Society's Child

EU proposes tariffs on US imports as part of Boeing subsidy dispute

BBC
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 15:21 UTC

© Reuters
A Boeing 737 MAX plane is seen during a media tour of the Boeing plant in Renton, Washington, U.S. 7 December 2015

The EU has proposed tariffs on $20bn (£15bn) of US goods in a long-running dispute over Boeing aircraft subsidies. The proposal comes after the WTO said earlier this month that the US had failed to remove some Boeing subsidies.

The EU move comes after the US said it was considering tariffs on about $11bn (£8.4bn) worth of EU goods in response to Airbus subsidies. And it comes after the EU approved plans in April for trade talks with the US designed to reduce trade barriers.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said: "European companies must be able to compete on fair and equal terms.

"The recent WTO ruling on US subsidies for Boeing is important in this respect. We must continue to defend a level-playing field for our industry."

Day laborer forced to have sex at gunpoint by deranged Arizona couple

The Smoking Gun
Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:57 UTC

Brenda Acuna-Aguero and Jorge Murrieta-Valenzuela

An Arizona couple is charged with luring a day laborer to their Phoenix home and forcing the man to have sex at gunpoint with the female suspect, an assault that the male suspect described as a "sexual fantasy scenario," according to a criminal complaint.

According to investigators, the victim was picked up last Monday outside a Home Depot by Brenda Acuna-Aguero, 39, who said that she needed help moving items at her home.

The victim told cops that when he reached the residence, Acuna-Aguero "began to talk sexual to him" and said it "was her fantasy to have sex with a laborer and that she wanted to have sex with him."

When the man declined to have sex, Acuna-Aguero's husband Jorge Murrieta-Valenzuela, 45, entered the room carrying a rifle. Murrieta-Valenzuela, cops charge, placed the firearm against the victim's chest and told him "that he was going to have sex with his wife or he would shoot him."

Are Jews required to burn churches? After Notre Dame, Israeli rabbi says, "It's complicated"

Yossi Gurvitz
Mondoweiss
Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:57 UTC

Prominent settler rabbi, Shlomo Aviner, ruled today (Tuesday) that burning churches outside of the Land of Yisrael "isn't our job for now", but as for the Holy Land, "the issue is more complicated". Aviner seemed to leave the question of burning churches in the Holy Land to the questioner.

Aviner, who draws a public salary as the rabbi of the major settlement Beit El and is also the rabbi of a prestigious yeshiva (Ateret Yerushaliam, formerly Ateret Cohanim), is considered to be one most important rabbis of the religious nationalist sector. He is a prolific writer, having published more than 200 books in several languages. Aviner is also considered a pioneer of the SHUT-SMS phenomenon, by which fans send the rabbi a question via SMS message (and more recently, Facebook Messenger and Whatsup), and Aviner gives back a short reply. Aviner is one of the more popular SHUT-SMS rabbis because he tends to answer every question, even trollish ones (I'm speaking from experience here).

Today, after the fire in Notre Dame Cathedral, Aviner was asked the following question:

"The great Christian Church in Paris is on fire. Should we feel sorry for that, or should we rejoice, as it [the cathedral] is idolatry, which is a mitzvah to burn?"

The questioner is here referring to the Halachic ruling that churches are considered idolatry, and should be destroyed.

Comment: Unfortunately, Aviner is typical. To find out why, check out:

The Truth Perspective: How to Numb Your Conscience with Totalitarian Religion

Russia will soon become one of the world's leading food suppliers

RT
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 09:26 UTC

© Sputnik / Alexey Malgavko
Boosting sales of agricultural products abroad is currently one of the top-priority tasks for the country. According to a directive by Russian President Vladimir Putin, exports in the sector are set to grow to US$45 billion by 2024.

Russia will soon become one of the world's 10 leading exporters of agricultural products in the near future, according to Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev.

