This Man Says His Mom Died After Being Denied Entry Into The US Over Trump's Travel Ban

Via fox2detroit.com

A Michigan man said his 75-year-old mother died in Iraq while waiting to come back to the US for better medical treatment after she was denied entry into the country because of President Donald Trump's travel ban.

Mike Hager said he recently went to his birth country of Iraq along with his mother, Naimma, to visit family members when she fell ill. Hager said that he was waiting in line at the airport in Iraq with his niece, two nephews, and his mother, when he was told that he could go ahead, but that the rest of his family could not come — despite holding green cards.

His said his mother died the following day.

Hager, who was born in Iraq, served as a translator with the US Special Forces and is now a US citizen, but said his family members who have green cards were not able to return to Michigan with him because of the ban, Fox 2 Detroit reported.

On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order banning entry of citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations. Travelers from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia were banned from entering the US for 90 days.

Via fox2detroit.com

Hager said he believed his mother would still be alive if she was allowed back into the US, where she has lived since 1995.

"I was just shocked. I had to put my mom back on the wheelchair and take her back and call the ambulance and she was very very upset. She knew right there if we send her back to the hospital she's going to pass away – she's not going to make it," Hager told the station.

Via fox2detroit.com

Hager initially fled Iraq with his family during the Gulf War and lived in a refugee camp for four years before coming to the US. During the 2000s, he returned to Iraq to work alongside the US Marines and Army forces as a translator, Fox 2 Detroit reported. Hager now owns a business in Garden City, Michigan.

“We put our lives on the line. I got shot twice in Iraq in Fallujah. And I sacrificed give all my life to this country. Now I’m coming over here with my family not with me,” Hager said to CBS Boston.

Hager said he didn't think traveling would be a problem since his family has lived in the US for 20 years, but Trump signed the executive order last week while they were in Iraq.

"They destroyed us. I went with my family, I came back by myself. They destroyed our family," Hager said to Fox 2 Detroit.

Hager said he blamed his mother's death on Trump and that he did not know when his niece and nephews would be able to return to the US.

"I really believe this in my heart: if they would have let us in, my mom - she would have made it and she would have been sitting right here next to me," Hager said. "She's gone because of him."

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The US Army Corps Has Been Directed To Clear The Way For The Dakota Access Pipeline

James Macpherson / AP

The acting secretary of the US Army has directed the Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with the easement required to build the Dakota Access Pipeline, a North Dakota senator confirmed Tuesday evening, despite intense protests opposed to the project.

"Today, the Acting Secretary of the Army Robert Speer informed us that he has directed the Army Corps of Engineers to continue with the easement needed to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline," Sen. John Hoeven said in a statement. "Building new energy infrastructure with the latest safeguards and technology is the safest and most environmentally sound way to move energy from where it is produced to where people need it."

Thousands of demonstrators, including members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, have camped out at the Standing Rock site against the pipeline, leading to intense and at times violent confrontations with law enforcement.

Members of the tribe have argued that the 1,172-mile pipeline would damage the water supply and desecrate land the tribe considers sacred.

The group won a brief victory when the US Army Corps of Engineers announced in December it would not grant an easement for the line to cross under a river near the Standing Rock reservation. But work on the controversial pipeline was expected to resume after President Donald Trump signed executive orders last week to revive both the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.

The US Army did not immediately respond to questions Tuesday night.

Andrew Lichtenstein / Getty Images

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe issued a statement shortly after the announcement, saying it was "ready to fight this battle against corporate interest superseding government procedure and the health and wellbeing of millions of Americans."

The tribe also stated that, although the easement is imminent, the Army Corps of Engineers still needed to undertake several steps before actual construction work can begin, including granting the easement and notifying Congress.

"If and when the easement is granted, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will vigorously pursue legal action," the statement read.

According to Hoeven's statement, the easement will be issued.

"This will enable the company to complete the project, which can and will be built with the necessary safety features to protect the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others downstream," it read.

North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer released a statement applauding the decision.

"It's time to get to work and finish this important piece of energy infrastructure enhancing America's energy security and putting North Dakotans and Americans back to work," Cramer said.

The decision, however, will likely again draw hundreds of protesters to the area, and additional law enforcement is expected to be sent to the area in anticipation of protests.

Hoeven said the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of the Interior have been contacted to "secure additional federal law enforcement resources."

Twenty Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement officers have already been sent to the area, the statement read.

LINK: Dakota Access Pipeline Will Be Rerouted In A Victory For Standing Rock Tribe

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A Grandfather Was Shot And Killed While Playing Pokemon Go

Amr Nabil / AP

A grandfather in Virginia was shot and killed Thursday night while sitting in his minivan playing Pokemon Go.

A private security guard approached Jiansheng Chen and got into an argument with him before opening fire, Chesapeake Police spokesperson Kelly Elliott told the Virginia Pilot. Several of the van's windows were peppered with bullet holes, police said.

"I cannot imagine what could have justified shooting through the front windshield of Mr. Chen’s van five times,” Greg Sandler, the lawyer representing Chen's family, told WTKR News.

Chen, who lived in the area, usually played Pokemon Go to bond with his grandchildren, Sandler told WTKR. Local media reported a Pokemon Go "gym" is located near the suburb's clubhouse, where Chen was parked.

Chen's family said that the retired businessman barely spoke English and suggested there was a misunderstanding between the two due to a language barrier.

“I speak a little bit of English. He, nothing,” Chen's brother told local reporters.

The River Walk Community Association released a statement saying they had a contract for "unarmed roving patrol services for the common areas of the community" and the "incident that took place just outside association property."

"The shooting is still under investigation," Chesapeake Director of Public Communications Mark Cox told BuzzFeed News.

