Society's Child

13 Sudanese protesters killed by security forces at sit-in outside Khartoum defense ministry

Jason Burke and Zeinab Mohammed Salih
The Guardian
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 16:05 UTC

Dozens are feared dead after Sudanese security forces launched a massive crackdown against protesters at a central Khartoum sit-in.

Heavily armed paramilitaries attacked the site of a sit-in in the capital that has been the centre of a campaign to bring democratic reform shortly after dawn on Monday, firing teargas and live ammunition.

Witnesses reported that the security personnel belonged to the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary force that was heavily armed by Omar al-Bashir, the former president.

Bashir's repressive 30-year rule ended in April when he was ousted by the army following months of massive pro-democracy demonstrations in Khartoum and elsewhere.

Factions within the military appear to have decided to put an end to the pro-reform protests after months of negotiations with civilian leaders and activists for transition to democracy. Tensions have been building in recent days, with senior military officers threatening to clear "criminals" off the streets.

"This is a critical point in our revolution. The military council has chosen escalation and confrontation ... Now the situation is us or them, there is no other way," said Mohammed Yousef al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals' Association, which has spearheaded the protests.

Not enough PoCs in Ukraine? HBO's Chernobyl criticized for lack of racial diversity

RT
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 15:27 UTC

HBO's hit new series based on the Chernobyl tragedy has divided opinion online, but the oddest reaction yet has come from a budding UK actor wondering why the show's creators had not chosen more people of color for the cast.

While the docudrama has come under criticism for various historical inaccuracies, until now, the lack of racial diversity among the actors was not one of those criticisms - for the simple reason that 1980s Ukraine was not exactly a thriving hub of modern-day multiculturalism.

i dunno... there are so many great actors of colour in this country that would've been amazing in #chernobyl, i guess i'm just disappointed to see yet another hit show with a massive cast that makes it look like PoC don't exist.

- karla marie sweet (@karlamsweet) June 1, 2019

That should have been no reason to leave black and brown actors out though, according to actress Karla Marie Sweet, who tweeted that there are "so many great actors of colour" in the UK who "would've been amazing" in the series. Sweet felt "disappointed" to see "yet another hit show with a massive cast" that "makes it looks like PoC don't exist."

German 'blogger of the year' fabricated her family's Holocaust history and lied to the media for years

RT
Sun, 02 Jun 2019 13:55 UTC

© Global Look Press / www.imago-images.de
People look at portraits of Holocaust survivors on a street in Vienna, Austria, on May 16, 2019.

German historian Marie Sophie Hingst, famous for her blog about family members who perished in the Holocaust, has been caught in a lie. The revelation also put the media, which published her other 'personal stories', in a bind.

Hingst, who lives in Dublin, rose to prominence because of her stories about her alleged Jewish ancestors, who tragically died in the times of the Holocaust. These were published on her blog 'Read on my dear, read on' (now offline), which she started back in 2013 in Dublin. The blog featured accounts of her grandfather in particular, who she said was killed in the Nazi death camp Auschwitz.

Her exploits did not go unnoticed as, at some point, her blog reached a whopping 240,000 readers while she was named 'blogger of the year' and awarded by the Golden Bloggers association - the group behind one of the major German social media influencers' awards.

Hingst was also invited to moderate panel discussions for the association of patrons of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial and frequently spoke on behalf of relatives of the Holocaust victims, according to the German press.

Massive cruise ship crashes into Venice port due to engine failure, at least 5 injured

Shannon Van Sant
NPR
Sun, 02 Jun 2019 12:31 UTC

© Luca Bruno/AP
The MSC Opera cruise ship rammed into a dock and a tourist riverboat on a busy canal in Venice, Italy. An investigation is underway into the cause of the crash.

A cruise ship crashed into a tourist boat and then into a dock in Venice, Italy, on Sunday after an engine failure.

Video posted to social media showed passengers escaping from the tourist boat and running down the dock as the cruise ship rapidly approached.

The 13-deck MSC Opera rammed into the dock with its horns blaring, injuring five tourists, according to The Associated Press. Two tugboats tried to guide the cruise ship but were unable to prevent it from crashing.

Danish Muslims feel backlash as immigration policies become major election issue

Stine Jacobsen
Thomson Reuters
Fri, 31 May 2019 09:24 UTC

Growing numbers of Danish Muslims say they have faced verbal abuse, exclusion and hate crimes since mainstream political parties began adopting anti-immigrant policies previously the preserve of the far right.

The ruling centre-right Liberal Party and the opposition Social Democrats both say a tough stance in immigration is needed to protect Denmark's cherished welfare system and to integrate the migrants and refugees already in the country.

But Manilla Ghafuri, 26, who came to Denmark from Afghanistan in 2001 as a refugee, fears that anti-Muslim attitudes could harden further as the immigration debate heats up ahead of a general election on June 5.

"In 2015 I thought: 'Wow, what's happening?' and I think it has got a lot worse over the last few years," she told Reuters.

