Society's ChildS


Gavel

Climate change court cases are on the rise. Here's why.

Kit Knightly
Off-Guardian
Thu, 11 Apr 2024 00:00 UTC
climate change protestors
Yesterday, a group of senior women from Switzerland won what is being called a "landmark" human rights case concerning "Climate Change".

At a hearing in Strasbourg, the European Court of Human Rights found the government of Switzerland had violated the women's human rights by "failing to do enough" to combat the alleged effect of 'man-made climate change'.

Calling it a "decision that will set a precedent for future climate lawsuits", Reuters reports:
The European Court of Human Rights' ruling, in favour of the more than 2,000 Swiss women who brought the case, is expected to resonate in court decisions across Europe and beyond [...] The Swiss women, known as KlimaSeniorinnen and aged over 64, said their government's climate inaction put them at risk of dying during heatwaves. They argued their age and gender made them particularly vulnerable to such climate change impacts.
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TV

US ends annual training exercise with 'largest mass fly-off' of B-2A stealth bombers in years

Stefano D'Urso
The Aviationist
Fri, 19 Apr 2024 13:46 UTC
B-2 bombers plane
© U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Hailey FarrellB-2 Spirit stealth bombers assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing taxi on the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., April 15, 2024. Team Whiteman executed a mass fly-off of 12 B-2s to cap off the annual Spirit Vigilance exercise.
The U.S. Air Force just released photos of a pretty impressive display of airpower from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, where 12 B-2A Spirit stealth bombers executed a mass fly-off as part of exercise Spirit Vigilance on April 15, 2024. Spirit Vigilance is an annual exercise that allows Airmen to exercise their abilities to be always ready to execute global strike operations anytime, anywhere.

This is one of the largest, if not the largest, mass departures of B-2s in recent years, with 60% of the stealth bomber fleet involved. Until now, the largest was the mass fly-off of Spirit Vigilance 2022 with eight bombers. The video published together with the photos shows crews scrambling to their aircraft, before lining on the taxiway on their way to takeoff.


Comment: It's probably a good idea they vetted the footage before releasing it: Satellite photo reveals wreckage of $2 BILLION US B-2 Stealth bomber, landing gear gave way after emergency landing - reports


Comment: As has been become glaringly apparent in recent months, training and real world are two very different scenarios:

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Hiliter

Propaganda debunked: Ukrainian children 'kidnapped by Moscow' found in Germany


RT
Thu, 18 Apr 2024 13:51 UTC
Emergency refugee accommodation
© Sebastian Gollnow / picture alliance via Getty ImagesEmergency accommodation for refugees at the former Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany.
The revelation debunks Kiev's "myths," a Russian official accused of mass abductions has said.

Over 160 Ukrainian children allegedly "kidnapped by Russia" have been discovered living in Germany, the country's Federal Criminal Police (BKA) has confirmed.

The head of Ukrainian national police, Ivan Vygovsky, on Wednesday hailed the discovery, telling national media that he had discussed the issue with Holger Munch, president of the BKA, during a meeting earlier in this week.

Comment: Ukraine's accusations of 'kidnapping' have always been spurious, but who's really harming children in this conflict?

See also:

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Handcuffs

Australian tourist detained in India for tearing down pro-Palestine posters


RT
Thu, 18 Apr 2024 13:59 UTC
jewish tourist india
© X/MaktoobMediaA screenshot of a video of a heated exchange between the tourist from Australia and the locals in Kochi, Kerala, was published by Indian media on April 16, 2024.
A video of a Jewish woman arguing with Indians over anti-Israeli 'propaganda' has gone viral.

A Jewish woman from Australia was taken into police custody in the state of Kerala in southern India for tearing down posters supporting Palestine, Indian media have reported.

A video of a heated exchange between a woman and the locals, who questioned her move, has gone viral on social media. In the footage, the woman can be heard claiming that the posters promoted "racism and propaganda." The scene took place in the city of Kochi, known, among other things, as home to the oldest group of Jews in India, although just a handful of them remain.

Comment: See also:

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No Entry

No more Russian language on air in three months - Kiev


RT
Thu, 18 Apr 2024 08:36 UTC
FILE PHOTO: A tablet showing an address by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on national television.
© Igor Golovniov / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty ImagesFILE PHOTO: A tablet showing an address by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on national television.
Ukraine's goal of eradicating bilingual media content has almost been achieved, the government has claimed

Ukraine's ban on using the Russian language in the media will take full effect three months from now, Kiev's state language protection commissioner, Taras Kremin, has said.

Since gaining independence, Ukraine has been a bilingual nation, with most citizens able to speak or understand both Russian and Ukrainian. After the US-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, the new nationalist authorities adopted policies aimed at suppressing the Russian language, on the grounds of national unity and security.

