Society's ChildS

Bad Guys

Two killed as car bomb blast hits COVID-19 response team in eastern Turkey

Turkey ambulance
© AFP 2020 / OZAN KOSE
Two people have died in a car bomb explosion in Turkey's eastern Van province, the Kurdish Rudaw broadcaster reported on Thursday.

According to the media outlet, citing the governorate, the attack was targeted at the COVID-19 crisis response team operating in the area.

The broadcaster did not specify further information on the incident.

The current coronavirus toll in Turkey stands at 143,114 cases with 3,952 deaths.

Comment: See also: From Syria to Libya: Captured mercenaries recount tales of coercion and deception, implicate Turkey


Handcuffs

China's Jilin city goes into partial lockdown over coronavirus cluster that appeared after 73 days of no new cases

Jilin
© WeiboTrain services have been suspended in Jilin city in an effort to curb a coronavirus outbreak.
Train and long-distance bus services have been stopped, gatherings banned and indoor public venues closed after six new cases were confirmed on Tuesday.

That brought the total to 21 community cases, with two asymptomatic patients, since the first infection in the cluster was reported a week ago.

"The current outbreak is very serious and complex and poses a major risk of further spread," Gai Dongping, vice-mayor of Jilin, told reporters in an online briefing on Wednesday.

Comment: See also: Ohio had 6 coronavirus cases in 5 counties in January - Health Director


NPC

Renowned virology expert 'Dr.' Greta Thunberg scheduled to lecture CNN audience on coronavirus

Greta Thunberg CNN townhall
America's cable-TV news station of reference, the highly esteemed CNN, will be hosting a televised panel of world renown virology experts. These have been slated as including former acting CDC director Richard Besser and former HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Both officials served in the Obama administration and therefore represent all-round credibility of the highest order.

The main event will be the lecture given by world-renown humanitarian child prodigy, Greta Thunberg - a recognized expert on multiple subjects including virology, ecology, public policy, epidemiology, climate science, and public health.

Thunberg's philosophical treatise on the balance between constitutional rights and public police measures within the context of global pandemics, Do it My Way, or Else, earned her an honorary doctorate awarded by the University of Cambridge.

Comment: There is no facepalm big enough for this news.

See also:


Brick Wall

Best of the Web: Global lockdowns: Looks like an op, smells like an op, walks six feet apart like an op

empty london lockdown
We don't need Rahm Emanuel to tell us a crisis shouldn't go to waste. It's a strategy that probably got off the ground a hundred thousand years ago. The other half of it is, create the crisis to begin with. Then don't waste it.

The Bill Gates plan involves a mother of all vaccines for COVID, mandated across the globe, before the lockdowns end. That's his psychopathic wet dream. Then, coming in behind that, his lackey, the World Health Organization, along with the professional liars at the CDC, will add โ€” "we must mandate EVERY vaccine..."

To pull off a mandated global vaccine for eight billion people takes a manufactured crisis.

Comment: See also:


Bad Guys

Facebook will pay $52 million in settlement with moderators who developed PTSD on the job

facebook
© Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
In a landmark acknowledgment of the toll that content moderation takes on its workforce, Facebook has agreed to pay $52 million to current and former moderators to compensate them for mental health issues developed on the job. In a preliminary settlement filed on Friday in San Mateo Superior Court, the social network agreed to pay damages to American moderators and provide more counseling to them while they work.

Each moderator will receive a minimum of $1,000 and will be eligible for additional compensation if they are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder or related conditions. The settlement covers 11,250 moderators, and lawyers in the case believe that as many as half of them may be eligible for extra pay related to mental health issues associated with their time working for Facebook, including depression and addiction.

"We are so pleased that Facebook worked with us to create an unprecedented program to help people performing work that was unimaginable even a few years ago," said Steve Williams, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in a statement. "The harm that can be suffered from this work is real and severe."

Comment: See also:


Eye 2

Former state department official charged with sexual assault against 10 yo girl in Prince William County, Virginia

John Scott Moretti
John Scott Moretti
The former special agent in charge of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's protective detail is jailed without bond on charges of sexually assaulting a girl in Prince William County between 2011 and 2013.

John Scott Moretti, 58, was arrested Tuesday after special victims detectives concluded an investigation into the sexual assault of a girl between the ages of 10 and 11 at a home in the Manassas area between November 2011 and November 2013, said Prince William County police spokeswoman Renee Carr.