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These Refugee Grandparents Were Finally Allowed To Flee Ukraine. Then Trump’s Order Stopped Them

George and Larisa Gabliya

Supplied

Yuri Karpenko expected his wife's parents to arrive in Seattle from eastern Ukraine in two weeks' time.

Instead, on Monday, he got a phone call that George and Larisa Gabliya, granted refugee status by the US in November 2016, would not be coming. They, like an estimated 20,000 others, had been blocked from entering the country by President Donald Trump's executive order halting the refugee program for 120 days.

“It’s awful, especially because they are older parents, they are not young anymore. They want some kind of security in their life, and right now they don’t have any security, or even a place to live,” Karpenko told BuzzFeed News.

Karpenko said his father and mother-in-law were granted admission into the US as refugees in November 2016, fleeing religious persecution and the conflict in Ukraine.

They began to prepare, and as required by Ukrainian law, they gave up their Ukrainian identification — and were left with their passport — resigned from their jobs, and sold their apartment before their anticipated departure. They are now stuck in Kharkiv, Ukraine. They’re jobless, without a place to live, and without the ability to travel outside of the country. They will be without these safeguards for at least the next four months until — and if — the ban is lifted.

Yuri Karpenko with his wife, Kristina and her parents, George and Larisa Gablita, on their wedding day.

Supplied

“My wife was crying the whole day yesterday. It’s hard, especially because it was just two weeks away. It’s like a stab in back,” Karpenko said.

In addition to the seven Muslim-majority countries listed in the visa ban and halt of the refugee program, many more people from countries around the world have also been adversely affected. Exact numbers are hard to come by, but on Monday the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said that up to 20,000 people have been affected by Trump’s executive order.

The United Nations estimates that up to 10,000 Ukrainians have died and up to 1.7 million have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in the country, which began when Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 and then began supporting separatist rebels in the nation’s east. Karpenko said his in-laws live about 40 to 50 miles from the fighting and "have seen all the air force and tanks going through their city."

A year after the conflict began, in 2015, Ukrainian refugees didn't make the top ten list of those admitted into the US by origin country. By 2016, that number increased sharply, placing Ukraine ranked 7th on that list, accounting for 2,543 refugees admitted into the US.

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The Seattle chapter alone of World Relief, an international nonprofit that helps resettle refugees in the US, was expecting around 90 refugees from Ukraine, including George and Larisa Gabliya, in February.

For Lidija Rudenky, the resettlement director of World Relief Seattle, the ban is personal. She was once a refugee from Ukraine, fleeing religious persecution, and was admitted into the US in 1999, after more than a decade of waiting.

Rudenky called 36 families on Monday, informing each one that their loved ones would not be arriving in February. Some took the news calmly, others cried, and asked who they could complain to. By the end of the day, she said, she had lost her voice.

“Honestly, I could not speak, and I could not sleep last night,” Rudenky said, her voice distraught and trembling, on the verge of crying. “It affected me so much.”

Ukrainians, she added, “are the most vulnerable. They are already refugees in their own country.”

“America has been good to me and I want others to see the goodness in America,” Rudenky said. “But,” she said of the ban, “this was ill-conceived, to say the least.”

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Someone Keeps Hacking Radio Stations To Play "Fuck Donald Trump"

Small stations in multiple states have unexpectedly found themselves playing the YG song since Trump’s inauguration.

A community radio station in South Carolina that normally plays oldies and beach music on Monday said it had been hacked to play an anti-Trump song.

Facebook: Sunny1079

In a message to fans of Sunny 107.9, President Frank Patterson of the Lake Keowee Broadcasting Group wrote that the station had been hacked.

"This is NOT our broadcast!" he wrote on Monday. "We at WFBS do not take political views! The FCC and WFBS are working to fix this situation ASAP."

The station, which covers 10 miles of Salem, South Carolina, was the latest non-commercial radio station to unintentionally broadcast YG's "FDT (Fuck Donald Trump)."

youtube.com

On Jan. 20, the day of Trump's inauguration, a low-power station in San Angelo, Texas, that normally airs R&B oldies played the song. Other stations hacked that day included El Jefe 96.7, a Spanish language station in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Mother of the Redeemer Radio 103.5 in Evansville, Indiana, and Crescent Hill Radio, a nonprofit station that plays local music in Louisville, Kentucky.

"OK, not funny. some one has hacked into out transmitter tower, and the FM was playing a mp3 clip repeatedly of %$^# Donald Trump," Crescent Hill Radio posted on Facebook on Jan. 20, according to the Courier-Journal.

Radio Insight reported the hack was done through a Barix Exstreamer, an audio over IP device that isn't by default secured. A similar hack last year took over radio stations with an explicit furry podcast.

Meanwhile, other radio stations have been playing the song intentionally. A pirate radio station in Seattle has been looping the song for a week, Q13 Fox reported. Other stations are playing a radio edit of the song as part of their regular broadcast rotation.

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Johnny Depp's Ex-Managers Say He Lived An Extravagant $2-Million-A-Month Lifestyle

Christopher Polk / Getty Images

Johnny Depp's former business managers responded to accusations that they mishandled his finances, claiming in court documents Tuesday that it was all they could do to keep his extravagant lifestyle in check and "protect the actor from himself."

Depp filed a lawsuit against The Management Group (TMG), run by Joel and Robert Mandel, in mid-January, accusing the firm of "gross mismanagement and, at times, outright fraud." The actor claims he lost millions of dollars and that the firm allegedly approved $28 million in contingencies without any written agreement.

TMG, which represented the actor for 17 years, filed their response in Los Angeles County Superior Court, stating, "Depp, and Depp alone, is fully responsible for any financial turmoil he finds himself in today."

