Society's ChildS


Attention

Pentagon's warning to military: DNA kits pose 'personal and operational risks'

Jenna McLaughlin, Zach Dorfman
Yahoo News
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
Home DNA kits
© Eric Baradat/AFP/Smith Collection/Getty ImagesHome DNA kits
The Pentagon is advising members of the military not to use consumer DNA kits, saying the information collected by private companies could pose a security risk, according to a memo co-signed by the Defense Department's top intelligence official.

A growing number of companies like 23andMe and Ancestry sell testing kits that allow buyers to get a DNA profile by sending in a cheek swab or saliva sample. The DNA results provide consumers information on their ancestry, insights into possible medical risks and can even identify previously unknown family members.

The boom in popularity of such kits has raised ethical and legal issues, since some companies have shared this data with law enforcement or sold it to third parties. The Defense Department is now expressing its own concerns about these kits.

"Exposing sensitive genetic information to outside parties poses personal and operational risks to Service members," says the Dec. 20 memo signed by Joseph D. Kernan, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and James N. Stewart, the assistant secretary of defense for manpower.

Comment: As mentioned: DOD memo on DNA testing by Sharon Weinberger on Scribd

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Padlock

18 months in Israeli prison, a Gaza fisherman finally returns home

Abdallah Abusamra, Pam Bailey
Mondoweiss
Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
Suhail al-Amoudi
© UnknownSuhail al-Amoudi with his grandson Mohammed after returning home.
This essay is by a writer with We Are Not Numbers in Gaza.

A largely forgotten casualty of the Great Return March protests in the Gaza Strip quietly returned home last November after serving 18 months in an Israeli prison. Suhail al-Amoudi, 58, was a captain in the Freedom Boats 2, commanding one of three vessels in a flotilla that sought to break the Israeli naval blockade around Gaza.
"I sailed because the flotilla was meant to send a message to the whole world — that Palestinians can no longer stand the Israeli blockade. And if another flotilla were to try it again, I'd do it again, despite the price I paid. We shouldn't give up protesting until we regain all of our rights."
Al-Amoudi has fished Gaza's sea for 35 years, during which he was attacked several times by the Israeli navy despite staying within whatever limits were imposed at the time. The Israeli government constantly changes the zone in which it allows fishermen to ply the waters without being shot or having their boats confiscated. In fact, from the start of 2019 to date, Israel has implemented 15 changes in the "no-go" zone it enforces off Gaza's coast. These restrictions contradict regulations from the Oslo Accords, signed by the Palestinian and Israeli leadership in 1993. According to the agreement, Gaza's fishermen should be allowed to sail a distance of 20 nautical miles from the coast — where the best fish are found.
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Blackbox

'Role play'? Swedish school forces pupils to recite Muslim prayer in Arabic - reports


Sputnik
Tue, 24 Dec 2019 18:05 UTC
koran
© AFP 2019 / JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD
When angry parents contacted the school in Kalmar County in southern Sweden, its authorities said it was merely "role-play".

Fifth-grade pupils in Bjurbäcksskolan, Emmaboda Municipality had to participate in a religion lesson, where they kneeled on prayer mats facing Mecca and worshipped Allah in Arabic, the news outlet Samhällsnytt reported.

The class was also reportedly divided by gender and the girls had to move to the back of the room.

"Today my girls came home from school and told me that they were forced to lie on prayer mats and pray in Arabic. The girls had to be in the back of the classroom. Then they would dance to Arabic music and eat Arabic cake. My girls did not even want to be there because they could not understand a word of what the teacher read from the Quran in Arabic", an angry parent who called himself Markus told Samhällsnytt.

According to Markus, some students brought their own mats. The teacher distributed mats to the students who did not have their own. The pupils would be facing the Kaaba, the centrepiece of the Great Mosque of Mecca.

When confronted by parents, school authorities said it was "role-playing".
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Eye 2

Greens' leader takes heat as he wants Germany to take 4,000 migrant children stuck in Greece


RT
Tue, 24 Dec 2019 11:09 UTC
Children
© REUTERS/Kostas Tsironis
Leader of the German Greens sparked quite a firestorm after he suggested that thousands of underage migrants be voluntarily brought into the country from Greece. Only a few were impressed by the plea for humanism.

