Society's Child

Halal internet: New browser offers Muslim friendly web experience

Yudith Ho
Bloomberg
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 17:36 UTC

A Malaysian startup is betting that there's plenty of pent-up demand for a new browser that's compliant with Islamic values, at a time of mounting concerns over privacy, bias and online abuse over the internet.

SalamWeb, a mobile and desktop browser, is designed to deliver a Muslim-friendly web experience. The app, which includes messaging, news and other features, has users from mainly Malaysia and Indonesia, according to Hasni Zarina Mohamed Khan, managing director at Salam Web Technologies MY Sdn.

Her goal is to eventually capture 10 percent of the 1.8 billion global Muslim population. She pointed to some of challenges facing the web, as the world's largest technology companies from Google to Facebook Inc. face criticism for doing too little to address harmful content and false information. Human rights group Amnesty International looked at abusive interactions and concluded that Twitter is a "toxic place for women."

77% of Russians opposed to handing over Kuril Islands to Japan, new poll finds

RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 13:06 UTC

© REUTERS / Yuri Maltsev
A national flag of Russia and a flag of Russia's Sakhalin region flutter on the island of Shikotan.

Russians are overwhelmingly against handing the four Kuril Islands over to Japan, while a sizeable number of people also oppose making concessions for the sake of signing a peace treaty with Tokyo, a new poll show.

Over three-quarters of Russian citizens gave a clear 'no' to the feared giveaway, according to a survey by VCIOM, Russia's leading pollster. Only 14 percent support the handover, arguing that the unprecedented concession will pave the way to a long-awaited Russia-Japan peace treaty and help improve ties between the two neighbors.

The poll comes as Moscow and Tokyo are stuck in the middle of renewed talks over the fate of the islands. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met last year to seek a solution to the territorial dispute, but to no avail.

Earlier this week, the Kremlin signaled that it will focus its efforts on reaching a peace deal with Japan. "Our major objective is not to give or get anything, but to sign a peace treaty [with Japan]," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Rossiya-1 on Sunday.

The Twitterverse is not impressed that recipients of the UAE's gender equality awards are all men

RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 17:18 UTC

The United Arab Emirates has showcased its profound commitment to female empowerment, awarding a group of men for their contributions to gender equality in the workplace... and twitter exploded with sarcasm.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, presented certificates and medals in the categories of "best government entity supporting gender balance", "best federal authority supporting gender balance" and "best gender balance initiative" at a ceremony held on Sunday.

"We are proud of the success of Emirati women and their role is central to shaping the future of the country. Gender balance has become a pillar in our governmental institutions," Sheik boasted, as he passed out medals to the finance ministry, the federal competitiveness and statistics authority and ministry of human resources respectively - all of which were represented by men.

The scent of London has changed: all I can smell now is cannabis

Mary Wakefield
The Spectator
Sat, 26 Jan 2019 09:00 UTC

Fewer people are smoking cannabis these days, down to 1.4 million from two million, they say. I say, if you believe that, you're high.

Arrests, prosecutions and the issuing of 'cannabis warnings' might be down - but then, I've seen the police quite deliberately look away from dope smokers on the street.

Weed is everywhere. I'm sure of this, because the smell of the city has changed. A decade ago, as I cycled across town, the dominant scent was diesel. There were also wafts of tobacco from the fag-break gang and the odd drift of ground coffee.

Comment: Is there a cost to the increasing liberalization of marijuana? While the drug has much-touted medicinal benefits, is it as harmless as its portrayed when used recreationally? It's a contentious topic, quite prone to biased opinions, so the question often doesn't get a fair analysis - if you're pro, you're just a stoner, if you're against, you're an uptight conservative. A solid, unbiased analysis of the data is what's really needed so that people can make informed choices about their recreational habits. Otherwise, this could be doing more harm than good.

See also:

Arabic, gay, transexual, LGBT activist, teenager chosen to represent France at Eurovision 2019 in Israel

Josh Jackman
Pink News
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 15:03 UTC

Comment: Whoa. The intersectionality is strong with this one.

