Society's ChildS


Eye 2

Fake GRU agent detained over weapons & accused of raping own daughter he fathered with cousin 'wife'


RT
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 17:25 UTC
Andrey russian rapist
© Sputnik / Nina AlekseevaAndrey, the suspect in the case, during a court hearing
A seemingly respectable religious family is suspected of hiding a despicable story of domestic abuse and incestuous rape. Police have already arrested the father for stashing an illegal arsenal of firearms.

If all details about the 10-member family at the center of the story currently floating around in the media are confirmed, it may well give fodder to a horror movie script. Officials have, so far, been restrained in their reporting, but what they said is already disturbing.

On Monday evening, police went to the family home in the village of Khimozi, which is located some 30km (18.6 miles) south of St. Petersburg. They were following up on a tip from a local resident, who said she believed the head of the family has been raping his 13-year-old daughter for years. Once let inside, they reportedly discovered lots of hastily hidden illegal firearms.
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Handcuffs

Hundred-strong terrorist cell busted in Russian prison where management was on the take - investigators


RT
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 17:18 UTC
russian police
© Investigative Committee of Russia
A wide-ranging probe involving multiple agencies has busted a large terrorist cell operating inside a prison in southern Russia. Senior management at the jail stand accused of taking bribes to turn a blind eye.

The jihadist ring was organized by a man from the southern republic of Dagestan, who was serving a sentence for illegal possession of firearms, Russian law enforcement said on Wednesday.

The prison where he was serving his term is located in Kalmykia, a region just north of Dagestan. Since his arrival in 2013, he managed to recruit over 100 inmates for what the investigators call a terrorist organization. Prison management was apparently aware of the recruitment drive, but they chose to turn a blind eye to the activity in return for bribes, instead of cracking down.
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Yellow Vest

Yellow Vests & brass necks: The brutality of Macron's crackdown continues to be invisible

George Galloway
RT
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 17:04 UTC
yellow vest protest pensions
© Getty Images / Omar Havana
Though they wear high-vis, French protesters have been all but invisible in the so-called mainstream media, also provoking deafening silence from the labor and trade union movement, and even the so-called 'left' within it.

While a broken head or even a broken window in Hong Kong or Venezuela can and often does lead the news, more than a year of weekly upheaval, mass movements of working people met with extreme violence by the French state and its achingly liberal President Macron has been ignored by Western print and broadcast journalists with studied arrogance.

There can be no rational justification for this. Hong Kong is almost 6,000 miles (9,656km) from England, Caracas almost 5,000 (8,047km). France is 31 miles (50km) away. It's not cheap to send and maintain news crews at the other ends of the earth. Cheap awaydays proliferate to Paris.

Comment:

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Attention

'All terrorists should be forgiven'? Parents furious over UK school assignment telling pupils to 'imagine you're a parent of Manchester bomb victim'

James Campbell, Benjamin Blosse
Manchester Evening News
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 17:08 UTC
Children at Bridlington School homework terrorist Manchester
Children at Bridlington School were asked whether all terrorist should be forgiven
A school has come under fierce criticism after its pupils were told to do homework based on the Manchester bombing and forgiving terrorists.

Pupils at a school in East Yorkshire were tasked with an assignment on a homework app which states: "Imagine that you are a parent of one of the Manchester bombing victims.

"Write a response to the point of view that: "All terrorists should be forgiven".

22 people were killed in the Arena attack at the Ariana Grande gig on May 22, 2017.

One parent said she took her child out of Bridlington High School for the day until she has some answers.

She told Hull Live : "There are children at the school who attended the concert and were there when the attack happened. There is even a cousin of one of the victims at the school.

Comment: Clearly a poorly considered assignment, and particularly so now when tensions are high. People no longer feel safe enough to attend Christmas festivities due to the threat of terrorist attacks - so preaching forgiveness is really a bit rich.

