anti-Zionist in its perspective on Israel had applied for political asylum in Iran. They have also been closely monitored by Guatemalan authorities.

While conducting a ritual immersion in 2017, it was reported that Helbrans drowned in a river in Mexico at the age of 54.

 

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Stars, Face Charges in Telemarketing Fraud Scheme

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

“Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jennifer Shah is facing federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a purported long-running telemarketing scam, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Southern District of New York Press Release

Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Peter C. Fitzhugh, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), and Dermot Shea, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), announced the unsealing of a Superseding Indictment charging JENNIFER SHAH and STUART SMITH with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The case has been assigned to United States District Judge Sidney H. Stein.

SHAH and SMITH were arrested earlier today and will be presented this afternoon in Salt Lake City federal court before United States Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “Jennifer Shah, who portrays herself as a wealthy and successful businessperson on ‘reality’ television, and Stuart Smith, who is portrayed as Shah’s ‘first assistant,’ allegedly generated and sold ‘lead lists’ of innocent individuals for other members of their scheme to repeatedly scam. In actual reality and as alleged, the so-called business opportunities pushed on the victims by Shah, Smith, and their co-conspirators were just fraudulent schemes, motivated by greed, to steal victims’ money. Now, these defendants face time in prison for their alleged crimes.”

HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Peter C. Fitzhugh said: “Shah and Smith flaunted their lavish lifestyle to the public as a symbol of their ‘success.’ In reality, they allegedly built their opulent lifestyle at the expense of vulnerable, often elderly, working-class people. As alleged, disturbingly, Shah and Smith objectified their very real human victims as ‘leads’ to be bought and sold, offering their personal information for sale to other members of their fraud ring. Working with our partners at the NYPD and the United States Attorney’s Office, SDNY, and with the assistance of HSI Salt Lake City, HSI New York worked to ensure that Shah and Smith will answer for their alleged crimes. As a result, their new reality may very well turn out differently than they expected.”

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said: “These individuals allegedly targeted and defrauded hundreds of victims but thanks to the hard work of the NYPD and our law enforcement partners, this illegal scheme was brought to an end. I congratulate the NYPD detectives, Homeland Security Investigations, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for their hard work in bringing these persons to justice.”

According to the allegations in the Superseding Indictment[1]:

From 2012 until March 2021, JENNIFER SHAH and STUART SMITH, together with others (collectively, the “Participants”) carried out a wide-ranging telemarketing scheme that defrauded hundreds of victims (the “Victims”) throughout the United States, many of whom were over age 55, by selling those Victims so-called “business services” in connection with the Victims’ purported online businesses (the “Business Opportunity Scheme”).

In order to perpetrate the Business Opportunity Scheme, Participants, including SHAH and SMITH, engaged in a widespread, coordinated effort to traffic in lists of potential victims, or “leads,” many of whom had previously made an initial investment to create an online business with other Participants in the Scheme. Leads were initially generated by sales floors operating in, among other places, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. The owners and operators of those sales floors operated in coordination with several telemarketing sales floors in the New York and New Jersey area, including in Manhattan, and provided lead lists and assistance in fighting Victim refund requests to other Participants operating those floors.

SHAH and SMITH, among other things, generated and sold leads to other Participants for use by their telemarketing sales floors with the knowledge that the individuals they had identified as “leads” would be defrauded by the other Participants. SHAH and SMITH received as profit a share of the fraudulent revenue per the terms of their agreement with those Participants. SHAH and SMITH often controlled each aspect of the frauds perpetrated by other Participants on the individuals they had identified by, among other things, determining which “coaching” sales floor could buy leads from them, selecting the downstream sales floors to which the “coaching” sales floor was permitted to pass the leads, choosing the firms to provide “fulfillment” services, that is, documents and records purporting to demonstrate that the services the Participants claimed to provide to those Victims were actual and legitimate, setting how much the downstream sales floors could charge, and determining which “products” each of the downstream sales floors could sell.

