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People

What does "diversity and inclusion" mean to you?

Kevin Smith
OffGuardian
Sun, 12 Jul 2020 07:15 UTC
diversity
With the recent non-stop coverage of the race-related disturbances, media debates on slavery, statues and racial prejudice, some readers might be inclined not to read on.

Over a year ago I recall the collective groan around our office when it was announced we were all to attend a training course on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We were also required to attend a shorter course about unconscious bias, similar to the one Keir Starmer is booked on.

For a few of my colleagues I expect it was timely reminder to avoid engaging in anything remotely resembling office banter or innuendo.

But the training course got me thinking a little about what these words and values really mean and how they should be measured.

My thoughts were reignited late last year when I came across a competition, the theme of which was 'embracing differences'. Entrants were asked to come up with a quote of no more than 20 words saying what embracing inclusion and diversity means to them.

However, I anticipated that the competition judges would be conditioned to expect something restricted to inclusion and diversity interaction in our western 'liberal' culture and the shallow sound-bites and virtual-signalling that go with it.
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Cloud Lightning

Job losses, bankruptcies and store closings are all at apocalyptic levels as the US economic collapse rolls on

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
despondent man
The last four months have been an unending nightmare for the U.S. economy. Businesses are shutting down at a pace that we have never seen before in American history, the "retail apocalypse" has reached an entirely new level that none of the experts were anticipating prior to this pandemic, and we are in the midst of the greatest spike in unemployment that the United States has ever experienced. On Thursday, we learned that another 1.3 million Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, and that number has now been above one million for 16 consecutive weeks. Things were supposed to be "getting back to normal" by now, but that hasn't happened. Instead, we continue to see a tsunami of job losses that is absolutely unprecedented in American history.

When we look back at the old peaks for unemployment claims, they almost seem laughable compared to what we are experiencing now...
The highest prior weekly total for new unemployment claims was 695,000, in October 1982, according to Labor Department data. During the Great Recession, the country's last downturn, weekly claims peaked at 665,000, in March 2009.
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Document

Iranian media indirectly blames Israel, US for being behind Natanz incident


Sputnik
Sat, 11 Jul 2020 06:16 UTC
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
© AP Photo / Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
On Friday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry warned that if Tehran finds out that "foreign elements" were behind the 2 July explosion at the Natanz nuclear site, there will be consequences.

Iranian media outlets have indirectly accused the US and Israel of being behind a blast at the Natanz nuclear facility in early July, even though Tehran is yet to issue an official statement on what caused the explosion, the London-based news outlet Middle East Eye reports.

The outlet referred to the online version of the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri which argued that the Natanz explosion's time and location indicates that "the attackers had chosen a time and place that would not cause any casualties" and "would not damage sections with radioactive materials".

The newspaper also drew parallels between the blast and the assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani on 3 January in a US drone strike in Baghdad.

Comment: See also:

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Laptop

Hypocrites: Google vows to ban companies profiting from secretly spying on people


RT
Sat, 11 Jul 2020 22:08 UTC
Google
© Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann
In an effort to combat the monitoring of people's activities without their knowledge, Google is changing its policies to prohibit the advertising of spyware products. The spy-happy tech giant evidently failed to grasp the irony...

In a published update, Google said its new policy includes any technology used for "intimate partner surveillance," including but not limited to spyware or malware that "can be used to monitor texts, phone calls, or browsing history."

Although Google doesn't explicitly say so, its focus is on stalkerware, which is purposely downloaded with the intention of secretly installing it onto another person's device. This then provides access to the victim's location, communications and photos, and details the websites they've visited.
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Ambulance

Clinical psychologist: Julian Assange's 'torture has intensified' and must be stopped

Mohamed Elmaazi
Sputnik
Thu, 02 Jul 2020 21:33 UTC
Julian Assange
© Sputnik (screenshot)
The Lancet medical journal has published a second letter drafted by physicians from around the world demanding an end to the ongoing mistreatment of WikiLeaks publisher and founder Julian Assange.

Two hundred and sixteen medical professionals signed an article published in The Lancet medical journal demanding an end to the "ongoing torture and medical neglect" of award-wining WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who remains incarcerated in Britain's Belmarsh maximum-security prison.

Clinical psychologist Dr Lissa Johnson, who co-authored the letter, explained to Sputnik why she and her colleagues felt it necessary to draft this latest version despite having already published a letter in February.

Sputnik: Why did you co-author this letter in The Lancet demanding an "end to the torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange"?

Comment: See also: Doctors for Assange warn he could be 'effectively tortured to death in prison'

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Eye 2

Epstein's madam and partner-in-crime Ghislaine Maxwell seeks bail, citing coronavirus, and denies charges

Jonathan Stempe
Reuters
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 21:32 UTC
Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein
© Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesGhislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein: the two seemed mutually dependent
Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of late financier Jeffrey Epstein, on Friday forcefully denied charges she lured underage girls for him to sexually abuse and said she deserves bail, citing the risk she might contract the coronavirus in jail.

Maxwell, 58, filed her request in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, eight days after being arrested in New Hampshire, where authorities said she had been hiding at a sprawling property she bought while shielding her identity.

A spokesman for Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in Manhattan declined to comment. Maxwell has been housed since Monday at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a Brooklyn jail.