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Light Sabers

India: Curfew lifted, broadband services restored in Guwahati after 6 days of unrest


Business Insider
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
  • Curfew was imposed in Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tinsukia on December 11.
  • Army was also deployed after protests against the CAA turned violent.
  • Landline-based internet services are but mobile internet will be suspended till 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
Curfew in Assam
© IANS NewsSecurity personnel stand guard near Janta Bhawan during an indefinite curfew clamped by the Assam government following deteriorating law and order situation over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019.
The administration here on Tuesday lifted curfew and restored the broadband internet services in the state capital as the situation improved in Assam, which was on the boil over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

After violent protests against the CAA, curfew was imposed in Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tinsukia and a few other cities on December 11 and the army was deployed.

Comment: Meanwhile, the protests have spread to several high-profile Universities in New Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow and other locations. See also:

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Magnify

US military uses photo of Nazi war criminal to commemorate battle anniversary

Andy Gregory
The Independent
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 11:26 UTC
Joachim Peiper
© Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesJoachim Peiper of the Waffen-SS, pictured wearing the Iron Cross awarded to him in 1940
The US military has used a glamorised image of a Nazi war criminal who led an infamous massacre during the Battle of the Bulge to kick off a photo-series commemorating the Allied victory's anniversary, drawing a furious reaction on social media.

Joachim Peiper was a personal assistant to Heinrich​ Himmler and the chief of a German combat unit that murdered at least 84 American prisoners of war during the Nazis' failed final offensive on the Western front.

Peiper and 72 others in his unit were later convicted of war crimes for the Malmedy massacre, which saw them assemble dozens of surrendered American troops in the snow and open fire without warning on the second day of the five-week Battle of the Bulge.

Comment: Yahoo news reports on the 'white power hand sign' the above refers to:
Possible 'white power' hand signs at Army-Navy game probedThe Army and Navy academies are looking into hand signs flashed by students that can be associated with "white power" and were televised during the Army-Navy football game on Saturday, school officials said.

Cadets at West Point and midshipmen at the Naval Academy in the stands both appeared to display the sign during the broadcast, officials with the two military academies told The Wall Street Journal. The gesture was seen during an ESPN broadcast segment.

hand sign
School officials are trying to determine what the hand signals were meant to convey, they said.

"We're looking into it," Lt. Col. Chris Ophardt, a spokesperson for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York, told the Journal. "I don't know what their intention is."

"We are aware and will be looking into it," said Cmdr. Alana Garas, a spokesperson for the U.S. Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland.

The Pentagon didn't immediately respond to the Journal's request for comment.

The hand sign is similar to the one often used to indicate "OK," but the Anti-Defamation League says it has lately been used as an extremist meme, in part because of its ambiguity.

U.S. Coast Guard leaders last year reprimanded an officer who used a similar hand sign during a television broadcast.
See also:

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Robot

Are you for real? Fake CGI influencer Lil Miquela claims she was 'sexually assaulted'


RT
Mon, 16 Dec 2019 16:53 UTC
lil miquela
© Instagram / @lilmiquela
A fake, computer-generated social media influencer and 'musician' Lil Miquela has irked some of her 1.8 million followers and many others online after claiming she was "sexually assaulted."

Dubbed the "first virtual influencer," Lil Miquela is part influencer, pushing a variety of clothing brands, part activist, vocally supporting Black Lives Matter and LGBT+ rights, and part dystopian nightmare.


Her bio describes her as a "change-seeking robot" and she is the product of an odd AI startup called Brud, whose website consists of a view-only Google document in which the company claims to be based in LA and makes 'story worlds' that "create a more tolerant world by leveraging cultural understanding and technology."

Comment: She's not the only fake character out there with a following. See also: Fake, computer-generated Instagram influencers are modeling designer clothes, wearing Spanx, and attending red carpet premieres

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Jet5

First made-in-China aircraft carrier, the Shandong, officially enters service

Minnie Chan
South China Morning Post
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 18:01 UTC

Comment: Shandong province was one of the first places in which the 1899-1901 Boxer Rebellion started and became one of the centers of the uprising. The Chinese were 'punished' for this insurrection by having Shandong handed over as a colony, first to Imperial Germany, then to Imperial Japan. This was the nadir of China's 'Century of Humiliation', and sparked the May Fourth protest movement that led to China becoming a republic and eventually free of foreign interference. So when the Chinese today name an aircraft carrier the Shandong, take note that it is a very pointed spear with a long, deep train of history behind it...


