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'The One Where They Commit War Crimes': IDF tweet celebrating Friends sitcom's 25th anniversary spectacularly backfires


RT
Sun, 22 Sep 2019 22:57 UTC
IDF friends
© Twitter / IDF
The Israel Defense Forces tweeted out a video recreating the title sequence of Friends on the sitcom's 25th anniversary. Judging from social media reactions, even the IDF's friends thought it was in bad taste.

The video posted on the IDF's official English language account shows a group of young soldiers in front of a fountain with the title 'IDFriends'.

"Our soldiers couldn't think of a better way to celebrate #Friends25 than celebrating... with friends," the tweet read.

Whoever is running the Twitter account has surely failed in the art of 'Unagi', as the post mostly attracted unfriendly reactions, many of which were inspired by the sitcom.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Eye 1

'Not one person helped us': Women describe Jeffrey Epstein's tangled web

Julie K. Brown
Miami Herald
Mon, 23 Sep 2019 08:59 UTC
epstein island
For two decades, Jeffrey Epstein built a sex trafficking enterprise that reached across state borders and spanned the globe. Using an almost bottomless quarry of wealth and connections, he not only employed recruiters around the world, but enlisted the help of an array of seemingly legitimate people — from hairdressers to psychiatrists to immigration lawyers and dentists.

Even doctors who prescribed his victims birth control and screened them for sexually transmitted diseases.

While many of his survivors were underage, there were countless others who were 18 to 23, a group of women who have been reluctant to come forward because, despite the ordeal they went through, they are ashamed and believe that the public doesn't look at them as victims at all.
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Wall Street

British travel giant Thomas Cook goes bankrupt, leaves 600,000 tourists in limbo


RT
Mon, 23 Sep 2019 08:59 UTC
Thomas Cook
One of the world's oldest travel firms, Thomas Cook Group, has entered compulsory liquidation effective immediately. With all flights and tours cancelled, the collapse will affect hundreds of thousands travelers around the world.

It is estimated that at least 600,000 people all across the globe will be affected, forcing governments to coordinate with insurance companies and other airlines to help their citizens return home. "All Thomas Cook bookings, including flights and holidays, have now been cancelled."

The UK's civil aviation watchdog has pledged to help 150,000 Brits currently abroad, but the fate of the remaining customers remains unclear. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab reassured British travelers that "in the worst-case scenario, the contingency planning is there to avoid people being stranded."


Comment: They're looking at the largest mass repatriation of Brits since WW2.


Comment: Bloomberg reports:
While the [British] taxpaper faces a £100m bill to get Thomas Cook's customers home, investors who bet on the firm's collapse could enjoy a payday.

Hedge funds who bet against Thomas Cook's bonds are in line for a £250m windfall -- exactly the amount which the government declined to pump into the firm.

They'll profit through credit default swaps - insurance that pays out when a company fails to repay its bonds.
This is what happens when govt is effectively run by financial terrorists and banksters: they'll bail themselves out, but plunder everyone else.

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Wine

Over 50,000 people pack Texas stadium to greet leaders Modi and Trump


RT
Sun, 22 Sep 2019 19:41 UTC
modi trump houston
© AP
U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi walk around the NRG Stadium waving to the crowd during the Howdy, Modi! event in Houston on September 22, 2019.
Over 50,000 people showed up for the 'Howdy, Modi' event in Houston, Texas, giving India's PM a rock star-level welcome. President Donald Trump joined him on stage as the two leaders lauded US-India ties.

The massive rally, held at Houston's NRG Football Stadium, launched some 90-minute music and dance show featuring around 400 artists entertained the audience who gathered hours in advance. People were chanting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's name long before he appeared in a welcome for a foreign leader rarely seen on the American soil.


The spectacle was both campaign event for Trump and the show of the "strategic partnership between the world's oldest and largest democracies," as the White House put it. Although it comes amid ongoing trade disputes between the two nations, the tensions were not reflected in the speeches that lauded strong ties and friendship, receiving ovations from the audience.

Comment: That's populists for you: they're very popular!

Which is why the fake news media in both countries calls them both supremacist nazis...

Their speeches in full:

Modi is one hell of a public speaker. No teleprompters for him!

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Video

YouTube reverses verification reforms with apologies after user uprising threatened bottom line


RT
Sat, 21 Sep 2019 01:14 UTC
YouTube
© Reuters/Dado Ruvic
YouTube is reversing course - and apologizing profusely - after an attempt to strip popular channels of their verification checks nearly triggered an uprising. Management listening to the users - is this a social media first?

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki took to Twitter on Friday to grovel before the enraged YouTube community, apologizing for the "frustration and hurt" caused by the mass un-verification and for "missing the mark" with the rollout. "We heard loud & clear how much the badge means to you," she tweeted, alluding to the deluge of angry comments all YouTube management accounts received on Thursday.


