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Deaths of on-duty police grew by 10% nationwide in 2016

A makeshift memorial at Dallas Police Headquarters is seen one day after a lone gunman ambushed and killed five police officers at a protest decrying police shootings of black men, in Dallas, Texas, U.S., July 8, 2016.
© Shannon Stapleton / ReutersA makeshift memorial at Dallas Police Headquarters is seen one day after a lone gunman ambushed and killed five police officers at a protest decrying police shootings of black men, in Dallas, Texas, U.S., July 8, 2016.
A preliminary report found law enforcement fatalities grew by 10 percent in 2016 from last year. For the first time, among the 135 officer fatalities, more deaths occurred by firearms than by automobile accidents.

Among the 64 officers killed by firearms, marking a 56 percent increase on the previous year's fatalities of 41, 21 were from ambush-style shootings. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, who published the report Thursday, said it was "the highest total in more than two decades."

Comment: The increasing occurrences of police brutality and the police killing citizens probably had an impact on the number of officers who were killed by guns in 2016. A countless number of people have lost their patience with police.


Heart

China announces plan to end domestic ivory trade by end of 2017

elephants
© BRENT STIRTON, GETTY IMAGES, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE
China will shut down its domestic ivory trade by the end of 2017, according to an announcement made today by the Chinese government.

The announcement comes more than a year after China's President Xi Jinping and United States President Barack Obama pledged to enact "nearly complete bans" on the import and export of ivory, an agreement Wildlife Watch reporter Rachael Bale described as "the most significant step yet in efforts to shut down an industry that has fueled the illegal hunting of elephants."

It also follows a commitment made in October by the international community to close domestic ivory markets.

"This is the best New Year's present I've ever had," says Sue Lieberman, vice president of international policy for the Wildlife Conservation Society, a nonprofit based in New York City that works to help save elephants and other wildlife. "China is the world's largest market, both of small ivory items and high-end, expensive ones."

The global ivory trade has been banned since 1989, but during recent years large-scale poaching has resumed, and elephant numbers have fallen as low as 415,000. Advocates believe that legal domestic ivory markets perpetuate an illegal trade because older, pre-ban ivory can't easily be distinguished from poached ivory.

Heart - Black

As Saudi-led, US backed war on Yemen rages on, children continue to starve and die

yemen starving child
© Naif Rahma / ReutersA nurse feeds a malnourished child at a malnutrition treatment centre in the northwestern city of Saada,

At least 1,219 children have died as a result of the fighting in Yemen, but a chronic lack of health care will causing an additional 10,000 preventable deaths per year, according to a briefing from the NGO Save the Children International.


The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war on Yemen has devastated the civilian population, and poverty, disease, and starvation are taking a heavy toll on the country's children.

The Yemeni struggled for years with poverty and a lack of quality health care even before the war began, but the conflict has driven the nation to the verge of total collapse and pushed child mortality rates way up.

"Now, the situation is much worse and an estimated 1,000 children are dying every week from preventable killers like diarrhoea, malnutrition and respiratory tract infections," said Edward Santiago, Yemen director for the NGO Save the Children.

At least 1,219 children have died as a direct result of the war in Yemen, but a desperate lack of medical supplies, bombed-out hospitals, and missing or dead medical staff are likely to cause an additional 10,000 preventable deaths each year, according to "Struggling to Survive: Stories from Yemen's collapsing health system," a briefing published on Dec. 19 by Save the Children International.

Comment: Saudi Arabia has caused a horrific humanitarian disaster in Yemen that is beyond imagining, all of which has been aided and abetted by the US, UK and Israel.


Stop

Georgetown professor launches social media attack on Muslim woman who voted for Trump, equates her to Nazis and tells her 'F*** You. Go To Hell'

christine fair
The 'Peace and Securities' professor who told another colleague to F off and go to hell, Christine Fair
An abuse complaint has been filed against a "Peace and Security Studies" professor at Georgetown University, who has been on a month-long tirade against a Muslim former-colleague after the latter voted for Donald Trump.

On December 23, Wall Street Journal reporter and former Georgetown journalism professor Asra Q. Nomani announced that she had filed a complaint against associate professor Christine Fair, following 31 days of public harassment. Fair's attacks spanned Facebook and Twitter, after Nomani published a column in the Washington Post explaining why she, as a liberal Muslim woman, voted for Trump.


Comment: As an educator Christine Fair is in a position of authority and influence both professionally and privately and therefore should be setting an example for her peers and students, not tearing shreds out of a woman and attacking her character for choosing to vote for Trump. It's hypocritical of Fair who claims to hate Trump for his sexism, racism and bigotry to then display these things herself in this social media tirade.

Here's Fair debating Glenn Greenwald, taking the position that drones are great:




Cookie

Fox News controversy over U.S. food stamp fraud misses the bigger story

food stamps
Pathologizing poverty has been a long-term, ongoing—and sadly, highly successful—project of the right in this country. From Scott Walker's recent appeal to PEOTUS Donald Trump to allow the state of Wisconsin to drug-test food-stamp recipients, to House GOP plans to make it harder to qualify for aid, the goal is to punish and stigmatize the poor while eliminating programs that help lift them out of poverty.

Fox News essentially functions as the media arm of the Republican Party, and on Wednesday it did its part to undermine a program that helps 44 million poor Americans. To that transparent end, an episode of "Fox & Friends" featured a segment titled, "Food Stamp Fraud at All-Time High: Is It Time to End the Program?" The piece goes on to claim that USDA figures reveal "$70 million of taxpayer money was wasted in 2016 due to food stamp fraud."


