LGBTQ+ activist accused of sexual misconduct against minors

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/lgbtq-activist-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-against-minors-683894

 Just days after LGBTQ+ personality Gal Uchovsky was accused of sexual assault, prominent LGBTQ+ activist Etai Pinkas-Arad has been accused of sexual misconduct by two men who say they had relations with Pinkas-Arad over ten years ago when they were 17, Ynet reported on Wednesday.

The two, identified as A. and Y. in the report, were both 17 and members of the Israel Gay Youth (IGY) youth group at the time of the incidents and met Pinkas-Arad, who was over 30 at the time, at lectures he gave to the group. The two underwent and passed a polygraph test.

Pinkas-Arad serves as a Tel Aviv city council member in charge of the issues concerning the LGBTQ+ community and was at the center of the battle in the High Court of Justice to make surrogacy for same-sex couples and single fathers legal.

‘It’s the Jews’: An antisemitic tirade at an Arizona school board meeting spurs debate

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/316219

 An antisemitic tirade at a school board meeting in suburban Phoenix last week has spurred an extensive response among local officials and Jewish leaders — some of whom say they were distressed that board members did not rebut the comment at the time.

During the public comment portion of the meeting of the Chandler Unified School District board, a woman who identified herself as Melanie Rettler spoke for over a minute about critical race theory and vaccines — topics not listed on the meeting agenda but at the center of heated public debate nationwide.

Her comment crescendoed with an antisemitic claim drenched in the language of right-wing conspiracy theories.

5 Takeaways: How Youngkin’s Win Makes Democrats Squirm About 2022

 https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/11/02/us/election-news#election-takeaways

Mr. Youngkin had campaigned heavily on education and seized on Mr. McAuliffe’s remark that he didn’t “believe parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Mr. Youngkin used the comment, made during a debate, as an entryway to hammer his rival on issues like race and transgender rights in schools. The issues simultaneously motivated the G.O.P. base while casting the matter to moderates as an issue of parental rights.

“This is no longer a campaign,” Mr. Youngkin said. “It is a movement being led by Virginia’s parents.”

Republican strategists were downright gleeful about the possibility of repackaging Mr. Trump’s policies without his personality.

Tucker Carlson Is Stirring Up Hatred of America

 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/patriot-purge-tucker-carlson-documentary/620589/

To comprehend the full scope of the conspiracy, viewers will have to watch all three episodes. But even in the first episode, the goals of this project are already clear. The point is to describe the events of January 6 as a false-flag operation cooked up inside the deepest layers of the American deep state—and thus to cast doubt on everything that will come out of Congress’s January 6 hearings, everything revealed by every Washington Post or network-television investigation, everything turned up by the FBI. For Fox viewers, this will come as an enormous relief. If all the disturbing facts can be ignored, then no lessons need be learned. Republicans in Congress and the Trump White House need never be blamed for their assault on the Constitution. The people who supported them need never question that support.

 

Black Shadow hackers leak medical records of 290,000 Israeli patients

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rye2poyvt

 The Iran-linked Black Shadow hacking group on Tuesday night leaked what claimed was the full database of Machon Mor medical institute, including medical records of some 290,000 patients.

The database includes information regarding medical tests and treatments, and the leak comes mere hours after the group also hacked the entire online database of popular LGBTQ dating site Atraf, which is hosted by the Israeli internet company Cyberserve.

Disposable plasticware prices soar as new tax introduced

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/disposable-plasticware-prices-soar-as-new-tax-introduced/

 In a bid to drive down Israel’s plastic waste, the government on Monday introduced a new tax on disposable plasticware aimed at doubling the price of plastic cutlery and crockery for Israeli consumers.

The Environmental Protection Ministry said that the new tax — an increase of 11 shekels per kilogram of single-use plastics — would “double the final price for the consumer and thus reduce the consumption of these polluting products.”

The tax will apply to plastic plates, bowls, cups, and straws.

This is exactly how dumb our politics have gotten

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/02/politics/critical-race-theory-virginia-governor-youngkin-mcauliffe/index.html

 In the final days of the Virginia governor's race, Republican Glenn Youngkin did everything he could to suggest the contest was a referendum on what is being taught to the commonwealth's schoolchildren.

"There's no place for critical race theory in our school system, and why, on day one, I'm going to ban it," Youngkin told Fox News' Mark Levin over the weekend, adding that critical race theory "teaches children to see everything through a lens of race and then to divide them into buckets and have children [who] are called privileged and others [who] are victims."

