Society's ChildS


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'Danger to our time': Iconic Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei joins pro-Assange rally in Berlin


RT
Fri, 03 May 2019 16:34 UTC
assange
© Global Look Press / Wolfgang Kumm
The Chinese contemporary artist Ai Wei Wei has taken part in a protest against the extradition of the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the US. Ai warned that such a development would pose a threat to the freedom of speech.

"This chaos reflects a real danger to our society and to our time because Julian Assange is very symbolic for freedom of speech and freedom of press," the iconic artist and activist told Ruptly video news agency as he joined dozens of protesters, who gathered near the Brandenburg Gate - one of the best-known landmarks of the German capital - to support Assange, who is now fighting against his extradition to the US.

"We are all Julian Assange," read a large banner that the demonstrators unfurled. Ai warned that if the extradition case moves forward, it would "pose a danger to all journalists and all individuals, who are defending the very essential rights" of the freedom of speech and the freedom of press.
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Eye 2

AIDS-infected doctor in Pakistan arrested for allegedly spreading HIV among patients - deliberately


The Express Tribune
Tue, 30 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC
Dr Muzaffar
© ExpressDr Muzaffar denies charges against him and accuses Sindh Health Care Commission of incompetence.
Authorities claim to have found the cause of the recent alarming spike in HIV-positive cases in the hometown of the Bhutto family.

It might come as a shock but authorities claim that the cause of the HIV spread in Larkana district is a doctor.

Yes, a doctor!

Police have detained Dr Muzaffar Ghangharo on charges of infecting dozens of his patients with HIV.

Dr Muzaffar, himself an Aids patient, works at a public hospital and also runs a private clinic in Ratodero, a small town in Larkana.

He is accused of infecting 42 people - including children - with HIV which causes the deadly disease of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or Aids.

Earlier this month, provincial health authorities were alarmed when the number of HIV-positive cases rose to 39 - including more than a dozen children.
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Bullseye

Pepsi withdraws Indian potato farmer lawsuits after political pressure

Mayank Bhardwa
Reuters
Thu, 02 May 2019 09:05 UTC
Lays chips
PepsiCo Inc has agreed to withdraw lawsuits against Indian potato farmers it alleged infringed a patent by cultivating a variety grown exclusively for its Lay's potato chips.

The U.S. snack food and drinks maker, which in addition to filing the lawsuit against the four farmers in April had sued five other potato growers, had said it wanted to settle the issue amicably.

"After discussions with the government, the company has agreed to withdraw the cases against the farmers," a PepsiCo India spokesman said on Thursday, adding that this applied to all nine.

The decision comes at a particularly sensitive time in India, which is about halfway through a 39-day general election in which its rural population still has a dominant voice.

Comment: See also: 'We will not bow to the giant': Indian farmers sued by PepsiCo reject any settlement

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Lemon

Let kids sell lemonade, bill passed the New York Senate Health Committee

Katherine Timpf
National Review
Thu, 02 May 2019 10:39 UTC
Lemonade stand
© Carlo Allegri/Reuters
An important bill passed the New York Senate Health Committee on Tuesday.

It's that time of year again: The weather is getting warmer, and savvy kids will be trying to make a couple of extra bucks selling lemonade - unless, of course, the government catches them.

As a piece in Reason reminds us, a seven-year-old New York boy named Brendan Mulvaney made headlines last summer after the government shut down the little lemonade stand he had set up on his family's porch. Why? Because his attempt to have a normal, harmless childhood experience ran afoul of a New York health regulation that requires a $30 permit for temporary food vendors from health officials.

At the time, Republican state senator Jim Tedisco introduced a bill that would protect kids like Mulvaney from having to go to the health department in order to run a business with a profit that typically amounts to the price of a vending-machine snack.

Comment: See also: Ridiculous! New York health dept shuts down 7-year-old's unlicensed lemonade stand

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Bacon

China's African swine flu outbreak spreads, 'will move markets and influence geopolitics for years to come'


RT
Fri, 03 May 2019 09:52 UTC
pig cute
© File photo: REUTERS / Kacper Pempel
A minor outbreak of African swine fever among some 400 pigs in Shenyang in northeastern China is now threatening the global food supply chain and may increase pork prices for years.

Despite a mass cull, a blockade to prevent any further transmission and a government declaration that the outbreak of the particularly nasty strain of swine fever had been "effectively controlled," China, the country with half of the world's pigs, failed to stop the spread of the disease in time. Domestically, this contagion is already massive: China has a $128 billion pork industry and is third-highest global consumer of pork.

In the truest sense of the word, the outbreak has already gone viral, spreading to Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia and farther afield. The strain of African swine fever kills virtually every pig it infects with a bloody death reminiscent of Ebola, although it is not known to infect humans.

Comment: While the best solution to problems like these likely lies in changing the way farming is practiced, perhaps cooperation between countries to make up for the short fall could help mitigate the situation; for example, Russia is becoming well known for it's sustainable farming methods and has offered up land for those willing to use it productively. Until then, as with the increasingly erratic seasons and the resulting crop failures, outbreaks like these will likely become a regular occurrence:

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Light Saber

Christie Blatchford: Ontario lawyers score victory for free thought in Law Society election

Christie Blatchford
National Post
Thu, 02 May 2019 18:52 UTC
This week, a slate of those brave enough to publicly oppose the 'statement of principles' the Law Society of Ontario imposed upon lawyers was resoundingly elected

Ontario Law Society
The Law Society of Ontario (formerly the Law Society of Upper Canada) in downtown Toronto. Jack Boland/Postmedia/File
Lawyers 1, thought police 0.