To perpetrate the Business Opportunity Scheme, certain of the Participants sold alleged services purporting to make the management of Victims’ businesses more efficient or profitable, including tax preparation or website design services, notwithstanding that many Victims were elderly and did not own a computer. At the outset of the Business Opportunity Scheme, certain Participants employed by a purported fulfillment company sent a given Victim electronic or paper pamphlets or provided so-called “coaching sessions” regarding these purported online businesses, but at no point did the defendants intend that the Victims would actually earn any of the promised return on their intended investment, nor did the Victims actually earn any such returns.

SHAH and SMITH undertook significant efforts to conceal their roles in the Business Opportunity Scheme. For example, SHAH and SMITH, among other things, incorporated their business entities using third parties’ names and instructed other Participants to do the same, used and directed others to use encrypted messaging applications to communicate with other Participants, instructed other Participants to send SHAH’s and SMITH’s shares of certain fraud proceeds to offshore bank accounts, and made numerous cash withdrawals structured to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements.

* * *

SHAH, 47, of Park City, Utah, and SMITH, 43, of Lehi, Utah, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing through which they victimized 10 or more persons over the age of 55, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.

Ms. Strauss praised the outstanding investigative work of HSI’s El Dorado Task Force and the NYPD. Ms. Strauss also thanked HSI Utah and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah for their support and assistance in this investigation.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Kiersten A. Fletcher, Benet J. Kearney, and Robert B. Sobelman are in charge of the prosecution.

If you believe you have been a victim of the scheme described above, including a victim entitled to restitution, and you wish to provide information to law enforcement and/or receive notice of future developments in the case or additional information, please contact Wendy Olsen-Clancy, the Victim Witness Coordinator at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, at 866-874-8900 or [email protected]. You may also report it to Detective Christopher Bastos at 917-480-7167 or [email protected].

The charges contained in the Superseding Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

 

 

 

 

Epstein Associate Ghislaine Maxwell Hit With New Charges In Sex Trafficking Case

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
AP

Marshall Worth (Daily Caller)

United States prosecutors filed two additional charges against Ghislaine Maxwell on Monday, one for sex trafficking conspiracy and one for sex trafficking of a minor.

Maxwell, a longtime friend of the late Jeffrey Epstein, is awaiting trial on charges that she recruited underage girls to engage in sexual activities with Epstein. She now faces an eight-count indictment and has already pleaded not guilty to committing abuse against three girls between 1994 and 1997. Monday’s filing adds a fourth girl to the list of Epstein and Maxwell’s victims. 

According to the indictment, the girls were paid hundreds of dollars for each encounter.

“Between approximately in or about 1994 and in or about 2004, Ghislaine Maxwell, the defendant, facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s access to minor victims by, among other things, inducing and enticing, and aiding and abetting the inducement and enticement of, multiple minor victims. Victims were groomed and/or abused at multiple locations,” Monday’s court documents read.

“The victims were as young as 14 years old when they were groomed and abused by Maxwell and Epstein, both of whom knew that certain victims were in fact under the age of 18,” according to the filings.

Maxwell is also charged with perjury for allegedly lying during a deposition for a lawsuit filed by an Epstein accuser. She was arrested in July 2020.

Epstein died in jail in 2019 after pleading guilty to paying an underage girl for sexual services. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging by the New York City medical examiner. He was being held without bail on child sex trafficking charges at the time of his death.

Maxwell is scheduled to stand trial on July 12.

MMA Fighter Gets Heated in Exchange with Derek Chauvin’s Lawyer

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

Jordan Lancaster(Daily Caller)

Defense attorney Eric J. Nelson got into a tense exchange Tuesday with one of the witnesses during Derek Chauvin’s trial. Chauvin was the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd.

Chauvin’s attorney asked a witness, Donald Williams II, if he had become increasingly angry while watching the scene when Floyd died, and the questioning became tense. Nelson said Williams “grew angrier,” citing the fact that Williams called the police names and allegedly said that he wanted “to beat the sh*t out of those police officers.”