TMG said after Depp terminated the firm, he refused to pay back a $5 million loan. TMG claims they repeatedly warned and advised Depp to reduce his spending and sell unnecessary assets, but he "listened to no one” and demanded the firm fund his "extravagant and extreme" lifestyle that cost more than $2 million a month to maintain, court documents state.

Amber Heard leaves Southport Magistrates Court with Johnny Depp in Australia.

Matt Roberts / Getty Images

Depp also reached a $7-million divorce settlement with Amber Heard last year, money that she then donated to Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

According to TMG, the actor spent $75 million to buy and furnish 14 residences, including a 45-acre chateau in the south of France, a chain of islands in the Bahamas, multiple homes in Hollywood, several penthouse lofts, and a fully functioning horse farm in Kentucky.

Depp also spent more than $18 million to buy and renovate a 150-foot luxury yacht and spent millions buying and maintaining 45 luxury cars, TMG claims. Other monthly expenses included $30,000 on wine, $200,000 on private jet travel, and $300,000 on 40 full-time employees, the court documents state.

Both sides are demanding a jury trial.

"The only reason Depp filed this lawsuit was to interfere with TMG’s ongoing efforts to be repaid on the loan they had made to bail him out," the firm said in a statement. "TMG worked day and night to professionally manage Depp's business affairs, adhering to the highest standards."

A representative for Depp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

LINK: Amber Heard Obtains Restraining Order Against Johnny Depp, Citing Physical Abuse

LINK: Amber Heard Files For Divorce From Johnny Depp After 15 Months Of Marriage

LINK: Johnny Depp Altered His Amber Heard Tattoo From “Slim” To “Scum”

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This College Student Just Got One Of The Largest Campus Rape Settlements Ever

UC Santa Cruz

Luz Portillo was in her last semester at the University of California Santa Cruz when she says one of her professors invited her out to lunch and raped her the day before she graduated.

"He MC'd our graduation the next day," she told BuzzFeed News. "It was surreal."

On Tuesday, her attorneys announced that the University of California had agreed to pay $1.15 million to settle her lawsuit, making it one of the largest Title IX settlements in US history and the latest in an ongoing national conversation about how universities handle sexual assault.

After reporting being sexually assaulted in 2015 with Santa Cruz's Title XI office and school and local police, Portillo said the university began to show a bias toward the associate Latin American studies professor and "minimized what happened."

Luz Portillo.

via Luz Portillo

So Portillo filed a lawsuit, claiming the professor had been acting inappropriately with other students prior to her alleged assault, but that the university never intervened.

"I had to become my biggest advocate," she said. "I received very little help from my university, but I drew strength from other women at other schools who went public with their sexual assault."

Portillo said the professor was known for inviting students out for beers, had one time "moved the class to a bar," and allegedly dated other students.

"Like many other higher institutions, UCSC looked the other way when it became aware [the professor] was hunting undergraduates," Portillo's attorney, John Kristensen, said, adding that the school "deliberately ignored" claims of sexual harassment by faculty.

"There was no investigation and no attempt to protect subsequent students from [this professor]," he added.

UC Santa Cruz is one of more than 200 colleges and universities under federal investigation for how they handle sexual assault. An international firestorm was ignited last year after a former Stanford student, Brock Turner, was given a much-criticized six-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus.

Years earlier, the University of Colorado at Boulder found itself at the center of controversy after a female student alleged that a group of football players and team recruits raped her at a friend's off-campus apartment. The school eventually settled that case for $2.5 million.

"This case is emblematic of the crisis of sexual assault on female students at our nation's institutions of higher learning," Kristensen said.

In a message to the campus community on Tuesday, university officials said they had acted swiftly in response to the allegations, immediately put the professor on leave, and, after an extensive investigation, he submitted his resignation on June 1.

"The allegations were investigated in confidence, because our campus process respects the rights and privacy of all parties, but we investigated the victim’s claims as soon as she came forward," Chancellor George Blumenthal and Interim Campus Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor Herbert Lee said in a joint statement.

Santa Cruz has experienced a spike in sexual assault reports and expanded and poured more funding into its Title IX office last summer, around the time Portillo filed her case, according to a university statement.

From 2015 to 2016, the office received 233 reports and opened 46 formal investigations, up from 181 reports and 22 investigations the previous school year.

The school's Title IX officer, Tracey Tsugawa, attributed the increase more to increased awareness than an actual rise in the number of incidents.

Even though more students are reporting campus sexual assault, Portillo said schools still shelter professors and allow them to resign without tarnishing their record.

Blumenthal and Lee said in their statement that university officials launch "immediate inquiries and take formal disciplinary action when warranted," and had avoided public comment on the case to protect student privacy.

"I was hesitant about putting my name out there," Portillo said, but eventually decided that "she had to."

"It allowed me to reclaim what happened to me," she said. "I wasn't going to be another anonymous person."

Portillo is currently studying to get into law school, something she had shelved after her alleged assault.

The process, she said, has "been hard, but empowering."

"I don't want to allow myself to be victimized again," Portillo said. "I'm now in control of my life."

Former Students Say Stanford Tried To Buy Its Way Out Of Title IX Investigations

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People Think Trump Is Treating His Supreme Court Nomination Like A Reality Show

“I can’t wait to see which Supreme Court nominee gets the rose!”

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Trump Says He'll Uphold Obama's Order Protecting LGBT Federal Workers

Pool / Getty Images

President Trump on Tuesday said his administration will continue to enforce Obama-era workplace protections for LGBT workers and contractors.

"The President is proud to have been the first ever GOP nominee to mention the LGBTQ community in his nomination acceptance speech, pledging then to protect the community from violence and oppression," a statement from the White House reads. "The executive order signed in 2014, which protects employees from anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination while working for federal contractors, will remain intact."

