Society's ChildS


Star of David

Apartheid state 'justice': Presumptive guilt for Palestinians, innocence for Israelis

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC
Mahmoud Qatusa (l) and Dean Issacharoff (r)
Mahmoud Qatusa (l) and Dean Issacharoff (r)
This week, two parallel, yet unrelated, stories in Israel had two different endings which mirrored each other:
  1. On Tuesday, the Israeli Military Advocate-General Maj. Gen. Sharon Afek, announced the retraction of an indictment against Palestinian Mahmoud Qatusa for the rape of a seven-year-old Jewish child at a settlement where he works as a maintenance supervisor.
  2. On Sunday, the Israeli State Prosecutor's office admitted that Dean Issacharoff from the Israeli military whistleblower organization Breaking the Silence, had possibly beaten a Palestinian as he had claimed back in 2017, and that the state's attempts to prove his testimony false were possibly built on a testimony of a wrong Palestinian.
Already these descriptions demand certain mental gymnastics. Because this is Kafkaesque. To simplify it, let me try this: Palestinians belong to a group which is generally assumed guilty, Israeli Jews belong to a group which is assumed innocent - and both had to fight those assumptions.

Let's look in more detail into what the cases involve:

Comment: See also:

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Bomb

Twin explosions on buses in Kirkuk kill 1, injure 17


Sputnik
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 19:15 UTC
iraqi police
© AP Photo / Hadi Mizban
A twin attack on passenger buses in Iraq's city of Kirkuk left one woman killed and 17 other people injured, local media reported.

The Rudaw news agency reported that improvised explosive devises, planted on the two buses, went off in two Kirkuk's districts on Thursday.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the local authorities blamed it on the remnants of the Daesh terror group, according to Rudaw.

"Kirkuk Provincial Council, while strongly condemning this cowardly terrorist attack... renews its insistence on the necessity to uproot the roots of terror and strike with an iron fist against ISIS remnants, not underestimate them, and for the security forces to take the highest degree of alertness and carefulness," the council said in a statement late on Thursday.

Daesh was defeated in Iraq in late 2017. However, some terror cells are still believed to be operating in the country.
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Pirates

Success? Britain has highest rate of returning jihadis in all Europe

Bill Gardner
Telegraph, UK
Thu, 27 Jun 2019 19:09 UTC
UK recruits to ISIS
More than 850 people have left the UK to join Isis in Iraq and Syria, with half having since returned
Britain has by far the highest rate of "exceptionally dangerous" returning jihadis in Europe, police chiefs have warned.

A report from Europol revealed that of hundreds of Britons who travelled to Syria and Iraq amid the rise of Isil, nearly half have been able to return safely.

It comes amid widespread concern at the low number of returning fighters and so-called jihadi brides successfully prosecuted in British courts.

According to the annual Europol report, roughly 45% of Britons who travelled to Syria and Iraq have already come back to their home country.

The country with the next highest proportion was Germany, where 33% have returned, while in the Netherlands and Spain the return rate is thought to be just 18%.

The report warned that returning jihadis and their supporters pose a serious ongoing threat to national security.

Comment: Just don't say anything offensive about the returning jihadis on Twitter - you may get a visit by the police for hate speech.

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Attention

Despite Obrador's promises, migrants flow through borders with nary a Mexican National Guard trooper in sight

Charlotte Cuthberson
The Epoch Times
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC
Guatemala Mexico border migration
© Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch TimesTube rafts carry people and goods across the Suchiate River from Hidalgo, Mexico, to Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on June 25, 2019. Mexican National Guard troops are yet to be deployed here.
One of the busiest border crossings between Mexico and Guatemala has yet to see Mexican National Guard troops. In the southeast of Mexico, across the Suchiate River, goods and people flow all day long between the two countries.

But there is still no sign of the 6,000 troops that the Mexican government said it would deploy after President Donald Trump threatened to impose escalating tariffs if Mexico did not move to secure its southern border.

The tariffs were set to start on June 10, but Mexican officials averted them with an agreement that included a promise to secure its 540-mile southern border with Guatemala.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said a new National Guard force will be formed by June 30, of which 6,000 troops will be posted to the Mexico-Guatemala border. The National Guard will consist of members from Mexico's military police, naval police, federal police, and the National Migration Institute, according to Luis Crescencio Sandoval González, Mexico's secretary of defense.