Editors Note:

Donald Williams is a Mixed Martial Arts professional and has a 6-6 record as an MMA fighter.

Williams’ explanation coincides with what former UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones said about the choke Chauvin used on Floyd.

“I wouldn’t wish the way George Floyd was murdered on my worst enemy,” Jones said. “That officer applied just enough pressure to keep him alive for almost six minutes in that chokehold.

 

The witness disagreed with Chauvin’s lawyer, saying that he was “controlled” and professional. The witness explained his words became more forceful because Floyd was “pleading for life.”

Chauvin’s attorney proceeded to read off the names the witness called officers at the scene, which became increasingly explicit. Nonetheless, the witness again denied that he was angry.

“You can’t paint me out to be angry,” Williams said.

Nelson said that Williams continued to interact with and yell at the officers even after Floyd was taken away in an ambulance.

Earlier in the testimony, Chauvin’s attorney asked Williams about his experience in mixed martial arts and established his familiarity with law enforcement maneuvers, particularly different styles of chokes.

Nelson asked how much time Williams spent in the gym, what gym he went to, and if he had ever trained with a Minneapolis police officer. Williams, a martial arts professional, said he had trained with police officers, CIA agents, and FBI agents for a decade. (RELATED: Derek Chauvin Trial Day 1: Main Focus Will Be George Floyd’s Cause Of Death)

“An air choke is more like choking someone and they still have air to breathe, and they’re able to absorb it and feel it,” the witness said while explaining the different techniques of a chokehold.

“A blood choke specifically attacks the side of the neck and it specifically cuts off the circulation of the arteries and stops blood flowing from your body, from the top of your head to the bottom of your head,” Williams continued.

“Sometimes you can get into a blood choke and not know you’re in a blood choke until you are unconscious.”

Pro Wrestling Faces Cancel Culture: NBC Scans 17,000 Hours of WWE Video to Censor “Racist” Material

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Gorgeous George- pro wrestler from the 50's with a famous flamboyant male character

Jared Evan

In a giant media deal, NBC’s streaming service Peacock recently won the rights to stream pro wrestling giant WWE’s back catalog of 50 years of pro wrestling programming, which was formally carried on WWE’s own streaming network.

NBC Universal has revealed that it is scanning 17,000 of past WWE content to weed out “racist” material in order to avoid it appearing on the network’s new Peacock streaming device.

Pro Wrestling has a rich history of outlandish ring personas throughout its history. In the past, the characters were almost cartoon-like. Fans have seen Nazi characters, African Characters dressed as jungle warriors, flamboyant gay characters, male chauvinist bullies, Iranian and Russian villains, Black militant characters,  Samoan “savages”, creepy voodoo practitioners, British “royalty”, even a villainous Dentist, and just a general array of entertaining and sometimes offensive ridiculousness.

Today’s wrestling superstars still have robust in-ring characters but are far more subdued.

“One particular match that the NBC streaming service deleted is from the 1990s WrestleMania VI in which Rowdy Roddy Piper painted half his face black as he faced black wrestler Bad News Brown,” reports PWInsider.

Piper’s comments before the match were also memory-holed, despite the late superstar sharing a message of racial unity when he stated, “Now I can stand here, and I can be black! I can be white! Don’t make no difference to me. … It’s what’s inside.”

Censoring Piper’s words are quite odd considering it was a message of colorblindness, not racism.  The “woke” mob does not support such idealistic visions of a colorless society but tends to push racial differences and wedge issues.

NBC does not seem to understand pro wrestling’s audience, this is not a politically correct crowd, but a fan base that enjoys simulated violence, incredible athletics, and over-the-top drama and comedy. This is the essence of the pro wrestling universe.

Wrestling fan blogs and podcasts thus far are not happy with what NBC/Peacock is doing to the WWE archives. One must wonder how much will be removed from WWE history when the “woke” brigade is done censoring something as trivial and silly as professional wrestling.