"The current dynamics of foreign trade suggests that in the medium term Russia is able to enter the list of the world's top ten exporters of agricultural goods," he said, adding that the country is already among the top three major suppliers when it comes to some sectors.

According to the minister, Russian producers managed to expand into a number of strategically important markets in 2018. The surge was reportedly due to the growth of grain, fish, and meat exports.

"China, Morocco, Japan, Singapore, Serbia, and Turkey is not the full list of countries. Now we may export fish, honey, plant feed to Morocco; meat products - to Japan, Singapore, Turkey, and Kuwait," Patrushev said.

Comment: Once again, Russia shows that it has its priorities straight and may one day be the world's lifeline:

Facebook 'bans' Ukrainian far-right Azov group over hate speech, but getting rid of them won't be easy

Christopher Miller
RFE/RL
Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:46 UTC

© epa
Azov members and supporters of various right-wing movements burn flares during a rally in front of parliament in Kyiv in 2016.

Ukraine's militaristic, far-right Azov movement and its various branches have used Facebook to promote its antidemocratic, ultranationalist messages and recruit new members since its inception at the start of the country's war against Russia-backed separatists five years ago.

The American social-networking giant has also been an important platform for Azov's global expansion and attempts to legitimize itself among likeminded American and European white nationalists.

Facebook has occasionally taken down pages and groups associated with Azov when they have been found to be in violation of its policies on hate speech and the depiction of violence.

The first Facebook removals occurred in 2015, Azov members told RFE/RL.

But after continuous, repeat violations Azov -- which includes many war veterans and militant members with openly neo-Nazi views who have been involved in attacks on LGBT activists, Romany encampments, and women's groups -- is now officially banned from having any presence on Facebook, the social network has confirmed to RFE/RL.

Despite the ban, however, which quietly came into force months ago, a defiant Azov and its members remain active on the social network under pseudonyms and name variations, underscoring the difficulty Facebook faces in combating extremism on a platform with some 2.32 billion monthly active users.

Comment: See also:

The Transnational Far-Right Network Nobody Is Talking About - Birthed in Ukraine

'Chilling message to all critics': Human Rights Watch hits back at Israel's decision to deport its regional director

RT
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 04:00 UTC

Omar Shakir, HRW's Israel and Palestine Director

An Israeli court has upheld the deportation order against the local director of Human Rights Watch, accusing him of supporting the BDS movement by condoning Airbnb's decision to briefly take down Jewish listings in the West Bank.

Omar Shakir, a US citizen who has been working as the HRW regional director since October 2016, was ordered to leave Israel by the interior minister last year, after being accused of engaging in Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement activities.

Comment: Israel is not only afraid of objective criticism concerning its inhuman policy towards Palestinians - but has pursued a full-on assault against proponents of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions strategy - which is enjoying some success at punishing Israel - when all world governments have failed at it.

Rogue Kenyan cops uses Facebook target and kill gangsters, say residents

Dickens Olewe
BBC News
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 15:58 UTC

This woman told the Kayole forum she believed two of her husbands were killed by "Hessy".

A suspected death squad operating inside Kenya's police force is using Facebook to target and kill young men they believe to be gang members, residents of a poor and overcrowded area of the capital have told a public meeting.

"I have lost two husbands in one year," a tearful young woman, balancing a toddler on her side, told the crowded town hall meeting in Nairobi's Kayole residential estate last month.

Others came forward to the microphone to tell similar stories about losing young relatives aged between 15 and 24.

The state prosecutor, top police officers and human rights activists, who were also at the rare gathering, listened as community leaders explain how these youngsters, suspected to be criminals, were profiled within various Facebook groups by "gangster hunters".

"They profile them on Facebook, after one week or a month they shoot them, and put pictures of their dead bodies on Facebook," Wilfred Olal from the Dandora Community Justice Centre told the meeting.

Italy: Terrorist presence on migrant boats from Libya are now a certainty

Al Arabiya
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC

© AO
Migrants on a dinghy arrives at the southeastern island of Kos, Greece, after crossing from Turkey, on Aug. 13, 2015.

