Society's ChildS


Oil Well

Indian Oil Corporation buys Russian crude at deep discount

PTI
The Indian Express
Thu, 17 Mar 2022 11:37 UTC
gas sign
© File PhotoIndian Oil Corporation
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's top oil firm, has bought as much as 3 million barrels of crude oil that Russia had offered at steep discount to prevailing international rates, sources said.

The purchase, made through a trader, is the first since Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine that brought international pressure for isolating Putin administration.

Sources aware of the matter said IOC bought Urals crude for May delivery at a discount of USD 20-25 a barrel to dated Brent.

As the US and other western nations slapped sanctions on Moscow, Russia has begun offering oil and other commodities at discounted prices to India and other large importers.

IOC made the purchase on modified terms that require the seller to deliver it to the Indian coast so as to avoid any complications that sanctions may lead to in arranging shipping and insurance.

Unlike the sanctions the US imposed on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, oil and energy trade with Russia has not been banned. This means international payment systems are available to settle any purchase made from Russia, they said.
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Network

Lawsuit accuses NYPD of secretly building 'rogue' DNA database

Monique Beals
The Hill
Tue, 22 Mar 2022 04:22 UTC
DNA Jail
© New York Post
A lawsuit filed Monday accuses the New York Police Department (NYPD) of collecting genetic materials from thousands of citizens in a secret attempt to create a "rogue" DNA database.

Legal Aid Society, in a post on social media announcing the federal lawsuit, said:
"For decades, the NYPD has used dishonest tactics to obtain New Yorkers' DNA, including those as young as 11-years-old, by offering bottles of water or cigarettes to our clients detained at local precincts."
The organization accused the NYPD:
"of keeping citizens' DNA permanently stored in a rogue local database," saying it "continuously compares past and future crime scene DNA evidence against this database, which has led to wrongful arrests and prosecutions."
The NYPD has previously said it would review its DNA database after discreetly collecting thousands of the samples, according to CBS News. But the Legal Aid Society said in its post that the database "only continues to grow."

Comment: Is it a crime deterrent, invasion of privacy or gross overreach?
This increase in police authority was part of a broader and ongoing trend in the U.S., where DNA databases have expanded to include incrementally less severe crimes at different rates across state jurisdictions. Studies show larger databases do not correlate to a more efficient crime fighting tool, and can even lead to increased margins of error.

In 2013, President Obama signed into law a bill to provide federal funding for states to implement DNA collection programs for people arrested for serious crimes.

Beyond the question of effectiveness, as forensic DNA databases have expanded across the U.S., there has been an ongoing legal debate about whether such surveillance techniques violate a constitutional right to privacy.

Taking DNA samples was "like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment." However, Antonin Scalia, argued that using DNA in "cold hit" searches was an unconstitutional invasion of privacy that eroded the presumption of innocence.

Local governments, like NYC, maintain unregulated DNA indexes that include people who have never been convicted, and might not have even been arrested, for a crime."


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Pistol

New York a city under siege, as staggering crime wave roils politics, challenges Left


Judicial Watch
Wed, 23 Mar 2022 18:36 UTC
Frank Abrokwa new york city assault
© Jesse Ward/Daily MailFrank Abrokwa, 37, whose record includes more than 44 arrests, was arraigned on charges stemming from the feces attack on March 1 (pictured), but a judge released him
The NYPD's new anti-gun units hit the streets last week and not a moment too soon. New York City is in the midst of a staggering crime wave. Over the past weekend, 29 people were shot in 24 separate incidents, the Daily News reported. According to the latest NYPD statistics, major felonies in the city increased 58% in February 2022, in year over year comparisons to February 2021. Murders rose 10%. Felony assaults rose 22%. Rapes increased 35%. Robberies increased 56%. Hate crimes — largely against Jews and Asian-Americans — surged 189%. Crimes in the transit systems — mainly the subways — were up 73%.

New York is a city under siege. Every day brings a new horror story. A child is assaulted in Times Square. A young woman is stabbed to death in her Chinatown apartment. A senior citizen is hacked to death by a wheelchair-bound transgender two-time convicted murderer. A madman smears feces on a woman's face in a subway station, is released on bail, and arrested again after hurling a dumbbell through a window. A woman is shoved in front of a subway train and killed. Another woman is attacked with a hammer. A teen is shot to death in front of a Brooklyn high school. A baby is shot in the face in the Bronx. A teenage cashier at a Burger King in Manhattan is shot and killed during a robbery. Two police officers are killed by gunfire in Harlem.

Comment:

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Airplane

CEOs of major US airlines urge Biden to drop masks on planes

Emily Crane
NY Post
Thu, 24 Mar 2022 18:37 UTC
masks on plane
© Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The CEOs of major US airlines are urging President Biden to drop his "outdated" federal mask requirements for planes and airports.

The chief executives of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and several other passenger and cargo carriers made the request in an open letter on Wednesday.

They have called on Biden to let his federal mask mandate expire next month and get rid of COVID-19 testing requirements for incoming international travelers.

"Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions," the letter read.
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Oil Well

Jittery market: Austrian energy giant OMV limits diesel spot sales until further notice

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Thu, 24 Mar 2022 18:25 UTC
oil prices wars kuwait ukraine
Earlier this week, we quoted the heads of some of the world's biggest independent energy trades, who spoke at the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland and unveiled a dire forecast for the diesel market: "The thing that everybody's concerned about will be diesel supplies. Europe imports about half of its diesel from Russia and about half of its diesel from the Middle East," said Russell Hardy, chief of Switzerland-based oil trader Vitol. "That systemic shortfall of diesel is there."

