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Texas Supreme Court suspends judge over allegations of sexting while on the bench and using illegal drugs


Star-Telegram
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 17:36 UTC
judge hilary green
© kristv.com
The Texas Supreme Court has suspended a Houston judge amid allegations she sexted while on the bench and used illegal drugs.

Harris County Justice of the Peace Hilary Green was suspended Friday without pay at the request of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Records show Green, in response to the commission, acknowledged illegally obtaining prescription drugs, plus used marijuana. Green's response also indicated she engaged in sexually explicit and drug-related texts with a bailiff.

The Houston Chronicle reported that it's the first time any Texas judge has received a temporary suspension in at least a decade in a contested matter, the commission says.
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Attention

Yemen's cholera outbreak 'spiraling out of control' amid Saudi war


Sputnik
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 17:12 UTC
yemen cholera outbreak
The Red Cross has reported that the cholera outbreak in Yemen has reached a rampant pace of growth, with more than 300,000 cases suspected in the war torn nation of 25 million.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that the cholera epidemic, which is growing by 7,000 new cases every day in just a fraction of the country, "continues to spiral out of control."

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported more than 262,000 suspected cases and 1,587 deaths on July 2 — but officials were only able to collect data from 21 of Yemen's 23 governorates. On June 24, the WHO reported the number of cases at 200,000, a 50-percent increase in cases over just 16 days. During the initial outbreak in April, the WHO predicted that the 300,000 mark wouldn't be reached until autumn.
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Heart

Renowned artist George Butler captures brutality of Mosul in poignant drawings


RT
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 16:50 UTC
george butler mosul painting
© georgebutler.org
Renowned reportage artist George Butler has traveled to Iraq's Mosul to depict how the war ruined not just the city but also people's lives. Butler told RT he cannot accept the routine way the civilian cost of fighting and airstrikes is being described.

Butler, who has previously traveled to Syria and Afghanistan to depict the world's bloodiest conflicts, was embedded with an Iraqi special forces and emergency response force for 10 days in March, as the government struggled to take the city back from Islamic State (IS, ISIL/ISIS), six months after the battle started.

"Mosul is a story that should be told. It was an easy decision to go," said Butler when asked if it took courage to travel to a warzone, speaking to RT via video link from the UK.
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Stormtrooper

US soldier arrested in terrorism probe after pledging allegiance to Islamic State


RFE/RL
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 16:52 UTC
US soldier American flag
A U.S. Army soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan has been arrested on charges of providing material support to Islamic State extremists, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on July 10.

Ikaika Kang, 34, a soldier in the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, in Hawaii had been under investigation by the Army and FBI for more than a year and was taken into custody on July 8, the FBI said.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, Kang has sworn allegiance to IS, the militant group that seized large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq for a self-proclaimed caliphate in 2014.

Comment: Kang was only following the same course set by the US. His mistake was in thinking a low level soldier could engage in the same deplorable behavior as high ranking politicians like Hillary Clinton.

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Arrow Up

Americans ignore CNN, visit Russia in record numbers

Paul Goncharoff
Russia Insider
Mon, 10 Jul 2017 18:33 UTC
russia_tourist
© Russia Insider
Bookings by the better known US-based specialized travel agencies for Americans heading to Russia have seen a dramatic turnaround with increases of 30% between 2015 and 2016, adding a further +12% so far in 2017.

Since 2016 to May 2017, some interesting developments have been ongoing in the now well-known relationship between Russia and China as the quantity of both tourists and businesspeople moving between the two countries have increased by 32% from China and 37% from Russia. True, the numbers are not spectacularly high yet the trend is apparent.

Due to sanctions and media perceptions, we initially saw a decreased demand in 2014 from US and EU businesspeople and tourists, then on the other hand, the sanctions and the cheap ruble have compensated with increased domestic travel by Russians throughout the regions of the country, which has made a positive impact on the hotel occupancy rates.
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Star of David

Majority of Israelis polled want greater separation of church and state


RT
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 16:37 UTC
rabbi
© Ammar Awad / Reuters
Some 55 percent of Jewish Israelis would like a review of the longstanding policy that sees Judaism and the state fused to a great extent, a new poll shows. The same percentage of respondents believe the current policy reflects an ultra-Orthodox view.