IF pro wrestling is being censored, one can imagine what kind of future arts and entertainment is in for, with a faceless mob who pressures the entire world from behind their smartphones on social media.

 

 

China Gets German Children’s COVID Book Banned Because It Stated Virus Came From Wuhan

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

A publisher in Germany has censored a children’s book that said COVID-19 originated in China after Beijing demanded the book’s removal and an apology.

Written by author Constanze Steindamm and illustrator Dorothea Tust, the book, whose German title translates as “A Corona Rainbow for Anna and Moritz,” was published by the Carlsen-Verlag publishing house in Hamburg. It aims to provide “the most important tips for daycare centers and elementary schools on how to behave properly during coronavirus pandemic,” the publishers said, adding that it was an “affectionate nonfiction story”, Deutsche Welle(DW.COM) reported.

The Chinese consulate in Hamburg promptly threatened the Carlsen publishing house with filing criminal charges, demanding the recall of the book as well as a public apology.

Carlsen publishing house complied with the demand, telling DW that it had “stopped delivery of the book.” A new edition with a different wording regarding the origins of the virus is already in the making.

The publishing house said that the original version had been in line with what was being reported at the time of the release of the first edition, adding that “today we would no longer use this wording, as its meaning has proven to be far more open to interpretation than we had intended.”

Deutsche Welle, a public media outlet in Germany expressed shock that China had sought to interfere in a children’s book which ran to just a few thousand copies and why the publishing company was so eager to cave in to a government located 4,600 miles away.

Asian Woman Attacked in NYC, Building Staff Who Saw Attack Suspended: Shocking Video

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

KATHERINE RODRIGUEZ

An Asian woman was brutally attacked in Midtown Manhattan in New York City on Monday while the staff in a nearby building watched and did nothing to help, according to a video.

The video showed the suspect allegedly kicking the 65-year-old woman in front of an apartment building at 360 West 43rd Street at 11:40 a.m. Monday and then stomping on her head.

The video also showed several men from the apartment building standing near the door just feet away from where the attack took place, failing to intervene.

The Brodsky Organization, the building managers, posted a statement on Instagram saying that it “condemns all forms of discrimination, racism, xenophobia, and violence against the Asian-American community.”

The staff who witnessed the attack have been suspended pending an investigation in conjunction with their union,” the statement said. “The Brodsky Organization is also working to identify a third-party delivery vendor present during the incident so that appropriate action can be taken.”

The suspect is still on the lam as of Tuesday morning, according to the police.

There has been a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes against the elderly during the coronavirus pandemic — which is believed to have started in Wuhan, China.

More than 2,808 reports of anti-Asian hate from 47 states and Washington, DC, took place between March 19 and December 31, 2020, with 7.3 percent of those incidents involving Asians over 60, according to a report from Stop AAPI Hate.

One San Francisco group decided to tackle the problem by providing whistles to the elderly in the Asian-American community so they could deter potential attackers. Others are helping to escort elderly Asians to keep them safe.

Defense Department Hires A ‘Diversity And Inclusion’ Officer Who Compared Trump To Hitler

By
Sholom Schreirber
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Chuck Ross (DCNF)

The official hired this month to oversee U.S. Special Operations Command’s office of diversity and inclusion compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler in a photo posted to Facebook last year.

U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), which directs counterterrorism and unconventional warfare operations for the military, announced Thursday that Richard Torres-Estrada took over on March 1 as chief of the Diversity & Inclusion unit.

The Pentagon recently formed the unit as part of its push for more diversity in its ranks and chain of command.

Torres-Estrada’s politically-charged social media posts began circulating online soon after SOCOM announced his hiring.

On June 2, 2020, Torres-Estrada posted a side-by-side photo on Facebook of Trump and Hitler, both holding Bibles. The photo of Trump was taken a day earlier outside of St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., which was vandalized during protests over the death of George Floyd.

The Hitler photo had been doctored to include the Bible.

Screenshot of June 2, 2020, Facebook post from Richard Torres-Estrada

Fox News host Tucker Carlson pointed to Torres-Estrada’s Facebook posts on his show on Friday.

“The point is, they’re the same,” Carlson said of the Trump-Hitler photos. “So, this is the guy who now oversees hiring for the SEALs.”

Carlson asserted that Torres-Estrada’s hiring is one of several recent examples of the Defense Department going “woke,” the term used to describe hyper-awareness about social justice issues.

“The Pentagon is now the Yale faculty lounge, but with cruise missiles. That should concern you,” Carlson said.

Torres-Estrada’s social media accounts show he has held diversity positions at several government agencies, most recently as a equal employment opportunity officer for the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority.

USSOCOM describes its mission as developing and employing “fully capable Special Operations Forces to conduct global special operations and activities as part of the Joint Force to support persistent, networked and distributed Combatant Command operations and campaigns against state and non-state actors to protect and advance U.S. policies and objectives.”

It directs counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, reconnaissance and unconventional warfare operations.

USSOCOM did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about Torres-Estrada’s posts.

A spokesman for the command unit told Breitbart News that they are “aware of the allegations and are looking into them now.”

Torres-Estrada did not respond to a request for comment sent through Facebook.

WATCH:

 

USA Today Fires ‘Race And Inclusion Editor’ After Falsely Blaming Boulder Shooting To White Supremacy

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

Andrew Kerr(DCNF)

USA TODAY Sports’ race and inclusion editor Hemal Jhaveri announced Friday she was fired after falsely saying an “angry white man” was responsible for Monday’s mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado.

“[I]t’s always an angry white man. Always,” Jhaveri said Monday evening before police revealed the shooter was 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, a migrant from Syria.

Jhaveri said in a Medium post on Friday that her tweet was a “dashed off over-generalization” after pictures of the shooter being arrested surfaced online.

“It was a careless error of judgment, sent at a heated time, that doesn’t represent my commitment to racial equality,” Jhaveri said. “I regret sending it. I apologized and deleted the tweet.”

Despite deleting the tweet and apologizing, Jhaveri said USA TODAY relieved her of her position as a race and inclusion editor by Tuesday evening. She suggested she was fired because she issued tweets “publicly naming whiteness as a defining problem.”

Jhaveri said she received an email announcing her firing that stated she had previously been disciplined for her conduct on social media.

Jhaveri said no specifics were provided by USA TODAY, but said she suspected the company was likely referencing a tweet she issued in 2017 calling out “a reporter’s white privilege” and another tweet in 2018 that pushed back against a USA TODAY sports column that she said “dismissed the human rights violations in Qatar as ‘a little on the repressive side.’”

“My previous tweets were flagged not for inaccuracy or for political bias, but for publicly naming whiteness as a defining problem,” Jhaveri said. “That is something USA TODAY, and many other newsrooms across the country, can not tolerate.”

Jhaveri alleged she was subjected to “constant micro-aggressions and outright racist remarks from the majority white staff” during her eight-year tenure USA TODAY.

Jhaveri said she was asked twice not to insert language that would alienate white readers when editing stories. She also said she was one asked by a new manager where she was “originally from” upon their first meeting. That same manager later asked her what it was like to be Indian upon learning that his daughter was planning on marrying an Indian name, Jhaveri said.

She also described a standards and ethics meeting in which an editor “argued it was OK to deadname transgender people.”

“I could go on,” Jhaveri said. “Over almost 8 years, plenty of incidents have piled up.”

“This is not about bias, or keeping personal opinions off of Twitter. It’s about challenging whiteness and being punished for it,” Jhaveri wrote.

“Like many places, USA TODAY values ‘equality and inclusion,’ but only as long as it knows its rightful place, which is subservient to white authority,” she added.

USA TODAY did not return a request for comment.

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Dershowitz: In the Chauvin Case, Thank Goodness for Cellphone Cameras

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

By Alan Dershowitz(NEWSMAX)

I just finished watching the godawful video of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin keeping his knee on the neck of the dying George Floyd for more than nine minutes.

