Incredible episode of This Is Your Life

sorry to all other answers but it's this entire episode of This Is Your Life www.youtube.com/watch?v=JER5...

[image or embed]

— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies.com) May 29, 2025 at 9:45 PM

The NY Times explores the source of the rumor that Venezuelan gangmembers had taken over a Colorado apartment complex

NYT (a few weeks ago):

As far back as May 2023, Aurora officials had been trying to force an out-of-state landlord to fix up three blighted apartment complexes in the downtrodden East Colfax Corridor, which connects the cities of Denver and Aurora.

...

On Aug, 5, a public relations agent ... hired by [the landlord], pitched a “tip” to the local Fox television network affiliate in Denver.

“An apartment building and its owners in Aurora, Colorado have become the most recent victims of the Venezuelan Gang Tren de Aragua’s violence, which has taken over several communities in the Denver area,” she wrote on Fox 31’s tip line, according to an email obtained by The Times. 

...

[The "conservative Republican mayor"]... quickly repeated [the landlord]’s unverified claim in interviews.

...

the mayor has started a crusade to try to undo the damage Mr. Trump is inflicting.

“I mean, I agree with him on a lot of policies as it pertains to immigration,” [the mayor] said in City Hall on Thursday. “But I’m also the mayor of the City of Aurora, and my job is not only to make sure that the city is safe, but also to protect the image of the city. This narrative out there is exaggerated, and it’s our responsibility to correct it.”

"Germany to welcome 250,000 Kenyans in labour deal"

That's the headline on the Yahoo-hosted version of the BBC's article published yesterday:

Kenya is struggling with increasing difficulties in providing work and sufficient income for its young professionals, while Germany is facing a shortage of skilled labour.

...

Migration agreements are a central pillar in the German government's efforts to curb immigration.

Seemed like surprising news, and something about the article seemed off.

Here's the third sentence of the current version of the same BBC article as hosted by the BBC:

The German government has said the deal does not specify the number of workers who will be allowed in.

The BBC-hosted article ends with the following note that has not been added to the Yahoo-hosted article:

Correction 14 September 2024: An earlier version of this article put a figure on how many Kenyan workers would be allowed into Germany under the deal. The German interior ministry corrected this to state that the deal did not specify a figure. 

Poland's prime minister "denounced as 'unacceptable' Germany's decision to extend temporary controls to all its land borders"

BBC:

Germany and all its neighbours are part of the Schengen border-free zone and under European Union rules temporary controls are allowed "as a last resort measure, in exceptional situations" for up to six months.

...

The three-parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government have come under increasing pressure to respond to poor results in state elections in eastern Germany where immigration was the biggest issue.

A stowaway named Thankgod rode a ship's rudder from Nigeria to Brazil, and survived by licking toothpaste and drinking rainwater

NYT:

The four stowaways aboard a cargo ship had no idea where they were when they were met by federal police officers last month at a Brazilian port. Told they had landed in Brazil, they were stunned.

They had hopped on the ship while it was docked 3,500 miles away — in Lagos, the most populous city in the West African nation of Nigeria.

They didn’t know where it was going but didn’t care. They were jobless and desperate, they said, and wanted to go anywhere that might offer better prospects.

After rowing out to the vessel, the Ken Wave, they said they climbed into an unlikely space: the 6-foot by 6-foot opening containing the rudder.

Interesting story about an obviously unfit Somali athlete participating in the World University Games

WaPo and BBC basically just note it as scandalous. The Evening Standard talks a bit more about legitimate reasons a team might field someone inappropriate for the event. But then there's this: 

Somali Olympic Committee sources told African news outlet Horn Examiner that the real reason behind their participation in the international games was not competition but to help an athlete obtain a Schengen visa and seek asylum in Europe.

"Five Russian men fleeing military conscription have been living at a South Korean airport for months"

CNN:

"The men are able to shower but have to wash their clothes by hand and are unable to leave the departure and duty-free areas"

...

Military conscription is a sensitive issue in South Korea, where military service is mandatory for all able bodied men between the ages of 18 and 35.

Afghan Adjustment Act introduced today, would create a path to citizenship for evacuated Afghans

Inbox: Klobuchar, Graham, Coons, Blunt, Blumenthal and Murkowski introduce the Afghan Adjustment Act, which will allow thousands of Afghan evacuees admitted to the U.S. under humanitarian parole to undergo additional vetting apply for permanent residency. This is a huge deal.

— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) August 9, 2022

Inquirer:

The law would directly impact the lives of 76,000 Afghans who were evacuated to the United States, most of whom have now been resettled in communities across the country. The big impact: It would provide a pathway to permanent residency and to citizenship for allies who currently have none.

...

Almost all were admitted to the U.S. under what is called humanitarian parole. That’s a permission to enter the country, but it’s not an immigration status. What’s more, it provides no automatic means of attaining permanent residency or citizenship. 

...

The U.S. has passed similar adjustment acts for those forced to flee other wars and conflicts, including Cubans caught in Castro’s rise to power, Vietnamese and Cambodians after the fall of Saigon, and Iraqi Kurds during the rule of Saddam Hussein.