Obama's 2014 executive order was the first to offer explicit nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity to federal workers and the first to ban discrimination in federal contracts for all LGBT people.

Trump's move isn't without precedent: President George W. Bush continued to enforce a 1998 executive order signed by President Bill Clinton that banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the federal workforce.

Trump's statement comes after rumors on Monday that Trump would sign a separate religious freedom order that could curtail some of Obama's LGBT protections — it could allow, for example, federal officials refuse to comply on religious grounds. Trump's staff did not rule out such an order.

Human Rights Campaign's senior vice president for policy and political affairs, JoDee Winterhof, issued a statement on Monday calling rumors “deeply troubling,” adding that the LGBT group is “prepared to fight tooth and nail against every effort to discriminate.”

That led to a question during Monday's daily briefing with Press Secretary Sean Spicer, where we was asked if Trump was “about to sign a religious freedom executive order that would undermine LGBT rights.”

“I'm not getting to head ahead of executive orders we may or may not issue,” Spicer said. “There is a lot of executive orders a lot of things that the president has talked about and will continue to fulfill but I have nothing on that front."

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Dr. Luke Is Going To War With Kesha Over A Text Message She Sent To Lady Gaga

Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty Images

Music producer Dr. Luke — aka Lukasz Gottwald — filed court papers on Monday asking a NY judge to allow him to add a defamation claim to his ongoing lawsuit against Kesha after learning of a text message she sent to Lady Gaga.

Kesha sent the message to Lady Gaga on Feb. 26, 2016, one week after a judge denied her request to get out of her contract with Dr. Luke, according to court documents. Dr. Luke's team said the text conversation, which came forward during the discovery phase of litigation, is evidence of Kesha’s “malicious campaign to destroy Gottwald’s reputation and career.”

In the text, Kesha “falsely stated that another female recording artist had been raped by Gottwald, and again repeated the baseless assertion that Kesha had been raped by Gottwald," according to court papers filed by Dr. Luke’s attorneys. Dr. Luke’s team said that Kesha made these false assertions for the “malicious purpose of further damaging [Dr. Luke’s] reputation and business.”

The court papers also said that the text did not specifically name Dr. Luke, but said that the other recording artist had been "raped by the same man," and "the surrounding context of the text message makes clear" that Dr. Luke was the person being referred to.

Dr. Luke and Kesha have been locked in a legal battle since Oct. 2014, when they each filed dueling lawsuit against each other. Kesha sued him in California for sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, unfair business practices, and infliction of emotional distress. Almost simultaneously, Dr. Luke filed his own lawsuit against Kesha in New York for breach of contract and defamation. In June 2015, Kesha’s California case was put on hold by a judge after ruling that the New York case took precedent. She later dismissed the case to concentrate on defending herself against the NY lawsuit and focus on restarting her music career.

In these new court papers, Dr. Luke’s team argued that ever since Gottwald refused to renegotiate Kesha’s contract and give her better terms in 2012, she has engaged in a concerted effort to “blacklist Gottwald from the music industry on false premise of her victim status, and to influence others in the industry to boycott Gottwald.”

They allege that Kesha and her mother Pebe Sebert and her manager “hatched a campaign which was expressly and admittedly designed to ruin Gottwald’s business and reputation,” according to the complaint. The text message conversation, they said, is an example of that “vicious campaign.” In fact, since receiving Kesha’s text message, Lady Gaga has spread “negative messages about Dr. Luke in the press and even said during a radio interview that she possesses secret damaging information about Dr. Luke,” according to the court filings.

But Kesha’s legal team maintains in their own new complaint — also filed Monday —that Dr. Luke has been the one pushing a “vendetta against Kesha.” In the new documents, Kesha’s attorneys argue that, despite assurances to the court, Dr. Luke has failed to allow Kesha to return to work, release new music, and still is “maintaining absolute and complete control over every material decision facing Kesha’s career.”

Over the past ten months “Kesha’s efforts to record and release her next album have been met with unfounded resistance and delay,” according to her court papers. While she handed over 20 songs this summer, not one song has been approved, no release date has been set for the album, and no promotional plan has been finalized for a release, her attorneys argued.

Per the exclusive recording contract she signed in 2005 when she was 18, Kesha must deliver five albums for Dr. Luke before their arrangement is terminated. Until she delivers three more, she could be locked into the contract for life. Kesha’s last album, Warrior, was released Nov. 30, 2012.

While Kesha no longer has to work in the same room as him, her attorneys said she is still under his control. The “untenable” situation will only get worse when Dr. Luke’s contract with Sony ends in March leaving her completely under Dr. Luke’s management control bound to him until she completes three more albums. Kesha, they said, cannot be expected to work for a man “who has verbally abused her, made physical threats against her, and sued her and her mother for punitive damages in an attempt to bankrupt them both.”

“You can get a divorce from an abusive spouse. You can dissolve a partnership if the relationship becomes irreconcilable. The same opportunity — to be liberated from the physical, emotional, and financial bondage of a destructive relationship — should be available to a recording artist,” Kesha’s court papers state.

Given their history, Kesha’s attorneys said it is “impossible” for her and Dr. Luke to work together, and asked the court “in the interest of justice” to free her from the contract.

They also said Dr. Luke has materially breached the contract by withholding royalties and royalty statements due for more than two years, and only ultimately paid her a portion of the amounts due.

Kesha and Dr. Luke's next court hearing regarding this litigation has been set for Feb. 14.

Read Kesha's Amended Complaint

LINK: Kesha Drops Sex Assault Case Against Dr. Luke To Focus On Music Fight

LINK: Dr. Luke And Sony Allow Kesha To Start Recording Again

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These Are The Victims Of The Quebec Mosque Attack

Azzeddine Soufiane, 57

Facebook, Najahi Rachid

Azzeddine Soufiane, 57, owned a halal grocery and butcher shop and was a beloved figure in the community, the CBC reported.