Ghafuri, who has more than once been told to go back to her "own country", said she has been kicked out of a supermarket while shopping with her family. While she was working at a bakery a male customer refused to be served by her.

Comment: See also: Due to mass migration, Denmark has changed in a single generation

Mutilated Yellow Vests march and protest against police brutality in Paris

RT
Sun, 02 Jun 2019 19:54 UTC

Several hundred people have shown up for the 'march of the mutilated' in Paris, protesting police brutality and demanding a ban on the weaponry law enforcement uses to control demonstrators.

People gathered in central Paris on Sunday, the day after 'Act 29' of the Yellow Vest protests. The demonstrators carried banners, showing injuries - such as lost eyes and limbs - various protesters have received over the past few months and demanding a ban of the 'less-lethal' weapons used by police.

Comment: From outright violence, to egregious propaganda - and to all manner of oppression, the Yellow Vests have been attacked by a belligerent and malevolent government that would have its people crushed and at the mercy of its neoliberal policies.

See also:

Giant penis mowed into lawn near UK airport where Trump landed

Sputnik
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 14:40 UTC

Even before the US president managed to set foot on British soil, some locals attempted to give him a hard time with a rude message on climate change. Theresa May is expected to challenge Trump on his denial of climate change during his three-day state visit to the UK.

Ollie Nancarrow, a cocky 18-year-old art student, spent the weekend mowing out "Oi Trump" alongside a gigantic outline of a penis in a field for the POTUS to see as he'd fly into Stansted Airport.

At a nearby field, Ollie also left the message "Climate change is real" below a drawing of a polar bear.

Comment: See also:

The Heart Foundation defends extraordinary ad campaign suggesting people who don't look after their heart don't care about their families

Kylie Stevens
Daily Mail
Thu, 30 May 2019 08:27 UTC

The Heart Foundation (Australia) has been slammed for a confronting new ad campaign which has also come under fire from health professionals.

The organisation has edited a powerful scene from its new Heartless Words ad campaign after being inundated with public backlash over the shock tactics used.

But it has also defended the controversial campaign launched on social media this week, which suggests that people neglect their heart health don't love their families.

The ad starts with a mother putting her little boy to to bed, telling him 'Every time I told you I loved you I was lying - you are not my priority'.

Comment: Update: It seems the Heart Foundation have walked back on this rather disastrous ad campaign.

The 'anti-fascist' left were the real fascists all along

Philip Cross
Financial Post
Fri, 31 May 2019 06:30 UTC

© Getty Images
Many student groups have adopted from fascists “their anti-intellectualism, their anger, their street theater, their glorification of youth, or their mysticism,” conservative sociologist Peter Berger says.

Conflating conservatism with extremism is a sophomoric error by those who don't understand fascism's place on the political spectrum

It is fashionable among the radical left to demonize the growing number of elected conservative governments in the Western world as the rise of the extreme or alt-right. This is most pronounced in the anti-fascist (antifa) movement, particularly on university campuses. However, the anti-fascist movement has a sophomoric misunderstanding of fascism and its location on the political spectrum. More disturbing, this lack of understanding extends to its own social media and even physical tactics that mimic the mob psychology, street rage and bullying that are hallmarks of the fascism they denounce.

Fascism is best thought of as a nationalistic version of socialism, embodied in Hitler's National Socialist party, which was shortened to the Nazis. Fascist governments like those of Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini (and, to some degree, Spain's Francisco Franco) in mid-20^th century Europe believed in totalitarian control of the economy and oppressive state curtailment of individual liberty. Those are the antitheses of conservative principles. Fascism subsumes all ideology to the goals of the state and the need for state surveillance. The extreme version of conservatism isn't fascism, as the left wants us to think. It's libertarianism.

Comment: See also:

US demands social media details from visa applicants

BBC
Sat, 01 Jun 2019 12:00 UTC

Nearly all applicants for US visas will have to submit their social media details under newly adopted rules.

The State Department regulations say people will have to submit social media names and five years' worth of email addresses and phone numbers.

When proposed last year, authorities estimated the proposal would affect 14.7 million people annually.

Certain diplomatic and official visa applicants will be exempt from the stringent new measures.

However, people travelling to the US to work or to study will have to hand over their information.

Comment: More reasons to avoid traveling to the US - although it's not the only country implementing such Orwellian rules: "Digital strip-search": Travellers to New Zealand now face $5000 fine if they refuse

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Society's Child

13 Sudanese protesters killed by security forces at sit-in outside Khartoum defense ministry

Not enough PoCs in Ukraine? HBO's Chernobyl criticized for lack of racial diversity

German 'blogger of the year' fabricated her family's Holocaust history and lied to the media for years

Massive cruise ship crashes into Venice port due to engine failure, at least 5 injured

Danish Muslims feel backlash as immigration policies become major election issue

Mutilated Yellow Vests march and protest against police brutality in Paris

Giant penis mowed into lawn near UK airport where Trump landed

The Heart Foundation defends extraordinary ad campaign suggesting people who don't look after their heart don't care about their families

The 'anti-fascist' left were the real fascists all along

US demands social media details from visa applicants

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