Society's Child

RT reports: Locals slam Macron's empty promises on the environment, French city plagued by pollution

RT
Wed, 03 Apr 2019 08:23 UTC

Emmanuel Macron is known as an advocate of combating pollution globally, but did he succeed in doing so in France? RT visited one of Europe's largest industrial zones, where noxious fumes are putting people's lives at risk.

Fos-sur-Mer looks like an idyllic seaside city in southern France, but it accommodates a sizeable port and industrial facilities, including oil refineries, chemical factories and steel plants. Day and night, all of these are releasing toxic fumes into the air, RT's Charlotte Dubenskij reported.

Residents claim that these compounds are having a devastating effect on their health, with the number of cancer, diabetes and asthma patients higher than the national average. "The main problem comes from the industrial port area which emits ultrafine particles that get into our lungs and blood streams," said Daniel Moutet, president of a local environmental group.

Moutet, who has diabetes, explained that the high rate of diseases could have been lower if noxious waste was disposed of properly by Fos-sur-Mer factories. "Just 50km from here, none of this is happening, so this is a local problem," he added.

Russian sovereign bonds selling like hotcakes as demand breaks all-time record

RT
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 18:28 UTC

Despite the imminent threat of US sanctions targeting Russia's financial sector, the country's ruble-denominated government bonds are selling at record pace.

Following the results of two auction sessions, the Russian Ministry of Finance raised 83 billion rubles ($1.26 billion). However, the figure failed to reach the 91.4 billion rubles reached on March 13, when demand for Russia's ruble-denominated domestic OFZs reportedly hit an all-time high.

On Wednesday, total bids received from investors for the bonds amounted to 145 billion rubles ($2.2 billion), more than half as much as the Finance Ministry raised a week ago, and 800 million rubles more than investors purchased on average during abnormally active sessions during mid-March.

The share of foreigners investing in Russia's sovereign debt is back to 30 percent, with the Finance Ministry reportedly planning to increase the number of bonds on offer this year and even double the overall year-on-year issues.

Mali massacre raises questions about French operations inflaming ethnic tensions

RT
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 17:52 UTC

A brutal massacre in central Mali which killed 160 people, including children, has raised concerns that US and French anti-terrorism operations in the African nation are inflaming ethnic tensions.

Last month, an ethnic militia composed of Dogon hunters is suspected of massacring a village in central Mali, killing 160 men, women and children. The villagers were targeted for being part of the Fulani ethnic group, which has been accused of supporting Al-Qaeda.

French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to carry out an "uncompromising" fight against terrorism in Mali, but many fear that the foreign troops are actually inflaming ethnic strife.

Ethiopia calls on Boeing to review its control systems, says pilots followed correct procedures

David Reid
CNBC
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 17:49 UTC

Ethiopia has said Boeing must review the "controllability" of the 737 MAX 8 aircraft model and that aviation authorities should verify that the flight control system was "adequately addressed" by the U.S. plane manufacturer.

A Boeing 737 Max 8 plane killed all 157 people on board on March 10 just minutes into its flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. Speaking at a press conference Thursday, the Ethiopian Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges outlined a preliminary report into the crash and said pilots on board had followed flight procedures given by Boeing.

Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority have suggested that the crash may have been avoided had pilots simply followed established safety procedures.

Comment: See also:

Canadian man fined $55,000 for calling a male who identified as a woman a male

Michael Brown
The Stream
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC

© Youtube/Screenshot
Bill Whatcott's supporters pray over him just before he turned himself in for a "hate crime." June 2018.

We told you this was coming. We warned you it would happen. We were not crying wolf. We were telling you the truth. And now it is here, as a headline announces: "Canadian tribunal fines Bill Whatcott $55,000 for expressing Christian views on 'transgenderism.'" In other words, Whatcott called a biological male (who identifies as a female) a "biological male." That was his crime.

What a miscarriage of justice. What an assault of freedom of speech and expression.

John Carpay, president of the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom, defended Whatcott, noting in protest that, "The Supreme Court of Canada has long held that freedom of expression is the lifeblood of democracy." But not when it crosses the lines of transgender activism. Freedom halts there.

Carpay added, "Society is full of people with diverse views and the Tribunal's decision undermines the foundational principles of the free society and jeopardizes the health of Canada's democracy."

Japanese authorities arrest ex-Nissan head Carlos Ghosn, again, on financial misconduct charges

Fox Business
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 18:09 UTC

Japanese prosecutors arrested Carlos Ghosn again on Thursday on suspicion the former Nissan boss had tried to enrich himself at the automaker's expense, in another dramatic twist that his lawyers said was an attempt to muzzle him.

The arrest, which legal experts not connected to the case described as highly rare for someone already released on bail, marks the fourth time that prosecutors have arrested the once-feted executive, a scandal that has rocked the global auto industry and shined a harsh light on Japan's judicial system.