Originally from Morocco, Soufiane had lived in Quebec for 30 years and "was a father to everyone."

Soufiane, a father of three, was known for helping new Muslims integrate into the community and had a loyal customer base.

His shop "was the first place I learned about, and pretty much all of Quebec’s Muslims did their groceries there," Elabed, a customer and imam at another mosque nearby, told the Montreal Gazette.

Khaled Belkacemi, 60

courtesy Laval University

Khaled Belkacemi, 60, was a professor at Laval University at their Agricultural Sciences and Food, and an expert in agriculture, food and nutrition, chemistry and a member of the soil and agri-food engineering department.

Belkacemi had published studies in various scientific journals on the antioxidant action of extracted blueberry anthocyanin, the impact of ultrasonic treatments to improve health quality of seeds.

"On behalf of the university community, the rector of Université Laval offers his most sincere condolences to the spouse of Khaled Belkacemi, also a professor at Laval University, her family, her family and her colleagues who have experienced this terrible tragedy," Laval University Chancellor Denis Brière said a statement. "I am extremely saddened by this horrible news."

FSAA dean Jean-Claude Dufour called Belkacemi a "very educated man, passionate and committed to the faculty."

"His remarkable work will survive his sudden departure, which sadden us all deeply," Dufour said.

Belkacemi was also member of the Center for Green Chemistry and Catalysis and the Institute on Nutrition and Functional Foods.

Aboubaker Thabti, 44

Aboubaker Thabti emigrated to Canada from Tunisia in 2011, according to CTV News. The father of two was training to be a pharmacist and was described as helpful toward newcomers and family-oriented.

"He took care of his family all the time, 100 percent, so he (had) no time for himself," one friend said.

Another friend, Abder Dhakkar, remembered meeting Thabti after moving to Quebec: “He’s so kind; everyone loves him – everyone.”

Thabti lived a few minutes from the Islamic Cultural Center and prayed there frequently. The mosque's president, Mohamed Yangui, said that he had spoken with Thabti shortly before the attack: "He wanted to buy a house for his family."

Abdelkrim Hassane, 41

Facebook

Hassane worked as a computer scientist and was also a father of three.

His co-worker, Abderrezak Redouane, told the Globe and Mail that Hassane’s younger children had waited up all night for their father to come home from the mosque before his wife learned of his death.

Hassane had recently returned to work after three months of parental leave following the birth of his son.

Originally from Algeria, he studied computer engineering at the University of Science and Technology near Algiers. He worked in Paris, then Montreal, before moving to Quebec City.

His former teacher, Soniouchkas Gounar, described him on Facebook as a “kind person and respectful.” He also said that Hassane had wanted to move back to Montreal.

"Peace to your soul, that God welcomes all the victims in his vast paradise," Gounar said.

Ibrahima Barry, 39

via Facebook

Ibrahima Barry and Mamadou Taou Barry were reportedly brothers and lived in the same building. They were both from Guinea, West Africa.

Ibrahima reportedly worked for the province’s health-insurance board and was a father to four children. A close friend, Moussa Sangaré, said they both came from large African families. He also told the Globe and Mail Ibrahima's wife was in poor health.

Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42

via Facebook

Mamadou Tanou Barry worked in IT and had two sons, 2 and 4. His friend told the Globe and Mail that Tanou’s father had died a few years ago, and as the eldest son, was sending money home to help his extended family. Just a month ago, his mother had arrived to live in Quebec City.

Called Tanu Bari by his friends, he was reportedly was shot in the back while at the mosque for evening prayers, a friend, Thierno Souleymane Diallo, posted on Facebook.

DawaNet Canada has set up a GoFundMe page for the victims' families.

LINK: Here’s What We Know About The Suspect In The Quebec Mosque Attack

LINK: Student Who Allegedly Killed 6 People At A Canadian Mosque Charged With Murder

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The Controversial Twitter Account Of Trump's National Security Advisor Has Been Deleted

Michael Flynn at Trump Tower on Nov. 17, 2016.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

The controversial Twitter account of President Donald Trump's national security advisor was quietly deleted Monday after he gained notoriety during the election for sharing fake news and criticizing Muslims.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the president's national security advisor, used the handle @GenFlynn on Twitter. Flynn was an active user of the social network and often raised eyebrows for his political, sometimes hashtag-heavy tweets. On the eve of the election, for example, he posted a tweet peppered with the hashtag "#MAGA3X." In December, he tweeted then deleted a fake news story about Hillary Clinton being involved in sex crimes.

On Monday, however, Flynn's account had disappeared.

The White House did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' questions about what happened to the account, and Twitter said in an email that "we don't comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons."

The deletion means that Flynn's contentious Twitter history is only preserved in the numerous news stories about his oft-vexing tweets. Shortly after the election, for example, CNN observed that Flynn interacted with anti-Semites and members of the so-called alt-right. At one point Mediaite collected Flynn's most noteworthy tweets, including one that read "Yo, how is the gang doing…I’m ready to talk…r u?"

But perhaps the most incendiary post on Flynn's Twitter account came last February when he tweeted "Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL."

The disappearance of Flynn's account comes as power in the White House appears to consolidate around Steven Bannon, who formerly ran far-right website Breitbart and now has a seat on the National Security Council.

Trump with Flynn, center, and Steve Bannon on Saturday.

Alex Brandon / AP

Flynn's Twitter account also vanished a day after the account of his son, Michael Flynn, Jr., also disappeared. According The Hill, he deleted his account Sunday after using the hashtag "#MuslimBan" and saying that such a ban was necessary.

