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State of Emergency declared: Ecuadorian cities paralyzed by mass protests


Sputnik
Thu, 03 Oct 2019 21:56 UTC
Ecuador protester
© Dolores Ochoa
Earlier, demonstrators took to the streets of Ecuador's major cities, blocking major roads in Quito and Guayaquil to protest the scrapping of fuel subsidies, part of the government's austerity measures aimed at reducing the fiscal budget.

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno declared a state of emergency in the country on Thursday amid nationwide protests which have paralysed much of the Latin American country's transport infrastructure, saying that his decisions to introduce austerity measures and slash subsidies "were firm," and that the state of emergency was aimed at reigning in "those who intend to cause chaos."

"We will not agree to blackmail and act according to the law," Moreno wrote on his official Twitter account.

Moreno announced the state of emergency after Interior Minister Maria Romo said that 19 protesters had been arrested for blocking roads and for other disruptive behaviour as demonstrators took to the streets, chanting slogans and burning tires, marking their anger over the elimination of long-standing fuel subsidies worth over $1.3 billion a year. Ecuador's government announced plans to cut the subsidies as part of a broader austerity plan which also includes mass layoffs of employees from state-owned companies, and plans to privatise CNT, a state-owned telecommunications provider, and other firms, while making changes to the tax code.
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Vader

JPMorgan banker who said 'We are all Chinese' beaten by veiled protester; face masks ban imposed


RT
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 11:29 UTC
Banker beaten
© Ruptly
A disturbing video shows a masked protester beating a JPMorgan employee for calling for unity between Hong Kong and mainland China. The footage was taken on the same day as Hong Kong announced a ban on face masks.

A video published by Ruptly on Friday shows a JPMorgan private banker shouting to a group of journalists "We are all Chinese." But before he is able to enter his office building, a masked protester pounces on him, punching him repeatedly on the shoulder, neck and head. Hunched over against a wall, the banker is later seen being escorted to safety by a group of colleagues.

JPMorgan circulated a memo to its employees about the incident, reassuring them that "additional security" had been put in place but advising "non-essential employees" to work from home over the weekend.

The unsettling footage was taken on the same day that the city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, announced that she would invoke a British colonial-era emergency law to impose a temporary ban on face masks. The move follows chaotic clashes between demonstrators and police that occurred on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.


Comment: See also:

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Star of David

10 year-old boy shot in the head by IDF in July remains immobile, family waits for answers from Israel

Yumna Patel
Mondoweiss
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 18:10 UTC
Abdul Rahman Shteiwi IDF shot in head
© Photo courtesy of Murad Shteiwi
Abdul Rahman Shteiwi, 10, was shot in the head by Israeli forces in Kafr Qaddum on Friday, July 12, 2019.
It's been almost three months since 10-year-old Abdul Rahman Shteiwi was shot in the head by Israeli forces in his village of Kafr Qaddum in the northern occupied West Bank.

What was a typical day of Friday protests on July 12 turned bloody when Israeli snipers shot the boy as he was standing at the entrance of his friend's house in the village.

Since that day, Shteiwi has remained in the Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv, unable to speak or move his body.

"The doctors still aren't sure exactly how much of his brain function has been permanently damaged," Murad Shteiwi, a relative of the family and local activist in Kafr Qaddum told Mondoweiss.

Comment:

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TV

Media wars: The View calls out Maddow for 'crying wolf' over Trump impeachment: 'Aren't you part of the problem?'


RT
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:23 UTC
rachel maddow

MSNBC "journalist" Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow is partly to blame for Americans' impeachment fatigue, one brave host of mainstream TV talk show The View challenged the MSNBC host and Russiagate peddler - leaving her, however briefly, dumbstruck.

After Maddow predicted President Donald Trump will be impeached over the 'Ukrainegate' scandal, The View host Abby Huntsman pointed out on Thursday's edition of the show that the American public has been deluged with "smoking guns" for two years now from Democrats and media figures "crying wolf."

