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Persecution: Julian Assange lawyers say he is too ill to appear in court even by video link

Ben Quinn
The Guardian
Thu, 30 May 2019 21:41 UTC
Assange protestors courthouse london
© Thomas Hornall/Press Association
Julian Assange supporters outside Westminster magistrates court, where the WikiLeaks founder had been expected to appear.
Hearing is latest stage in possible extradition of WikiLeaks founder to US

Julian Assange was too ill to appear by video link for the latest hearing in relation to his possible extradition to the US, lawyers for the WikiLeaks founder told a court.

The hearing was the first since 2 May, when lawyers for the US government began pressing its case to extradite him to face trial for what they described as one the largest compromises of classified information in history.

However, his solicitor Gareth Peirce told a judge at Westminster magistrates court in London on Thursday that Assange was too ill to appear by video link from prison. The date for the next hearing was confirmed as 12 June.

Comment:

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Butterfly

Pesticides and lack of habitat force Chinese to pollinate fruit trees by hand


Fresh Plaza
Fri, 24 May 2019 12:00 UTC
polliating by hand china
The lack of pollinating insects in some areas of fruit production in China has forced producers to pollinate their fruit trees by hand.

In these areas, the excessive use of pesticides and the lack of a natural habitat put an end to all the pollinators that inhabited the ecosystem.

There is increasing awareness of insects and other pollinating animals for agriculture worldwide; In fact, in the long term, they are basically the only ones responsible when it comes to growing food and without them agriculture could collapse.

There are simple solutions to avoid their collapse. Studies in Europe and North America have found that it is possible to increase the population of pollinating insects by planting strips of wild flowers near crops and leaving patches of natural vegetation, such as trees and forests. These practices can also increase the population of natural predators, decreasing the need to use pesticides.

Comment: While China may be suffering the worst of plummeting insect numbers, its a similar story throughout much of the 'civilized' world. It's also worth noting that not every decline in insect species has been directly correlated with loss of habitat or excessive use of pesticides and herbicides: Nearly 100 species of frogs, toads and salamanders wiped out by fungus

See also:

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People 2

Survey shows quarter of Americans feel they have no one to confide in

Ben Renner
StudyFinds
Thu, 30 May 2019 20:18 UTC
sad, depression, loneliness

Depression is a courageous biological strategy to help us survive
When you're sad or stressed, do you have someone you can reach out to in confidence for help? A new survey suggests millions of Americans may be forced to bottle up their emotions and secrets when it comes to having someone to confide in.

The survey, commissioned by the counseling service BetterHelp, found that a quarter of the 2,000 adults questioned didn't have someone to privately turn to for their their private struggles or thoughts. Seven in ten participants admitted that when sharing their feelings with a co-worker, friend, or romantic partner, they tend hold back their true feelings. And a staggering 90% of participants say they downplay their emotions so they don't burden or worry a loved one.

The study segmented the participants by age. On the whole, participants between the ages of 18 and 30 are much more withdrawn than participants over 50 years old when discussing potentially anxiety-inducing topics like finances, job stress, parents and family, or other friends, with a partner.
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Pistol

Mom cries foul as cops say teen shot herself in mouth while cuffed behind her back

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 29 May 2019 20:05 UTC
Sarah Wilson
It's been nine months since police claim 19-year-old Sarah Wilson allegedly got a hold of a gun and killed herself in police custody while her hands were cuffed behind her back. Since then, her mother has been grieving and also crying foul after police are sticking by the story and refuse to release any information.

As TFTP reported at the time, Wilson allegedly committed suicide on July 25, 2018, during a traffic stop near the intersection of Berkley Avenue and Wilson Road, according to the Chesapeake Police Department. According to police, while handcuffed with her hands behind her back, Wilson was able to acquire a Taurus Judge handgun, place it in her mouth, and pull the trigger.

Dawn Wilson, Sarah's mother has since come forward to speak out about the inconsistencies in the case.
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Airplane

Russia suspends 550 commercial pilots amid 'serious problems' in aviation industry


RT
Wed, 29 May 2019 15:50 UTC
Burnt Sukhoi Superjet-100 crash-landing
© AFP
The burnt fuselage of the Sukhoi Superjet-100 after a crash-landing at the Sheremetyevo airport crash.
The recent deadly crash-landing of a Sukhoi Superjet-100 was a result of the poor state of Russia's aviation industry, with pilots lacking qualification and outdated safety regulations, the country's Prosecutor General said.

Since 2017, 550 commercial pilots have suspended and 160 flight certificates annulled in the country after prosecutorial inspections, Yury Chaika told MPs, as he appeared before parliament on Wednesday.

"The issue of dedicated training of pilots still remains a pressing one," he warned. Many aviation training centers lack qualified teachers and hardware to operate effectively. Two such centers could not properly train pilots and had to be shut own. There were also cases of aviators taking to the skies after incomplete training programs, the Prosecutor General said.

The state aviation safety program hasn't been updated in Russia since 2008 and doesn't meet the international requirements anymore, he pointed out. There's also no one in government specifically tasked with overseeing this program and how it's being implemented.

Comment: Recent airline crashes run against trend toward safer flying
Worldwide, there were more than 50 fatal airline accidents a year through the early and mid-1990s, claiming well over 1,000 lives annually, according to figures compiled by the Flight Safety Foundation. Fatalities dropped from 1,844 in 1996 to just 59 in 2017, then rose to 561 last year and 209 already this year.