Comment: As proof of the porous borders, Ms. Cutherberson has uploaded a number of telling videos to her twitter account:





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Star of David

Another Palestinian dies after Israeli policemen fire at him in East Jerusalem

Aaron Rabinowitz, Nir Hasson and Jack Khoury
Haaretz
Thu, 27 Jun 2019 16:12 UTC
palestinian shot east jerusalem
© HaaretzClashes in Isawiyah on June 27, 2019.
A 20-year-old Palestinian man died on Thursday after he was shot by Israeli policemen at the entrance to the village of Isawiyah near East Jerusalem, Ramallah's Health Ministry reported.

The man has been identified as Mohammed Samir Abid.

The Israel Police said earlier in the evening that policemen were prompted to fire at the man after he lit firecrackers in their direction at close range, endangering their lives.

Comment: One can almost hear the yawns from the Israeli media. Another injured Palestinian, another dead Palestinian, the crimes being committed in the name of Israeli citizens hardly registers with them any more. It's a wonder Haaretz even reported the story.

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Camera

Internet users join professional judges at Andrei Stenin photo contest


RT
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 16:31 UTC
Photo Contest exhibition
© Sputnik / Alexey VitvitskyStenin Photo Contest exhibition in Prague, Czech Republic.
Internet users can now take on the role of the jury in the prestigious photo contest for photographers under the age of 33 - that's how old Andrei Stenin was when he was killed in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The shortlist of the 2019 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest was announced on June 16 after the judges browsed through 6000 entries, submitted from 80 countries.

Those with accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Russia's VK and China's Weibo social networks have until July 31 to choose the best of the best at stenincontest.com.

The results of the online vote will be announced on August 1, with the winning photographer to be singled out by the organizers.
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Question

Missouri's only abortion clinic, a Planned Parenthood, awaiting critical court decision

Meghan Keneally
ABC News
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 11:11 UTC
Protest
© Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesIn this file photo taken on May 31, 2019, pro-choice supporters and staff of Planned Parenthood hold a rally outside the Planned Parenthood Reproductive Health Services Center in St. Louis.
The month-long saga over whether or not the lone abortion clinic in Missouri will be allowed to remain open could end with a court decision Friday.

The only remaining abortion clinic in Missouri is currently operating as a result of a court order that was issued that allowed it to continue to perform abortions in spite of their state health license being denied.

A circuit court judge announced earlier this week that the preliminary injunction, which was initially set to last until June 21, was then pushed back to June 28.
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Dominoes

What the frack! US shale industry sees 'another round of bankruptcies' looming

Nick Cunningham
Oilprice.com
Thu, 27 Jun 2019 16:36 UTC
oil pump
© Global Look Press / Joel Angel Juarez
The recent downturn in oil prices forced a slowdown in the U.S. shale industry, and top executives appear to be gloomier than ever.

According to a survey by the Dallas Federal Reserve, the business activity index in Texas fell to -0.6 in the second quarter, down from a positive reading of 10.8 in the first quarter. A negative reading means that business activity actually contracted from the prior quarter, offering evidence that the slide in oil prices led to a pullback in spending and drilling.

While oil and gas production continued to rise in the second quarter, it did so at a slower pace than in months past. The Dallas Fed said that its spending index actually fell into negative territory, again, an indication of contraction.

A slowdown in drilling is felt most acutely by oilfield services companies, who make their money from drilling volume and activity, rather than from oil sales. Not only did activity dip, but the prices that oilfield services charge for their services fell sharply, and margins were "notably lower" in the second quarter, the Dallas Fed said.
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Sheriff

Pot, meet kettle: TASER calls out facial recognition in police body cameras as unethical


RT
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 16:32 UTC
taser and body cam
© Reuters / Joshua Lott / Gary Cameron
The company that put the ability to electrocute civilians in every cop's pocket has declared it will not sell facial recognition software with its body camera products, claiming the tech is not reliable enough for ethical use.

"Current face matching technology raises serious ethical concerns," Taser - which quietly renamed itself Axon in 2017 after its line of police body cameras - stated in a blog post on Thursday, announcing that "Axon will not be commercializing face matching products on our body matching cameras at this time."

The company's decision follows the first report from its independent AI and Policing Technology Ethics Board, which concluded the tech was "not yet reliable enough to justify its use on body-worn cameras" and "expressed particular concern regarding evidence of unequal and unreliable performance across races, ethnicities, genders and other identity groups."
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Attention

2 dead, 1 injured when plane crashes into North Carolina home

Justin Doom
ABC News
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 06:17 UTC
Plane crash
© WTVDA plane crashed into a house in Cumberland County, N.C., late Thursday, June 27, 2019, killing two people.
Two people died and another was injured late Thursday when a single-engine plane slammed into a home in Hope Mills, North Carolina.

The pilot and one person in the home died at the scene, according to a statement from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. A third person "with serious injuries" was rushed to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville.
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