"They're not taking it as seriously as they should, and I ask you: do you think you're part of that problem?" Huntsman asked a temporarily-dumbfounded Maddow, who quickly recovered, blaming - who else? - Trump.

Comment: Pelosi defends Schiff's 'parody reading' of the Trump-Zelensky phone call:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has claimed intelligence committee head Adam Schiff "was using the president's own words" when he made up what he later claimed was a "parody" script of Trump's call with the Ukrainian president.

Pelosi defended Schiff in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos after she was asked if it was "right" for the congressman to give "an interpretation" of President Donald Trump's words instead of reading the actual transcript, which included none of the mafioso posturing of Schiff's performance in front of Congress last week.


"He did not make it up," she insisted, after Stephanopoulos challenged her claim that it was both "fair" and "necessary" for Schiff to give his dramatic reading on the floor of Congress - then quickly changed the subject before he could push back again.

Schiff's "parody" had Trump not only demanding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "make up dirt on my political opponent, lots of it," but doing so seven times. On the actual call, Trump only mentions that political opponent, Joe Biden, once, after Zelensky had already brought up administration lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The latter had planned to visit Ukraine to pursue a lapsed corruption investigation into Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company which Biden's son was a director of.

Over a dozen congressmen have already signed on to a resolution brought forward by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) to censure Schiff for his false remarks, and Trump himself called Schiff's act treasonous, calling for him to resign and be investigated.


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Attention

Tribunal rules Christian values clash with UK values of "human dignity" and "fundamental rights of others" - fired doctor speaks out


RT
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:00 UTC
bible cross
© Getty Images
A British doctor has warned that a dangerous precedent has been set after a tribunal ruled that he was rightfully terminated for refusing to use transgender pronouns, and that his Christian values clash with those of UK society.

Dr. David Mackereth was fired from his job at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after telling his manager that in a hypothetical scenario, he would never "call any 6-foot tall bearded man madam."

The case was brought before a Birmingham employment tribunal, which said in its ruling that the government department had every right to sack Mackereth, and that the doctor's biblical beliefs have no place in British society.
Belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others.
Speaking to RT, Mackereth said that the ruling has profound and troubling implications for freedom of speech and conscience in the UK.
The question here is whether I can be forced to do something and to say something that goes deeply against my conscience.
He said that the judgment means that "you're not allowed not to believe the transgender movement's maxims," while "core" Christian beliefs have been labeled as unfit for modern life.

Mackereth plans to appeal the ruling.


Comment: Ingsoc reigns supreme, and the thought police are very real. Let's spell it out for these idiots. Every person is inherently free to believe whatever they want. The laws of the society in question may proscribe certain actions - the specifics of which are open to debate - but no free society can dictate what people believe. Even then, a government - whether in so-called free nations or more overtly authoritarian or totalitarian ones - can try to do so through various methods of coercion and persuasion, but when it comes down to it, even that cannot work. You can - at least in principle, and often in practice - break or abide by the law while still holding beliefs contrary to those dictated by the state. But this ruling goes even further, targeting belief in Genesis 1:27 itself. That is simply crazy.

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Palette

Snowflake madness: Tate Britain felt 200-year-old William Blake paintings needed trigger warning for 'violence & suffering'


RT
Wed, 02 Oct 2019 18:41 UTC
william blake painting
© Reuters/Stephen Hird
A visitor to "William Blake's 1809 Exhibition" at the Tate Britain gallery views "Christ in the Sepulchre, Guarded by Angels", a pen and ink and watercolour painting created in 1805
One of the world's most renowned art museums, Tate Britain, has reportedly found it necessary to warn visitors about its newly opened William Blake exhibition - because now even 19th-century engravings require trigger warnings.

Images that surfaced on social media appear to show a cautionary message that greets those who are brave enough to survey 300 original prints and paintings by William Blake, described as the largest collection of the British artist's work in nearly 20 years.