Nearly half of the airline deaths in 2018 and 2019 occurred during the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets in Indonesia and Ethiopia. In each case, investigators are examining the role of flight software that pushed the nose of the plane down based on faulty sensor readings.

That raises concern about safety around automated flight controls, said William Waldock, an expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

"Pilots are not being trained as much as pilots as they are system operators and system managers," he said. "So when something happens and the automation fails, they get flummoxed."
See also: Experts puzzled by 2018 spike in air fatalities - 6 big passenger plane crashes

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Card - MC

Nearly 25% of Americans incur debt just to pay for necessities like food

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
Thu, 30 May 2019 00:00 UTC
credit cards
Even though we are told the economy is doing great, all the evidence shows that main street Americans are struggling more and more every day. A recent report claimed that the costs of goods have risen to the point that 25% must use debt to pay for necessities, such as food.

According to a new Experian report that came out last week, Americans have an average of $6,506 in credit card debt. But some expenses are weighing much more heavily on the credit cards of the average American...

Necessities, like food and rent, are being put on credit cards. A full 23% of Americans say that paying for basic necessities such as rent, utilities, and food contributes the most to their credit card debt, according to a new survey of approximately 2,200 U.S. adults that CNBC Make It performed in conjunction with Morning Consult. Another 12% say medical bills are the biggest portion of their debt. Medical bills additionally likely contribute to the purchases of food on a credit card.

This news isn't shocking unless you believe the mainstream media's glorification of the false "recovery" we've experienced since the Great Recession of a decade ago. American households have taken on historic levels of debt, which will crush them in the next economic downturn.

Comment: See also:

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Bizarro Earth

After ousting president who wisely refused unfair association deal, Ukraine now blames EU for bad integration pact


RT
Thu, 30 May 2019 17:32 UTC
Ukraine protester flag statue maiden riots
© Reuters
The fountain on Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, February 21, 2014
Kiev has endured trade imbalances with most of its European partners, according to the latest data from the country's statistics agency. Ukraine is still struggling to make its domestic products meet the rigorous EU standards.

In the first quarter of the current year alone, the overall trade deficit with the European Union totaled $535 million. Europe's number one economy, Germany, contributed most to the ever-widening gap.

Ukraine signed the controversial association agreement with the EU five years ago, shortly after the Maidan revolution brought down the government of then-president Viktor Yanukovich, who had rejected the association deal. The political part of the agreement has been in effect since September 2014 and the economic part has de-facto operated from January 2016.

Comment: In the West's view, Ukraine was never meant to be more than a buffer against Russia, and by dangling the remote possibility of EU and NATO membership, a continual irritant on Russia's south-east border.

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Fire

Man sets himself ablaze near White House, dies after being rushed to hospital

Dan Mangan & Kevin Breuninger
CNBC
Wed, 29 May 2019 13:05 UTC
man sets himself on fire
An unidentified man set himself on fire early Wednesday afternoon in front of sightseers on the Ellipse park in downtown Washington, D.C., not far from the White House, authorities said.

The man, identified Thursday as Arnav Gupta of Bethesda, Maryland, died of his injuries later Wednesday after being transported to a local hospital, U.S. park police said.

The Ellipse is a 52-acre park area that lies south of the White House and north of the National Mall, in the heart of Washington. The fire occurred just north of the Washington Monument.

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No Entry

Twitter slaps ban on researcher who exposed journalist ties to Antifa


RT
Thu, 30 May 2019 17:22 UTC
antifa flags
© Reuters/Stephanie Keith/File
A researcher based in Germany was suspended from Twitter on the same day he published an article exposing the troubling connections of more than a dozen journalists to Antifa. There was no official explanation for the ban.

On Wednesday, the journal Quillette published a lengthy article by the Stuttgart-based researcher Eoin Lenihan, mapping a network of connections between fifteen Twitter-verified journalists and "Antifa" activists they covered - often approvingly and unquestioningly.

Comment: Eoin Lenihan's article: It's real: The journalists writing about Antifa are often their cheerleaders

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NPC

It's real: The journalists writing about Antifa are often their cheerleaders

Eoin Lenihan
Quillette
Wed, 29 May 2019 16:32 UTC
antifa
© Andy Ngo
Antifa thugs
On February 1, 2017, Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to give a talk about free speech at the University of California, Berkeley. But he was prevented from speaking by a group of 150 or so masked, black-clad members of a then-obscure movement calling itself "Antifa." The protestors caused $100,000 worth of damage to the campus and injured six people as they threw rocks and Molotov cocktails. Nine months later, again at Berkeley, an "anti-Marxist" rally descended into violence as approximately 100 masked Antifa members harassed journalists and beat rally organizers and attendees.

Berkeley was where Antifa rose to national attention, but it hasn't been the only place where the group has engaged in sustained acts of violence. At a Washington, D.C. Unite the Right rally in August 2018, Antifa members hurled objects at police and assaulted journalists. In Portland, Oregon, violent street clashes involving Antifa have become regular events. Notwithstanding claims that Antifa is a peaceful, "anti-fascist community-defense group," it has adopted tactics that often are more violent than those of the right-wing movements that the group opposes.
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