The authors of the survey, which was commissioned by the Israel Democracy Institute, asked groups of Israel's Jewish population with various religious backgrounds about their opinion on the status quo, a consensus on the role of religion in the life of the Jewish state reached between secular and religious parties that dates back to its early days.

The main pillars of the policy were outlined in a letter by one of Israel's founders, its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, from June 1947, and later enshrined in Israeli law. That includes limiting business and public activity on Shabbat, putting rabbinical courts solely in charge of any matters concerning marriage and divorce of Jewish Israelis and not allowing the option of a civil marriage for anyone. As for the non-Jewish population, including Christians and Muslims, the letter purported to guarantee a freedom of conscience giving them permission not to follow Shabbat and providing other exceptions.
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Heart - Black

Israeli nuke whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu sentenced again for talking to foreigners


Sputnik
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 16:30 UTC
Mordechai Vanunu
Whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who in 1986 exposed Israel's nuclear weapons program and spent 18 years in jail for his revelations, has been sentenced again, this time for violating terms of his parole.

Vanunu, a former technician at Israel's Negev Nuclear Research Center, revealed to the media in 1986 that the country was developing nuclear weapons — a revelation that the embattled Middle Eastern nation refuted and continues to deny to this day, in spite of irrefutable evidence and widespread global condemnation, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The whistleblower was branded a traitor and sentenced to 18 years in prison for the revelation.

Comment: See:

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Red Flag

Controversial Islamic preacher who called Jews and Christians 'agents of Satan' allowed to speak at pro-Palestine event in Britain


RT
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 16:32 UTC
Ebrahim Bham
© Standard Bearers Academy / YouTube
An Islamic preacher who called Jews "agents of Satan" and quoted Nazi Joseph Goebbels to compare Jews to "fleas" was allowed into Britain to speak at a pro-Palestine event over the weekend.

Ebrahim Bham, from South Africa, has also delivered lectures where he described equality between the sexes as "absurd"and defended violent jihad as "part and parcel" of Islamic teaching, it has been reported.

The Palestine Expo event, which was given the go-ahead by the government following concerns over the organizer Friends of Al-Aqsa's links to Palestinian group Hamas, was held at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London over the weekend.

Bham spoke about the "sacredness of Jerusalem" at the event, which was billed by organizers as the "biggest social, cultural and entertainment event on Palestine to ever take place in Europe."

The event, which showcased Palestinian art, food and history, attracted more than 15,000 attendees.
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Vader

Eagle-eyed student spots Mattis' phone number enabling phone interview, Mattis promptly displays American Exceptionalism


RT
Tue, 11 Jul 2017 15:19 UTC
mattis
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
A private White House phone number was inadvertently broadcast to the world last May, allowing an eagle-eyed high school journalist to gain an interview with US Defense Secretary General James Mattis.

Teddy Fischer, from Mercer Island High School in Washington, got an exclusive that most journalists can only dream of by studying the minute detail in a picture posted on the Washington Post website.

The image depicted a relatively normal scene - a White House aide, Keith Schiller, carrying a stack of papers beside US President Donald Trump. However, what many people failed to realise was that the US defense secretary's cell number was on view for all to see.

According to Fischer, he ended up calling the number seen on a sticky note to see if the former top US Marine, General James Mattis, would pick up the phone.
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Health

Kaiser Family Foundation report: Obamacare market stabilizing, not imploding


RT
Mon, 10 Jul 2017 18:25 UTC
FixObamacare
© Washington Post
A new analysis of health insurers' financial data finds that Affordable Care Act (ACA) markets are "stabilizing," and not imploding as Republican lawmakers have implied.
"Early results from 2017 suggest the individual market is stabilizing and insurers in this market are regaining profitability," the Kaiser Family Foundation said in a study published Monday. "Insurer financial results show no sign of a market collapse."
The study found in the first quarter of this year insurers paid out 75 percent of their premiums in claims. As a comparison, in the first quarter of 2015, 88 percent of premiums were paid out for claims.

Comment: Financial numbers for the ACA look better as 'newbies' to the program raise totals but receive fewer benefits. Approximately 15% of the US population is enrolled, not exactly a whopping success.

KFF is in partnership with MSM news organizations such as The Washington Post and The New York Times, two liberal-favored news sources.

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