It is among the most powerful pieces of evidence I have ever seen — it indisputably shows Chauvin keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck as Floyd submissively lies hancuffed, telling Chauvin he can’t breathe and calling for his mother.  Numerous observers at the scene keep demanding that Chauvin get his knee off Floyd’s neck as Floyd clearly slips into unconsciousness.

Floyd does not resist or fight back.  He simply struggles to breathe.

There is no conceivable reason why Chauvin had to keep his knee on Floyd’s neck.  Floyd posed absolutely no danger – certainly not after the first couple of minutes of complete submission.  Chauvin was warned by bystanders that he was killing Floyd and that Floyd was unable to breathe.  They begged him to get his knee off Floyd’s neck.

Some bystanders tried to get closer to Floyd but other police officers stood in the way and stopped them.  The evidence of Chauvin’s moral culpability is overwhelming and beyond dispute.  He deserves no pity or compassion.

But he does deserve justice. And so do we.

Chauvin’s legal guilt poses an entirely different series of questions: Did he intend to kill Floyd?  Did he realize that death could have resulted from keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck?  Was he reckless in not removing his knee? Would Floyd have died from Chauvin’s knee if not for the drugs in his system or a heart condition?

These and other questions will have to be decided by jurors, after hearing all of the evidence and arguments and being instructed by the trial judge.  But the moral, political and ideological issues seem black and white:  No police officer should ever do what Chauvin did to a man who was subdued, was lying on the ground, was unarmed, and was surrounded by five armed officers.  The tape, without more, compels that conclusion.

If the Minneapolis police guidelines allow such conduct, they must be changed. The video speaks louder than any effort to justify Chauvin’s actions.

Now let us imagine how different the situation would be if there had been no cellphone videos – if it had been the word of the police officers against those of the largely Black bystanders. Many such cases have occurred over the past several years.  Some have been taped, others not.  The recording in this case, and in others, has made all the difference.

As a civil libertarian, I realize that the pervasiveness of cellphone cameras is sometimes a double-edged sword.  On the positive side, it documents police abuses and other evils that would otherwise be difficult to prove.  On the negative side, the pervasiveness of these cameras threatens all of our privacy, if used promiscuously and without consent or knowledge.

In one sense, it’s meaningless to debate the pros and cons of any new technology, because no matter what we say, that tech will advance, improve and become increasingly interwoven with our lives. The law can do something, but not much, to control its misuse. We must acknowledge that with every technological innovation, we lose a little bit of privacy, autonomy and dignity. (Just ask Jeffrey Tobin.)

The bottom line is, we must learn to live with the new technology.  The law will always be playing catch-up, but will never succeed in actually catching up with advancing technology.

The Chauvin case demonstrates the positive use of cellphone video cameras.  The video of Chauvin refusing to lift his knee off the neck of the dying Floyd has changed the world.  It will never be the same.  And it should never be the same.  What we see on that video is a vision of hell that cannot be allowed to become or remain the new normal, the old normal, or any version of normal.

So two cheers for video cameras.

Romanian Jewish actress gets death threats on Passover

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern. (AP/Vadim Ghirda)

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

The Romanian Intelligence Service and police have identified two suspects who may have been involved in making death threats against Jewish actress Maia Morgenstern over the Passover weekend, Romania’s Digi 24 news reported Sunday.

The suspects’ homes in Timis County and Bucharest were being searched for further evidence, the report said.

Morgenstern, who leads the Jewish State Theater in Bucharest, posted an email on social media in which the author threatened to murder her and her family, assault her daughter, burn down the theater and murder all involved with it, among other acts of violence.

“Here’s what I get for the holiday of Passover,” Morgenstern said.

The email was sent under the name “Andrei Illarie” who claimed to be from a political party known as the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR). It was sent to all official email addresses of the Jewish State Theater.

 

AUR president George Simion condemned the threats and said that the email was not sent by his party. He urged authorities to quickly find the perpetrator and punish him in the harshest way.

