Society's ChildS


Airplane

French investigators say detected signals presumed to come from EgyptAir MS804 black boxes

EgyptAir MS804 black box search
© Alexandre Groyer / Marine Nationale / AFP
A French ship has detected signals deep under the Mediterranean Sea, believed to be from the black boxes of EgyptAir Flight MS804. The plane crashed last month, killing all 66 passengers and crew on board.

Citing a statement from Egypt's investigation committee, the Civil Aviation Ministry said the signals were received from the French vessel 'Laplace.'

France's Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) also confirmed that a signal has been detected from one of the black boxes. The BEA is the French body responsible for the investigation of civil aviation accidents.

Stop

How Los Angeles teenagers compelled police to back down and remove military-grade weaponry from their high schools

Teens protest police
Los Angeles high school students and organizers forced police to remove grenade launchers and M-16s from their arsenals.

A coalition of Los Angeles high school students and grassroots organizers just accomplished the unthinkable. After nearly two years of sit-ins and protests, they forced the police department for the second-largest public school district in the United States to remove grenade launchers, M-16 rifles, a mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle and other military-grade weaponry from its arsenal.

But the coalition did not stop there. Members took over a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board meeting in February to call for proof that the arms had been returned to the Department of Defense—a demand they eventually won in the form of an itemized invoice for every weapon sent back to the DoD.

Going further, the coalition successfully pressed board members of the school district to apologize for greenlighting the policing of K-12 students with weapons of war.

"I now understand that especially in the context of the many conflicts between law enforcement and communities of color across the nation, our participation in this program may have created perceptions about the role of our district and our school police that my silence exacerbated," Steve Zimmer, the president of the board of education, wrote in a May 19 letter to the groups Fight for the Soul of the Cities and Labor Community Strategy Center, which played a key role in the campaign. "Please accept my apology for any and all of my actions that contributed to feelings of betrayal and injury and interrupted our important collaborative efforts for equity and justice in all aspects of public education."

Comment: It would take the same or similar efforts by several orders of magnitude to effect any real, lasting and systemic changes like this one in the U.S.; but sadly, the American populace and its leaders appear too far gone in pathology and dissociation for such a change to occur.


Heart - Black

19yo woman in Pakistan burned alive for turning down marriage proposal

Pakistan protest
© AFPfile Photo
A 19-year-old Pakistani girl who was beaten, had petrol poured over her and was put on fire for refusing a marriage proposal, succumbed to the wounds in hospital after a day of struggling for life.

Maria Sadaqat, the victim, was taken to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) reportedly after being tortured by the family of the would-be-groom who asked to marry her but was turned down, local media reported.

Though doctors previously described the woman's condition as stable and improving, on Wednesday she died from sustained injuries.

Sadaqat, a teacher at a private school, was admitted to hospital with 85 percent burns on Tuesday.

She was attacked by at least five people as she returned home from work, the police reported. The woman cried for help, but it took her neighbors a considerable amount of time to respond since her house is located in a remote area. By the time the help came, she had already suffered heavy injuries.

Sadaqat managed to identify two of the attackers, the police said, also adding that one of them worked together with the victim at school.

The police has launched an investigation against the five suspects. Three of them were taken in custody immediately after the incident, while others are currently being sought, Pakistan's SAMAA news channel reported.

The province's chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, has obliged law enforcement authorities to draw up a preliminary investigation report on the case as soon as possible.

Arrow Down

Culture of hate: Female MP receives 600 rape threats for launching campaign to end sexist-cyber bullying

Labor MP Jess Phillips
© Jess Phillips MP / YouTube
Labour MP Jess Phillips received 600 rape threats the night after launching a campaign to end sexist cyber-bullying.

The MP for Birmingham Yardley hit out at Twitter for allowing "mass bullying," adding that she has received around 5,000 generally abusive tweets since beginning the campaign.

Phillips told BBC's Victoria Derbyshire program she would need to hire someone "full time" to block all the abusive messages she receives on social media.

The MP is among a group of leading female politicians, including former Labour leadership candidate Yvette Cooper, who launched Recl@im the internet - a campaign to stop hate speech and abuse online.

Research by think tank Demos found that over 9,000 "aggressively misogynistic" tweets are sent each day worldwide.