As a reminder, Russian supplies account for about 15% of Europe's diesel consumption, according to the FT which carried their comments.

Hardy said the shift to more diesel consumption over gasoline in Europe had helped to create shortages of the fuel. He added that refineries could boost their diesel output in response to higher prices at the expense of other oil-derived products to shore up supply, but warned that rationing was a possibility.
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Burka

Taliban leaves shocked students in tears by unexpectedly extending ban on girls in school

Ahmad Mukhtar
CBS News
Wed, 23 Mar 2022 18:11 UTC
girls afghanistan school closed
The Taliban government in Afghanistan announced the closure of girls’ secondary schools, hours after they reopened for the first time in nearly seven month
The Taliban's de-facto government in Afghanistan announced Wednesday that schools would remain closed to high school-aged girls across the country until a plan is drawn up that will allow for their education to resume in accordance with Islamic Sharia law and Afghan culture. The news came as a surprise after an earlier indication from the country's education ministry that all Afghan children would be able to return to classrooms, and it left many students in tears.

Aziz Ahmad Rayan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, said Wednesday at a news conference that the directive had come down from Taliban leadership that "all girl's school and high school above grade 6 should be informed to suspend their lessons until further notice and a plan is drawn in accordance with Afghan culture and Islamic law."

The decision to keep older girls out of school was made in the southern province of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, in a high-level leadership meeting in the presence of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, according to a Taliban minister who attended the discussion.

Comment: Perhaps this move is a bargaining chip in the tussle over Afghanistan's assets that were stolen frozen by the U.S.?

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NPC

Home Depot's 'privilege' memo leaked online


RT
Thu, 24 Mar 2022 16:20 UTC
home depot
© Artur Widak / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Home Depot in Canada has come under fire after a Twitter user leaked what appears to be an in-house worksheet educating workers on the concept of privilege as it pertains to race, religion, sexuality, and social status.

The document titled 'Unpacking privilege' attempts to define the different types of privilege and how it manifests in everyday life and encourages Home Depot workers to confront their own privilege and discuss it with "uninformed" family members, colleagues, and friends, even if it's "not an easy conversation" and the other person is being "defensive."

Some of the definitions presented in the worksheet include: Social Privilege - "special, unearned advantage or entitlement, used to one's own benefit or to the detriment of others" and White Privilege - "societal privileges that benefit white people beyond what is commonly experienced by people of color under the same social, political, and economic circumstances."
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Light Sabers

Israeli lawmakers tear into Zelensky for Holocaust comparisons in Knesset speech


The Times Of Israel
Sun, 20 Mar 2022 17:59 UTC
Zelensky
© Screen capture: YouTubeUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, to Knesset lawmakers on March 20, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's speech to the Knesset on Sunday evening was received with mixed responses from Israeli lawmakers, with some calling it "outrageous" and others supporting the "distressed" president.

Several MKs harshly criticized Zelensky for drawing comparisons between the Holocaust and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and seemingly ignoring some Ukrainians' complicity in the Nazi-led genocide.

"I admire the Ukraine president and support the Ukrainian people in heart and deed, but the terrible history of the Holocaust cannot be rewritten," Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel tweeted.

Hendel noted that part of Nazi Germany's genocide of Jews "was also carried out on Ukrainian land." He added that while "the war is terrible, the comparison to the horrors of the Holocaust and the Final Solution is outrageous."

Hebrew media outlets quote unnamed senior ministers railing at Zelensky's "outrageous comparison."

"Zelensky also distorted the part his country played in the murder of Jews," they said, according to the Ynet news site.
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Footprints

Head of National Institutes of Health caught off-guard by first questions on email urging 'takedown' of the Great Barrington Declaration

Zachary Stieber
The Epoch Times
Thu, 24 Mar 2022 17:47 UTC
Dr. Francis Collins
© Michael Reynolds/Pool/Getty ImagesDr. Francis Collins speaks in Washington on Sept. 9, 2020.
Dr. Francis Collins, a top U.S. health official, was caught off-guard when he was asked for the first time about a report issued by members of Congress that revealed new information, including the email Collins sent urging a "takedown" of the Great Barrington Declaration, according to an email obtained by The Epoch Times.

Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) until Dec. 19, 2021, called for a "quick and devastating published takedown" of the declaration, which called for a more balanced approach to combating the COVID-19 pandemic, in an email in October 2020.

The email, sent just days after the document was authored by three epidemiologists, was made public by a congressional panel near the end of 2021.
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Arrow Down

Army drops 'leg tuck' from fitness test after women struggled with it


Breitbart
Thu, 24 Mar 2022 17:44 UTC
army leg tuck exercise
© U.S. ArmyRecruits demonstrate leg tucks which develop core stability
The Army announced Wednesday it was scrapping the "leg tuck" from its Army Combat Fitness Test for good, and replacing it with a plank, after data showed women were failing at even doing one.

"The Army's decision to remove the leg tuck comes after a study from RAND concluded that the exercise did not correctly measure core strength in all Soldiers, as it relied on Soldiers' upper body strength as well. Instead, the plank exercise provides all Soldiers a similar testing experience and allows the Army to accurately assess all Soldiers' core strength," an Army press release explained.

The leg tuck was one of a six-event test, aimed at testing a soldier's core strength. It required soldiers to hang from a bar and raise their knees to their elbows. The minimum to pass was one leg tuck.

Comment: There may be some validity to amending the test to take sex-based anatomical differences (gasp!) into account, but it still comes off as sketchy, and pandering to the woke wing of military brass.

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