Comment: Any decently run country would have programs that help lift its citizens out of poverty, but the United States government has no decency and neither the left nor right side of the aisle are doing much to address poverty within the US. Food stamps can help some families during periods of hardship, however, the fact that 46 million American citizens rely on SNAP goes to show there is a much bigger issue at hand.


There are a number of problems with this episode, from the false fact buried in the query to the absurd answer it proposes. Obviously, no, we shouldn't scrap a program that serves 44 million needy people, because that would be disastrous for families, children and communities around the country. Especially since it's an argument based on lies and obfuscation, as Mother Jones writer Kevin Drum points out:
First, I have no idea where Fox's $70 million figure comes from—and I looked pretty hard for it. The Fox graphic attributes it to "2016 USDA," but as near as I can tell the USDA has no numbers for SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] fraud more recent than 2011.

Comment: This low-level moralistic depiction of Trump-voters falls flat on its face. Most people who voted for Trump did so precisely because they've had such a hard time making ends meet under Obama. This goes to show how far removed many on the left are from the causes they think they advocate for.


Health

Texan mother, 40, is killed and her two daughters, 9 and 12, are injured after they fall 25 feet from a Colorado ski chairlift

A mother was killed and her two daughters injured when they fell 25 feet from a chairlift at Ski Granby Ranch in Grand County, Colorado, on Thursday morning.Officials say it's not yet clear why the 40-year-old and her girls - aged nine and 12 - fell from the lift, in full view of horrified witnesses. The chair remained attached to the cable, they said.

All three were taken to a local hospital, where the mother died - becoming the first chairlift fatality in Colorado in 14 years, officials told the Denver Post.
colorado ski lift
Accident: A mother was killed and her daughters injured when they fell from a ski lift at Ski Granby Ranch in Grand County, Colorado, around 10am. Pictured: one of the ranch's ski lifts
Emergency services were called in at about 10am after the victims - who have not yet been named, but were said to be visiting from Texas - tumbled from the Quick Draw Express Lift. The mother died in Middle Park Medical Center, where one of her daughters remains in stable condition.

The other daughter was airlifted to Children's Hospital Colorado. Her condition has not been announced. Slope officials shut down the lift temporarily to make sure there were no problems with it.

Handcuffs

Wrong suspect in Berlin attack claims police brutality while custody

handcuffs
© Suhaib Salem / Reuters
A Pakistani asylum-seeker, initially arrested in Germany as a presumed suspect in the Berlin truck attack, says he was subjected to physical and mental abuse, according to a Guardian report. The German Police have fiercely denied the allegations.

Naveed Baloch, a 24-year-old asylum seeker from Balochistan, one of the poorest provinces of Pakistan, told the Guardian he was only detained by police because he ran across the road near the Breitscheidplatz, the public square in central Berlin where the truck attack took place.

He was leaving his friend's house on the evening of December 19 and increased his pace as he saw a car on the road heading in his direction.

Stop

London police adjusting New Year's Eve safety strategy to deal with any Berlin, Nice style attacks

Fireworks Big Ben
© Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters Fireworks explode behind the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben on the River Thames during New Year's celebrations in London January 1, 2015.
As thousands of people prepare to ring in the New Year across London, the city's police force say it has "adjusted" security plans in order to be prepared for attacks similar to those carried out in Nice and Berlin in 2016.

Earlier this month 12 people were killed when an articulated truck was deliberately driven into a German Christmas market in the center of Berlin. The man suspected of carrying out the attack - identified as Anis Amri - was later shot dead by Italian police after he opened fire on officers in Milan.

On July 14, 86 people were killed and 434 injured when a truck plowed through a crowd on Nice's Promenade des Anglais. People had gathered along the 7km seafront promenade to watch Bastille Day celebrations.

Sheriff

Arlington,Texas police officer catches teen smoking pot, gives option of push-ups or jail

Arlington cop Eric Ball pushups teen weed
© Raiza Paredez / Facebook
A teenager in Arlington, Texas, was caught smoking weed by a police officer. But instead of arresting the teen, Officer Eric Ball decided to borrow some disciplinary tactics from his high school football days and had the teen drop and give him 200 pushups.

The unidentified teenager was smoking weed outside of a movie theater on Thursday when he was caught by Officer Ball, who was working off duty at the time. Lt. Chris Cook with the Arlington police told the Daily Dot that the teenager politely acknowledged his mistake, which gave Ball a reason to try something different.


Sherlock

US government attacks Drudge Report? Conservative website down for 90 minutes after "biggest DDoS attack since site's inception"

drudge
Matt Drudge, founder of the Drudge Report
A tweet from conservative media icon Matt Drudge's verified Twitter account Thursday night appeared to accuse the government of interfering with his website, DrudgeReport.com, just hours after the Barack Obama administration announced new sanctions against Russia over election hacking.

"Is the US government attacking DRUDGE REPORT? Biggest DDoS since site's inception. VERY suspicious routing [and timing]," the tweet to Drudge's 457,000 followers read. There were no other tweets from the account at the time.

A large-scale distributed denial of service attack, or DDoS, can cause major Internet disruptions. In the past, such attacks have shut down major websites such as Twitter, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Tumblr, and Reddit. The attack sends a server many illegitimate requests to make it hard for real requests to get through, effectively shutting down the site.

Drudge Report was down briefly around 7 p.m. EST, but working hours later. The top headline read: "MOSCOW MOCKS OBAMA 'LAME DUCK'". Meanwhile, the conservative Washington Times wrote: "Matt Drudge suggests U.S. government cyberattack on Drudge Report website. DDoS attack comes same day Obama announced countermeasures against Russia for hacking of Democrats."