#irap

[primepaginequotidiani]

PRIMA PAGINA Nuova Ferrara di Oggi sabato, 15 febbraio 2025

[alittlefurtheroutoftheway]

Bursa'da Endüstriyel Kazalar için İRAP Toplantısı Yapıldı

Bursa’da Endüstriyel Kazalar için İRAP Toplantısı Gerçekleştirildi Bursa Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası’nın toplantı salonunda, “İl Afet Risk Azaltma Planı (İRAP) Endüstriyel Kazalar” konulu önemli bir toplantı yapıldı. Bu toplantıya, çeşitli kamu ve özel sektör kuruluşlarının temsilcileri katılarak, Bursa’nın sanayi kapasitesi ve endüstriyel kazalara karşı alınması gereken önlemler üzerine fikir…

[xtruss]

US Entry Becomes A Travel Minefield As Canada, Ireland, Denmark, And Germany Report Cases Of Tourist Detained Despite Valid Visas: New Report You Need to Know

— Tuesday, April 8, 2025 | USA Today

US Travel Becomes Riskier For Visa and Green Card Holders as Canada, Ireland, Denmark, and Germany Issue Warnings Amid Rising Border Scrutiny.

In recent months, many green card holders, visa applicants, and international travelers have found that entering or returning to the United States has become significantly more complex and uncertain. Tougher border inspections and increased enforcement at airports and land entry points are contributing to rising anxiety—part of broader immigration enforcement trends that began under the Trump administration and appear to be continuing.

As the spring and summer travel seasons near, travelers are growing wary. Stories of lawful permanent residents and foreign nationals being questioned, delayed, or even detained have raised red flags for those hoping to vacation, study, or reunite with family in the US. Universities such as Brown have proactively advised international students and staff to avoid unnecessary travel, citing a need for “Caution in the Current Climate.”

Adding to concerns, governments including those of Canada, Ireland, Denmark, and Germany have issued updated advisories, warning their citizens to be meticulous about US entry requirements to avoid complications or detention.

Legal Experts Warn Travelers to Know Their Rights

Immigration lawyers across the country are now urging foreign nationals to understand their legal standing before flying into the US. Stephanie Gee, a Senior Immigration Law Expert at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), explains that three primary groups arrive at US ports of entry: American citizens, green card holders (permanent residents), and visa holders.

US Citizens, By Law, Cannot Be Denied Entry. Green card holders have more protections than visa holders but are still vulnerable to increased scrutiny, especially if there are any red flags in their record. Importantly, both US citizens and green card holders may legally decline to answer questions from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents or hand over digital devices for inspection—though doing so can result in delays.

Understanding Your Risk Based on Immigration Status

The level of scrutiny travelers face varies based on numerous factors, including nationality, visa type, and prior criminal or immigration history. According to a recent report, immigration attorney Stephen Yale-Loehr pointed to a draft list of 43 nations whose citizens might soon face travel restrictions. While the list hasn’t been publicly finalized, it reportedly includes countries such as Iran, Libya, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Cuba.

Travelers from countries potentially facing future travel bans are being strongly advised to reassess their plans—even if they possess valid documents. Visa holders from these regions are particularly at risk of being denied entry or placed in secondary inspection, which can sometimes lead to hours or even days of detainment.

There have been increasing reports of visa holders being forced to return on the next outbound flight, while others have faced prolonged questioning or temporary detention. Green card holders are also not exempt. Extended trips abroad, especially when paired with any prior criminal convictions, can result in difficult re-entry experiences. One such case involved Fabian Schmidt, a German National with a US Green Card, who was detained at Boston Logan International Airport over a years-old minor drug offense.

Electronic Devices May Be Searched

Another challenge many travelers now face is the possibility of being asked to unlock smartphones, laptops, or cameras during inspection. While US citizens and permanent residents are not legally obligated to provide passwords, visa holders who refuse may be denied entry. Even for those not required to comply, refusing access to electronics can lead to extended delays or further questioning.