The author of the email appeared to be upset over an incident earlier this month in which Morgenstern reported on social media that an anti-Semitic insult had been made at a meeting with directors of theaters and public cultural institutions.

The email said that Morgenstern was being targeted for “daring to speak against my friend” and having made “such a fuss.”

Morgenstern, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, is perhaps best known by English-speaking audiences for her role as Mary in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ.”

In a February 2004 interview with the Associated Press, Morgenstern rejected accusations that the film was anti-Semitic.

“Mel Gibson is an artist, a director. He never imposed his religious convictions on anyone,” she said.

Nike Sues Maker of Lil Nas X’s ‘Satan Shoes’ for Copyright Infringement

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
iHeartMedia

Nike is suing the maker of pop star Lil Nas X’s limited edition sneaker line known as “Satan Shoes,” alleging the maker violated copyright laws by customizing Nike Air Max 97 shoes without permission.

The lawsuit, which was filed Monday in a New York federal court, prompted a humorous response from Lil Nas X, who has been fending off mounting accusations that he is glorifying Satan with the sneaker line and his new music video that shows the singer giving the devil a lap dance. (Lil Nas X isn’t a defendant in the case).

Nike is suing MSCH Product Studio for customizing the Nike Air Max 97 without the company’s “approval or authorization.” In the complaint, Nike said the “Satan Shoe” is “likely to cause confusion and dilution,” adding that consumers already assuming incorrectly that Nike is behind the project.

Nike is asking the court to issue an injunction against the defendant to stop all distribution of the shoes.

The “Satan Shoes,” which contain a drop of human blood in their soles and feature a satanic pentagram, debuted Monday at $1,018 per pair. The limited edition will feature only 666 copies and has reportedly already sold out shortly after going on sale.

Lil Nas X has received an overwhelming amount of criticism for the sneaker line. On Sunday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) warned that the shoes are being targeted at children, adding that “we are in a fight for the soul of our nation. We need to fight hard.”

Donald Trump: Dr. Deborah Birx ‘Proven Liar’ and Dr. Anthony Fauci ‘King of Flip-Flops’

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
John Raoux, AP

CHARLIE SPIERING

Former President Donald Trump reacted to new interviews from federal health officials Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx on Monday, criticizing them both for their failures during the coronavirus pandemic.

The former president said in a statement Monday both Fauci and Birx were “two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations.”

Trump described Fauci as the “king of flip-flops” accusing him of repeatedly changing his recommendations to make himself look better.

He noted Fauci changed his recommendation on masks during the pandemic and opposed him on his travel ban on China. Trump also ridiculed Fauci’s terrible opening pitch at the Washington Nationals opener in 2020, calling it a “roller.”

He said Fauci unfairly tried to take credit for the rapid development of the vaccine, accusing him of being “incapable” of putting pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to get it approved.

“I was the one to get it done, and even the fake news media knows and reports this,” Trump said.

Trump also criticized Fauci’s leadership at the National Institutions of Health after the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease awarded a $3.4 million grant to EcoHealth Alliance which hired the virology lab in Wuhan to study bat coronaviruses.

“Fauci spent U.S. money on the Wuhan lab in China — and we now know how that worked out,” Trump wrote.

Dr. Birx said in the CNN interview that far more lives could have been saved if only coronavirus lockdowns had been enacted weeks earlier.

But Trump said it was Fauci and Birx who acted too slowly.

“Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx moved far too slowly, and if it were up to them we’d currently be locked in our basements as our country suffered through a financial depression,” Trump said.

Birx also revealed in the CNN interview she had a “direct” and “uncomfortable conversation” with Trump after she gave an interview on CNN about the virus.

Trump denied her account.

“There was no ‘very difficult’ phone call, other than Dr. Birx’s policies that would have led us directly into a COVID-caused depression,” Trump wrote. “She was a very negative voice who didn’t have the right answers.”

He also noted Fauci frequently criticized Birx behind his back.