Comment: The current policies of the Ukrainian government is what the collective west with few exceptions support. If voters in Western countries have difficulties finding out what their governments are about, keep the example of Ukraine in mind. if their government supports them, they might themselves not be far behind in how far they would be willing to go given the chance.
22 Nov, 2023 15:22
'There are no Russian-speaking Ukrainians' - Kiev
There is no such thing as a Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizen, Kiev's state language protection commissioner, Taras Kremin, has declared. In recent years, the country has introduced a frenzy of measures to sever historical and cultural ties with Russia, as it scrambles to strengthen the status of its own language despite accusations of prejudice against national minorities.

In an interview aired by the Ukrainian branch of the US state-run Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Kremin rejected the suggestion that some Ukrainians could be called "Russophones," describing the term as "a marker introduced by the Russian ideology."

"We are all Ukrainian citizens... Ukrainian is the dominant language in all spheres of public life. Regardless of whether it is national communities or foreigners, everyone in the country must have a command of the Ukrainian language," the ombudsman insisted.

Earlier this year, Kremin stated that Ukrainians who speak Russian should not be referred to as "Russian-speaking," claiming that the term had been used for decades by "Russian propaganda" to promote internal divisions in Ukraine. Citing a 2021 Constitutional Court ruling, he also insisted there were only Ukrainian citizens who had been "Russianized."

According to a March 2022 poll by the Sociological Group Rating, about 20% of Ukrainians considered Russian to be their native language. A Social Monitoring survey in 2021 suggested that more than 50% of Ukrainians were willing to read books and watch movies in Russian.

Ukrainian authorities embarked on a campaign to push Russian out of all areas of life immediately after the 2014 Western-backed Maidan coup. The measures sparked widespread public outrage and were among the key reasons behind the hostilities in Donbass.

In 2018, the Ukrainian Constitutional Court overturned a 2012 law granting regional status to the Russian language, while at the same time Kiev adopted initiatives seeking to curb its use in education, mass media, business, and culture.

Russia has repeatedly denounced Ukraine's language policies. President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow's military operation against its neighbor was partly to protect people who consider themselves part of Russian culture.

On Monday, the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, went as far as to deny the existence of Russian ethnic minorities, arguing that they had no special rights. The statement sparked outrage in Moscow, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying the remarks came from "the Nazis of the 21st century."
4 Apr, 2024 20:19
Zelensky's comedy partner slams campaign against Russian language
Boris Shefir co-founded the Kvartal 95 (District 95) comedy studio in 2003 with Zelensky and a group of their school friends. Most of these comedians and producers - including Shefir's brother, Sergey - followed Zelensky into politics, taking prime positions in his administration after he was elected president of Ukraine in 2019.

Shefir was not among them. Speaking to the Ukrainian branch of the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) outlet on Thursday, he said that he has had "no relationship" with Zelensky since the conflict with Russia began in 2022.

"For two years, I have not called or talked to him," Shefir said. "He is working with other people now. He does not communicate with me, does not call me. My calls remain unanswered."

"Well, you see, I speak Russian," he explained. "I love the Russian language, Russian culture...I can't watch Pushkin's monuments being destroyed in my country."


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X

Australia bins 35% of multi-billion dollar Covid vaccine supply

Rebekah Barnett
Dystopian Down Under
Fri, 12 Apr 2024 00:00 UTC
vaccine
As part of its pandemic response, the Australian government purchased 267.3 million doses of Covid vaccines, enough to vaccinate Australia's population of approximately 26 million people ten times over.

But figures released to me by the Department of Health (DOH) this week confirm that, three years into the vaccine program, only 70 million doses, or 26% of the 267.3 million doses purchased, have been administered, while 35% of vaccines doses have been wasted since the start of the vaccine rollout.

Last week, the Australian reported that more than 35% of Covid vaccines were being tossed out as of January due to oversupply. The revelation came from the DOH's public submission to the federal Covid inquiry.
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Cult

The "amazing tale" of how three billionaires plunged the world into climate catastrophism

Chris Morrison
The Daily Sceptic
Tue, 16 Apr 2024 07:00 UTC
Michael Bloomberg
Do you think that the constant catastrophising of weather and climate in the mainstream media, politics and science has just appeared by accident? Over the last few years, the BBC and the Guardian, as of one mind, decided to float improbable 'tipping point' scares under cover of 'scientists say', while UN officials concluded that we had two years to save a 'boiling' planet and the ubiquitous 'Jim' Dale has been given free rein to make it up as he goes along on Talk TV and GB News. Of course all this didn't suddenly happen. Each of these examples is testament to an extraordinary corruption of the true scientific process - an "amazing tale" according to political science writer Roger Pielke Jnr., "a story of how wealth and power sought to shape climate science in pursuit of political goals".
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MIB

Explosion rocks UK's only munitions filling factory, day after US shell plant bursts into flames

Jon Brady
Daily Mail
Wed, 17 Apr 2024 15:51 UTC
UK BAE explosion
Emergency services outside the BAE Systems Glascoed plant in Monmouthshire, South Wales
Locals living close to a BAE Systems weapons plant rocked by an explosion earlier today say the blast 'felt like an earthquake' as a shell went off.

