BANGKOK, Thailand -- Israel has taught the Philippine Army for the
first time how to fight Muslim separatists and communist guerrillas,
the latest tightening of relations between the two nations which
includes Israeli weapons sales and sharing intelligence about
international Islamist extremists.

Even though Israeli boots were on the ground just in the capital
Manila, it risked alienating some of the Philippines' nearly six
percent Muslim population who live mostly in the south.

They are already battered by years of increasing Islamist demands for
independence and the subsequent worsening violence in a country that
is more than 80 percent Roman Catholic.

Perhaps to dampen any controversy, only about 10 Israeli Defense Force
(IDF) soldiers trained 180 Philippine Army troops who can now then
teach those lessons to other soldiers.

The June 26-July 4 Counter-Terrorism Trainer's Training (CTTT) focused
on how to fight an insurgency in urban and rural zones and use combat
technology.

On Independence Day this month, many people celebrated with fireworks and barbeques while forgetting the United States’ history of settler colonialism, slavery, genocide, imperialist wars and internment camps. Meanwhile, migrant children are still be in detention centers and are deprived of basic human essentials such as soap, toothbrushes and blankets.

Public outrage is growing over the civil rights violations and dehumanization of children. The Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps formed to call for mass mobilizations of concerned people, activists, organizations, and social justice groups to demand the closure of the camps.

Spider-Man movies generally pit the reluctant superhero against two powerful foes: (1) a monster bent on mass destruction and (2) teenage angst. The monster is always vanquished in the end, while the angst survives to be dealt with all over again the next time around.

That’s fortunate, because Peter Parker’s struggles with his youthful insecurity are usually more entertaining than his alter ego’s struggles with the monster du jour.

This is truer than ever in Spider-Man: Far From Home, mostly because the comic-book hero resides in the ever-expanding Marvel Universe. Marvel’s battles tend to be so big and frantic—and so computerized—that they lose the ability to thrill us.

Thank heavens that Peter (engagingly played by Tom Holland) is as humble and angsty as ever. When Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) orders him to help fight a new class of baddies called the Elementals, Peter declines because he’s more interested in finding the right moment to declare his love for longtime crush MJ (Zendaya). And when he learns that the now-deceased Iron Man has bequeathed him a powerful technological weapon, he insists that he’s unworthy.

Social media has had a huge impact, both negative and positive, on the day-to-day lives of most people who use sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Around the world, there are almost 3.5 billion people who use social media — a good portion of whom use these sites every single day. With so many people plugged into social networking, the users and content that is shared on these pages have the potential to reach hundreds of people that any one individual knows. For victims of domestic violence, social media can be a dangerous place where their abusers can both stalk and publicly humiliate their former partners in an effective and far-reaching way.

Monday, July 8, 2019, 7:00 PM