Society's Child

UNICEF to RT: 'Extraordinary devastation' - Mosul healthcare inadequate months after 'liberation'

RT
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 09:50 UTC

The healthcare system in Mosul is still far from adequate due to the "massive extent of devastation" inflicted, more than six months since the end of the battle for the city, UNICEF's representative in Iraq told RT.

The situation in Mosul remains tough, with its residents having extremely limited access to health facilities, despite all the efforts of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and other humanitarian organizations, Peter Hawkins said. The official has recently paid a personal visit to Mosul to hand over equipment to a public health laboratory and witnessed the situation on the ground.

"What we need to understand is the extent of the problem. This is a massive city. Mosul city probably faced one of the biggest urban warfares since World War II and 2.2 - 2.4 million people affected. It's an enormous challenge to everybody to try and clear everything up and get the people working again," Hawkins told RT.

US stock market plunges again - Dow down another 1,000 points

RT
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 21:54 UTC

All US stock market indexes were down when they closed amid a volatile trading week that some analysts say could be on pace to match the 2008 financial crisis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 1,032 points on Thursday, or 4.15 percent, closing at 23,860.46. The Nasdaq Composite was down 274 points, closing at 6,777.16, and the S&P 500 lost 100 points to close at 2.581.

After plunging 666 points last Friday and 1,175 points on Monday, the Dow seemed to stabilize at just under 25,000 on Tuesday, oscillating between 600 points up at its highest and 560 points down at its lowest.

Comment: See also:

Doper's delight: Latvian coach says evil Russians may spike noble Latvian athletes' drinks with doping agents

Inessa Sinchougova
RT / Fort Russ
Wed, 07 Feb 2018 22:15 UTC

The head coach of the Latvian skeleton team Dainis Dukurs stated that during the Olympics, Latvian athletes need to be extra careful so that 'nobody' can taint their food or drinks with doping.

He recalled that Russians "don't think favourably" of the Latvian skeleton team after the scandal with doping.

"Reading what they wrote about us in their media and social networks, it's like it was us who initiated the Richard McLaren report and the verification of the Denis Oswald commission," added Dukurs.

So, just in case any other athletes get accused of doping - you can always say the Russians spiked your drinks.

Comment: Dope all you want, world athletes. You can always blame Russia.

UK: Anti-extremist think tank blasts Foreign Office's decision to pass out hijabs

RT
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 22:04 UTC

The Foreign Office decision to hand out free hijabs on World Hijab Day has been branded "ridiculous." A counter-extremist think tank hit out at the FO for supporting an "oppressive culture."

Senior officials at the Foreign Office (FO) were offered the chance to wear the hijab to acknowledge "liberation, respect and security," on #WorldHijabDay, February 1.

Maajid Nawaz, head of the Quilliam Foundation, criticized the department for "supporting World Hijab Day and the institutional oppression of women through modesty culture, while brave Iranian women risk all to remove hijab tyranny."

FO staff chose to wear the headscarf - which covers the head and neck while still revealing the face - on the same day fellow women took to the streets in ultra-conservative Iran to burn the veils, Nawaz said. Women in the Middle-Eastern Muslim country are forced to wear the veil or risk being arrested and jailed.

NY high school cancels Hunchback of Notre Dame musical after students complain that Esmerelda has been 'whitewashed'

RT
Wed, 07 Feb 2018 21:47 UTC

A New York high school has cancelled a Hunchback of Notre Dame play after students complained about casting the main character as a white woman.

Ithaca High School group Students United Ithaca wrote a letter in January requesting the role of Esmeralda be re-cast after a white student was chosen to play the Roma character.

The students described the actress as being the "epitome of whiteness," due to her blonde hair and hazel eyes. "At best, this is cultural appropriation. At worst, it is whitewashing, a racist casting practice which has its roots in minstrelsy," the letter wrote.

The group called on the school to recast the role with some of "the many talented brown and black female students," at Ithaca. Alternatively, it urged the school to choose a different play with new auditions.

Comment: Who said Esmerelda was black?

Although it shouldn't matter, the source material for Hunchback, Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, does not specify Esmerelda's race. "Esmeralda in the book is not 100% Romani (Gypsy). Her mother is a French women (sic) and while her Father could have been a Gypsy, it is never actually mentioned who was her father," one blog about the novel wrote in a 2011 post.

Terrified 12yo girl called suicide prevention line convinced she was going to die as bullies banged on her toilet door

Richard Hartley-Parkinson
Metro UK
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 21:18 UTC

Children as young as nine have phoned the Papyrus HOPELineUK service, the suicide prevention charity said. Recent callers included a 12-year-old girl who said she was convinced she was going to die after her school's attempts to stop her being bullied only made the situation worse.

Papyrus chief executive Ged Flynn told the Press Association: 'A girl of 12 was ringing from the school. '

She said: "The school has heard from me, and my mum and dad, and my uncles and grandmother that I'm being bullied.

"The school keeps saying they've fixed it. I can't go on any more. I'm ringing from the girls' toilets and I'm terrified. They're banging on the door now".

Deadly Israeli siege tightens: Gaza hospitals shut down, total power blackout by end of February

Ali Abunimah
The Electronic Intifada
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC

Emergency generators have run out of fuel in at least 19 health facilities in the Gaza Strip as Israel's deadly decade-old siege on the territory tightens.

The health ministry in Gaza announced Tuesday that the generators have shut down in 16 primary care clinics and three major hospitals, but that medical staff have been ordered to stay at their posts and do what they can to assist patients.

On Tuesday, the UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA warned that "emergency fuel for critical facilities in Gaza will become exhausted within the next 10 days," unless donors step in to prevent a "humanitarian catastrophe." But for patients and medical personnel on the front lines, the catastrophe is already happening, and it is only the latest chapter in the forced collapse of Gaza's healthcare system.

At the al-Nasr children's hospital, head of intensive care Dr. Raed Mahdi said that the lives of dozens of children in his unit are at risk.

According to the health ministry, Mahdi said overcrowding and pressure on medical staff and supplies had reached a crisis point at his hospital as children were being transferred there from other facilities that had lost all power.

Comment: Israel destroyed Gaza. And now it expects the international community to pay for fixing it? This is unthinkable! How do other countries continue - for decades! - to condone Israel's actions and acquiesce as if it has global impunity for anything it does? It is a terrorist state cloaked in and dependent upon its ability to manipulate the belief systems of others in order to spread its evil and agenda. Blood is on the hands of Israel and the carnage is escalating.

US military investigation launched into death of green beret, SEAL Team 6

Matthew Cole
The Intercept
Wed, 07 Feb 2018 10:19 UTC

A criminal investigation into the death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, who was killed last June while deployed in Bamako, Mali, has prompted a broad internal military audit and investigation into SEAL Team 6, according to a military official and two others briefed on the case.

Investigators suspect the two SEALs being investigated in the Melgar case were stealing cash from operational funds used for informants and other contingencies while deployed. The new investigation aims to determine whether such thefts are a routine practice among the members of the elite counterterrorism unit, according to the military official and two other people familiar with the financial investigation. All three sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. The SEALs have denied stealing the cash.

The additional investigation sheds new light on the homicide case, which gained national attention last fall, and threatens to further tarnish the reputation of SEAL Team 6, the U.S. military's most storied and mythologized command.

Comment: Misconduct? Seal Team 6 - under criminal investigation for cover-ups, theft, lies, murders, and war crimes - is supported by the US government, condoned by the military and funded by taxpayer money.

According to the Pentagon: War in Afghanistan to cost $45B in 2018

Ellen Mitchell
The Hill
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 06:39 UTC

The Defense Department's top Asia official on Tuesday told Senate lawmakers that the war in Afghanistan will cost $45 billion this year.

Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, said the figure includes roughly $13 billion for U.S. forces in the country, $5 billion for Afghan forces, $780 million for economic aid and the rest for logistical support.

Schriver was speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in its first hearing on the war since President Trump announced a new Afghanistan strategy six months ago. The Pentagon official could not give a cost estimate for the new strategy.

Lawmakers were critical of the 2018 costs and questioned whether the administration's plan will force the Taliban to the table for peace talks and end the war, now in its 17th year.

Comment: And this is only one military operation's cost.

India claims approval of flights to Israel through SA airspace, Saudis deny report

Sputnik
Wed, 07 Feb 2018 20:11 UTC

Earlier, citing its sources in the Israeli flight industry, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Saudi Arabia had granted Air India permission to conduct direct flights from Delhi to Tel Aviv. According to Reuters, a spokesman for Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation denied the report, saying the agency had not given Air India approval to operate direct flights from Delhi to Tel Aviv.

If finally confirmed, a newly projected air route to Tel Aviv will be historic in every possible way: it'll cost passengers less money and time, but, most importantly, it will potentially signify a new era in Saudi-Israeli ties. The move would essentially mean that the flight duration would be reduced by two and a half hours compared to the current route, which would cut fuel costs and make tickets more affordable.

The only currently operating rival to Air India is Israeli El Al, which flies an 8-hour route to Mumbai via southern Yemen. As New Dehli is regarded as a new promising destination and has no direct routes to Israel, the airline will be getting a 750,000 euro grant for launching a new route.

Earlier, the airline sought Israel Airports Authority's approval for flights to and from Israel, but the question had not been seriously tabled until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India last month. The potential move is seen as a nod to India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's influence in the region, who is due to arrive in the contested West Bank on February 10. Last year, he became the first Indian premier to go to Israel on an official visit.

Comment: Flights of fancy...something gained in translation?

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Kevin Smith

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Ruth

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codis

.. .. Let's go pfhizer!! [Link]

Jibrish

Let's go pfhizer!! [Link]

Jibrish

Society's Child

UNICEF to RT: 'Extraordinary devastation' - Mosul healthcare inadequate months after 'liberation'

US stock market plunges again - Dow down another 1,000 points

Doper's delight: Latvian coach says evil Russians may spike noble Latvian athletes' drinks with doping agents

UK: Anti-extremist think tank blasts Foreign Office's decision to pass out hijabs

NY high school cancels Hunchback of Notre Dame musical after students complain that Esmerelda has been 'whitewashed'

Terrified 12yo girl called suicide prevention line convinced she was going to die as bullies banged on her toilet door

Deadly Israeli siege tightens: Gaza hospitals shut down, total power blackout by end of February

US military investigation launched into death of green beret, SEAL Team 6

According to the Pentagon: War in Afghanistan to cost $45B in 2018

India claims approval of flights to Israel through SA airspace, Saudis deny report

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