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Fri., Feb. 8, 2019 Othello Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by James Wallis. Until Feb. 10 at the Monarch Tavern, 12 Clinton St. ShakespeareBashd.com At Tuesday night’s opening performance of Othello by the indie company Shakespeare Bash’d, I checked my phone at intermission to friends’ messages about Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech, unfolding at the same time. It’s usually not difficult to find a parallel between current political dealings and the drama of Shakespeare, but the unfortunate resonance between Othello and the current political climate has less to do with backdoor scheming and desperate grasps for power, as in Shakespeare’s more politically driven plays; it’s the xenophobia, sexism, entitlement and impulse for violence within the characters that feels so recognizable. Article Continued Below Othello seems to be having a moment: it was the Public Theatre’s summer production in Central … [Read more...] about Shakespeare Bash’d version of Othello presents an unsettling night of theatre
Fact check state of the union
Fact-check: BJP claim that former Kashmir allies were biased falls flat
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pulled out of its alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Indian state Jammu and Kashmir recently, citing its bias towards the Kashmir Valley. The saffron party, which held all development-related ministries, claimed more money was spent in Kashmir than the other two regions — Jammu and Ladakh — under the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government. The dailyReport Must-reads from across Asia - directly to your inbox PDP spokesperson Waheed-ur-Rehman Para said that ministries of public health, engineering, housing and urban development, irrigation and flood control were all under BJP ministers who never raised the issue of discrimination in cabinet meetings or in one-to-one meetings with the then chief minister Mehbooba Mufti. A closer look at the status of many mega projects shows that the story of discrimination against other regions in the state falls flat. Even the little development that Jammu has seen, continues … [Read more...] about Fact-check: BJP claim that former Kashmir allies were biased falls flat
Texas group takes in 32 parents separated from kids after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border
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By Colleen Long Will Weissert And John L. Mone, The Associated Press Mon., June 25, 2018 EL PASO, TEXAS — A Texas charitable organization says 32 immigrant parents separated from their children after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border were freed into its care, but they don’t know where their kids are or when they might see them again despite government assurances that family reunification would be well organized. The release on Sunday is believed to be the first, large one of its kind since U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that preserved a “zero-tolerance” policy for entering the country illegally but ended the practice of separating immigrant parents and children. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered no immediate comment. Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House in El Paso, said the group of both mothers and fathers includes some from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras who arrived to his group after … [Read more...] about Texas group takes in 32 parents separated from kids after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border
‘The worst thing I’ve seen in 25-plus years’: Experts react to news that Trump administration lost 1,500 migrant children
Reports the US Department of Health and Human Services cannot locate nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with American sponsors have resurged since a department official testified about the issue last month. The story has caught fire amid discord within President Donald Trump’s administration on the handling of illegal immigration after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero-tolerance” policy last month. The “lost” children were a major talking point over the weekend. Reports that the US Department of Health and Human Services cannot locate nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with American sponsors have resurged this weekend amid increasing controversy stemming from the Trump administration’s policies about separating migrant families. The communication gap detailed in testimony by a Health and Human Services official last month came as Trump officials spoke … [Read more...] about ‘The worst thing I’ve seen in 25-plus years’: Experts react to news that Trump administration lost 1,500 migrant children
Looking for Donald Trump in all the wrong places
By Michael Lewis Bloomberg View Mon., Feb. 19, 2018 Back when he was president, Barack Obama told me that only two people treated any interaction with him as a zero-sum game. One was Vladimir Putin, the other congressional Republicans. Both behaved as if there was no such thing as a win-win situation: Any gain for Obama was a loss for them, and any gain for them must also entail a loss for Obama. The moment that the Russian president or congressional Republicans saw he wanted something, they went to work trying to keep him from getting it — even if it was something they might otherwise have approved of. Approaching any aspect of life as a zero-sum game has obvious practical costs: Deals that leave some people better off without making anyone else worse off suddenly don’t get done, because making some people better off now, by definition, makes other people worse off. It also comes with some psychological side effects. It cripples your imagination. It … [Read more...] about Looking for Donald Trump in all the wrong places