CBP agents may review devices for material that they believe indicates criminal or security concerns, including past legal troubles, affiliations with extremist groups, or evidence of visa fraud.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recommends travelers take proactive steps: request the names and badge numbers of CBP agents if asked to unlock devices, and always get a receipt if any items are confiscated. These steps help ensure accountability in cases of wrongful searches or seizures.

Steps to Take If Entry Is Denied or Delayed

Though not common, detainments and extended questioning do occur. If you or someone you know is subject to secondary screening or held for any reason, immigration attorneys stress the importance of staying calm and being prepared. Having contact information for a trusted friend or an immigration lawyer can make a critical difference.

Travelers who are not fluent in English have the right to request an interpreter. Stephanie Gee emphasizes that this request should be documented formally to ensure it’s honored and to protect the traveler’s rights in case of future legal issues.

Prepare Before You Travel

As summer approaches and more people plan trips, green card holders and visa holders should carefully consider the potential risks of traveling internationally. While US Citizens are Guaranteed Re-entry, permanent residents and Visa-Holding Visitors Face a Different Reality—especially those with legal issues or originating from countries flagged by US authorities.

Before booking a ticket, it’s advisable to consult an Immigration Professional who can assess your personal circumstances. Knowing your rights and preparing for the worst-case scenario may help avoid unnecessary stress or even denial of entry.

In this new era of heightened scrutiny, staying informed and vigilant can make all the difference.

[gconsulting01]

[godblessthesickos]

In case anyone wants to donate, the orgs bringing this suit forward appear to be The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, and ACLU of the District of Columbia.

When the Trump administration announced a hazy plan in January to begin sending some 30,000 people pegged for deportation to Guantánamo Bay, the first thought that came to my mind was a closet-sized press room at the Pentagon where I once sat nearly 10 years ago, straining to hear the distant voice of a prisoner begging for his release through crackling phone lines. 

The prisoner, who had a long history of mental illness, was Mohammad al-Qahtani, one of the first people the Bush administration detained at the prison in Cuba and someone the government said narrowly missed being the 20th hijacker on Sept. 11. He was also the only person the government ever formally acknowledged was tortured at Gitmo. He was released in 2022 and sent back to his home country of Saudi Arabia for mental health treatment.  

Even with Pentagon officials having set up access for a literal handful of reporters to hear him clearly, we could not. We were told it was a common occurrence and this is just how it is when you’re trying to access Gitmo from afar. We were lucky, I heard, that the connection worked at all and we should be grateful for good weather that kept lines open, shoddy as they were.

So, when a lawsuit seeking to stop a forced deportation to Guantánamo by a group of 10 migrants came across my desk this week — none of whom appear to be terrorists but have been flagged by the Trump administration as “the worst of the worst” for alleged criminal gang behavior — I thought back to al-Qahtani. 

Were these people like him, either in their alleged crimes or their circumstances? Would their experiences mirror his? Would they be tortured? Would they lack consistent, reliable access to lawyers? Would they too be consigned to pleading for their freedom with few to no witnesses to report out what is happening to them? 

Many of those detained are now being held in facilities in Texas, Arizona and Virginia, having come to the U.S. seeking asylum with their families. They don’t contest being removed, but their lawsuit challenges where they are potentially being removed to. Their lawyers say longstanding immigration laws mean no immigrant detained by the government can be shipped off to Guantánamo.  

Gitmo has a long history of alleged abuse of inmates, including both physical and mental torture. And as I read the lawsuit filed this week, it was the words “punishment chair” that leapt off the page. 

Immigrants already sent to Gitmo by the Trump administration have told their lawyers that guards are allegedly withholding water as punishment, the suit notes. They allege that when they speak up about the poor conditions or treatment, some people have been tied to a chair, as punishment, for hours. One man claimed a guard broke his hand. Others, like al-Qahtani years ago, became suicidal or tried to self-harm, the lawsuit notes.

With so many lawsuits involving the administration flooding the zone, a herculean effort to keep a handle on what the government is doing and to whom is required. But for the migrants staring down the possibility of detention at Guantánamo Bay — and not just these 10 individuals, but the tens of thousands that the Trump administration has said it intends to send there — time is of the essence.