Internal Haredi criticism against Yaakov Litzman

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/316184

MK Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) caused a stir in the political system last night when, prior to the opening of discussions on the state budget, he compared the coalition members to dogs.

"This is the first time I see dogs giving something to cats," Litzman said, referring to a section in the coalition funds that allocates NIS 12 million for neutering stray cats.

In the coalition, he was sharply criticized, but it turns out that his colleagues in the haredi parties did not like the "unsuccessful" wording to say the least.

Marathon Knesset debate begins ahead of critical budget votes

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/marathon-knesset-budget-debate-begins-683788

 The Knesset began what is set to be a 33-hour debate on the 2021 and 2022 state budgets on Tuesday morning. 

On Wednesday night, the MKs will begin voting on some 600 items relating to the 2021 state budget, its accompanying economic arrangements bill and then the 2022 state budget. 

Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly violated coalition agreements and refused to pass a budget, leaving Israel without a state budget for over three years.

Forest Hills Jewish Center, a fixture in Queens, NY, will sell its building and relocate

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/316152

 Congregants at the Forest Hills Jewish Center, a fixture in Queens since the late 1940s, approved the sale Thursday evening of their block-long building. They will now begin the process of finding a new home in the same area.

“The vote was overwhelmingly for the sale,” said Carl Koerner, chair of the building committee.

The 400-family unit Conservative congregation’s synagogue at 106-06 Queens Boulevard has been on the market for about a year. The asking price was $50 million, but Koerner said the terms of the sale to a developer would not be made public until it is approved by the state attorney general.

The 70-year-old building “doesn’t serve the needs of our congregation,” explained Rabbi Gerald Skolnik, the congregation’s spiritual leader since 1982.

Mansour Abbas: 'United Arab List needs haredim in the coalition'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/316166

The chairman of the United Arab List declared his support for expanding the ruling coalition to include Israel’s two haredi parties, after making a last-minute request to include increased funding for the haredi sector before the state budget was brought to the Knesset Tuesday morning.

Just before the state spending plan was brought to the Knesset Tuesday, MK Mansour Abbas approached government officials and asked for an allocation of 100 million shekels from his party's coalition funds for the benefit of the haredi sector, Kan 11 News reported on Monday.

Assisted dying: British Medical Association drops opposition to euthanasia

 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/assisted-dying-british-medical-association-drops-opposition-vqb7xsmvq

 The British Medical Association has dropped its opposition to assisted dying in a narrow vote at its annual representative meeting.

Doctors and medical students voted for the union to “move to a position of neutrality on assisted dying, including physician-assisted dying”.

The BMA, which represents 150,000 doctors, has opposed legalising assisted dying since 2006. However, a survey of its members in February last year found that the proportion in favour of a change in law now outnumbered those against.

 

Covid-19: Concern over 'do not resuscitate' decisions during pandemic

 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56435428

 Individuals' human rights may have been breached in more than 500 cases where "do not resuscitate" decisions were made during the Covid pandemic, the care watchdog for England has said.

Some 508 'do not attempt resuscitation' (DNAR) decisions made since March 2020 were not agreed in discussion with the person or their family, a report found.

The Care Quality Commission is calling for improvements to care planning.

An NHS spokesman said decisions should be made in consultation with families.

The CQC has recommended that a ministerial oversight group be created to work with health and care providers, local government and the voluntary sector to deliver improvements.

It wants to see a consistent national approach to advance care planning, with staff training, accessible information for families and records of conversations and decisions agreed.

More than 500 people in UK were put on do-not-resuscitate orders without consent, watchdog says

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/18/uk/uk-do-not-resuscitate-consent-pandemic-gbr-intl/index.html

 More than 500 people in the United Kingdom were put on do-not-resuscitate orders without their consent or their carers' consent during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study released by England's care watchdog on Thursday.

"From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were concerns that 'do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation' (DNACPR) decisions were being made without involving people, or their families and/or carers if so wished, and were being applied to groups of people, rather than taking into account each person's individual circumstances," the Care Quality Commission (CQC) study said.

Out of 2,048 adult social care providers who responded to the CQC's information request, 5.2% (508 out of 9,679) of DNACPR decisions put in place since March 17, 2020 "had not been agreed in discussion with the person, their relative or carer," it said. In one care home, everyone over 80 with dementia had a DNACPR order applied, the report found.