Gay singer Bilal Hassani has won the right to represent France in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The 19-year-old singer, who has faced a wave of homophobic hatred online in recent weeks, lost the judges' vote during Saturday's (January 26) French selection show Destination Eurovision, but won the public vote by a huge margin.

This was enough to catapult the singer from fifth place to first in the standings, going from 44 points behind one of his seven competitors, Seemone, to 44 points ahead of her, according to the Eurovision site.

Comment: Free. The perfect individual. Liberated from all 'oppressive bonds of society' - including biological ones.

'King' is a good name for his (er, her? xer?) song actually. The logical terminus of the Enlightenment is the worship of self as king, polar opposite to the pre-Enlightenment norm of recognizing a higher power outside of the self, then symbolized by the monarchy.

Big blast hits Venezuela's La Guaira port

Sputnik
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 22:43 UTC

An explosion has occurred at Venezuela's port of La Guaira on Sunday, local media reported citing users of social media.

The Nacional media outlet reported that fire brigades had arrived on the scene without revealing additional details or the cause of the explosion.

La Guaira, the capital city of Venezuela's northern Vargas state and the nation's primary port, was founded in 1577 and has been the scene of several key naval battles during the late-20th-century forming of the oil-rich South American country.

Last year, a powerful explosion at an LPG dispensing station belonging to the Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA energy company and located in the state of Miranda in the north of the country saw two killed and six others injured.

Comment: It's notable that Venezuela is in the middle of some of its most important military drills for decades following years of US meddling and more recent direct attempts to facilitate the overthrow of democratically elected leader Maduro.

'Unbelievable and sinister': UK man interrogated by police for liking a 'transphobic' tweet

Joe Roberts
Metro
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 10:33 UTC

© Lincolnshire Live / BPM Media
Harry Miller said police wanted to know his ‘thinking’ for liking the limerick on Twitter

A man said he was questioned by police for over 30 minutes after he liked a tweet that appears to mock the transgender community. Harry Miller, who believes 'trans women are not women', says the formal probe by Humberside Police was into his 'thinking' and his reasons for liking the limerick on Twitter. The limerick referred to trans women as 'stupid' and made comments about vaginas and 'synthetic' hormones.

Mr Miller, who used to be a policeman, says an officer told him he was investigating reports of a hate crime. 'Cop said he was in possession of 30 tweets by me,' he recalled on Twitter. 'I asked if any contained criminal material. He said "No." 'I asked if any came close to being criminal and he read me a limerick. Honestly. A limerick. A cop read me a limerick over the phone.' After telling the PC he did not write the limerick, he reportedly said: 'Ah. But you liked it and promoted it.'

Heartless: Woman sentenced after stealing almost $250,000 from elderly aunt

Molly Rose Pike
New York Post
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 10:32 UTC

A woman who fleeced her own elderly great-aunt out of hundreds of thousands of dollars has been jailed for six years - after the pensioner allegedly tried to kill herself when she ran out of cash.

Stephanie Colasanti, 31, was convicted on two counts of fraud after spending £175,000 ($227,000) of Glenda Bennett's inheritance on vacations, shopping sprees, a car and funding her drug use.

In sentencing the former bank worker, a judge told Colasanti she used the 84-year-old's bank account "as your own piggy bank" after her relative had inherited almost $650,000.

Nazi hunter tells RT that Holocaust denial in Britain is combination of 'anti-semitism and ignorance'

RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 10:32 UTC

A recent poll revealed that 1 in 20 Britons don't believe the Holocaust took place. Historian and 'Nazi hunter' Efraim Zuroff told RT that the results show a combination of "anti-Semitism and abysmal ignorance."

Sunday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK, marking 74 years to the day since the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz extermination camp. Despite extensive documentary evidence, and testimony from survivors and perpetrators, Holocaust denial is on the rise in Britain.

