Society's ChildS


Bullseye

Roger Waters: Detention of lawyer taking on big oil 'a dark day for American jurisprudence'


RT
Wed, 27 Nov 2019 18:38 UTC
chevron
© Reuters / Carlo Allegri
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has blasted a New York court for extending human rights lawyer Steven Donziger's house arrest. Donziger had won a landmark lawsuit against oil firm Chevron, but is accused of fraud and bribery.

Waters has long supported lawyer Steven Donziger in his efforts to prosecute oil giant Chevron for alleged pollution of indigenous land in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest. Chevron was slapped with a $9.5 billion penalty by an Ecuadorian judge in 2011, but has since accused Donziger of using bribery, fraud and extortion to sway the Ecuadorian judgment.

Speaking on Tuesday after a Manhattan court extended Donziger's house arrest, the Pink Floyd frontman accused Judge Loretta Preska of being "in the pocket of Chevron." Judge Preska deemed Donziger a flight risk and extended his house arrest, even though his passport had already been confiscated by the government.
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Sherlock

Judge on Epstein's case says it's 'unthinkable' he could die in custody 'unnoticed', demands 'full accounting'


RT
Wed, 27 Nov 2019 18:35 UTC
Epstein
© Reuters / Jane Rosenberg 781Jeffrey Epstein looks on near Judge Richard Berman during a bail hearing in his sex trafficking case
The federal judge who presided over Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking case said it was "unthinkable" any detainee, especially one as controversial and high profile as Epstein, could die behind bars without guards taking notice.

Judge Richard Berman expressed shock over the wealthy financier's death - ruled a suicide by medical examiners - and suggested, in a letter to the New York Times, that prison authorities failed in their duty to protect all inmates.
We all agree that it is unthinkable that any detainee ... would die unnoticed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. It is the job of the Bureau of Prisons to ensure the safety and security of federal inmates.
The judge also pointed to unanswered questions about the guards on duty at the time of Epstein's suicide, arguing that a pair of lawsuits filed against them last week will not provide answers.
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Handcuffs

Iran arrests 8 people with ties to CIA during unrest - state media


RT
Wed, 27 Nov 2019 16:06 UTC
Iranian protesters
© AFPIranian protesters gather around a fire during a demonstration against an increase in gasoline prices
At least eight individuals with ties to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were arrested in Iran during protests over a fuel price hike, the country's official state news agency IRNA reported.

Those detained "had received CIA-funded training in various countries under the cover of becoming citizen-journalists,"Iran's Intelligence Ministry said, as cited by the outlet.

Six were reportedly arrested attending street riots while "carrying out CIA orders," while two others were apprehended as they were trying to "send information abroad."
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Handcuffs

Texting-and-driving homicide trial: New Jersey woman found guilty

Kathleen Hopkins
Asbury Park Press
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 15:53 UTC
texting driving
A Monmouth County jury on Friday found a Keansburg woman guilty in New Jersey's first texting-while-driving vehicular homicide trial.

After about two days of deliberations, the jury foreman announced shortly after 4 p.m. that the panel of seven women and five men had found Alexandra Mansonet, 50, guilty of recklessly causing the death of Yuwen Wang, a 39-year-old Hazlet woman.

Wang's widower, Steven Qiu, was seated in the front row of the courtroom. He hung his head when he heard the verdict.

"Absolutely, it brings a lot of comfort to me and my family," Qiu said afterward.
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Attention

Anti-LGBT propaganda protesters get permanent school gates ban

Richard Vernalls
PA Media/ Yahoo! News
Tue, 26 Nov 2019 14:52 UTC
protesters Birmingham
© PAProtesters outside Anderton Park Primary School in Birmingham.
Anti-LGBT equality teaching protests have been permanently banned from outside a primary school which witnessed weeks of noisy demonstrations, a judge has ruled.

The ban, handed down at the High Court in Birmingham on Tuesday, includes an exclusion zone surrounding the city's Anderton Park Primary School.

The legal bid had been opposed by protesters, along with an interim ban first granted at the same court in the summer.

Birmingham City Council was granted an order temporarily banning protesters from outside the school's gates in June, over safety fears about repeated large-scale demonstrations, often involving people with no direct connection to the school.

Comment: Mr. Afsar has further invoked 'white' bias in the ruling:
Concluding his remarks, Mr Afsar drew comparison between the "diverse group of people coming together for one cause" in support of the protesters, and others in court.

Mr Afsar said: "Yet when you look at those representing the council and the court, compare faces and backgrounds.

"The judge is white, the council's barrister is white, the council's legal team is white, the teachers who gave evidence were white, the witnesses who gave evidence for the council were white.

"The councillors who misrepresented their voters were white, the police officers who presented witness statements for the council were white."

He added: "A lack of impartiality is unfair and when unfairness affects justice that in itself is injustice."
Here we see the natural outcome of the diversity paradox.

