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Why chants like ‘Free Palestine,’ ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ and ‘From the river to the sea’ are divisive

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:38 GMT

From school campuses to public protests, tensions surrounding the longstanding conflict in the Middle East have escalated since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and the Jewish nation’s ensuing military campaign in the Gaza Strip.Even oceans away, the U.S. and California have become a battleground for white-hot debate — with some even turning into violence — on all sides. Reports of both antisemitism and Islamophobia have ramped up nationwide since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which has already killed thousands.One thing that unites pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, and even those who seek peace for all involved demonstrations are the chants – generally used as call-and-response anthems.Phrases like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Am Yisrael Chai” – Hebrew for “the people of Israel live” – are often heard echoing at rallies and protests on all sides, where people are gathered together with those who have common ground, expressing the desire for freedom.But s...

Pac-12 legal affairs: What the court victory for OSU and WSU means for the future of the conference and the outbound schools

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:38 GMT

The most anticipated showdown of the Pac-12 season gained significant clarity Tuesday evening when Washington State and Oregon State were given legal control of the conference by a superior court judge.But overtime looms.The defendants, with Washington running point for the other nine outgoing schools, plan to appeal Whitman County (Wash.) Superior Court Judge Gary Libey’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction that left WSU and OSU as the sole voting members of the Pac-12’s governing board.As such, the two schools left behind in the realignment game can determine the fate of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and assets.However, Libey agreed to stay his ruling through the remainder of the week to allow Washington to pursue an appeal.It’s not over.It could drag on for weeks, if not months.Six thoughts on the latest developments:1. The defendants announced immediately after the ruling that they would appeal to the Washington Supreme Court in Olympia, whe...

Bay Area News Group high school football predictions: Week 13, 2023

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:38 GMT

The first week of the playoffs was daunting, humbling and mentally exhausting. But we aim to learn from our mistakes, study the errors and be stronger this weekend.The three of us in this all-in-fun Bay Area News Group high school football picks competition went a combined 21-27 last week, largely because of the Central Coast Section’s competitive-based brackets.I led the way at 8-8. Joseph Dycus was 7-9. Mike Lefkow went 6-10.Nearly all our losses were in the CCS because the section does not use enrollment to separate teams into its five eight-team divisions.It’s all strength-based.As a result, we saw eighth-seeded Christopher beat top-seeded Archbishop Mitty in Division II, seventh-seeded Wilcox stun second-seeded St. Francis in Open/Division I and seventh-seeded Alisal upset No. 2 seed Capuchino in Division III.The North Coast Section blends enrollment and competitive equity to separate teams, choosing its playoff divisions during the off-season. Playoff results over the previous...

San Jose drug dealer sentenced for selling fentanyl that killed man

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:38 GMT

(KRON) -- A San Jose man who admitted to selling a counterfeit pill that contained fentanyl to an unknowing victim in a Fremont bar, later resulting in their overdose death, has been sentenced to over six years in prison, according to the United States Department of Justice.Ian Edward Parrish, 28, of San Jose, pleaded guilty to distributing the fentanyl that resulted in the fatal overdose on Aug. 28. On Tuesday, an 80-month prison sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey and Federal Bureau of Investigations Special Agent in Charge Robert K. Tripp.In the plea agreement, Parrish admitted to selling four pills to a man in a Fremont bar on Aug. 16, 2022. When the victim asked Parrish if the pills were real Percocet, a prescription pain killer, Parrish said that they were. However, two of the pills were counterfeit and contained fentanyl. Parrish would admit in the plea agreement that he did not actually know if the pills were genuine Percocet, despite what he told the vi...

China leads list of labor abusers, sometimes akin to slavery, detected on fishing vessels worldwide

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:38 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Hazardous, forced work conditions sometimes akin to slavery have been detected on nearly 500 industrial fishing vessels around the world, but identifying those responsible for abuses at sea is hampered by a lack of transparency and regulatory oversight, a new report concluded.The research by the Financial Transparency Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that tracks illicit money flows, is the most comprehensive attempt to date to identify the companies operating vessels where tens of thousands of workers every year are estimated to be trapped in unsafe conditions.The report, published Wednesday, found that a quarter of vessels suspected of abusing workers are flagged to China, whose distant water fleet dominates fishing on the high seas, traditionally lawless areas beyond the jurisdiction of any single country. Vessels from Russia, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea were also accused of mistreatment of fishers.___This story was supported by f...

