Society's ChildS


Stop

FM Wang Li: 'Hong Kong is part of China and no one can mess it up' - as opposition gains in community election


RT
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 07:59 UTC
Polling Station HongKong
© Reuters/Athit PerawongmethaPolling station in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China November 24, 2019.
Beijing has said that the outcome of the municipal vote that saw opposition taking nearly 90% of the seats won't change Hong Kong status, while warning against any attempts to disrupt the situation.

Preliminary results of the election reported by local broadcaster RTHK suggest that about 390 seats out of 452 that were up for grabs in 18 district councils have been claimed by the anti-government candidates.

Asked to comment while the vote count was ongoing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that regardless of the outcome, Hong Kong will remain an unalienable part of the Chinese state.
"It's not the final result yet. Let's wait for the final result, OK? However, it is clear that no matter what happens, Hong Kong is a part of China and a special administrative region of China. Any attempt to mess up Hong Kong, or even damage its prosperity and stability, will not succeed."
Hong Kong administrator Carrie Lam, meanwhile, said that the semi-autonomous city's government would respect the results of the district poll.
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Megaphone

US to launch a news alternative for Chinese citizens since Beijing's news is biased


RT
Sun, 24 Nov 2019 23:03 UTC
VOA/RFA
© Voice of America/Radio Free Asia/KJN
The US-funded broadcasters Voice of America and Radio Free Asia are about to join forces to establish a new media structure, tasked with providing Chinese citizens with an 'alternative' to their own state media, a report claims.

Against the background of a seemingly never-ending US-China trade war, Washington has, apparently, decided to reach out to some ordinary Chinese people and to provide them with no less than a brand new "alternative" to their domestic state media, which, it says, only promote Beijing's "narratives, values and misinformation."

At least that's what a report in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) claims. The report suggests that Voice of America and Radio Free Asia plan to work together to create a totally new "digital brand" operating 24/7 in Mandarin on social media, on the internet and through various other broadcasting platforms.

The new network is reportedly expected to focus particularly on Chinese youth, both in China and beyond. The news comes as the US Agency for Global Media - a newly founded governmental entity tasked with coordinating the work of all of the US' state-funded media - proudly reported about the growing demand for that sort of content in China, saying that the number of people tuning in weekly to VOA and RFA rose by more than six percent in total in 2018.

Comment: See also:

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Fire

Tyranny of regulators: California restaurants sue Berkeley over ban on natural gas

Tsvetana Paraskova
Oilprice.com
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 18:50 UTC
gas stove burner
© Sputnik
The California Restaurant Association (CRA) sued on Thursday the City of Berkeley over a ban on the use of natural gas in newly built buildings, in order to protect Berkeley's businesses and consumers from having to pay higher energy bills.

In July, the city council in Berkeley, California, passed an ordinance requiring all new homes to be all-electric with no gas hook-ups beginning in January 2020. Berkeley's primary motivation for the gas hook-up ban was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the use of clean energy.

But according to the restaurant association in California, "the ban, which violates both state and federal law, will impact both residential and commercial construction, and will have uniquely negative impacts on restaurants."

The association argued in the lawsuit that not only is the city of Berkeley violating the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act and California's Energy Code and Building Standards Code, but it is also acting irresponsibly by banning an option for Californian consumers.

"It's impossible to overstate how irresponsible this is at a time when millions of Californians find themselves in the dark due to planned power outages. The citizens of California need reliable and affordable energy that allows them to choose what appliances they have in their homes and businesses," Jot Condie, President and CEO of the California Restaurant Association, said.

Comment: You can always trust technocrats and bureaucrats to make idiotic decisions, especially when they're basing their decisions on activism and not a rational analysis of the facts and the consequences of their policies.

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Car Black

Uber gets stripped of its license to operate in London

Ryan Browne
CNBC
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 18:40 UTC
Uber map
Uber was stripped of its license to operate in London on Monday by the city's transport regulator, which cited a "pattern of failures" that put passengers at risk.

The San Francisco-based company immediately said that it plans to appeal Transport for London's decision, labeling the move "extraordinary and wrong." Shares of Uber fell over 1% after the ruling.

Because of the appeal, nothing will change for passengers and drivers who the use the Uber app for the time being. But the ban represents a huge blow to the ride-sharing firm, which has worked to improve its reputation as a friend rather than foe to regulators under current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

TfL had previously suspended Uber's license in 2017, flagging concerns with the company's approach to safety. Following that initial decision, Uber was twice granted a temporary license to continue operating in the city — the first, a 15-month reprieve issued by a judge last year, and the second, a two-month permit granted by TfL in September.
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Book 2

Inmates in West Virginia will be charged by the minute to read e-books on tablet

C.J. Ciaramella
Reason
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 18:25 UTC
Inmates at Pennsylvania prison
© David Malaletti/TNS/Newscom
Inmates at several West Virginia prisons are getting free electronic tablets to read books, send emails, and communicate with their families — but there's a catch.

Any inmates looking to read Moby Dick may find that it will cost them far more than it would have if they'd simply gotten a mass market paperback, because the tablets charge readers by the minute.