Tokyo prosecutors said Ghosn had caused Nissan Motor Co $5 million in losses over a 2-1/2-year period to July 2018, in breach of his legal duties to the company and with the goal of personal gain.

The Kyodo news agency reported that the losses involved the shifting of funds through a dealer in Oman to the account of a company Ghosn effectively owned. The agency did not cite any sources.

Disney hit with class-action lawsuit over alleged gender pay gap

Gene Maddaus
Variety
Tue, 02 Apr 2019 18:06 UTC

A class action law firm sued the Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday, alleging that the company systematically underpays its female employees.

The firm of Andrus Anderson LLP, based in San Francisco, seeks to represent all women employed by the Walt Disney Studios in California since 2015. The suit claims that corporate policies - including setting a new hire's salary based on her salary at previous employers - has a discriminatory effect on women.

The suit also alleges that Disney does not have an internal mechanism to ensure that women are not paid less than their male counterparts for the same work.

"Like other companies that operate without transparency, consistency, and accountability, Disney's leadership tends to value male workers more than female workers," the suit alleges. "Taken together, Disney's compensation policies, procedures and practices are not valid, job-related, or justified by business necessity."

'Gender equality trailblazing' Nordic nations have 'disturbingly high' levels of rape, says Amnesty

Maya Oppenheim
Independent
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 17:35 UTC

Nordic nations have "disturbingly high" levels of rape despite being gender equality trailblazers, according to a new report which also suggested they were failing victims.

Flawed legislation, prevalent harmful myths and gender stereotypes have given rise to endemic impunity for rapists across the region, Amnesty International found.

Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden - four countries which are among the top-ranking countries in the world for gender equality - were all found to have high levels of rape and survivors of sexual violence are being let down by their justice systems.

In Finland, around 50,000 women each year experience sexual violence but there were only 209 convictions for rape in 2017. In the same year, 24,000 women were victims of rape or attempted rape in Denmark, but only 94 people were convicted.

Social justice warriors must stop harassing scientists

Peggy Sastre
Quillette
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 17:01 UTC

Editor's note: This article was originally published in Le Point and has been translated by Holly Haahr.

Is this the end of the era of factual, scientific inquiry? In today's labs, the line between affirmative action and ideological harassment is vanishingly thin. But prioritising scientists who have the correct opinions and tick the right identity boxes rather than because of the quality of their research can lead to real persecution.

"At the moment I prefer to stay anonymous," explains an astrophysicist. "I am not proud of this, but I have to eat, and I am also responsible for the research opportunities of my students and my postdocs." He hadn't killed anyone. Rather, he had just chosen to move from Australia, the country where he earned his degrees and spent most of his career, to China. Why? Because, as a researcher, he has more freedom in China. As unbelievable as this may sound, it's true. Indeed, for more and more scientists, the pressures in universities and other research institutions to be "politically correct" (for lack of a better term) are so great that going into exile in a non-democratic country, where dissidents disappear and religious minorities are sent to re-education camps, has become a stopgap solution for those who want to be left alone to pursue their research interests. "I left Australia because I am fed up with seeing job and grant opportunities dwindle for real astronomers," he says.

Comment:

British Airways flight from London to Germany took off in the wrong direction and landed in Scotland

Sinéad Baker
Business Insider
Mon, 25 Mar 2019 14:53 UTC

A British Airways flight bound to Düsseldorf, Germany, from London accidentally landed in Edinburgh, Scotland, instead, 525 miles from where it should have been.

British Airways said in a statement to Business Insider that the plane ended up in Edinburgh after the flight paperwork was submitted incorrectly.

Passengers realized they were in the wrong country only after an announcement was made welcoming them to Edinburgh after the plane landed, the BBC reported.

"We have apologised to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually," British Airways' statement said.

Comment: With extreme weather, faulty aircraft, perverse security, unusual illnesses, and the odd crazy passenger, air travel has never been so unappealing:

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Society's Child

RT reports: Locals slam Macron's empty promises on the environment, French city plagued by pollution

Russian sovereign bonds selling like hotcakes as demand breaks all-time record

Mali massacre raises questions about French operations inflaming ethnic tensions

Ethiopia calls on Boeing to review its control systems, says pilots followed correct procedures

Canadian man fined $55,000 for calling a male who identified as a woman a male

Japanese authorities arrest ex-Nissan head Carlos Ghosn, again, on financial misconduct charges

Disney hit with class-action lawsuit over alleged gender pay gap

'Gender equality trailblazing' Nordic nations have 'disturbingly high' levels of rape, says Amnesty

Social justice warriors must stop harassing scientists

British Airways flight from London to Germany took off in the wrong direction and landed in Scotland

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