Two Russian paratroopers reportedly died during drills near the Belarus-Poland border

CNN:

Russia and Belarus flexed their military might for a third time this week near the Poland-Belarus border, where thousands of people are stranded in deplorable conditions, trapped at the center of an intensifying humanitarian and geopolitical crisis.

On Friday, Russia and Belarus held joint paratrooper drills near Poland, exercises the Belarusian defense ministry said were "in connection with the buildup of military activity near the state border of the Republic of Belarus." Two Russian paratroopers died during the maneuvers after their parachutes failed due to strong wind, state news agency TASS reported, citing Russia's defense ministry.

Some 15,000 Polish soldiers have been deployed to Poland's border with Belarus 

BBC:

Poland's Prime Minister has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind a migrant crisis at Belarus's border with Poland.

...

He accused the Russian and Belarusian leaders of trying to destabilise the European Union - which the two countries are not part of - by allowing migrants to travel through Belarus and enter the bloc.

Update: Lasers 

Belarusian soldiers tried to destroy a Polish border fence last night.
Our servicemen were blinded by laser beams and strobe light as well as tear gas were used against Polish Border Guard. Another attempt to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally was prevented. https://t.co/3GERjLlgVO

— Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland (@PremierRP_en) November 13, 2021

A story about a family that escaped the Soviet Union only to find themselves prisoners of the mafia

From the story:

We were foreigners. However, we were also guests of the mob. My father’s connections, those hidden strings, pulled favors across national borders and were tied to a well-financed machine. The Italian Mob leveraged the collapse of the Soviet Union to collect well-educated and grateful people. They groomed these resources to become sanitation directors, architects, port engineers, and the like. But all remained pawns beholden to a cabal of made men looking to skim and continue getting fat off the graft. One such man wiped sausage grease from his mouth and belly laughed as my father demanded his benefactors to let us move on to the United States. That man slapped both his hands loudly on either side of his waist — eyeing a resource that was meant to become a betting horse. They knew my father won Soviet regional chess competitions and even performed at grand-master competitions. He was perfect, too valuable to let go. The man pointed at him: “You’ll win and lose when we tell you. Otherwise, we send you home.”

Lithuania accused Belarus of importing Iraqi refugees to send over their shared border

AP:

“It is obvious that a hybrid war is being waged against Lithuania, and illegal migration flows are one of the means”

...

Lukashenko has warned that Belarus could retaliate against the latest EU sanctions by loosening border controls against Western-bound illegal migration and drug trafficking.

“We were stopping migrants and drugs — now you will catch them and eat them yourself”

arrive to Belarus every week. The number of flights from Baghdad to Minsk doubled in the last month (from 2 to 4 per week + they replaced Boeing 737 with a larger 777). At Minsk airport no one checks the Iraqis who booked with Tsentrkurort, they automatically get entry visas. 3/4

— Tadeusz Giczan (@TadeuszGiczan) June 12, 2021

Then they get to the border and Belarusian border guards help them to get to Lithuania. The service costs $3-6k. Middle Eastern students in Belarus say more and more people in Iraq and Syria are becoming aware of the new scheme and are planning to get to the EU via Belarus 4/4

— Tadeusz Giczan (@TadeuszGiczan) June 12, 2021

"Millions of people in north-eastern India could lose their citizenship on Saturday in what could become the biggest exercise in forced statelessness in living memory"

Guardian:

Around 30 million people in Assam have been forced to prove they are citizens by demonstrating that they have roots in the state dating to before March 1971. The list of those who have been deemed citizens will be released on Saturday.

...

The Hindu nationalist-led government of Narendra Modi, which supports the project in Assam, has pledged to roll the process out across the country. The home minister, Amit Shah, has previously promised to deport immigrants, describing them as “termites”.

The BJP-led Assam state also plans to build an additional 10 detention camps to house those declared to be migrants.

The new Terminator is Border Patrol

"the revival of an arcane immigration law has angered the expat community and got them questioning their freedoms in Thailand"

BBC:

Thailand's Immigration Act contains a clause requiring all foreigners to let the authorities know where they're staying at all times.

Previously this job has been done by hotels collecting guests' details, or it was just ignored. But as of March, the government has been applying the law without compromise or exception.

Landlords must notify immigration authorities whenever a foreigner returns home after spending more than 24 hours away from their permanent residence - be it a trip abroad or even leaving the province. The same applies to foreigners married to Thais - their Thai spouse, if they own the house, must file the report.

Related:

The king of Thailand announced this week that he was naming a 34-year-old woman (and military general) as his official consort — in addition to his wife

...

the whole display has raised many questions: Who is Sineenat? What is her role in the Thai monarchy? Is wearing a sports bra as a top acceptable attire in a military aircraft? And, most notably, what exactly is a consort, and why hasn’t there been one in Thailand for almost 100 years?

*Previously: "Meet . . . Miss Universe Thailand's Only Thai-Burmese Contestant"

"Why a Banking Heiress Spent Her Fortune on Keeping Immigrants Out"

NYT:

she was heralded as potentially “the richest baby in the world.”