Days earlier, the younger Flynn mocked the Women's March, asking if protesters actually wanted "free mani/pedis?"

Michael Flynn, Jr., also famously became embroiled in the "Pizzagate" controversy in which false reports implicated a Washington, DC, restaurant in a human trafficking ring. Despite the reports being fake and the trafficking ring non-existent, Flynn tweeted that "Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it'll remain a story."

LINK: Michael Flynn Deleted His Fake News Tweet Linking Clinton To Underage Sex Crimes

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Meet The New Breeds Competing At The Westminster Dog Show

Bebeto Matthews / AP

Let's get started.

Pumi

Westminster Kennel Club Dog

The pumi was developed by farmers in Western Hungary over the years to herd cattle, sheep, and pigs. The breed is described as spirited, intelligent, and willing to work.

American Hairless Terrier

Bebeto Matthews / AP

The American Hairless Terrier was developed in the early 1970s in the US, and while typically hairless, they can also have a coat. According to the kennel club, the dog's ancestors were bred to hunt rats and other vermin.

Sloughi

Westminster Kennel Club Dog

This breed, pronounced sloo-ghee, dates back millennia in the North African countries of Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria. It was bred specifically to track gazelles, jackals, wild boar, hares, and rabbits.

Two years ago, Miss P, a 15-inch beagle, won best in show at Westminster.

Mary Altaffer / AP

In 2016, CJ, a German shorthaired pointer, won Best In Show.

Seth Wenig / AP

More than 2,800 dogs are expected at this year's show, which is scheduled for Feb. 11, 13, and 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

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The Holocaust Museum Resorted To Explaining The Holocaust In An Apparent Rebuke Of Trump

Donald Trump during a meeting in the White House Monday.

Evan Vucci / AP

The Holocaust Museum on Monday appeared to rebuke President Donald Trump after the White House defended omitting mention of the 6 million Jews who perished during the Holocaust in a widely panned statement.

Trump released a statement Friday on Holocaust Remembrance Day and immediately became the target of criticism for not mentioning Jews killed by Nazis during World War II. Instead, the statement referred to "innocent people" who suffered from "Nazi terror."

Sean Spicer during a news briefing at the White House Monday.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer responded to criticism Monday by saying that Trump is aware of "what people have been saying, but I think by and large he has been praised for it."

Spicer said Trump "went out of his way" to recognize suffering and that when it comes to "Israel and the Jewish people there has been no better friend than Donald Trump."

When the topic came up again during Monday's news conference, Spicer said the statement was written with the help of someone who was Jewish and a descendent of Holocaust survivors.

"It's pathetic that people are picking on his statement," he added.

But Spicer's comments were not enough to quell the controversy and Monday afternoon the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, responded with a statement apparently aimed at the Trump administration. Though the museum didn't mention Trump by name, it said that the Holocaust was "the systematic, state-sponsored murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators."

"Nazi ideology cast the world as a racial struggle, and the singular focus on the total destruction of every Jewish person was at its racist core," the museum's statement continued. "Millions of other innocent civilians were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis, but the elimination of Jews was central to Nazi policy."

"The Holocaust teaches us profound truths about human societies and our capacity for evil," it said. "An accurate understanding of this history is critical if we are to learn its lessons and honor its victims."

LINK: The White House Didn’t Mention Jews In Its Holocaust Remembrance Statement

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This Map Might Make You Think Twice About Trump's Immigration Ban

Immigration has been suspended from seven Muslim countries.

On Friday, President Donald Trump suspended all people from from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days.

The action was part of an executive order that also temporarily halted the US refugee program and indefinitely barred Syrian refugees from entering the country.

As he signed the order, Trump called the action “the protection of the nation from foreign terrorists entities into the United States.”

“We all know what that means,” he added. “Protection of the nation of foreign terrorists entry into the United States. Big stuff.”

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New York Governor Wants To Add Abortion Rights To The State Constitution

Dominick Reuter / AFP / Getty Images

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday announced his intent to make legal abortion part of the state constitution.

During a rally to "stand with Planned Parenthood," the Democratic governor told the crowd he wants to make Roe v. Wade — the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion — an amendment to New York's state constitution.

The announcement comes one day before President Donald Trump is set to announce his nominee for the Supreme Court. Trump has repeatedly said he will nominate a justice who would overturn Roe v. Wade.

"As Washington seeks to limit women's rights, we seek to protect them," Cuomo said at the rally. "We will not allow the progress of the women's movement to be stopped, and we must seize this opportunity to bring the state and the nation forward and stand up for women's health. Make no mistake, we will always protect the right to choose in New York."

But adding Roe v. Wade to the state constitution would require two rounds of votes in the state legislature (which is largely anti-abortion) and then, if passed, would be put to state voters.

Cuomo's announcement also comes on the heels of a report released by New York Civil Liberties Union noting that the state's abortion laws are more limiting than those allowed under Roe v. Wade.

New York's law legalizing abortion was passed three years before the Supreme Court decision and criminalizes late-term abortions after 24-weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for cases where the life of the mother is threatened, but not for when the fetus will not survive birth.

Gov. Cuomo with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards on Monday.

Hans Pennink / AP

Cuomo and other New York Democratic legislators have made numerous efforts to protect abortion and birth control rights in the state since Trump's election as part of a campaign called "New York's Promise to Women: Ever Upward."

During the weekend of the Women's March, Cuomo announced that, even if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, New York will maintain requirements for insurers to provide free access to most kinds of birth control and abortions deemed "medically necessary" by a doctor.

Other state legislators have been working with abortion rights advocates on an updated version of a previously-proposed piece of state legislation called the Reproductive Health Act (RHA). The original version of the RHA, proposed in 2014 and not approved by the legislature, would update New York's abortion law to legalize more and later term abortions and would codify Roe v. Wade. In December, Democratic Sen. Liz Krueger of Manhattan told Politico that the new version of the law would be "more explicit" and "stronger," though she did not specify how.