There are only literal days left until these 10 individuals are shipped off to Gitmo barring court intervention. It’s a world where they, and whatever happens to them, are mostly, if not entirely, hidden from the public’s view.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Knefel at MMFA:

The Heritage Foundation — lead organizer of Project 2025, a sprawling effort to provide policy and staffing for a second Trump administration — recently promoted an apprenticeship program that opens up workers to increased exploitation. Heritage also criticized President Joe Biden for ensuring that most federal infrastructure contracting projects are covered by collective bargaining agreements.

In an article headlined, “Harris, Walz Policy Records Undermine Pro-Worker Rhetoric,” Heritage argues for a return to Trump-era apprenticeship policies that left new workers vulnerable by creating a two-tier workforce, and it disparages unions as detrimental to the working class. The result is standard-fare for the conservative think tank, which regularly attacks unions and promotes anti-worker policies like so-called right-to-work laws, which starve unions of funds by denying them the ability to collect fees from all the workers they represent.  As head of Project 2025, Heritage has waged an all-out campaign against unions and the entire working class. The effort’s policybook — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise — calls for the dismantling of New Deal-era wins for organized labor by carving out state-level exceptions to the National Labor Relations Act. It would also eviscerate overtime regulations and open the door to increased child labor exploitation.

The new article furthers Heritage’s broadside against organized labor, even while masquerading as being pro-worker. Heritage criticizes what it characterizes as “the Biden-Harris Administration’s multi-front assault against apprenticeship programs,” specifically the administration’s cancellation of “new Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs,” or IRAPS, “that were training people in high-demand areas like nursing and technology, which now face significant workforce shortages.” In fact, IRAPs were a Trump-era policy that created a new class of apprenticeship programs that were controlled and overseen by employers — rather than the Department of Labor — and loosened standards meant to protect workers. As the progressive think tank The Roosevelt Institute wrote in response to the Trump-era rule, IRAPs are “likely to lead to a proliferation of programs that are lower-quality,” and could allow employers to exploit “loopholes in minimum wage laws.”

[...] This new salvo from Heritage is just the latest example of right-wing media pretending to endorse a pro-worker agenda, only to advance policies that benefit employers at the expense of labor.

The Heritage Foundation= enemies of workers’ rights.

[enjoy-my-swearing]

!!OPENING EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS!!!

aka help me fund vet bills

In short, I am facing some unexpected expenses which significantly stretch my budget at the moment. My dog, Akira, decided that she's gonna fuck up her spine by moving too fast and now needs quite an expensive treatment to help her deal with the pain.

We've already done three ortho visits and a CT scan, she's gotten a nerve block, which helps immensely but this is not the end of her journey. Since she can't undergo a surgery due to her ripe age of 14, we're looking into IRAP II therapy that consists of three epidural injections performed in a series of treatments. And that's expensive.

If you'd like to help me get her the best care, please consider getting a commission from me! I offer you the following:

Full color chibi or portrait of one character for 20$

Full color half-body of one character for 30$

Simple/no background. I can do any fanart or original characters. Preferably humanoids!!! Payments through Paypal.

If you're interested, please contact me via DM. If you can't afford it, sharing is caring 💜

[the-fckn-stars]

A star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud

In the galaxy NGC 1365 a supernova (the bright dot slightly above the galactic center) rapidly brightens, then fades more slowly.

.

We are truly children of the stars.

European Space Agency (ESA/Hubble) // Wikipedia // Zoe Skylar // Mitski - My Body's Made Of Crush Little Stars // Allora & Calzadilla: ‘Back Fire’ (2004) // Winter from aespa (Kim Minjeong) // aespa - Supernova // ESO/IRAP-CNRS-UPS/A.Klotz // Taylor Byas, from I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times: Poems; “To the city I wish to get to know” // Andrea Gibson, ‘The Madness Vase’ // Brian Cox

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

February 12, 2025, Washington, D.C. — Immigrants’ rights advocates sued the Trump administration today for access to immigrants transferred from the United States to detention at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba under President Trump’s recent order.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), and ACLU of the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit on behalf of several plaintiffs, including the sister of one of the men being detained at Guantánamo, as well as four legal service providers — Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), American Gateways, and Americans for Immigrant Justice — seeking to meet with the people being detained in order to provide them with legal assistance. The Trump administration has provided virtually no information about immigrants newly detained at Guantánamo, including how long they will be held there, under what authority and conditions, subject to what legal processes, or whether they will have any means of communicating with their families and attorneys.