"The art of William Blake contains strong and sometimes challenging imagery, including some depictions of violence and suffering," the warning says. The placard advises distressed art lovers to seek out museum staff if they require further coddling.

Comment: Complementing the insanity of trigger warnings is the rise of the "safe space":

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Pumpkin 2

Oops! Inept UK Extinction Rebellion vandals 'lose control of fake blood hose'

James Delingpole
Breitbart
Thu, 03 Oct 2019 14:18 UTC
Extinction rebellion fake blood
© Screen capture
Eco-terrorists at the UK Treasury building
The eco-fascist campaign group Extinction Rebellion just tried to spray 1,800 litres of fake blood at a government building in London. It backfired horribly.

The hose on the fire engine they had commandeered for the occasion ruptured and snake-sprayed the ground instead of the building.

Members of the group who took time out of their busy lives to vandalise the Treasury building included a retired university lecturer who specialised in teaching "social work", a "musician", and an "ex-Buddhist teacher".
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R2-D2

Wells Fargo forecast: Robots to replace 200K banking jobs in next decade

Ashley Nelson
Yahoo Finance
Wed, 02 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
robots office jobs
As the September jobs report looms, a recent report from Wells Fargo is casting a bleak light on the future of banking jobs.

The report revealed that robots are likely to reduce headcount by 200,000 over the next decade throughout the financial industry in the U.S. Wells Fargo's Mike Mayo spoke to Yahoo Finance's On The Move this week and said banks will be investing significantly in technology over the next 10 years.

"The next decade should be the biggest decade for banks in technology in history. You're about to see the biggest capital for labor swap in history," Mayo said.

Mayo said automation can reduce the amount of repetitive work being done by humans, such as data input in a mortgage application.

Comment: Which should also reduce the problem of having human employees with a conscience who might object to engaging in certain rapacious banking practices.

Here we go again: Banks seeking to lower credit score requirements, targeting over 50 million new subprime borrowers

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Cell Phone

Russia's volume of cashless payments outpaces EU countries as transactions soar 30-fold


RT
Fri, 04 Oct 2019 13:47 UTC
cashless transactions
© Getty Images
Russia has enjoyed "phenomenal" growth of cashless payments in eight years, outpacing other European countries, as the amount of transactions soared 30-fold from 2010 to 2018, according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Total revenues from cashless transactions on the European market will grow 5.9 percent until 2028, the BCG forecasts, noting that in Eastern Europe the figure will stand at 7.4 percent. Russia is the main driver for growth in the region, the group noted in its report seen by RBC business outlet.

The volume of cash-free transactions in Russia rose on average by 22.1 percent, while the payments per person jumped from 5.8 to 172 or nearly 30 percent from 2010 to 2018. "Russia has overtaken all European countries on this indicator, including the leaders, which showed two and three-fold growth over the same period," said Max Hauser, who leads BCG's Technology Advantage practice in CIS in Russia.

Comment:

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Attention

Top EU court ruling: European courts can order Facebook and other platforms to remove of defamatory content worldwide


Yahoo News
Thu, 03 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Facebook defamatory content
© AFP Photo/DENIS CHARLET
The EU's top court has ruled that national courts in Europe can order Facebook and other online platforms to remove defamatory content worldwide.
Facebook on Wednesday was dealt a major blow in the EU's top court, which ruled that national courts in Europe can order online platforms to remove defamatory content worldwide.

The decision will be seen as a victory for EU regulators, who are ambitious to see US tech giants meet tightened European standards over hate speech and offensive content.

Last week, the same court decided that Google was not legally compelled to apply the EU's strict "right to be forgotten" rules globally, in a victory for the search giant.

In a closely watched judgment, the European Court of Justice said EU law "does not preclude" courts from ordering "the removal of information or to block access worldwide," a statement said.

Comment: Will this now be taken to mean...if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all - even if it's true? Can anyone now claim they are the victim of 'hate speech', thereby muzzling the rights of the public to expose lies?

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