Chaos in Libya following General Khalifa Haftar's offensive has increased the risk of terrorist presence on migrant boats headed for Italy, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said, adding the country's ports would remain closed.

Comment: See: What's REALLY Happening in Libya: Popular Revolt Against UN and US-backed Terrorist Occupation

"Islamic terrorist infiltration is no longer a risk, it has become a certainty: it is therefore my duty to reiterate that no docking will be allowed on Italian shores" he said in a radio interview on Wednesday.

Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant League party, refused to say if Italy's stance could change in case of a full-fledged war in Libya after the flare-up in the cycle of anarchy gripping the country since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011.

Comment: And there's no question that the West has been counting on the migration of terrorists from decimated countries like Libya and Syria to destabilize Europe...

UK military has been using carcinogenic chromium to paint its vehicles even after it was declared hazardous

Sam Blanchard
Daily Mail
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 15:50 UTC

Military vehicles in the UK have been painted with a toxic, cancer-causing chemical as recently as last year.

Chromium VI has been linked to various cancers and was officially listed as hazardous by the EU in 2003 when it was banned in some manufacturing.

However, it was still being used to paint military vehicles in the UK as recently as December last year, The Times reported.

The Ministry of Defence said it has now stopped using paint containing the chemical as a Scottish MP said it was 'simply incredible' it hadn't stopped earlier.

It is unknown whether any military staff have had their health affected by the use of chromium VI, known chemically as hexavalent chromium.

Comment: Chromium-6: The chemical Erin Brockovich warned about is in water all over America

George Galloway: Truth itself is behind bars in Julian Assange's cell

George Galloway
RT
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 15:08 UTC

As the cell-door slammed behind the world-renowned publisher Julian Assange, the Champagne corks were popping in some surprising salons.

Liberals across the world, forever telling us that they'd "die for our right to say it" turned out to be dying for the Trump Justice Department to get their hands on the ghost of what they used to be, or wanted us to think they were.

The commentariat plumbed to new depths of depravity in their glee at the incarceration of a damaged whistleblower, for seven years unable to leave his tiny room. How odd he looked, how unkempt, a "demented gnome" in the words of Channel 4's international editor Lindsey Hilsum. Publications throughout Europe and North America which once vied with each other to publish WikiLeaks scoops vied instead to heap ordure on the fallen hero Assange. Liberals showed they are not so much lipstick on the pig of power but a part of the pig, somewhere around its hindquarters.

Comment:

Has everyone seen the documentary Century of the Self? It's about Bernays, PR BS, etc. and is REALLY well done. (I found it at an AA article.)...

Rowan Cocoan

Their were saints in Catholic history who most have heard about and others not so much. Now you have Saint Francis of Assisi, but you also have...

Buffalo_Ken

I have a different definition for the "global commons". It is in the definition of "the commons" definition in the link provided below. Here is a...

Buffalo_Ken

Biden the child-killer. Think of the children, vaxxers, think of the children.

hobnyeba

Thanks, all, for great comments and links. Lots to think about.

ReRan

Society's Child

EU proposes tariffs on US imports as part of Boeing subsidy dispute

Day laborer forced to have sex at gunpoint by deranged Arizona couple

Are Jews required to burn churches? After Notre Dame, Israeli rabbi says, "It's complicated"

Russia will soon become one of the world's leading food suppliers

Facebook 'bans' Ukrainian far-right Azov group over hate speech, but getting rid of them won't be easy

'Chilling message to all critics': Human Rights Watch hits back at Israel's decision to deport its regional director

Rogue Kenyan cops uses Facebook target and kill gangsters, say residents

Italy: Terrorist presence on migrant boats from Libya are now a certainty

UK military has been using carcinogenic chromium to paint its vehicles even after it was declared hazardous

George Galloway: Truth itself is behind bars in Julian Assange's cell

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