Under a 2019 contract between the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR) and Global Tel Link (GTL), the company that is providing electronic multimedia tablets to 10 West Virginia prisons, inmates will be charged 3 cents a minute to read books, even though the books all come from Project Gutenberg, a free online library of more than 60,000 texts in the public domain.
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Star of David

Israel soldiers detain 13-year-old Palestinian, lead him around Hebron blindfolded, lob stun grenades into homes


Middle East Monitor
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 16:48 UTC
hebron Israel child blindfolded
© B'Tselem
Israeli occupation forces detained a 13-year-old Palestinian child, then led him around Hebron blindfolded, reported human rights NGO B'Tselem.

The incident occurred on the morning of 3 November, when soldiers seized 'Abd a-Razeq Idris, 13, from the Abu Jales neighbourhood of the occupied West Bank city.

As related by B'Tselem, the soldiers put the boy in a jeep, "blindfolded him and drove him around", then took him to another neighbourhood roughly 1km from his home, "where they took him out of the jeep and walked him, blindfolded, through the streets".

Comment: Watch the soldiers' faces. This is entertainment for them, while trying to advance Israel's goal of clearing Hebron of its Palestinian population:

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Family

Extreme Nanny State: Norway thinks it's proper to remove your child for not liking fish balls

Saad Hasan
TRT World
Sat, 02 Nov 2019 12:14 UTC
Norway protest
© TRTWorldNatalya and he husband have joined dozens of parents who want Barnevernet to return their kids.
The child welfare service in the prosperous Nordic country faces accusations of forcibly taking away children from perfectly capable parents.

Norway is tearing families apart. Just ask Natalya Shutakova, and she'll tell you all about it.

Her son turned ten this October. But she wasn't able to hug him or give him a present. That's because all three of her children, aged between seven and eleven years old, have been placed into foster homes and forbidden all contact with their parents.

Natalya and her husband Zignitas Aleksandravicius lost custody of their children this month in a case that has mobilised dozens of angry and aggrieved families against Norway's child protection agency - Barnevernet.

"Never in my worst nightmare have I thought something like this can happen to me," says Natalya, who along with her family moved to Oslo last year from the United States. She and her children are US citizens.

Comment: Expect future stories of rampant child sexual abuse and mysterious deaths at Norway's child care homes. See also: Norwegian child protection agency under investigation for removing children from parents without good reason

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Syringe

WHO now says your child's presence in school counts as 'informed consent' for vaccination - parental presence 'not required'

Pam Vernon
EnvirowatchRangitikei
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 17:25 UTC
world health organization logo
The WHO has labeled it 'implied consent'

The World Health Organization, which is the medical epicenter of the depopulation lobby, now considers your child's presence in school informed consent to vaccinate that child. Depopulation by vaccination us now fully outside the law and will sterilize, sicken and dumb down every child on earth but the children of the depop lobby members who don't vaccinate their children.
vaccination implied consent
© WHO
Read the full story in WHO's official document (PDF)

Via Kevin Galalae at Facebook

Comment: You can be sure the school systems will be lax in informing parents of scheduled vaccination days.

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Dollars

ATMs spitting back bank cards in Lebanon as 'dollars have virtually disappeared'

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 16:15 UTC
Vandalized ATMs in Lebanon
© Middle East OnlineVandalized ATM machine in Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli this week.
Though banks reopened this week in Lebanon, with the country's financial institutions remaining front and center in massive anti-government protests amid accusations of corruption and wild mismanagement, withdrawal limits have now been made official by the country's Banks Association — previously unofficially enforced.

The formal controls now include limiting withdrawals to $1,000 per week, with transfers abroad only ambiguously defined necessary for "urgent matters".

Yet the collective panic, driven by fears patrons won't be able to retrieve their deposits from banks, has only compounded, as now The Washington Post reports "Dollars have virtually disappeared."

"Over recent weeks, ATMs in Lebanon have been spitting back bank cards, refusing to provide dollars to those who ask for them, though people here have long used the American currency alongside the Lebanese pound," the WaPo reported.
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Bizarro Earth

Kurdish terrorists? 3 killed, dozens wounded in car bomb blast in Syrian town along Turkish border


RT
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 08:31 UTC

Comment: If - as the Turks have been saying all along - it turns out the Kurds are behind the uptick in terrorist atrocities against civilians along the Syrian-Turkish border, what does that say for all the Western bleeding-heart liberals gushing about defending the 'cuddly Kurds' from those evil dictators Putin, Erdogan, Trump and Assad??


bomg syria
© Twitter / Turkish Defence Ministry / tcsavunma
A car rigged with explosive detonated in the Syrian town of Tell Abyad near the Turkish border, killing three and injuring 26, Ankara said.

Photos and videos on social media allegedly show the aftermath of the blast on Saturday.

A vehicle is seen engulfed in flames and covered in smoke, as locals rush to clear the rubble from the damaged building nearby.

The Turkish Defense Ministry said that three people were killed and more than 20 wounded. Local media, meanwhile, had reported earlier that there'd been at least 14 fatalities.

Comment: See also: Foreign national killed in Kabul bombing that targeted UN vehicle

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