[primepaginequotidiani]

PRIMA PAGINA Gazzetta Di Modena di Oggi sabato, 15 febbraio 2025

[gureumz]

thoughts about both lasallian fil-chi reader and conyo party boy jake na long time acad rivals pero mamaw bumayo

you're both acad achievers, you because you want to please your family and land a good, high-paying job after grad, and jake mostly for the bragging rights and because he has to maintain his athlete scholarship 🤭

you're blockmates and you often fight for the top spot during every end of sem and it's always an alternating battle between you two.

"congrats on getting the top spot this sem, _____," jake greets one time after class as you're walking out of the room

"next sem ako naman, as always," jake adds with a smirk.

"not this time, sim," you say, sabay irap.

"sungit," jake complains with a pout. "di ka ba inaano nang maayos niyang jay mo?"

"excuse me?!" you ask in disbelief, turning to look at jake. "first of all, that's no way to talk to anyone. second, i know what you're implying, jake. walang anything samin ni jay. he's a good friend and a good person, unlike you. bastos, amputa."

"my bad, _____," jake admits, throwing his hands up. "let me make it up to you na lang."

"not interested," you reply, turning away.

"please? para di mo na ko sinisigawan," jake insists.

"gusto mo naman ata yung sinisigawan ka," you challenge, turning your attention back to jake.

"oo, basta ikaw," jake affirms with a wink.

"don't deny na gusto mo rin pag inaasar kita," jake continues, stepping closer. "pag tinatawag kong 'dumb' mga ideas mo or pag ako pa nagtuturo ng formulas sayo."

you feel your insides coil. kasi totoo nga.

"make it worth it, sim," you say.

and he did.

face down on jake's bed, hair messy, and drool coming out the corner of your mouth, all thoughts of outdoing jake is thrown out the window.

"worth it yet?" jake asks with a chuckle. before you can answer, he thrusts up harshly into you, pressing deep inside you.

"f-fuck, jake!" you cry out, clawing at his sheets

"that's my name, baby," jake drawls in your ear. he kisses your temple tenderly. "ulitin mo nga, sarap sa tenga, eh."

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Shocking spherules on Mars

Last week, the Perseverance Science Team were astonished by a strange rock comprised of hundreds of millimeter-sized spheres… and the team are now working hard to understand their origin.

It has now been two weeks since Perseverance arrived at Broom Point, situated at the lower slopes of the Witch Hazel Hill area, on the Jezero crater rim. Here, a series of light- and dark-toned bands were visible from orbit, and just last week the rover successfully abraded and sampled one of the light-toned beds. It was from this sampling workspace where Perseverance spied a very strange texture in a nearby rock.

The rock, named "St. Pauls Bay" by the team, appeared to be comprised of hundreds of millimeter-sized, dark gray spheres. Some of these occurred as more elongate, elliptical shapes, while others possessed angular edges, perhaps representing broken spherule fragments. Some spheres even possessed tiny pinholes! What quirk of geology could produce these strange shapes?

This isn't the first time strange spheres have been spotted on Mars. In 2004, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity spotted so-called, "Martian Blueberries" at Meridiani Planum, and since then, the Curiosity rover has observed spherules in the rocks of Yellowknife Bay at Gale crater. Just a few months ago, Perseverance itself also spied popcorn-like textures in sedimentary rocks exposed in the Jezero crater inlet channel, Neretva Vallis.