While Cuomo's proposal and the RHA overlap, a representative from Cuomo's office told BuzzFeed News the two were not related.

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Here's What We Know About The Suspect In The Quebec Mosque Attack

Alexandre Bissonnette

Facebook

The lone suspect in a mass shooting at a Quebec City mosque on Sunday that left six dead was reportedly identified by police as Alexandre Bissonnette, a 27-year-old white French Canadian.

The deadly shooting occurred inside the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec at around 8 p.m. when a masked gunman entered the mosque with an assault rifle and began firing, police said.

Local police initially said two men were in custody for the attack, but on Monday, the second person, Mohamed Belkhadir, a Moroccan, was identified as a witness.

Bissonnette, who was identified by Canadian media and NBC News citing police sources, reportedly called 911 and confessed to the shooting. He was arrested after parking his car on a nearby bridge and surrendering to authorities, police said.

“For the moment, nothing leads us to believe there are other suspects linked to the event, but you’ll understand we’re not taking chances and we’re making necessary verifications to make sure there aren’t any,” Quebec police spokeswoman Christine Coulombe told The Canadian Press.

Authorities say they are investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.

Bissonnette's Facebook page

Facebook

According to his Facebook page, which has since been taken offline, Bissonnette lived in the Cap-Rouge section of Quebec City and attended the Universite Laval. At the university, Bissonnette studied political science and anthropology, La Presse reported. An unidentified fellow student told La Presse that Bissonnette was “a loner” with no friends.

After Bissonnette’s name and photo began to show up in the media in connection with the shooting, Canadian immigration activist François Deschamps told La Presse he recognized Bissonnette as “a troll” who had made “extreme right-wing” comments on a Facebook page that Deschamps created for welcoming Syrian refugees to Canada.

Canadian police officers respond to a shooting in a mosque at the Québec City Islamic cultural center on Sainte-Foy Street in Quebec city on January 29, 2017.

Alice Chiche / AFP / Getty Images

Before Facebook deactivated Bissonnette’s page, screenshots of his “likes” were also circulated on social media. Among them were the far-right French nationalist and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, US President Donald Trump, and atheist and critic of Islam Richard Dawkins.

Posts on Bissonnette's own Facebook page, however, reveal little about any political or ideological leanings. For example, his profile shows a post of him at a Subway restaurant, driving in a car, with the caption “driving to my camping ground!” A screengrab from the computer game Warcraft, and a photo of a dog wearing a Dominos pizza delivery outfit, with the caption, "I want one! #fridayfeeling."

Bissonnette

Facebook

At a news conference Monday, officials identified the shooting victims as men ranging in age from 35 to 60. Officials said five people remain hospitalized, with two in critical condition and three stable. At least 14 others suffered minor injuries, Genevieve Dupuis, a spokeswoman for the University of Quebec Hospital Centre, said.

A motive for the attack remains unclear, and law enforcement offered few details about the suspected attacker other than that he told police he intends to cooperate with the investigation.

The White House said Trump spoke to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday and "offered to provide any assistance as needed.”

During his daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer used the attack to justify Trump’s controversial travel ban for immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, calling it “a terrible reminder of why we must remain vigilant and why the president is taking steps to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to our nation’s safety and security.”

Trudeau, meanwhile, spoke directly to Muslim Canadians from the House of Commons Monday, saying they have the country’s full support.

“To the more than one million Canadians who profess the Muslim faith, I want to say directly, we are with you,” he said. “Thirty-six million hearts are breaking with yours. Know that we value you. You enrich our country in immeasurable ways, this is your home.”

“We will grieve with you, we will defend you, we will love you, and we will stand with you.”

LINK: 6 People Were Killed In A Shooting At A Canadian Mosque

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Obama Just Spoke Out Against Trump's Travel Ban

“The President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion,” Obama said in a statement.

Barack Obama issued a statement on Donald Trump's controversial travel ban Monday, saying he supported the protesters and that he "fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion."

This is the first time Obama has weighed in on Trump's presidency since he left office earlier this month.

During his final press conference as president, Obama had said that would not stay silent if Trump instituted policies of “systematic discrimination” where the country’s “core values may be at stake.”

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

"President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country. In his final official speech as President, he spoke about the important role of citizen and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy — not just during an election but every day.

Citizens exercising their Constitutional rights to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.

With regard to comparisons to President Obama's foreign policy decisions, as we've heard before, the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion."

"When I hear folks say that, well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims; when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which a person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefitted from protection when they were fleeing political persecution -- that’s shameful," Obama said in November 2015. "That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion."

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Trump Lied That Delta And Protesters Were To Blame For The Problems Over His Travel Ban

After a weekend of nationwide protests, Trump on Monday deflected blame for the widespread confusion and anger sparked by his executive order barring US entry for refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries.

President Trump on Monday falsely said Delta Air Lines and protesters were to blame for the the mass outrage and confusion at airports nationwide this weekend, which was actually sparked by his executive order temporarily banning citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries to the US and suspending the refugee program for 120 days.

Andrew Kelly / Reuters

Let's unpack this. There was a Delta system outage that caused delays and led to 280 total cancelations — on Sunday evening into Monday, the airline said.

In a statement, Delta said that its IT systems, which went down at around 6:30 p.m. Sunday, were restored a few hours later and all systems were back to normal shortly after midnight on Monday.

There were residual delays on Monday as well.

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Here's How Trump's Ban Is Affecting People, In Their Own Words

“No one warned me when I was leaving, no one cared what will happen to my dog, or my job, or my life there.”