“Dr. Birx is a proven liar with very little credibility left,” he wrote. “Many of her recommendations were viewed as ‘pseudo-science,’ and Dr. Fauci would always talk negatively about her and, in fact, would ask not to be in the same room with her.”

Trump recalled that Birx was caught traveling with her extended family to a vacation property in Delaware, despite urging Americans not to gather with their extended family during the holidays in 2020.

“She then, embarrassingly for her, resigned,” Trump recalled.

The former president also acknowledged that he kept Fauci and Birx on, but appeared to regret the decision.

“Time has proven me correct,” he wrote. “I only kept Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx on because they worked for the U.S. government for so long — they are like a bad habit!”

Read the full statement from Trump below:

Breitbart

Iranian people skeptical of government’s longterm cooperation deal with China

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, March 27, 2021. (Tasnim)
By World Israel News StaffIranians were reacting with skepticism and anger Monday after Beijing and Tehran signed a 25-year “strategic” cooperation agreement on the weekend, the Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported.

Iranian officials were forced to try and calm public fears after social media responded angrily when it was announced that a large part of the agreement was being kept secret.

Criticism was aimed at the government of President Hassan Rouhani and officials close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for failing to release the details of the deal that reportedly covers a variety of economic activity from oil and mining to promoting industrial activity in Iran and bilateral collaboration in transportation and agriculture.

Key details were not released about the defense and security cooperation aspects of the agreement.

Opponents to the deal were tweeting with the hashtags “#china_get_out_of_iran” and “#iran_is_not_for_sale.”

“The government of the Islamic Republic does not represent the people of Iran,” posted one Twitter user. “These are the intruders of Iran. We, the people of Iran, say no to this shameful deal of the government with China.”

However, some Iranians supported the move, saying it was putting pressure on the United States.

“I would say that it is not bad that the US President should be worried about the Iran-China agreement,” tweeted a user named The Phoenix in Farsi. “Of course, the taste of being anxious is not bad. Now, thank God, we are not ridiculed.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Khamenei in 2016 when he initially proposed the pact, and Islamic hardliners in the government have been pushing for Iran to join forces with Moscow and Beijing against the West and reduce American influence.

“Iran is ready to work with China to earnestly implement the Iran-China comprehensive strategic partnership to push bilateral practical cooperation to a new high,” Khamenei said at the time.

The signing is the culmination of five years of negotiations. Media outlets estimate Iran might see some $400 billion in Chinese investments, the Sharq Al-Awsat report said, noting that “the agreement opens the door to expanding military cooperation, collaborations in research and development of weapons and intelligence.”

China is Iran’s largest trading partner and was one of the biggest purchasers of Iranian oil before former U.S. President Donald Trump reimposed harsh economic sanctions on Iran in 2018.

US offers $10 million reward for info on Hezbollah operative

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Salim Jamil Ayyash (Shafaq.com)

By Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

The United States on Monday offered a $10 million reward for information on a Hezbollah operative who was convicted last year in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

The State Department said the reward will be given to anyone who provides information preventing Salim Jamil Ayyash from planning or engaging in any attack against a U.S. citizen or American interests. Ayyash is a senior member of Hezbollah’s Unit 121, an assassination squad that the department said reports to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The announcement said Ayyash is known to have been involved in efforts to harm American troops in the past. An international tribunal convicted Ayyash in absentia and sentenced him to five life sentences on charges related to the 2005 suicide truck bombing in Beirut that killed Hariri and 21 other people. The tribunal found that Ayyash led the team that carried out the attack.

In addition to its December 2020 verdict, the Netherlands-based court issued new international arrest warrants for Ayyash and authorized its prosecutor to ask Interpol to issue “red notices” to its member states seeking his arrest.

Ayyash was born November 10, 1963 in Harouf, Lebanon. He has resided in multiple areas of Lebanon including Hadath, Nabatiyyeh, and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Three other Hezbollah members had been acquitted in August of all charges that they also were involved in the killing that sent shock waves through the Middle East.

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