The blast took place at the BAE Systems munitions factory in Glascoed, Monmouthshire shortly before 10.50am.

MailOnline understands the explosion relates to a single shell going off at the munitions filling factory, run by BAE, Europe's biggest military contractor.


Comment: One must bear in mind that the claim 'a single shell going off' cannot be verified.


Emergency services were deployed to the site, which is spread across a large field close to the south-eastern village; locals say the blast 'wasn't loud, but felt like an earthquake'.

Comment: Whilst there have been a myriad of suspect fires, explosions, derailments, and crashes, at Western food and energy suppliers, incidents at munitions factories seem to have been mostly occurring in Russia (and likely perpetrated by Western agents) - a selection of these reports can be found at the end.

Regarding the fire at the US munitions site, Mehr reports:
Fire breaks out at US ammunition factory

The US Army factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania that specializes in artillery ammunition caught fire on Monday afternoon, according to local media reports and eyewitnesses.

The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant started spewing black smoke shortly before 3pm local time. Local emergency services were summoned to deal with what was described as a "structure fire."

No further details were available.

The Joint Munitions Command (JMC) facility is owned by the US military but operated by General Dynamics-Ordnance and Tactical Systems. It makes 155mm and 105mm artillery projectiles, 120mm mortar rounds, 203mm naval shells, as well as a variety of smoke, illumination and incendiary rounds.

The US has been trying to ramp up production of artillery ammunition to supply Ukraine for its conflict with Russia.

Scranton is a community of about 75,000 residents in northeastern Pennsylvania. It is the birthplace of US President Joe Biden. He is scheduled to visit the town on Tuesday.


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MIB

Сyberattack strikes New York State Legislature whilst drafting state budget bill


Voice of Europe
Wed, 17 Apr 2024 15:38 UTC
Explosions et tremblement de terre à New York: la ville se réveille en panique
© UnsplashFILE
Early Wednesday, the bill drafting office of the New York state Legislature experienced what appears to be a cyberattack, according to officials. The full extent of the attack is still unclear, but officials confirmed that the bill drafting system has been offline since early Wednesday. This office plays a crucial role in printing legislation for state lawmakers at the Capitol in Albany, as reported by AP News.

The cyberattack coincides with the Legislature's efforts to finalize the state budget bills. However, Governor Kathy Hochul indicated that the incident is not expected to cause significant delays in the process.

"We've had to revert to the older system we used back in 1994 due to this incident that occurred very early in the morning. We've been actively addressing the situation," Hochul, a Democrat, explained in an interview with WNYC radio.

Comment: Cyberattacks and unexplained 'disruptions' appear to be on the rise, affecting everything from the British library to government systems: See also: Predatory Sparrow: The terrorist attacks of an Israel-linked hacker group

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Dollars

Red states fight growing efforts to give 'basic income' cash to residents

Kevin Hardy
Stateline
Tue, 16 Apr 2024 05:00 UTC
US bank card
© Rich Pedroncelli/The Associated PressA woman displays a city-provided debit card she receives monthly through a trial program in Stockton, Calif., in 2019. That year, Stockton launched a basic income experiment that has set off a major expansion of such programs across the country. Research has shown basic income programs can boost employment and health, but GOP lawmakers in some states are pushing back on the concept of free cash
Basic income advocates say the concept is an effective way of reducing poverty.

South Dakota state Sen. John Wiik likes to think of himself as a lookout of sorts — keeping an eye on new laws, programs and ideas brewing across the states.

"I don't bring a ton of legislation," said Wiik, a Republican. "The main thing I like to do is try and stay ahead of trends and try and prevent bad things from coming into our state."

This session, that meant sponsoring successful legislation banning cities or counties from creating basic income programs, which provide direct, regular cash payments to low-income residents to help alleviate poverty.

While Wiik isn't aware of any local governments publicly floating the idea in South Dakota, he describes such programs as "bureaucrats trying to hand out checks to make sure that your party registration matches whoever signed the checks for the rest of your life."

Comment: While there's a lot to be said for giving the struggling families the help they may need to make life bearable, and we have no doubt that there may be some good intentions involved here, these policies are being brought to the public by the same party that will likely demand the most totalitarian controls in the way of health mandates, behavioral control and the use of their free money through CBDC's.

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