...

Mrs. May’s story helps explain the ascendance of once-fringe views in the debate over immigration in America, including exaggerated claims of criminality, disease or dependency on public benefits among migrants.

...

Her twin passions, protecting natural habitats and helping women prevent unplanned pregnancies, merged over time into a single goal of preserving the environment by discouraging offspring altogether. “The unwanted child is not the problem,” she would later write, “but, rather, the wanted one that society, for diverse cultural reasons, demands.”

...

The sheer number of groups nurtured with Mrs. May’s money — dozens over four decades — played an important role in the success of the anti-immigration movement by giving it the appearance of broad-based support. Groups would send representatives to appear before Congress, talk to journalists and provide briefs in lawsuits, without disclosing their common origins and funding.

...

Mrs. May left almost everything to the Colcom Foundation. In 2005, $215 million from her family trust poured into the foundation’s coffers, along with another $30 million from her personal estate. As her affairs were wound up, another $176 million transferred from her estate in 2006.

In all, since Mrs. May’s death, the anti-immigration groups have received $180 million. The market value of Colcom’s assets is $500 million, more than she bequeathed it in the first place.

Yesterday:

Cuccinelli: That statue of liberty poem was about "people coming from Europe." pic.twitter.com/nrDcUGJsU3

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 13, 2019

Related:

Very sad historical point on the public charge law. From Jill Lepore’s “These Truths”: pic.twitter.com/YJdNDgWJEn

— Michelle Mills (@mlmills) August 14, 2019

"ICE Raids Miss. Plant After $3.75 Million Sexual Harassment Settlement"

Payday Report:

In 2018, following a nearly eight-year-long legal battle, Koch Foods Inc. settled a $3.75 million brought by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Koch Food Inc at the plant. The lawsuit alleged that Koch Foods Inc supervisors engaged in both racial and sexual harassment of Latina workers at its Morton, Mississippi plant.

The lawsuit brought by the EEOC against Koch Food Inc’s alleged “that supervisors touched and/or made sexually suggestive comments to female Hispanic employees, hit Hispanic employees and charged many of them money for normal everyday work activities.”

As part of its settlement, Koch Foods Inc. agreed to a three-year federal consent decree to change its discriminatory practices. As part of the consent decree, Koch Foods Inc. was forced to create a 24-hour-a-day bilingual hotline for workers to use to file complaints.

Many immigrants rights advocates have speculated that workers are targeted for raids after their facilities get investigated for worker abuse.

In June of 2018, ICE raided a unionized Fresh Mark meatpacking plant in Salem, Ohio; arresting 140 workers.

A week before the raid on a Fresh Mark’s Salem facility, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined Fresh Mark $211,194 for three separate incidents in which proper guards for dangerous machinery were not in place. OSHA found that the lack of safety guards resulted in the death of an undocumented worker.

From a August 1, 2018 AP article about the settlement:

The agreement was filed Tuesday in federal court, and a judge signed off on a three-year consent decree. Koch Foods has agreed to take specific actions to prevent future discrimination, including training and creating a hotline.

Koch Foods said in a statement that the allegations were fabricated in a bid to obtain work authorizations through a visa.

From the NYT's summary of yesterday's raids:

The operation was the culmination of a yearlong investigation

"Separated by travel ban, Iranian families reunite at border library"

Reuters:

like many Iranian students in the United States, has a single-entry visa and can’t leave the country without risking that she won’t be allowed back in. And her parents, as Iranian citizens, are blocked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban from visiting her in the United States.

She didn’t want to miss her destination: the Haskell Free Library and Opera House.

Estahbanati and her family had agreed to meet around 9 a.m. at the library, which through a historic anomaly straddles the U.S.-Canada border – and today has been thrust into an unlikely role as the site of emotional reunions between people separated by the administration’s immigration policies.

...

American and Canadian officials have threatened to shut the library over the visits, one library staff member said.

Geraldo on the asylum seekers at the border

It’s about time one of the Fox News mouth pieces became so rattled that they broke the narrative on air. Never would have guessed it would be Geraldo. pic.twitter.com/0yicl0sJmZ

— Timothy Michael Jennings (@TheTimJennings) November 27, 2018

"BeingMicronesian in Hawaii Means Lots Of Online Hate"

"stigmatized as freeloaders and troublemakers, similar to stereotypes against undocumented immigrants on the mainland"

"Democratic officials in North Jersey have long relied on a little noticed source of revenue to keep taxes under control and public workers employed: jailing immigrants"

WNYC:

The $120 daily fee for each detained immigrant translates into enough revenue to save county taxpayers more than $11 million, officials said. If the contract was scrapped, they said about 100 corrections officers at the jail would lose their jobs.

...

Trump's expanded approach to immigration enforcement is coinciding with another seismic change in local criminal justice operations in New Jersey: bail reform, including a law signed by former Gov. Chris Christie diverting low-level drug offenders away from jail and into treatment. Bail reform has resulted in a dramatic drop in inmates throughout the state. The pre-trial jail population plummeted 24 percent