My precise view

https://ift.tt/3CWPCQv QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador’s president has declared a state of emergency in the prison system following a battle among gang members in a coastal lockup that killed at least 116 people and injured 80 in what authorities say was the worst prison bloodbath ever in the country. Officials said at least five of the dead were found to have been beheaded. President Guillermo Lasso decreed a state of emergency Wednesday, which will give the government powers that include deploying police and soldiers inside prisons. The order came a day after bloodshed at the Litoral penitentiary in Guayaquil that officials blamed on gangs linked to international drug cartels fighting for control of the facility. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Lasso, visibly moved by the carnage, said at a news conference that what had happened in the prison was “bad and sad.” He also said he could not guarantee that authorities had regained control of the lockup. “It is regrettable that th...

https://ift.tt/2Y1aaIm DHAKA, Bangladesh — An international representative of ethnic Rohingya refugees was shot to death in a camp in Bangladesh by unknown gunmen late Wednesday, police said. Mohibullah, who is in his 40s, was a teacher who emerged as a key refugee leader and a spokesman representing the Muslim ethnic group in international meetings. He visited the White House in 2019 for a meeting on religious freedom with then-President Donald Trump and spoke about the suffering and persecution faced by Rohingya in Myanmar. That same year, he was bitterly criticized by Bangladeshi media after he led a massive rally of 200,000 refugees to mark the second anniversary of the crackdown by Myanmar’s military that caused about 700,000 Rohingya, including Mohibullah, to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The unidentified attackers shot Mohibullah at the Kutupalong refugee camp at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar district, said Naimul Haque, an commander of t...

https://ift.tt/3igkh3u On a breezy afternoon last spring, the Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman took me on a tour of a public park near the center of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, along with a team of aides, architects, historians and artists. They had spent several years building a complex of memorials on the grounds, honoring the victims of a massacre that took place there during World War II. But the project had become so controversial in Ukraine, especially in the context of the country’s ongoing war with Russia, that the entourage had brought a team of bodyguards, who surrounded Fridman in a loose formation, tensing every time a stranger came too close. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Fridman was used to this. For nearly a quarter-century, he has survived at the top of Moscow’s billionaire class despite the regular purges and shake-ups that have sent several of his peers to prison or exile. His fortune comes from two of the most cutthroat sectors of the Russian econo...

Last Chance - 2022 Muni Service Network Survey Closes October 1, 2021 By Mariana Maguire SFMTA staff talks with customer about 2022 Muni service options at farmer’s market pop-up event. The SFMTA recently introduced three options for increasing Muni service in early 2022. We launched efforts to get community input on them, including a brief survey that closes Friday, October 1. If you haven’t taken the survey yet, there are still a few days left! You can find the survey link at SFMTA.com/2022Network. We’ve received more than 4,000 survey responses so far and a few hundred calls to our hotline and feedback to our TellMuni@SFMTA.com email. You can also provide feedback on the shortened J Church route and changes to the 23 Monterey, 57 Parkmerced, 35 Eureka and 48 Quintara/24th Street by contacting TellMuni@SFMTA.com or 415.646.2005. All three alternatives to increase Muni bus service in early 2022 have the same amount of total bus service – they’re just arranged differently. Th...

https://ift.tt/3opf4KB It was a monumental day for Britney Spears and supporters of the #FreeBritney movement . Just over three months after Britney testified that the court-ordered conservatorship she’s been under for 13 years is “abusive” and that she wants it to end immediately, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny ruled to immediately suspend her father, Jamie Spears, as her conservator. The decision came after Britney’s lawyer, Matthew S. Rosengart, spoke out once again against Jamie’s handling of all aspects of the conservatorship at a highly anticipated hearing on Wednesday. “My client, Britney Jean Spears, testified that James P. Spears abused her, subjected her to cruelty, and she cannot bear his toxic presence for a single day more,” Rosengart reportedly said . [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] John Zabel, an accountant, will temporarily replace Jamie in the role of conservator of Britney’s estate while her personal care manager, Jodi Montgomery, ...

https://ift.tt/3ofTjwF Senators have spent hours on the custard-colored couches of Joe Biden’s Oval Office over the past several days. Dozens of chocolate chip cookies have been passed out. Irish poetry has been quoted. In one White House meeting on Sept. 22, a small group of progressive lawmakers perched on cushions where small note cards saved their spots and outlined why they should fully fund Biden’s priorities on community college, expanding Medicare, and providing workers with more child care and family leave in a $3.5 trillion budget bill. Then Biden slipped up, referring to himself as if he were still in the Senate. “Wait, wait,” he said, flashing a lopsided grin, “I’ve got this job now.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] During the more than three decades that Biden was the long-winded Senator from Delaware with incandescent teeth, he bristled at being brought into the Oval Office and being told what to do by Presidents, aides say. Biden has kept those memories top ...

https://ift.tt/3F3AS4c In the summer of 2017, at a neighborhood Atlanta coffee house, the #MuteRKelly movement was born. There, I met Oronike Odeleye, the woman who would later become my partner-in-mute. She, too, was heartsick over the mountain of disturbing allegations against R. Kelly (now evidence for his conviction) from the recent BuzzFeed article surrounding his predatory behavior in an Atlanta-area house. The rumors of his despicable conduct toward young, impressionable Black and brown girls, boys and young women had circulated for decades. Activists, journalists, survivors and community members had tried repeatedly to call attention to them, but he had faced no legal consequences (he was acquitted in 2008 on charges of child pornography) and he remained popular. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Read More: dream hampton on Surviving R. Kelly, Supporting Survivors and Why She Wants a ‘Social Death’ for R. Kelly I had been done with R. Kelly for a while. I recall ...