One in 20 Britons believe the Holocaust never happened, according to a poll published on Sunday. Eight percent believe that the official death count of six million is exaggerated and one in five believe less than two million Jews were murdered. 45 percent simply don't know how many died.

Yellow Vest counter-protests begin: 'Red Scarves' march through Paris 'to protest violence'

RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 08:57 UTC

Spot the EU flag. Is this simply about protesting against violence, or is there an ideological cause behind it?

Anger over violence and vandalism resulting from the weekly Yellow Vest demonstrations has spurred the creation of a new protest movement - the Red Scarves - revealing new divisions within French society.

Shouting "We, too, are the people!" around 10,000 activists marched through the street of Paris calling on the authorities to restore public order. While some in the crowd said they initially supported the Yellow Vests' agenda and demands, many reconsidered their views in light of the tactics used by more extreme elements of the grassroots movement.

Over 2,000 people have been injured in clashes with police since the Yellow Vest protests began on November 17. Ten people have died as a result of the protests - among them bystanders who were caught between police and protesters. An 80-year-old woman died in December after a gas canister used by police to disperse demonstrators went through her apartment window.

While the Yellow Vests accuse the government of using excessive force against them, those representing the Red Scarves believe that the authorities have the right to intervene to restore order. "Long live our policemen! Long live our gendarmes!" they shouted on Sunday.

Comment: The size of the Yellow Vest rallies has perhaps 'shrunk' since 'Acte III' on December 1st, but numbers have since gone way up again. Yellow Vest protests with an equivalent number as the above single counter-protest in Paris were held in multiple towns and small cities across France on Saturday.

These 'red scarves' are also chanting simple things like 'democracy', and a number of them of waving EU flags. So they may say they're sympathetic with the Yellow Vests and simply want violence to end, but it's likely that pro-status quo feelings motivate many or most of them.

They are, to use the French word, the bourgeoisie, middle class Parisians who do quite well from globalization, thank you very much, and for whom Macron is their worthy president. If they were genuinely concerned with the violence, they would have figured out by now, like most, that the media is lying about its primary cause: police-instigated violence against initially-peaceful Yellow Vests.

UPDATE 16:00 CET

One of the protest signs reads 'Finance is my friend', an apparent indication of their support for the banks:

In this on-the-scene video report, an RT France reporter puts the crowd size at about 1,500, about one seventh of the French media's figure. While interviewing a 'foulard rouge' wearing an EU flag, he is accosted by another man telling him he is a 'collaborator of Putin'...

Telling the truth? What a fucking joke. Liz Cheney is the spawn of Satan.

tekdude

Why, even Inspector Clouseau could crack this case. His first and most important clue was THE GREAT DECEPTION (CB), from there on out it was an...

Solare

The covid smokescreen is slowly being lifted. This is bad. Really bad. I f the US go for this crap it is just a question of time for Canadians...

Demore

I can see a devious actor impersonating a witless dictator to ridicule and bring down a country. From memory and experience I know that worked...

codis

THE HIGHER LAW I think, for maximum safety and security, all citizens deemed to be of the 'lower type', should have their brains removed and...

nedlud

Society's Child

Halal internet: New browser offers Muslim friendly web experience

77% of Russians opposed to handing over Kuril Islands to Japan, new poll finds

The Twitterverse is not impressed that recipients of the UAE's gender equality awards are all men

The scent of London has changed: all I can smell now is cannabis

Arabic, gay, transexual, LGBT activist, teenager chosen to represent France at Eurovision 2019 in Israel

Big blast hits Venezuela's La Guaira port

'Unbelievable and sinister': UK man interrogated by police for liking a 'transphobic' tweet

Heartless: Woman sentenced after stealing almost $250,000 from elderly aunt

Nazi hunter tells RT that Holocaust denial in Britain is combination of 'anti-semitism and ignorance'

Yellow Vest counter-protests begin: 'Red Scarves' march through Paris 'to protest violence'

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