Shandong aircraft carrier
The carrier officially entered into service after a ceremony in Hainan on Tuesday.
China's first home-built aircraft carrier was officially commissioned by President Xi Jinping on Tuesday as Beijing flexed its military muscles.

The new warship will be called the Shandong and its formal entry into service is a significant milestone in the country's efforts to build up its naval power.

This drive has been viewed warily by its neighbours and the United States in light of tensions in strategically sensitive areas such as the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.

The state broadcaster CCTV reported that the ceremony in Sanya, a port in the southern island province of Hainan, was attended by officials from the Southern Theatre Command which oversees the South China Sea.

The ship's captain will be Lai Yijun, who previously commanded the frigate Lianyungang, while its political commissar will be Pang Jianhong, who served on the destroyer Xian. Both are senior colonels.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Establishment journo's calls for big tech 'censorship' blasted as 'threat to press freedom

Mohamed Elmaazi
Sputnik
Tue, 17 Dec 2019 18:47 UTC
censoreship
Journalist Sulome Anderson claims The Grayzone news outlet publishes 'conspiracy theories' and that asking Google to distinguish between different outlets is not the same as censorship.

An establishment journalist has triggered controversy, and an online debate on press freedom, by publicly requesting Google de-rank the independent news site The Grayzone. Sulome Anderson, who, according to her bio on her Twitter page, has published with news outlets such as The Washington Post, Newsweek, New York Magazine, and Foreign Policy, labelled a recent article by Grayzone contributor Rania Khalek as "dangerous". For her part, Khalek called Anderson's comments to Google a "dangerous threat to press freedom"

Freedom of Press vs Big Tech Control

Khalek's article, which Anderson specifically took aim at, is part of a two-piece investigation into alleged US and Gulf states attempts to co-opt and influence the ongoing anti-corruption protests in Lebanon. Khalek writes that:
"By joining the roadblocks around Beirut, the protesters have inadvertently allowed themselves to be used by these US-allied parties. Whether they know it or not, the media-friendly artists and students at the ring road in downtown Beirut have given cover to the Lebanese Forces roadblocks in the north and the [Progressive Socialist Party] and Future Party roadblocks in the south."
Anderson lashed out against the article, calling The Grayzone a "conspiracy theorist website":

Comment: See also:

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Oil Well

Citing climate change, Goldman Sachs rules out financing new Arctic oil projects

Kevin McGwin
Arctic Today
Mon, 16 Dec 2019 21:18 UTC
beaufort Sea oil rig
© Shell Alaska file photoA drilling unit works at a Shell prospect in the Beaufort Sea in 2012.
The major U.S. investment bank acknowledged that a changing climate is linked to a raft of social and economic issues.

After previously declaring there was no economic rationale for Arctic oil and gas drilling, Goldman Sachs now says it will go a step further and refuse to finance new oil projects in the region, in part on environmental and social grounds.

In updated corporate environmental guidelines published Sunday, Goldman Sachs, one of America's "big-six" banks, said it "will decline any financing transaction that directly supports new upstream Arctic oil exploration or development. This includes but is not limited to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

The change comes after Goldman Sachs, earlier this month, said it "has not and would not expect to finance oil exploration" in oil-rich, but environmentally sensitive section of Alaska's North Slope area.

Comment: So Goldman Sachs finally got (climate) religion? They are concerned about a native tribe whose name the head honchos probably couldn't even pronounce? No bank turns down a chance to make money on a vital commodity. Is it possible that by drying up funds for proven technologies, the energy industries will be herded into risky, untried methods of providing their product? This even as the 'green power revolution' is already showing cracks.

What is really going on here?

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