Comment: See also:

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Ambulance

Iraq: Deadly minivan blast claimed by Daesh


Sputnik
Sun, 22 Sep 2019 05:11 UTC
Iraq ambulance
© AFP 2019/Karim Sahib
Ambulance in Karbala, Iraq
The Daesh* terror group on Saturday claimed responsibility for the minivan bombing that killed 12 near the Iraqi city of Karbala, the Daesh-linked Amaq news agency said.

The bomb was set off on Friday near the northern entrance to the city, revered by Shiite Muslims. It reportedly triggered a fire and a blast in the gas-powered vehicle.

A suspect thought to have planted the bomb has been detained, according to al-Sumaria television channel.

Iraqi security forces continue to root out militants after announcing Daesh defeat in 2017.
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Wedding Rings

Louisiana man drowns during underwater marriage proposal to his girlfriend at African resort

Ella Torres
ABC News
Sun, 22 Sep 2019 12:28 UTC
Marriage proposal
© Kenesha Antoine/Storyful
Steven Weber is seen here moments before his proposal turned tragic. This image was taken from a video filmed by his fiancee Kenesha Antoine.
A Louisiana man reportedly drowned after he asked his girlfriend to marry him in an underwater proposal, she said in a social media post.

"You never emerged from those depths, so you never got to hear my answer, 'Yes! Yes! A million times, yes, I will marry you!!'" his girlfriend, Kenesha Antoine, wrote in an emotional Facebook post on Friday announcing the death.

Steven Weber Jr., of Baton Rouge, died after he appeared to swim up to meet Antoine, she said.

Antoine recorded the proposal and could be heard excitedly giggling as Weber put a note on a glass window that read, "I can't hold my breath long enough to tell you everything I love about you but ... everything I love about you, I love more every day," according to Antoine's Facebook post.
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Ambulance

Pakistan bus crash kills 26; brakes fail on mountain road


ABC News
Sun, 22 Sep 2019 09:27 UTC
Bus crash
A bus crash in northern Pakistan killed 26 people Sunday after its brakes failed on a winding mountain road, police said.

Another 20 passengers were injured when the bus smashed head-on into a dirt embankment, said Abdul Wakil, a local police officer.

Such road accidents are common in Pakistan, where motorists largely disregard traffic rules and safety standards on worn-out roads. Last month, a speeding bus fell off a mountainous road into a river in the northwest, killing 24 passengers.
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Quenelle

Hundreds Of Egyptians turn out to protest against government, demand Sisi resignation


RFE/RL
Sun, 22 Sep 2019 17:19 UTC
protests sisi cairo
© Reuters
People gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square on September 20 as part of antigovernment protests.
Rare antigovernment protests have broken out in several Egyptian cities, with demonstrators calling for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to step down.

The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights on September 21 said dozens of people were arrested, including at least two journalists, but that no casualties had been reported.

Many of the small street demonstrations were quickly dispersed by riot police using batons and tear gas.

In a rare show of dissent since Sisi's government previously cracked down on opponents, hundreds of people in the city of Suez took to the streets for the second night following a call online to demonstrators to show their opposition to the president.

Comment: Al Jazeera reports:
The demonstrations came after self-exiled Egyptian businessman and actor Mohamed Ali accused President el-Sisi of corruption and called on people to take to the streets and demand the leader be removed. El-Sisi has dismissed the allegations as "lies".

"If el-Sisi does not announce his resignation by Thursday, then the Egyptian people will come out to the squares on Friday in protest," Ali said in a video posted on Tuesday.


Friday's protests were a rare public display of dissent in the country. Egypt outlawed all unauthorised demonstrations in 2013 after el-Sisi, as defence minister, led the military's overthrow of democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi following mass protests.

A pro-government TV anchor said only a small group of protesters had gathered in central Cairo to take videos and selfies before leaving the scene. Another pro-government channel said the situation around Tahrir Square was quiet.

Since el-Sisi came to power, economic austerity measures have been introduced, helping to reboot an economy battered by the 2011 Arab Spring. But the poverty rate has soared.


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Megaphone

Hong Kong protesters ransack local mall, set fires and clash with police


RT
Sun, 22 Sep 2019 17:00 UTC
Hong Kong protest
© REUTERS / Aly Song
A barricade on fire is pictured during a demonstration by anti-government protesters in Sha Tin, Hong Kong, China.
Some of their actions were peaceful. They chanted anti-government slogans, played protest songs, and built an art object from paper cranes with a politically loaded name.Thousands of masked protesters descended on a Hong Kong satellite town, vandalizing a mall and rail stations. Clashes with police ensued in nearby streets where police used tear gas and activists set barricades on fire.

The action in Sha Tin, a neighborhood in Hong Kong's New Territories, on Sunday followed the template set on the previous day in Tuen Mun, another satellite town. Most of the heat was in the streets, where the activists, who have been waging a 16-week-long campaign against the government in Beijing, erected barricades and set them on fire. Hong Kong police responded with force, deploying tear gas and dispersing the crowds.


Comment:

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