The victim knows Moretti and reported the incidents to police in September 2019. Moretti is charged with indecent liberties and forcible sodomy, Carr said.

Stormtrooper

Montenegro police arrest Serbian Orthodox Church bishop and 7 priests for holding mass 'in violation of Covid-19 lockdown'

orthodox priests arrested montenegro
Bishop Ioanniky of Budimlyansko-Niksic
Bishop Ioanniky of Budimlyansko-Niksic and seven other priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church were detained yesterday by Montenegrin police for holding a liturgy on the feast of St. Basil of Ostrog, according to the Evening News. Recall that in view of the coronavirus epidemic, a ban on mass gatherings is in force in the country.

Late last night, after a festive service in honor of St. Basil of Ostrog, revered in the Balkans, the Montenegrin police broke into the Parish House, where they presented Vladyka Ioannikiy and seven other priests with summonses to give explanatory testimonies at the Main State Prosecutor's Office.

At the time of the arrest, the Metropolitan of Montenegro-Primorsky Amfilohiy was also present in the Parish House, but he was not on the list of those who were ordered to be brought to the prosecutor's office for conversation.

Family

EU to issue a transport and tourism strategy coordinating and protecting summer vacations and refunds

beach chairs
© EPA-EFE/ABIR SULTANA view of an empty and closed beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, 26 March 2020.
The European Commission will adopt a comprehensive strategy on Wednesday (13 May) - already seen by EURACTIV - which aims to make sure governments reopen for tourism business in a coordinated manner. The EU executive will also wade into the divisive voucher vs refund debate.

Coronavirus lockdowns have closed borders, shuttered services and dealt a stunning blow to the EU's tourism sector. As the outbreak begins to show signs of subsiding, the question of how to go back to business as usual is on the agenda.


Comment: Does someone have to regulate this too? Wouldn't owners of businesses have this pretty much nailed?


The Commission's strategy, which is still subject to change and will be discussed by senior officials later today, will recommend a three-phase approach to reopening borders that brings together member states "with similar overall risk profiles".

Europe's disease control agency (ECDC) will be drafted in to keep a list of areas with low circulation of the virus, so that "blanket quarantine measures" within Schengen can start to be scrapped.

Comment: If humans weren't hyper-regulated until now, we shall surely be by 'vacation' time. Currently, a walk outside is the vacation many have been 'made afraid' to take.


Yellow Vest

'They will not silence us': Michigan activists undeterred after Facebook removes anti-lockdown group with 380,000 members

Lockdown protesters in Lansing, MI
© Reuters/Seth HeraldProtesters against the stay-at-home order demonstrate in Lansing, Michigan, April 15, 2020.
Facebook has shuttered a popular group for Michiganders who oppose their governor's extreme lockdown measures, fueling debate about free speech during the coronavirus crisis.

'Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine' had more than 380,000 members, with media reports describing it as one of the largest anti-lockdown groups in the nation. It's not clear if Facebook has provided an explanation for the group's removal. Visiting the page gives the following message: "Sorry, this content isn't available right now."

Garrett Soldano of Mattawan, Michigan created Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine in April after becoming disenchanted with Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order - a policy which he initially supported. The group made headlines around the world after organizing 'Operation Gridlock', a protest in which thousands of cars created bumper-to-bumper traffic in the capital, Lansing.

Heart - Black

Coronavirus scourge: 6-year-old Texas boy found tied in shed; beaten, sprayed with hose

Esmerelda Lira and Jose Balderas
© Dallas County Jail
CBS News obtained the arrest affidavit Tuesday for the two people accused of abusing a 6-year-old boy who was found with his hands tied behind his back inside a shed in Dallas.

Police found the child behind the home on Coston Drive around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday night. The boy told officers the alleged abuse started since he "got out of school for this corona thing."

The child's grandmother Esmerelda Lira, 53, and her boyfriend, Jose Balderas, 66, were arrested.

The child told child abuse detectives during a forensic interview that whenever his grandmother left the home, she put him in the shed, tied him up and told him he was bad. He also said Lira bathed him outside by spraying him with water.

He had been tied up and locked in the shed around 10:30 p.m. the night of the arrests.