Md. GOP calls on Democrats to join them in getting tough on crime legislation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:38 GMT

House and Senate Republicans called for a renewed effort to combat crime in advance of the 2024 General Assembly session.Calling crime a growing crisis, Republican leaders said it is incumbent that lawmakers act in the coming session. They called on Democrats to join with them to pass measures that stiffen penalties for some crimes or in some cases roll back portions of recently enacted laws.“There’s no reason that we can’t get a lot of this done and we can’t get it done now,” said House Minority Leader Del. Jason Buckel (R-Allegany). “Nobody ever comes out on the record and says, ‘Oh yeah, I’m for being softer on violent criminals. Oh yeah, I’m for being softer on gun crime.’ Nobody ever says that. We just do it in silence. We just do it behind closed doors. We let things die. We don’t advance policies.”None of the bills previewed by Republicans can pass without significant help from Democrats, who hold super m...

Biden and Xi are meeting in San Francisco, seeking better US-China relations despite tough issues

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:38 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping head into their big meeting at a country estate on Wednesday hoping to stabilize U.S.-China relations after a period of tumult, but the U.S. president also is prepared to confront his counterpart on difficult issues such as trade, Beijing’s burgeoning relationship with Iran and human rights concerns.The two leaders, who will meet on the sidelines of a summit of Asian-Pacific leaders, last spoke a year ago. Since then, already fraught ties between the two nations have been further strained by the U.S. downing of a Chinese spy balloon that had traversed the continental U.S. and over differences on the self-ruled island of Taiwan, China’s hacking of a Biden official’s emails and other incidents.The outcome of the talks between two leaders who have known each other for decades could have far-reaching implications for an anxious world that is grappling with global economic cross currents from the pandemic, wars in the Middle ...

An ethnic resistance group in northern Myanmar says an entire army battalion has surrendered to it

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:38 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — A Myanmar army battalion based near the Chinese border surrendered to an alliance of ethnic armed groups that launched a surprise offensive last month against the military, a spokesperson for one of the groups said Wednesday.The surrender of 261 people — 127 soldiers and 134 family members — from the infantry battalion in northeastern Shan state appears to be the biggest by regular army forces since widespread armed conflict in Myanmar broke out in 2021 following the military’s seizure of power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February that year.The alliance expects to soon capture Laukkaing, the area’s major city, the spokesperson said.The surrender — which has not been announced by the military government and could not be independently confirmed by The Associated Press — came two weeks after the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, calling themselves the Three Brotherhood Alliance...

Un avión debió regresar al aeropuerto JFK después de que un caballo se escapara a bordo

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:38 GMT

(CNN) — Un Boeing 747 en ruta desde Nueva York JFK a Lieja, Bélgica, se vio obligado a dar la vuelta el 9 de noviembre después de que un caballo se soltó en la bodega de carga.El vuelo de carga operado por la aerolínea chárter Air Atlanta Islandic había ascendido a unos 31.000 pies cuando la tripulación contactó al Control de Tráfico Aéreo en Boston para informar que el caballo se había escapado de su puesto.“No tenemos ningún problema (…) en cuanto a volar”, dice uno de los pilotos en una reconstrucción de video del canal de YouTube “You Can See ATC”, pero “no podemos volver a asegurar el caballo”.En las grabaciones, se puede escuchar al Control de Tráfico Aéreo accediendo a la solicitud de los pilotos de regresar al aeropuerto JFK y, debido a que el avión era demasiado pesado, arrojar 20 toneladas de combustible al este de Nantucket.El piloto también pide que un veterinario acuda al avión al aterrizar, porque “tenemos un caballo en dificultades”.Un representante de Air Atlan...

Mother of 6-year-old boy who shot teacher faces sentencing for marijuana use while owning a gun

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:38 GMT

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday and could face prison time for using marijuana while owning a firearm, which is illegal under U.S. law.Deja Taylor’s son took her handgun to school and shot Abby Zwerner in her first-grade classroom in January, seriously wounding the educator. Investigators later found nearly an ounce of marijuana in Taylor’s bedroom and evidence of frequent drug use in her text messages and paraphernalia.The federal charges against Taylor come at a time when marijuana is legal in many states, including Virginia, while many Americans own firearms.Some U.S. courts in other parts of the country have ruled against the federal law that bans drug users from having guns. But the law remains in effect in many states and has been used to charge others including Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son.Federal prosecutors in Virginia argued in court filings that Taylor...