Society's ChildS


Bulb

UK Labour MP suggests teenagers 'inciting violence' should be banned from social media


RT
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:57 UTC
london crime scene
© Vickie Flores / Global Look Press
A Labour MP has suggested that young people who use social media to "incite violence," should be "banned" from such online platforms, to help address the knife crime epidemic that's spiralling out of control on London's streets.

Sarah Jones, Labour MP for Croydon Central, has told parliament that harsher jail sentences were "simply not working," as she asked the government to look at the option of banning young offenders from social media if they used it to incite violence.

Jones said: "The proportion of people receiving a custodial sentence for knife possession has risen from 40 percent in 2010 to almost 70 percent today and yet in the last five years knife crime has been on a sustained and shocking increase, suggesting that harsher sentences are simply not the answer.

"Will the Attorney General look at two things, one some creative alternatives to prison such as electronic tagging or banning young people from social media if they're using it to incite violence.
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X

New study finds 1 in 4 Americans and nearly half of millennials deleted Facebook after censorship and privacy scandals


RT
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:21 UTC
facebook thumbs down
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
After Facebook was accused of censorship and hammered by privacy scandals, a new study has found that one in four Americans have deleted the app from their phones. Among young people, this number is even higher.

In the wake of multiple scandals, a new poll by Pew research has found that most Americans are curbing their Facebook usage. Pollsters surveyed over 4,500 US adults earlier this summer and found that 74 percent of users have taken some action to reduce their dependence on the social media giant.

Some 54 percent have adjusted their privacy settings; 42 percent have taken a break from Facebook for several weeks or more; and 26 percent have deleted the app from their phone entirely. The numbers are more striking, given that among users aged 18-29, almost half of the respondents (44 percent) have deleted the app.

Comment: It's apparently too daunting a task for Facebook to understand that people actually don't like tyrannical thought police who invade their privacy and tell them what to think.

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Light Sabers

Roy Moore to sue Sacha Baron Cohen over bogus 'pedophile detector' interview


RT
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:17 UTC
roy moore and borat
© Reuters
Former Senate candidate Roy Moore is suing Sacha Baron Cohen, after the Borat creator duped the politician into appearing in a comedy sketch involving a fake "pedophile detector" supposedly developed by Israeli military chiefs.

Moore, a former Alabama Supreme Court judge, has also included CBS and Showtime in the $95 million suit over his appearance on the American network's 'Who Is America?' program.

As part of episode three of the satirical program, Cohen interviewed the Republican whilst disguised as an Israeli defense specialist. During the brief interview Moore was introduced to an Israeli gadget that could supposedly detect sex offenders and pedophiles.

Trialing the fake innovation, Cohen swept the device over Moore a number of times with the bogus detector eliciting a beep each time. It came after Cohen's character stated that "sweating like a rapist is actually based on science".
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Bad Guys

Ukraine parliament speaker to be sued for saying Hitler was 'biggest democrat'


RT
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:11 UTC
Andriy Parubiy
© SputnikUkraine's Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy
Ukraine's parliament speaker may end up in court over a controversial remark about Adolf Hitler. An MP intends to sue him for saying the Nazi leader was "the biggest man to practice direct democracy."

Andrey Parubiy sparked a Nazi-related controversy on Tuesday when he appeared on a political talk show on ICTV. Discussing the national law on referenda, he said he was a "great supporter of direct democracy," which he "studied on a scientific level."

Apparently based on his research, he added that "the biggest man who practiced direct democracy was Adolf [Hitler] in the 1930s. We should remember that too." Parubiy said that at the time it "was one of the main ways... to manipulate."

Parubiy would not elaborate on what exact actions of the Nazi party he was referring to. Perhaps he meant the 1934 German referendum - which merged the offices of the president and the chancellor, making Hitler the undisputed dictator. Voter intimidation, fraud, and other methods were widely used to secure a landslide victory of over 88 percent.
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Fire

Iraqis set government building on fire in Basra as at least 1 killed, 20+ injured in fresh protests


RT
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:08 UTC
iraqi protesters
© Alaa al-Marjani / ReutersIraqi protesters run during a protest near the building of the government office in Basra, Iraq September 5, 2018
Demonstrators set a government building on fire amid ongoing deadly protests over poor public services in Basra, Iraq, with police clashes leaving one killed and at least 20 wounded.

Anger over lack of potable water, electricity outages, high unemployment and corruption spilled into the streets of the southern city of Basra for the third straight day on Wednesday.

One person was killed and at least 20 were wounded after security forces reportedly used live rounds and tear gas to quell the demonstration.

At least five people were killed Tuesday in similar clashes.

Video footage shows protesters throwing Molotov cocktails at a government building consumed by flames as gunfire, chanting, and whistling are heard in the background.

Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the former leader of an anti-American sectarian militia who now leads a political coalition in parliament, condemned the tactics used by police, saying that the protesters were unarmed and "only want to live with dignity."

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Vader

Humorless authoritarian state Saudi Arabia criminalizes satire on social media


RT
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 16:58 UTC
saudis
© Faisal Al Nasser / Reuters
Having a laugh on social media could see you slapped with a fine or even five years jail time after Saudi Arabia announced a ban on mocking anything that could disrupt religious values, morals or pubic order.

"Producing and distributing content that ridicules, mocks, provokes and disrupts public order, religious values and public morals through social media ... will be considered a cybercrime punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of three million riyals ($800,000),"the kingdom's public prosecution tweeted Monday.

The new ban follows a September 2017 call for Saudi citizens to report suspicious social media activity.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has been painted as a reformer as part of a PR push to attract foreign investment to the kingdom. However, he has been sharply criticized for targeting human rights groups and dissidents since he began to take on more leadership.

The crown prince is believed to be behind the crackdown on corruption last November, which saw hundreds of businessmen and royal family members imprisoned in a luxury hotel where allegations of torture emerged.

Comment: So much for a kinder, gentler Saudi Arabia.

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Dominoes

India decriminalizes gay sex in landmark Supreme Court ruling


RT
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 16:53 UTC
indian gay pride
© Global Look Press/ Sanjay Purkait
Gay sex will no longer be considered a crime in India after its Supreme Court repealed a colonial era law which made it an offence.

The landmark verdict overturned a 2013 ruling which criminalized gay sex by upholding the colonial-era law, also known as Section 377, by which sexual activity between people of the same sex is categorized as an "unnatural offence."

"Criminalising carnal intercourse is irrational, arbitrary and manifestly unconstitutional," Chief Justice Dipak Misra said while reading out his judgment.

The ruling comes after a lengthy battle for equal rights in India, where people still struggle to accept homosexuality.

The Delhi High Court had in 2009 ruled that a ban on consensual sex between gay couples was in breach of a person's fundamental rights.
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Sherlock

'Israel is a racist endeavour': Metropolitan police investigate posters scattered around London


RT
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 18:45 UTC
People protesting
© Global Look Press/ Howard Jones
Police are investigating London bus stop posters reading 'Israel is a racist endeavour,' believed to be a response to Labour's decision to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.

The large signs have been stuck on at least four bus stops, including Westminster, Waterloo and Bloomsbury. The Metropolitan police posted a tweet saying the posters had been spotted in Lambeth and that officials were investigating reports of fly-posting. They said the "offensive material will be removed."

It comes after the much-fraught decision by the Labour party to adopt the full International IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. The posters are likely a mockery of one of the definition's 11 examples, whereby "claiming the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour" equates to anti-Semitism.

Comment: See also: UK Labour Party is right to drop racist IHRA guidelines of anti-Semitism - Manchester Jewish Group

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Cross

"Russian Church is completely free from any political influence" declares Patriarch Kirill


RT
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 14:03 UTC
Patriarch Kirill
© Sergey Pyatakov / SputnikPatriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia marks the 100th anniversary of the royal family's martyrdom
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia has stated that, despite the contrary claims from foreign mass media, the Orthodox Church is currently free of any political influence from secular authorities, more than ever in history.

"I would like to touch upon a very important topic that we are all worried about. Unfortunately, the western mass media are politicizing this topic and almost start to claim that Patriarch Kirill is allegedly not free and acts in accordance with Putin's instructions. So I would like to say that today Patriarch Kirill is as free as no one else in the Russian Church has ever been," the head of the Russian Orthodopx Church was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti at the recent meeting with the Archbishop of Turku Tapio Luoma and the delegation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

"I don't know if other heads of Orthodox churches in the world enjoy the same level of freedom," he added. "Russian Church is completely free from any political influence in the country, it is interacting with the authorities on equal terms and this is for the first time in history."

Comment: The same can't be said of Ukraine's church or many of those in the West:

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Heart - Black

America's descent into plutocracy is complete

Michael Brenner
Consortium News
Wed, 05 Sep 2018 15:13 UTC
plutocracy one percent wealth
© Mike Luckovich/Atlanta Jounal-Constitution
The United States today qualifies as a plutocracy - on a number of grounds, and it is having a profound impact on the media, education and think tanks-indeed on the whole of society.

Plutocracy literally means rule by the rich. "Rule" can have various shades of meaning: those who exercise the authority of public office are wealthy; their wealth explains why they hold that office; they exercise that authority in the interests of the rich; they have the primary influence over who holds those offices and the actions they take.

These aspects of "plutocracy" are not exclusive. Moreover, government of the rich and for the rich need not be run directly by the rich. Also, in some exceptional circumstances rich individuals who hold powerful positions may govern in the interests of the many, for example Franklin Roosevelt.
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