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Biohazard

Mexico bars shipment of glyphosate pesticide


AP
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:01 UTC
GMO biohazard
The Mexican government says it won't allow a 1,000-ton shipment of the pesticide glyphosate into the country, citing health and environmental concerns.

Mexico became the latest in a string of countries to announce bans on glyphosate, the active ingredient in weed killer Roundup.

Mexico's environment department said Monday it denied a permit to import glyphosate, presumably for agricultural use.

Comment: Good for Mexico!

See also:

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Attention

Someone is going around throwing feces on students at Toronto universities UPDATE: Suspect arrested

Becky Robertson
BlogTO
Tue, 26 Nov 2019 12:41 UTC
toronto
© Denis Bolotsky
University is an extremely taxing and unpleasant time for most students, but for a select few at the University of Toronto and York University, things have been extra crappy these past few days — literally.


Unsuspecting students at both schools had feces thrown at them over the weekend in what Toronto police are investigating as separate but potentially related incidents.

Comment:

UPDATE: They got him!
The suspect wanted for throwing feces in Toronto has been arrested
BlogTO
27 November, 2019

toronto poop thrower
The Toronto poop guy wanted for throwing feces at unsuspecting victims on two Toronto university campuses has been arrested by police.

Toronto Police confirmed they arrested a 23-year-old man at around 6 p.m. tonight near Queen and Spadina.


The man was tracked down after police had issued twoseparate photos of a person seen carrying buckets near the scene of the assaults.

The bizarre incidents prompted city-wide consternation about a "serial shit thrower" attacking students with some suggesting they felt "scared about going to school" while the attacker was on the loose.


After the arrest, Mayor John Tory congratulated police and said he hoped it would "calm concern on campuses and across the city."

Samuel Opoku, 23, of Toronto, has been charged with five counts of assault with a deadly weapon and five counts of mischief interfere with property.

Opoku is scheduled to appear in court at 60 Queen St. West on Wednesday, November 27 at 10 a.m.


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Bacon n Eggs

Vegan champion Arnold Schwarzenegger hands out free turkeys for Thanksgiving

Jamie Tabberer
Metro
Wed, 27 Nov 2019 12:17 UTC
arnold schwarzenegger arnie
© BACKGRIDArnie is a pretty generous guy, evidently.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was the epitome of kindness yesterday as he gave out free turkeys for Thanksgiving.

The former Governor of California was spotted handing out the birds in LA ahead of the holiday on 28 November.

The Austrian-born actor - who achieved super stardom with the Terminator and Predator films - chose Hollenbeck Youth Center as the location for his surprise act of generosity.

Comment: Look, there's nothing wrong with a big star doing some charity work, handing out turkeys to the less fortunate on Thanksgiving. It's admirable. But the hypocrisy is a little bit blatant here! This is yet more evidence that the elite who preach self-imposed austerity, like going vegan to save the planet have little care for embarking on those selfless tasks themselves. The plebes need to make sacrifices, not the elite.

See also:

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Megaphone

Thousands of tractors plow through Berlin streets again in protest at new green regulations


RT
Tue, 26 Nov 2019 11:33 UTC
german farmer protest
© Ruptly
Up to 5,000 tractors descended upon the German capital on Tuesday to protest the government's latest agricultural policies and environmental protection regulations which farmers claim are too restrictive.

German authorities estimate somewhere in the region of 5,000 tractors and 10,000 farmers entered Berlin in a slow-moving convoy, bringing the capital to a relative standstill at certain points. The protesters eventually gathered at Berlin's iconic landmark Brandenburg Gate.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government made the proposals back in September to curb the use of pesticides and herbicides to better protect the country's insect populations, while also placing limits on the use of fertilizers to protect Germany's groundwater.

Comment: German farmers were also protesting about the same issue on the 22nd October and yet no dialogue seems to have been forthcoming from the government. But it's not just farmers who are expressing their dissatisfaction with the path politics in Germany is taking:

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Fire

Massive explosion at chemical plant in Port Neches, Texas - UPDATE: Explosions ongoing 24 hours later - 60,000 ordered to evacuate


RT
Wed, 27 Nov 2019 07:50 UTC

Comment: 24 hours later, it's still a raging inferno in Port Neches. Local authorities have ordered about 60,000 people to evacuate the area.




A giant fireball erupted after an explosion rocked the plant in Port Neches, Texas
© TwitterA giant fireball erupted after an explosion rocked the plant in Port Neches, Texas
A chemical plant in Port Neches, Texas exploded in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to eyewitnesses and local media. The evacuation of nearby residents is reportedly already under way.

There have been no reports of injuries but damage to buildings in the vicinity is widespread as the explosion, reportedly at the TPC Group chemical plant, blew out buildings and rocked homes up to 40 miles (64km) away. The explosion was even felt as far away as neighboring Louisiana.


Comment: It appears that major explosions are occurring more frequently in recent times:

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