Roughly 4,000 children, including "many girls, many fragile little people," desperately wait for relief in the Greek islands, and it's a "requirement of humanity" to "get the kids out first," Robert Habeck, the Green Party leader, exclaimed during an interview with Sunday's edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Now, the weekend became less tranquil after politicians - conservative and liberal - locked horns over Habeck's proposal in the media. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) were first to lash out at the Green politician, saying Germany shouldn't do it alone.

Gerd Mueller, the development aid minister, argued that "the children can and must best be helped on the spot," while Guenter Krings, parliamentary undersecretary in the Interior Ministry, reminded Habeck that taking children unilaterally would "bypass all European legal rules."
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Sheriff

Border Patrol: Catch-and-release ended for 95% of migrants; cartels already adjusting tactics

Stephen Dinan
Washington Times
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 17:46 UTC
Border Patrol mexico texas
© AP/Eric GayWednesday, Nov. 6, 2019, Border Patrol agents stop two men thought to have entered the country illegally, near McAllen, Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border. In the Rio Grande Valley, the southernmost point of Texas is historically the busiest section for border crossings.
Homeland Security has solved the Central American migrant surge from earlier this year, ending 95% of catch-and-release at the border, a top official said Tuesday — but he warned the cartels are already shifting their tactics to entice other migrants to make the journey.

And acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark A. Morgan also warned the government may not meet its own goal for construction of miles of President Trump's border wall by the end of next year.

"Our goal at the end of 2020 is 450 miles. It's hard right now to say whether we're still gong to be able to meet that goal, but I'm confident we're going to be close," Mr. Morgan told reporters.

Comment:

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Stock Up

U.S. mass killings hit new high in 2019, most were shootings


CNBC
Tue, 24 Dec 2019 17:43 UTC
school shooting vigil
© John Locher / AP fileMelody Stout, Hannah Payan, Aaliyah Alba, Sherie Gramlich and Laura Barrios comfort each other on Aug. 3, 2019 during a vigil for victims of the shooting in El Paso, Texas.
The first one occurred 19 days into the new year when a man used an ax to kill four family members including his infant daughter. Five months later, 12 people were killed in a workplace shooting in Virginia. Twenty-two more died at a Walmart in El Paso in August.

A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows that there were more mass killings in 2019 than any year dating back to at least the 1970s, punctuated by a chilling succession of deadly rampages during the summer.

In all, there were 41 mass killings, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator. Of those, 33 were mass shootings. More than 210 people were killed.

Most of the mass killings barely became national news, failing to resonate among the general public because they didn't spill into public places like massacres in El Paso and Odessa, Texas, Dayton, Ohio, Virginia Beach, Va., and Jersey City, New Jersey.

The majority of the killings involved people who knew each other — family disputes, drug or gang violence or people with beefs that directed their anger at co-workers or relatives.

In many cases, what set off the perpetrator remains a mystery.
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Arrow Down

World in 'sex recession' as humans increasingly prefer AI dolls to real lovers


Sputnik
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 17:34 UTC
sex robot
© Realbotix Instagram
As part of curious recent observations, sex researchers have come to believe that there is much harm in using tablets or smartphones before or after sexual pleasures. But however arguable it may seem, technology is also there for many to revive long- (or not so long) forgotten hook-up sensations.

Despite having previously unheard of sexual freedoms, it appears that the modern-day generation is shunning sex, causing intimate bodily pleasures to be on the slide in a range of well-developed countries.

Japan, which has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, has been reported to be leading in the worrying trend, with the country's long working hours typically being blamed for it, as is the huge uptick in the number of robot users.

With as many as 300 robots for every 10,000 people, the Japanese are increasingly comfortable working alongside robots, with the trend having spread well beyond the workplace.

'Gatebox Fairy'

The number of sex robots, holographic partners, and home assistants has gone up more considerably in popularity in Japan than elsewhere, with the most widely reported holographic character to date being Azuma Hikary from Gatebox - a wildly popular digital assistant akin to Amazon's Alexa that can provide company for users, fulfil "smart home" functions, and even texts the owner when feeling lonely.