"In this new situation that Trump has made, I can't fly back to San Francisco."

Payam Jafari

"I came back to Iran for this winter break to visit my family but in this new situation that Trump has made, I can't fly back to San Francisco on Feb. 5th, which is my flight date.

I'm a graduate student at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and this coming spring semester is my last semester. I am getting my Master's in filmmaking.

I've entered the US four times in last three years without a single problem. I've lived there without getting a single ticket of any type or making problems of any form.

This is not fair for me. Please make my voice heard."

—Payam Jafari

"After almost seven years of living the the United States, I got deported. No one warned me when I was leaving, no one cared what will happen to my dog, or my job, or my life there."

Nazanin Zinouri

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Celebrities Are Making Their Own Obamacare Ads After Trump Threatened To Stop Outreach

Actor Colton Dunn said the ads were his own way to “resist” Trump.

It was reported last week that President Trump halt outreach and advertising for the Affordable Care Act — or, Obamacare — in final week of registration for the year. Trump has vowed to "repeal and replace" the act.

The deadline to register is Jan. 31.

Pool / Getty Images

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Trump Supporters Are Boycotting Starbucks After They Said They Will Hire Refugees

“I don’t want a terrorist making my coffee.”

On Sunday, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that his company would commit to hiring 10,000 refugees at Satrbucks locations around the globe — including in the US — and criticized President Trump's immigration ban.

Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images

"We are developing plans to hire 10,000 [refugees] over five years in the 75 countries around the world where Starbucks does business," Schultz said in a letter to employees. "And we will start this effort here in the U.S. by making the initial focus of our hiring efforts on those individuals who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel."

While many supported the move, many Trump supporters were completely enraged by the move.

Twitter

They called for a boycott of the coffee chain, and began tweeting with the hashtag #BoycottStarbucks.

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Here Are 21 Cartoons People Are Sharing In Response To Trump's Refugee Ban

“You belong.”

Cartoonists and people alike are sharing their artwork in response to President Donald Trump's signing of an executive order on Friday that suspends the entire US refugee program for 120 days and blocks all people in seven countries from entering the US for 90 days.

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People Are Sharing Dr Seuss Cartoons In Response To Trump's Refugee Ban

“This could have been drawn yesterday,”

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Emirates Airline Had To Change Pilots And Flight Crew Due To Trump's Executive Order

Although there is still confusion about airline employees with dual nationalities.

According to reports, Emirates airline said it has had to change pilots and flight crews on US-bound flights to comply with President Trump's new immigration restrictions.

Emirates is one of the largest international airlines in the world, with flights to 11 US cities every day.

After Trump signed an executive order to ban citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US, the airline said it has had to make "the necessary adjustments to our crewing, to comply with the latest requirements," an Emirates spokesperson told Reuters.

Flight rosters, including pilots and flight attendants from the seven countries affected by the travel ban, for select US-bound trips have reportedly been changed. But a second spokesperson later told Reuters changes have been minimal so far.

What remains unclear for Emirates, and other international airlines, is if the order also affects dual citizen airline employees — those with one passport from a country on the ban list, and one with that is not on the list.

There has been mass confusion among government officials in other countries about dual nationalities. However, according to the US State Department, The Guardian reports dual nationals will be affected by the ban.

President Trump responded to worldwide criticisms and confusion on Sunday saying the bans are "working out very nicely," especially at international airports.

"You see it in the airports, you see it all over, it’s working out very nicely, and we’re going to have a very, very strict ban," he said.

Emirates airline assures customers that during this time all US-bound flights should still operate on schedule, a spokesperson said.

Ashraf Mohammad Mohammad Alamra / Reuters

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Here's What Muslim American Veterans Think Of Trump's Refugee Ban

“Today it might be Muslims, tomorrow it might be somebody else.”

Mansoor Shams

Supplied

Mansoor Shams, a Marine Corps veteran, told BuzzFeed News he believed President Donald Trump's controversial executive order on immigration was "inappropriate," "unjust," and "goes against American ideals."

"I think President Trump, as commander-in-chief, has the right, by default, to protect our nation from any outside threats. But to paint an entire country or a nation, or a people, with a broad brush as if they’re all potential terrorists or bad people is what I take issue with," said Shams, a Pakistani American veteran who served as a Marine for over four-years.

Shams said he was irked the US had a "huge hand in destabilizing Iraq," and now Washington has "turned our shoulders" on the men and women of Iraq, especially those that helped and risked their lives for Americans, referring to translators and other Iraqis who worked with the US government during the conflict.

"I was sort of taken aback," Shams said of the ban.

"Of course this ban will do nothing for national security. It serves to cater to his base. There are no facts that back up these claims," Shams said.

"We talk all the time about bullying in this country and how bad it is, and that's exactly what the president is doing [to Muslims]," Shams said.

"Today it might be Muslims, tomorrow it might be somebody else."

Tayyib Rashid

Supplied

Tayyib Rashid, who served as a Marine for five years, told BuzzFeed News he believed the ban is neither, "legally, ethically, or morally correct."

"I feel sad. I feel sad for the citizens of this country because when I took the oath for the United States and the constitution, I took it for enemies foreign and domestic, and I feel like right now we have more domestic enemies," Rashid said, referring to the rise of white nationalism and the alt-right. "These domestic enemies are hell-bent on destroying the nation within."

Rashid believes the ban, in addition to being "inconsistent with the constitution," does little to protect the US from foreign threats. He said he believes the "motivation behind this is truly bigotry and racism."

Radhid now gives speeches and does community outreach so that people can learn about Islam from a Muslim directly — not through the media and anti-Muslim organizations.

"I just want people to know Muslims are loyal to this nation and we've always been ready to sacrifice," he said.

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