Border Patrol agent had arsenal in home, attempted “suicide by cop,” officials say

Webb County, TX (TT) – A South Texas U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of killing four people appeared to be preparing for a shoot-out with law enforcement after a would-be victim broke free and alerted police, authorities said Monday. Border Patrol officer Juan David Ortiz, accused of murdering four people and abducting a fifth. – Webb Co. Sheriff’s Office Juan David Ortiz, 35, was arrested early Saturday after the woman escaped from his vehicle, encountered Department of Public Safety troopers and told them Ortiz had brandished a weapon. During a press…

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Arrested for fact-checking: Kazakh court fines Ukrainian journalist after police break up media workshop

(GV) – A media fact-checking workshop in northwestern Kazakhstan came to an abrupt conclusion on September 15 when police barged in, broke up the event and arrested one of the workshop leaders, Aleksandr Gorokhovsky. The workshop’s organiser, Lukpan Akhmedyarov, is the editor of independent regional newspaper Uralskaya Nedelya, that has long been the target of state harassment. A respected journalist and media trainer from Kyiv, Gorokhovsky was slapped with a fine of roughly USD $110 after a Kazakh court found him guilty of violating Kazakhstan’s migration legislation. The public prosecutor…

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Can Productive Discomfort Exist in a Polarised World: Free Speech on Campus

(Conversation) – Our previous article “The predicament of diversity: re-boot for diversity 3.0” explored the multiple definitions of diversity and the factors shifting its focus from social and racial inequality to the diversity of identity … and the distractions that this creates. Diversity and race keep getting confused, amalgamated and co-opted for different political gains and purposes. At the same time, we seem to be experiencing a crescendo effect in terms of the number reported incidents involving minorities. Spike Lee’s new film BlacKkKlansman, based on Ron Stallworth’s true story of infiltrating…

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