Society's ChildS


Treasure Chest

Priceless 17th century crown jewels stolen from cathedral in Sweden


RT
Wed, 01 Aug 2018 03:20 UTC
Сrowns belonging to Sweden's King Karl IX and Queen Kristina and a royal orb stolen from Strängnäs Cathedral
© Swedish PoliceСrowns belonging to Sweden's King Karl IX and Queen Kristina and a royal orb stolen from Strängnäs Cathedral
Swedish police have mobilized their land, sea and air forces to catch two men who stole 17th century royal crowns and an orb from a church in broad daylight on Tuesday before making a daring escape in a motor boat.

In what looks more like a Hollywood movie plot than real-word crime news, crowns belonging to two 17th-century members of the Swedish royal family - King Karl (Charles) IX and Queen Kristina (Christina) - were stolen by two perpetrators as they raided a church in the country's southeast. The burglars also took a royal orb, a traditional symbol of monarchical power that was surmounted by a cross.

Police say the burgled regalia are "invaluable objects of national interest" and cannot be given a price tag.

Having taken the national treasures on Tuesday afternoon, while staff were present in the church, the perpetrators promptly jumped into a small motor boat moored below the church and made away with the loot. They are still on the run despite an expansive police hunt.

Comment: See also:

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Stock Down

US expats living abroad won't catch a break on new taxes aimed at corporations

Joe Light
Bloomberg Quint
Tue, 31 Jul 2018 17:53 UTC
taxes
The four-employee business of Travis Baldwin, who hasn't lived in the U.S. for nearly a decade, is about to get hammered by a pair of tax provisions that were aimed at corporate behemoths like Microsoft Corp.

A Republican law signed by President Donald Trump in December created new taxes for corporations that have shifted their profits offshore for years. But unlike other provisions in the bill, these international changes don't set a floor on annual gross receipts for when they kick in -- meaning Baldwin, who owns an industrial design company in Bristol, U.K., is on the hook even though he says his business has never made more than $100,000 annually.

The two taxes U.S. expatriates who own businesses abroad are most concerned about: a one-time repatriation levy of as much as 17.5 percent on old foreign profits and an annual levy called Gilti -- or global intangible low-tax income -- on foreign profits going forward.

"It's terrifying," said Baldwin, who added that he's had trouble finding a local tax attorney who even understands the new law. "It's just gotten so complicated. I feel like I have this burden that no one else has."

Comment: Avoiding taxes isn't the only reason to renounce US citizenship: More renounce US citizenship but do not fit "tax avoiding" stereotype

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Airplane

Plane crashes carrying 101 people in Mexico, everyone survives


RT
Wed, 01 Aug 2018 02:32 UTC
plance crash Durango
© Durango Civil Protection Dept / Global Look PressAn Aeromexico plane crashed in the northern Mexican state of Durango with 97 passengers and four crew on board on July 31, 2018. There have been no casualties.
An Aeromexico passenger plane with over 100 people on board has crashed after taking off from the Guadalupe Victoria International Airport near the city of Durango, Mexico.

Eighty people have been injured in the crash, the Durango state civil protection spokesman has said. The state governor says none were killed. According to the Mexican transport minister, the plane had 97 passengers and four crew members on board.

According to unofficial reports cited by Milenio TV network, none of those on board were killed, and some of those injured managed to walk to the airport seeking help.

18 people who suffered injuries in the crash have been taken to hospital, Durango's Health Ministry reported.

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Ambulance

Dozens feared injured as trains collide near Machu Picchu in Peru


RT
Wed, 01 Aug 2018 01:59 UTC
Peru trains collide
© Scott HALDANE / AFP
At least 23 people have been injured as two passenger trains heading to the famed 15-th century ruins in Peru's Cusco Region collided on Tuesday. Many of the people hurt in the crash are reported to be foreign tourists.

A Peru Rail train bumped into the rear of an Inca Rail train several dozen kilometers from the world-famous tourist attraction near the town of Ollantaytambo on Tuesday morning at around 9 a.m.

The photos of the incident show the windows of a carriage shattered and its metal frame damaged from the impact.

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Bad Guys

Copenhagen imam calls for Muslim followers to conquer Europe

Simon Kent
Breitbart
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 17:50 UTC
Imam Mundhir Abdallah
Imam Mundhir Abdallah, of the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque in Copenhagen, told his followers "the final solution to the problem of the Levant - after the establishment of the Caliphate and the elimination of the Jewish entity - will be through the conquest of Europe."

Abdallah was speaking on a video first released in 2017. It has now been made public and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) just a week after he was charged with hate speech over a separate incident where repeated a call to kill Jews.

In the latest video, Abdallah lays out a plan whereby Muslims can conquer all of Europe and deliver a final blow to the "vileness" of the Jewish people.

"Europe must be invaded again," he said, calling for a new Islamic conquest of Al-Andalus, the Balkans, and Rome, in order to fulfill the promise of the Prophet Muhammad.
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Candle

Three Russian journalists killed in ambush in Central African Republic while investigating mercenaries


RT
Tue, 31 Jul 2018 18:53 UTC
russian journalists killed CAR
© Sergei Savostyanov/TASSFlowers brought to the Central House of Journalists in Moscow in memory of three Russian journalists killed in the Central African Republic.
A three-man crew of Russian journalists was killed in the Central African Republic, with colleagues saying they were shooting a film about mercenaries in the country. Local police say they may have fallen victim to a robbery.