She said her detention there put her at "significant risk" of contracting the coronavirus, after 55 inmates and staff had tested positive for COVID-19 through June 30.
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Play

Body camera transcripts reveal new details about night of George Floyd's death

Callan Gray
KSTP.com
Wed, 08 Jul 2020 20:56 UTC
Thomas Lane.
© Hennepin County Jail.Thomas Lane.
In an interview with BCA investigators, former Minneapolis Police officer Thomas Lane described arriving on scene at Cup Foods at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue.

"We got there and entered the building. Entered Cup Foods, the business," said Lane, during the interview. "There was a staff member there that said, 'They're still here.' He was holding the bill, and he goes, 'They gave me this. It's fake $20.' He pointed across the street, and they're like, 'He's in the car over there. Go get him before he drives off.' He started walking out, and I was like, 'Just head back in. We'll take care of it.' Me and Kueng walked across the street. There was a vehicle could see was occupied."

Lane describes approaching the vehicle and saw the people inside moving around. He said when he approached the driver, later identified as Floyd, he didn't see both hands. According to Lane, he asked Floyd to put both hands up.

Lane drew his gun.

"The concern was either that he was trying to stash something or he possibly had a gun," said Lane when questioned by investigators.

According to transcripts of both Lane and Keung's body cameras, Floyd asked the officers "What did I do." Lane and Keung repeatedly told him to put his hands up.

Comment: Chances are we won't see any more details made public, given this:

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Arrow Down

Turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque will threaten Christian-Muslim trust, lower tourism, pit the West against Erdogan

Damian Wilson
RT
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 18:49 UTC
Hagia Sophia
© Reuters/Murad SezerHagia Sophia
It may win President Erdogan a few Islamist friends, but turning Istanbul's former Orthodox Christian cathedral, Hagia Sophia, into a mosque shows total disregard for a fragile religious balance and a key cultural destination.

Turkey's decision to convert the famed Hagia Sophia - the nation's most-visited tourist site - into a mosque has brought Islamist ideology to the doorstep of Europe in one chilling decree.

The former Orthodox Christian cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site, attracted more than 3.7 million visitors last year. But those numbers will plummet from now on, as tourists steer clear of what will be an active mosque, with most preferring a little less controversy when looking to immerse the family in a foreign culture.

Not only will visitors from abroad be puzzled by the move, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's push to annul the site's museum status has not gone down well in neighboring Athens, or even in the USA, for that matter, where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo advised against going ahead with the ill-considered plan.

Lina Mendoni, Culture Minister for Greece, home to millions of Orthodox Church followers, lambasted Erdogan, telling the BBC, "It takes his country back six centuries." As one of two European Union (EU) members sharing a border with Turkey, Bulgaria being the other, Greece will be anxiously waiting for a similarly firm response from its fellow members in the bloc, but could be waiting a long time.

Comment: See also:

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Camcorder

Former associate says Epstein and Maxwell filmed powerful people having sex with underage girls

Emma Parry
The Sun, UK
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 17:32 UTC
Jeffrey Epstein i Ghislaine Maxwell, slikani 1995. godine
Paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his ex-lover Ghislaine Maxwell recorded videos of powerful people having sex with under-age girls, according to a former friend of the pair.

And the reformed jewel thief, who uses the pseudonym William Steel, claims the couple made him watch some to prove how they "owned" people.

In an exclusive interview with The Sun, the ex-criminal turned writer tells how he was shown footage involving two high-profile US politicians having sex with minors and two high society figures having a threesome with an under-age girl.

Steel — who is not being paid for this interview — also branded Maxwell, 58, who was arrested last week in connection with trafficking young girls, a wild "nymphomaniac" who would try "everything and anything in bed".

He says: "I was forced to watch their videos because they were trying to impress me.

"They wanted to convince me of their power and who they held in their grip.

"They boasted about 'owning' powerful people.

"Ghislaine was more into showing me those than Jeff.

"When you're in a situation like that, you have to pretend to be non-judgmental. But it was shocking.

Comment: Not exactly the most stellar source, but what he says matches up with what we know from other sources. It will be up to investigative authorities to see if "Steel" has any actual evidence that can be used against Maxwell. That's assuming the trial will be legit - and that's assuming there will be a trial.

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Newspaper

Liberal media alarmed US propaganda arm Voice of America may 'become propaganda' (the wrong kind) under Trump nominee CEO

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 17:26 UTC
Voice of America headquarters in DC
© WikipediaVoice of America headquarters in Washington, DC
Mainstream media and Democrats are howling in protest that the new head of the US propaganda agency might make it a... propaganda agency. Also literally kill people by denying them visas, maybe, disgruntled employees say.

Ever since Michael Pack was confirmed by the Senate in early June to lead the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), there has been a steady drumbeat of alarmist stories about how this nominee of President Donald Trump was ruining everything. Vindictive employees purged by Pack went so far as to reveal the USAGM has served as a conduit to "pro-democracy protesters" in Hong Kong, thinking nothing of it.

A whole lot of maybes

The latest outrage is over what Pack "might" decide to do, with the New York Times and the Guardian citing anonymous sources and recently fired employees to paint a picture of potential death for journalists from Thailand, Cambodia or China if they lose their visas.
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