Comment:


TV

Americans consume 10 hours of corporate media 'programming' a day

mass media
If you allow someone to pump hours of "programming" into your mind every single day, it is inevitable that it is eventually going to have a major impact on how you view the world. In America today, the average person consumes approximately 10 hours of information, news and entertainment a day, and there are 6 giant media corporations that overwhelmingly dominate that market. In fact, it has been estimated that somewhere around 90 percent of the "programming" that we constantly feed our minds comes from them, and of course they are ultimately controlled by the elite of the world. So is there any hope for our country as long as the vast majority of the population is continually plugging themselves into this enormous "propaganda matrix"?

Stock Down

Sanction backfire: Finland Valio dairy closes factory due to Russian embargo

cows
© Andrew Yates / Reuters
One of Finland's biggest dairy companies, Valio, has announced it is shutting down a facility in the city of Tampere due to losses as a result of Moscow's food embargo against the EU.

According to the company, it started redundancy talks with the current 50 staff at the Tampere plant which once employed about 165 people. The dairy was established in 1962 and processed an average of 74 million kilograms of raw milk per year, collected from 490 farms around the facility.

Valio said it has lost significant volume of milk sales over the past three years. In 2015 it moved production of milk from Tampere to other facilities, and more than 70 workers lost their jobs. Tampere then continued to produce special types of milk and a type of soft cheese.

Comment:
bike meme
"Damn Russians!"



Eye 1

Houston math tutor facing 20 years in prison for sexting with 17-year-old student

Aldo Leiva
© Harris County Sheriff's Office
The age of consent for sex does not apply to sexting, as 51-year-old Aldo Leiva, a Houston math tutor, learned the hard way after his affair with a 17-year-old student was exposed to law enforcement - along with the racy pictures she had sent him.

Although the age of consent in Texas is 17, it is still considered child pornography to be in possession of nude pictures of anyone under 18.

As a result, Leiva is now facing 20 years in prison and permanent placement on the sex offender registry because the mother of a student with whom he was having a relationship discovered lewd text messages and photographs sent to him by her daughter and reported him to school personnel at the Houston Independent School District Police Department.

Although Leiva was not a teacher at the school that the teen attended, he was a participant in its tutoring fellowship program, which is where he met her.

Ambulance

Unknown drug kills 2 young people at Florida music festival, and sends 57 others to the hospital

music festival
© Vivek Prakash / Reuters
An undetected drug allegedly passed around at a music festival in Tampa, Florida killed two young people and sickened 57 others, with one attendee describing the concert as "really uncontrolled." Meanwhile, police are looking into the causes of death.

So far, Florida residents Katie Bermudez of Kissimmee, and Alex Haynes of Melbourne are the only two confirmed deaths. Both were rushed from the Sunset Music Festival in Tampa to a hospital over the weekend.

Haynes, 22, was hospitalized on Saturday, the first day of the festival, and was pronounced dead on Sunday. Bermudez, 21, died on Monday, the day after she was hospitalized, Tampa Police spokesman Steve Hegarty said.

"The social worker said, 'Your daughter Katie is on a ventilator. You need to get to the hospital,'" Nancy Bermudez told Fox affiliate WTVT, recalling a 3am phone call from St. Joseph's Hospital.

Bermudez's symptoms included high fever and brain swelling, but doctors couldn't find a way to save her.

"We don't know [what happened]... They have an autopsy going on," her mother Nancy said. "The hospital didn't know; they were bewildered with how to treat this."

Red Flag

Cocaine use in London highest in Europe for 2nd year running, according to sewage analysis

cocaine
© US DEA / Reuters
Londoners' cocaine use is the highest in Europe for the second year in a row, an analysis of the city's sewage by the EU's drug monitoring agency has revealed.

The research, which examined wastewater samples in more than 60 European cities, showed that average daily concentration of cocaine in London's wastewater was 909mg per 1,000 people last year - up from 737mg in 2014.


Heart - Black

New report says 11,700 slaves are trapped in modern Britain's 'shadow economy'

prostitute
© Reuters
Slavery is rampant in modern Britain, with an estimated 11,700 people in enforced servitude, according to a new report.

While The Global Slavery Index applauded the UK for having "led the world" with its Modern Slavery Act, the organization highlights the plight of thousands of immigrants who live as forced workers in the shadow economy.

Many are trapped in debt bondage, forced to work in low or semi-skilled jobs, while others are locked in apartments where they produce drugs or work in the sex industry.

Vietnamese children have been discovered held against their will, made to cultivate cannabis in Manchester apartments.

Comment: See also: