Society's ChildS


Cow Skull

You reap what you sow: Who's hit hardest by Russian trade ban?

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© Reuters/Brian Snyder
Germany and Poland will lose the most trade with Russia, and neighboring Finland and Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia will lose a bigger proportion of their GDP. Norway will see fish sales to Russia disappear, and US damages would be very limited.

Russia has banned imports of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy products from the 28 countries of the EU, the US, Canada, Norway, and Australia for one year.

EU trade is heavily dependent on Russian food imports. Last year Russia bought $16 billion worth of food from the bloc, or about 10 percent of total exports, according to Eurostat.

In terms of losses, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands - the top three EU food suppliers to Russia in 2013 - will be hit hardest. Food for Russia makes up around 3.3 percent of total German exports.

French Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said his government is already working together with Germany and Poland to reach a coordinated policy on the new Russian sanction regime.

Last year, Ireland exported €4.5 million worth of cheese to Russia, and not being able to do so this year is a big worry, Simon Coveney, the country's agriculture minister, said.


Comment: We can't say the EU didn't have it coming. This is what you get for bowing down and caving in to U.S. diktat like the sniveling cowards you are.


Extinguisher

Ukraine's self-destruction: Unique church shelled, burnt to the ground

Gorlovka church
© gorlovka-eparhia.com.ua
A unique wooden Orthodox church has burned to the ground after being hit by an artillery shell in Gorlovka. The city is located in Ukraine's Donetsk region - the site of ongoing bloody confrontations between Kiev's military and self-defense troops.

Blagoveshchensky Cathedral was completely destroyed as the city came under heavy shelling on Thursday. No one was injured in the attack, Gorlovka's diocesan administration website reported.

The 23-meter tall wooden structure was erected in 2008. It was initially built on a different site, and had been moved to its newest location. Building works on the church only finished in June.

According to the Gorlovka diocese, it was a "unique" structure built entirely of pine wood, with no nails. Local children enjoyed the church playground, which was surrounded by flower beds, pines, and cypresses.

They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place - but that rule did not apply to Blagoveshchensky Cathedral. The church survived a bombing just over one week ago, when shells landed on its territory, several meters away from the building and playground.

Several other churches have sustained damage since the beginning of the bloody conflict in east Ukraine. Five clerics have been killed, according to Orthodox news website pravmir.ru.


Hearts

Four-year-old girl swept from her parents in Boxing Day tsunami is reunited with her family 10 years later

  • Parents who lost their two children in the 2004 tsunami claim to have found their daughter 10 years later
  • Raudhatul Jannah was given up for dead by her family
  • Mother says her brother spotted a girl who looked like the long-lost girl
  • Jannah was rescued by a fisherman and raised by the fisherman's mother, who called her Wenni
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Raudhatul Jannah (centre) is embraced by her mother Jamaliah (left) and grandmother (right) after being reunited in Meulaboh, Indonesia 10 years after they were separated.
An Indonesian girl has been reunited with her family 10 years after she was swept away by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, her mother claims.

Four-year-old Raudhatul Jannah and her seven-year-old brother were separated from their parents while holding onto a floating piece of wood in the tsunami waters, when it hit her West Aceh home on December 26, 2004, reported DPA.

Jannah's mother Jamaliah, 42, and her husband survived and searched for their children, but stopped after one month, assuming the children had died in the devastating tsunami. In June, Jamaliah's brother spotted a girl who bore a resemblance to Jannah walking home from school and made inquiries about her.

Take 2

New Jersey cop resigns after video of him denouncing the Constitution goes viral

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© YouTubeA still photo of the YouTube video showing Helmetta Special Police Officer Richard Recine talking about the U.S. Constitution.
Richard Recine's 36-year career as a police officer came crashing down this week after he was caught on camera saying police do not have to follow the Constitution because President Barack Obama doesn't either.

On Thursday, Recine - who had retired from the Franklin police force in 2006 and was working part time here as a special police officer - submitted his resignation.

"I don't want to give a black eye to law enforcement," Recine, 59, said Thursday in an exclusive interview with MyCentralJersey.com. "People are saying some really nasty stuff about cops. I don't want all officers painted with the same brush."

Borough Administrator Herbert Massa said the resignation was accepted by Police Director Robert Manney, who had called Recine's comments an "embarrassment."

Stock Up

Latin America will be huge beneficiary of Russia's import ban

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© Reuters / Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Russia's 1-year ban on food products from the EU, US, Canada, and Norway will force Russia to increase food imports from Latin America, specifically Ecuador, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.

Russia will ban meat, dairy, fruit, and vegetable imports from countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, which opens the door to Russia's partners on the other side of the world.

Russia will have to fill an 8 percent gap in its total agricultural imports that it sources from the EU, USA, Canada, Australia, and Norway. The Netherlands, Germany, and Poland are currently Russia's biggest food suppliers in the EU.

Meat and dairy products from Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay may appear on Russian supermarket shelves as early as September, said Julia Trofimova, a at Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia's consumer watchdog.

Star of David

Jewish expedition of 'Mitzvah tanks' will visit Crimea during trip across Russia to promote Judaism

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A still from Ruptly video
Rabbis and students of Jewish religious schools from the US, Europe, and Israel have set off on a journey across Russia in special vehicles known as "Mitzvah tanks." As part of the trip, the expedition will visit Crimea to promote Judaism there.

The Mitzvah tanks began their journey on Thursday, with plans to visit nearly 70 cities across Russia - including Volgograd, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Orenburg, Vladimir, Simferopol, Yalta, and Sevastopol.

For the first time in history, Crimea was in included on the itinerary.

Arrow Up

Naomi Klein: 'Our economic model is at war with life on Earth'

This Changes Everything
© Amazon.comThe new book by author and activist Naomi Klein will explore how our current "economic model is at war with life on Earth."
The book's title is not elusive: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate.

Due for release in September, the anticipated new work by Canadian journalist, activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein has now been previewed in a video trailer that appears to lay out its main themes and central argument.

"In December of 2012, a complex systems scientists walked up to the podium at the American Geophysics Union to present a paper," the narrator of the video - Klein herself - says as footage begins of urban high rise developments and burnt out croplands.

And the voice-over continues:
The paper was titled, "Is the Earth Fucked?" His answer was: "Yeah. Pretty much."

That's where the road we're on is taking us, but that has less to do with carbon than with capitalism.

Our economic model is at war with life on Earth.

We can't change the laws of nature, but we can change our broken economy.

And that's why climate change isn't just a disaster. It's also our best chance to demand - and build - a better world.

Change or be changed. But make no mistake... this changes everything.
Watch:

Pirates

Iraq's horror: Hundreds of Yazidi women taken captive by ISIS after US carries out limited airstrikes

ISIS
© ReutersFighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Hundreds of Yazidi sect women have been captured by militants from the Islamic State group, formerly known as ISIS, according to media reports citing Iraqi officials.

Kamil Amin, a spokesman from Iraq's Human Rights Ministry, says hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority have been taken captive. He said that the women are under 35 years old and are being held at a school in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, which is now under IS control.

The ministry learned of the situation from the victims' families, AP reports.

It comes after the US carried out limited airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) artillery, which had been targeting the Kurdish capital Erbil. An end date for the strikes has not yet been established, the White House said in statement on Friday.

Comment: Another western-created monster takes a life of its own. It rapes and plunders a country already destroyed by the forceful imposition of western 'democracy'. And now the west makes a half-hearted attempt to put the monster back in its cage?


Bulb

Snowden warned by Assange to be 'extremely cautious' if he travels outside Russia

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© Reuters / Tobias Schwarz
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has warned former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that leaving Russia could be dangerous, even with his new residence permit.

Speaking via videoconference to an audience at a freedom of speech convention in Mexico City, Assange said that Snowden could face threats to his physical well-being if he decides to leave Russia.

"Of course our advice is that he be extremely cautious in doing so for his physical security," the WikiLeaks founder said, according to AFP.

As RT reported, Snowden was officially granted a residence permit from Russia earlier on Thursday. Effective August 1, the permit will last for three years and allows Snowden to travel anywhere within Russia, as well as beyond the country's borders for up to three months.

Sheriff

New Jersey cop: 'Obama decimated the Constitution, we don't have to' follow it

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© Screenshot from YouTube user Paul Rasmussen
Police officers in New Jersey swear to uphold the United States Constitution as part of their oath of office. But one cop has decided that, because ‒ in his eyes ‒ President Barack Obama doesn't follow the document, he doesn't have to either.

Special Police Officer Richard Recine, a part-time employee of the Borough of Helmetta Police Department, was caught on video saying, "Obama has decimated the friggin' Constitution, so I don't give a damn. Because if he doesn't follow the Constitution we don't have to."

The statement was made in response to resident Steve Wronko, who was at the municipal building to serve an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request after being kicked out of the Helmetta Regional Animal Shelter earlier in the week, and to complain about recent health code violations there and nepotism stemming from Mayor Nancy Martin.

In 2011, Martin made her son, Brandon Metz, the head of the Helmetta Regional Animal Shelter. She also appointed him to Animal Cruelty Investigator, Borough Laborer, Water Meter Reader, and Certified Recycling Coordinator, according to the town website. A Facebook page called Reform Helmetta Regional Animal Shelter claims that there are recurring inhumane practices and state health code violations