In each of these cases, the spherules were interpreted as concretions, features that were formed by interaction with groundwater circulating through pore spaces in the rock. Not all spherules form this way, however. They also form on Earth by rapid cooling of molten rock droplets formed in a volcanic eruption, for instance, or by the condensation of rock vaporized by a meteorite impact.

Each of these formation mechanisms would have vastly different implications for the evolution of these rocks, so the team is working hard to determine their context and origin. St. Pauls Bay, however, was float rock—a term used by geologists to describe something that is not in-place.

The team are now working to link the spherule-rich texture observed at St. Pauls Bay to the wider stratigraphy at Witch Hazel Hill, and initial observations have provided tantalizing indications that it could be linked to one of the dark-toned layers identified by the team from orbit. Placing these features in geologic context will be critical for understanding their origin, and determining their significance for the geological history of the Jezero crater rim and beyond!

TOP IMAGE: This image from NASA's Mars Perseverance rover, a fusion-processed SuperCam Remote Micro Imager (RMI) mosaic, shows part of the "St. Pauls Bay" target, acquired from the lower Witch Hazel Hill area of the Jezero crater rim. The image reveals hundreds of strange, spherical-shaped objects comprising the rock. Perseverance acquired this image on March 11, 2025, or sol 1442—Martian day 1,442 of the Mars 2020 mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP

LOWER IMAGE: NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the "St. Pauls Bay" target (the dark-toned float block in the right of the view) using its Left Mastcam-Z camera, one of a pair of cameras located high on the rover's remote-sensing mast. Perseverance acquired this image on March 13, 2025—sol 1444, or Martian day 1,444 of the Mars 2020 mission—at the local mean solar time of 11:57:49. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

[peakbeneathclassifieds]

If you are looking for work and want to help refugees in these trying times, now would be an excellent time to join IRAP, the International Refugee Assistance Project. They have open positions for operation director, case worker, translator, senior accounting manager, and intake volunteers!

[gconsulting01]

IRAP funding requirements | G6 Consulting

IRAP, or the Industrial Research Assistance Program, is a Canadian initiative supporting small and medium-sized businesses in innovation. It provides funding and advisory services for R&D projects, helping companies develop new technologies, improve processes, and grow. Learn how IRAP can fuel your business’s innovation journey and success.

[mariacallous]

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he plans to sign an executive order instructing the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to prepare an existing migrant detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to house tens of thousands of migrants.

“We have 30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” Trump said at the White House. “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo.”

Guantánamo Bay, the site of a U.S. naval base, is perhaps best known as the location of the infamous detention camp where the United States has held foreign terrorist suspects for more than two decades. Rights groups have called for the facility’s closure for years due to its association with indefinite detention and torture. The prison camp has housed nearly 800 men—many of whom were never charged with a crime—since its inception in 2002. Over the course of the Biden administration, the population dropped from 40 to 15, but U.S. President Joe Biden failed to fulfill his stated pledge to shut the prison down.

In addition to the prison, Guantánamo is also home to a separate, lesser-known facility that the United States, under both Republican and Democratic administrations—including the Biden administration—has used since the mid-1990s to detain migrants intercepted at sea as they attempted to reach the United States. Advocacy groups have called for the U.S. government to stop the practice and shutter the facility, which is known as the Migrant Operations Center.

Last October, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and other organizations implored Biden “to stop detaining asylum seekers at Guantánamo Bay and to allow people interdicted at sea to seek protection in the United States.” IRAP accused the U.S. government of denying detainees access to attorneys and depriving children held in the facility of “appropriate access to education, medical care, and mental health support.”

Given this history, Trump’s move to potentially detain tens of thousands of migrants at Guantánamo is already being criticized by human rights organizations. “Another terrible idea, just when we were getting closer to closing the unlawful prison that’s there already,” Daphne Eviatar, the director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA, posted on X on Wednesday in response to the news.

“Indefinite detention without due process at Guantanamo has been a powerful recruiting tool for US enemies; it has not made anyone safer,” Eviatar added.

Meanwhile, Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as the White House communications director during Trump’s first administration, in an X post likened Wednesday’s announcement to opening a “concentration camp.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.