The three men have been named as journalist Orhan Dzhemal, director Aleksandr Rastorguyev, and cameraman Kirill Radchenko. Dzhemal was a well-known war correspondent, who had been wounded while reporting from Syria, while Rastorguyev had been awarded multiple prizes for his documentaries. The Russian foreign ministry said that press documents in their names have been found, while relatives of the dead have told the media that they have identified them from photographs taken after their deaths, and an investigation has been opened into the incident in Moscow.

AFP reported that the men had been attacked at a roadblock 23km from the central town of Sibut, located inside one of the world's poorest and most unstable countries, which is divided between warring fiefdoms. A local police source told Interfax news agency that robbery was the suspected motive of the attack.

Comment: According to The Guardian, the journalists had been working on a film in a partnership with investigative media outlet TsUR, run by the exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Russian media reported the journalists were covering a story on a private Russian security company operating in Central African Republic.

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Stock Down

New book 'Squeezed' shows that America's middle class is slowly being wiped out

Larry Getlen
New York Post
Sat, 23 Jun 2018 10:07 UTC
foreclosure
It's 30% more expensive to be middle class than it was 20 years ago, according to a new book

After spending his days teaching AP American history and economics at the public Live Oak High School in San Jose, Calif., Matt Barry drives for Uber.

Barry's wife, Nicole, teaches as well - they each earn $69,000, a combined salary that not long ago was enough to afford a comfortable family life. But due to the astronomical costs in his area, including real estate - a 1,500-square-foot "starter home" costs $680,000 - driving for Uber was a necessity.

"Teachers are killing themselves," Barry says in Alissa Quart's new book, "Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America" (Ecco), out Tuesday. "I shouldn't be having to drive Uber at eight o'clock at night on a weekday. I just shut down from the mental toll: grading papers between rides, thinking of what I could be doing instead of driving - like creating a curriculum."
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Light Saber

Welcome home: Ahed Tamimi and her mother Nariman receive hero's welcome upon release from prison

Ray McGovern
Consortium News
Sat, 28 Jul 2018 00:00 UTC
Ahed Tamimi
When they left prison on Sunday Ahed Tamimi and her mother Nariman received a hard-earned he'ros' welcome from Palestinians and others opposed to Israel's occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands seized in 1948 and enlarged by the Israeli army in 1967.

Ahed was 16 years old last December when an Israeli soldier shot her cousin in the face. The next day Israeli soldiers menacingly showed up at her house in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. What would you do?

Ahed slapped one of the armed-to-the-teeth soldiers. While some Israeli politicians said she should be put away for life and others demanded a sentence of at least ten years, the Israeli occupiers sentenced her to eight months for the slap seen around the world. She spent her 17th birthday in prison. Her mother Nariman filmed the incident and was thrown in jail too, this time for incitement. (It was not the activist Nariman's first time in an Israeli prison.)

The Israeli authorities are so worried about the symbol for resistance that Ahed has become internationally that on Saturday, a day before her release, they arrested two Italian artists who had painted a large portrait of her on the separation wall near Bethlehem.

Most Americans - except for the relatively few who have spent more than a few days in Israeli-occupied territories - find it hard to understand why Palestinians like Nariman and Ahed "persist." Most people in the U.S. are blissfully unaware of the history of Palestine and of the continuing injustices inflicted on its people today. The explanation for this lies largely in the way the U.S. mass media reports the story, almost entirely from the Israelis' point of view.

Comment: See also:

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Gold Seal

An appreciation: Russia handled the 2018 FIFA World Cup brilliantly

Gilbert Doctorow
GilbertDoctorow.com
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 20:29 UTC
FIFA World Cup 2018
When the month-long football World Cup tournament in Russia ended on Sunday, 15 July, it was entirely overshadowed in the news and global commentary by coverage of preparations for the summit meeting of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki the next day. In turn, the summit was immediately followed by a firestorm of criticism of Trump that precluded any further thoughts being given to the World Cup in US and Western media.

However, in Russia the FIFA tournament most decidedly has not disappeared from ongoing news cycles in the two weeks that have passed since the closing ceremony. On several occasions Vladimir Putin has used public appearances to draw a line under the month of football matches, to congratulate all those who participated in making the World Cup what FIFA President Gianni Infantino declared to have been "the best World Cup ever." The culmination was a televised reception in the Kremlin a couple of days ago to which the national team players, their wives and trainers were invited. The most valuable defense players and strikers in the matches were especially honored, and the head trainer Stanislav Cherchesov was warmly praised by Putin for his leadership qualities as well as excellent tactical guidance in the matches.
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Attention

Violent man wreaks havoc at UK playground leaving 8 injured


RT
Tue, 31 Jul 2018 21:37 UTC
lego toys
© Nicholas Kamm / AFP
At least eight people, including children and adults, were injured in a "major incident" at a Bradford playground for kids aged 0-12. Reports say a man broke into the facility and wreaked havoc there.

The Alphabet Zoo in Bradford shut down following the incident and a police cordon was placed there, the management said on Facebook, calling it a "major incident." They added that this happened at the "busiest month" of the year, apologizing for inconvenience.

Reports then emerged in the media suggesting a violent man caused mayhem at the center after climbing over the double security doors.
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