Comment: This is probably one of the most unforeseen consequences of the radical shift in sexual attitudes over the past few generations. But it has the potential to get even worse:

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X

Virginia Democrats want to outlaw single-family suburban zoning because it's 'racist' and bad for environment

Luke Rosiak
Daily Caller
Tue, 24 Dec 2019 17:24 UTC
house for sale sign
© Reuters
Democrats in Virginia may override local zoning to bring high-density housing, including public housing, to every neighborhood statewide — whether residents want it or not.

The measure could quickly transform the suburban lifestyle enjoyed by millions, permitting duplexes to be built on suburban lots in neighborhoods previously consisting of quiet streets and open green spaces. Proponents of "upzoning" say the changes are necessary because suburbs are bastions of segregation and elitism, as well as bad for the environment.

The move, which aims to provide "affordable housing," might be fiercely opposed by local officials throughout the state, who have deliberately created and preserved neighborhoods with particular character — some dense and walkable, others semi-rural and private — to accommodate people's various preferences.

But Democrats tout a state-level law's ability to replace "not in my backyard" with "yes, in your backyard."


Comment: These Democrats have a top-down, interventionist, totalitarian mindset. God forbid you let people sort themselves out based on their own preferences. The technocrats know what's right and good for you, and they'll make damn sure you get it.


House Delegate Ibraheem Samirah, a Democrat, introduced six housing measures Dec. 19, coinciding with Democrats' takeover of the state legislature in November.

"Single-family housing zones would become two-zoned," Samirah told the Daily Caller News Foundation. "Areas that would be impacted most would be the suburbs that have not done their part in helping out."

"The real issues are the areas in between very dense areas which are single-family zoned. Those are the areas that the state is having significant trouble dealing with. They're living in a bubble," he said.
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Handcuffs

Slain Austin mom was friends for years with suspected kidnapper: 'I hope she rots'

Emily Shapiro and Sabina Ghebremedhin
ABC News
Mon, 23 Dec 2019 10:32 UTC
Heidi Broussard and her daughter Margot Carey
© Austin Police DepartmentPolice have released this photo of Heidi Broussard and her daughter Margot Carey after they were reported missing.
Heidi Broussard, the Austin, Texas, mom found strangled to death one week after she vanished, had been friends for years with Magen Fieramusca, who police believe is involved in her disappearance.

"You were supposed to be Heidi's friend," Broussard's friend, Rachel West, told "Good Morning America." "I hope she rots."

Broussard, 33, and her infant daughter had been missing since Dec. 12 when Broussard was discovered strangled to death in a home near Houston on Dec. 19, according to officials.

An infant girl was found alive and healthy at the scene, and police say DNA testing is underway to confirm that she is Broussard's baby, Margot.
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Dominoes

Best of the Web: Triumph of the right in Sweden is a result of the total failure of liberalism

Graham Dockery
RT
Tue, 24 Dec 2019 17:06 UTC
Jimmie Akesson
© Reuters / Johan NilssonSweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson
Sweden's right-wing Sweden Democrats are now neck and neck with the ruling Social Democrats in opinion polls. Though vilified and demonized, the party's success represents a complete failure of liberalism in the face of reality.

The Sweden Democrats - who were until recently dismissed as a fringe, racist party - are now surging in the polls. A voter survey, commissioned by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper last week, puts the party within 0.2 percentage points of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven's left-wing Social Democrats. Moreover, voters now agree with the party's policies on nine out of nine issues.

On immigration, 43 percent of voters side with the party and its leader, Jimmie Akesson. Only 15 percent favor Lofven's policies. Likewise, 31 percent favor Akesson's position on law and order, compared to 19 percent for Lofven.

The press has not made Akesson's ride to the top easy. Yet, most outlets have failed to dig up dirt on the 40-year-old politician, who like France's Marine Le Pen, has made a point of distancing his party from its extreme-right roots and presenting a clean-cut image.
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