I often have kind words for lawyers — those I have seen at work and admire but also, in general, on how when you're in trouble, with your liberty at stake, your lawyer is your best friend.

But I don't think I've ever been more proud of them as a group than I am now.

This week, after a 15-day election period, a slate of those brave enough to publicly oppose the "statement of principles" (SOP) the Law Society of Ontario imposed upon lawyers in December of 2016 was resoundingly elected as benchers (the Law Society's board of directors).

The SOP forced lawyers to create, adopt and abide by a mandatory statement acknowledging their "obligation to promote equality, diversity and inclusion" and required law firms with 10 or more lawyers or paralegals to complete an "inclusion self-assessment" every two years and publish the results.

Lawyers and firms that didn't toe the line were threatened with "progressive compliance measures."

Comment: Here is Jordan Peterson back in 2017 interviewing lawyer Jared Brown and Professor Bruce Pardy:



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Attention

Facebook and Instagram ban Infowars, Milo & Farrakhan as 'dangerous'


RT
Thu, 02 May 2019 21:02 UTC
Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and Louis Farrakhan
Citing policies against 'dangerous individuals and organizations,' Instagram and Facebook banned Infowars, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and Louis Farrakhan, among others. Any mention of them will result in bans, too.

Any account that shares Infowars content will have it removed, and face a permanent ban for multiple "violations." Facebook and Instagram will also remove any and all Infowars videos, audio or articles. Groups and events that promote Infowars or any of the banned "extremists" will be removed as well, a spokesperson told the Atlantic.

Comment: This is one step closer to realizing the totalitarian dream of the radical Left.

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Propaganda

Do's and Don'ts: MSM's use of anonymous sources to spread false info and 'weaponize gossip'


RT
Thu, 02 May 2019 01:49 UTC
Media sign
© Reuters/Joshua Roberts
The Washington Post has warned journalists to act responsibly when handling independent sources, offering them a quick crash course in Journalism 101 to avoid being caught publishing fake news that could swing the 2020 elections.

"Don't publish weaponized gossip. Verify relentlessly. Nail down, and emphasize, the source of the hack and its motivation. And be transparent with news consumers," the Post's Margaret Sullivan wrote this week, warning that failure to comply with basic principles of the profession could lead them to being "'the de facto instrument'" of a foreign adversary's fondest hopes."

But as RT's Caleb Maupin discovered, the mass media in the US are more than happy to be serving as instruments of the American government.

"Anonymous sources seem to be a big trend when it comes to inside scoops inside the White House," Maupin says, noting that mainstream media are the very "definition of weaponized gossip."

WATCH the full report:

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Fire

Haitian leaders accused of embezzling well over a billion dollars earmarked for social and development projects, fueling protests

Tania Karas and Amy Bracken
PRI.org
Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:47 UTC
haiti protests
© Ivan Alvarado/ReutersA man holds a weapon next to burning barricades during anti-government protests in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Hundreds of Haitians took to the streets Friday to demand the release of a final audit report accusing Haiti's political class of embezzling or misusing well over a billion dollars received through Venezuela's discounted PetroCaribe oil alliance program.

"Mare yo!" they chanted in downtown Port-au-Prince - Haitian Creole for "handcuff them."

The resistance underway in Haiti started, as modern-day revolutions do, on Twitter. It was August 2018, and tensions were still high after the Haitian government announced - then retracted - a plan to raise the price of fuel by as much as 51%. Gilbert Mirambeau Jr., a 35-year-old Haitian filmmaker and writer, tweeted a photo of himself blindfolded, holding a handwritten cardboard sign reading, "Kot Kòb Petwo Karibe a???" or "Where is the PetroCaribe money???"

"I felt betrayed," he said last month in Port-au-Prince. "People are literally dying in Haiti because they can't eat, and they're going and spending the money that was supposed to help us."

The blindfold was meant to evoke a kidnapping victim - a metaphor, Mirambeau said, for the people of Haiti being held hostage by their corrupt government - as well as the Greek goddess Themis, who raises the scales of justice with her eyes covered to ensure justice is meted out objectively.
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Network

Yanis Varoufakis defends Jeremy Corbyn against anti-Semitism 'slander'


RT
Thu, 02 May 2019 18:33 UTC
corbyn antisemitism
© Reuters / Hannah McKayVans with slogans aimed at Britain's Labour Party are driven around Parliament Square in London
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis offered a ringing defense of UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on social media, dismissing accusations of anti-Semitism as "slander."

"Anti-Corbyn plotters are getting desperate," Varoufakis wrote on Twitter. "To perpetuate their antisemitism slander they are lambasting Jeremy for writing, in a blurb to JA Hobson's Imperialism's new edition, that it was both 'brilliant' and 'very controversial at the time'. They need to try much, much harder."

Critics, including Jewish leaders and members of Labour, have slammed Corbyn for penning the book's foreword, arguing he endorsed anti-Semitic content.

Comment: The UK's Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey also came to Corbyn's defense over the criticism:
"He was writing in the context I think of Hobsobn being a political thinker of his time and other MPs have spoken about that same individual.

"He in no way sanctions any anti-Semitic comments that are made by any individual nevermind this particular individual.

"He was commenting in a wider political sense as I understand, I haven't read the foreword myself, or indeed the book.

"This individual was a political thinker of his time - whether you agreed with his opinion or not. Labour and Conservative colleagues have commented on him whether that's negatively or positively taking certain parts of his thinking into consideration."


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