Society's ChildS


Star of David

Palestinian driver shot dead after lightly injuring 3 Israeli soldiers in West Bank car-ramming attack

Judah Ari Gross
The Times of Israel
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 12:37 UTC
car-ramming attack West Bank
© REUTERS / Ammar AwadScene of what the Israeli army said was a car-ramming attack near Beit Ummar in the occupied West Bank November 26, 2018.
Three Israeli soldiers were injured when a Palestinian man rammed his car into them along a central West Bank highway in a suspected deliberate attack Monday, officials said.

The driver of the vehicle was shot dead by another soldier.

One of the soldiers sustained moderate wounds to his arms and legs, while the other two were lightly injured, with scrapes and bruises, medics said.

They received medical treatment at the scene and were taken to hospitals in Jerusalem for additional treatment, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

Following the attack, Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne'eman called on "the government and the security forces to restore calm and ensure safety for the residents of the area."

Comment: RT adds that the IDF soldiers were hospitalized as a precaution, though their injuries were minor, yet the Palestinian Red Crescent was prevented from taking Yabes for medical treatment. Tensions in the area have been growing due to a series of so-called "price-tag" attacks by Jewish youths who have vandalized Palestinian property. Video footage of the aftermath:


Israel can be counted on to respond with deadly force to any threat, no matter the degree: Making Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinians

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Fire

10yo Siberian boy saves 4 children from house fire, mother did not survive


RT
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 10:45 UTC
Boy, burnt down house
© YouTube / Vesti 24; Sakha Republic Fire Service
A young boy in rural Siberia led four children to safety from an early morning house fire, but could not save their mother, who mistakenly re-entered the burning building to get children who had already been rescued.

Arian Alekseyev, 10, was one of two children invited to stay over last weekend at the home of Tuyara Kuzmina and her three kids in Suntar, an ethnic-Yakut town of 10,000 people, thousands of miles away from the nearest major settlement. Arian normally lives in a boarding school, which are predominantly attended by orphans and children with special needs in Russia.

Tuyara's husband was away for the night, as he was working a night shift as a coal heaver. Everyone in the house went to bed that night as normal.

Arian awoke between 6am and 7am.
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People 2

Best of the Web: Trans groups under fire for huge rise in child referrals

Andrew Gilligan
The Times
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 00:01 UTC
Dorothy Stringer School in Brighton
© Chris Ison/PA Wire.Dorothy Stringer School in Brighton has 40 pupils who ‘do not identify as [the] gender presented at birth’

At Dorothy Stringer School in Brighton, the wind of gender change is blowing hard. Hailed by Tatler magazine as the coolest state secondary in town, with a "liberal vibe" to fit its progressive catchment area, Dorothy Stringer is at the forefront of something very cool indeed.

According to the school's "equality information report" this spring, no fewer than 40 pupils - children aged between 11 and 16 - "do not identify as [the] gender presented at birth". A further 36 are gender-fluid, not identifying with their birth gender "all the time".

The head teacher, Richard Bradford, said the figures, the highest yet revealed in any school in the country, were from a survey of his students by the local council. The number of "openly trans children" who had "approached us with their families to say that they are transgender [was] much lower", he said.

Comment: Make no mistake, this exploitation of children in the service of an ideology is child abuse. These groups that are encouraging and promoting gender transition to children need to be taken to task, especially when making outrageous claims (curing autism!). Children are vulnerable on so many levels, particularly to social pressure. To exploit this is completely evil.

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Stock Down

The modern UK: The poor die younger than the rich

Andrew Masterson
Cosmos Magazine
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 00:01 UTC
poverty England
© Paolo Paradiso/Getty ImagesThe poorest women in England have a shorter life expectancy than they did a decade ago.
UK data reveals increasing differences in life expectancy, especially among women.

In England, the gap in life expectancy between poor and rich people is increasing - with women experiencing the worst outcomes.

In a major paper published in the journal The Lancet Public Health, a team led by epidemiologist Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London, UK, reveals that the long-established gradual rise in average life expectancy among English women has stalled in three out of five of the "most deprived" social strata, and actually reversed in the other two.

Ezzati and his colleagues used registration data from the Office for National Statistics to examine population and death records from 2001 to 2016, and analysed them by age, cause of death and socio-economic status. All up, the research covered 7.65 million deaths.

Comment: It's no surprise that those living in poverty would die earlier than their more affluent counterparts. What is worrisome is the widening gap between rich and poor in western nations, which would mean a subsequent decline in the health of these nations citizenry.

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Eiffel Tower

Yellow Vests protest in Paris turns into riot on Champs Elysee as massive rallies grip France for eighth day (UPDATES)


RT
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 12:53 UTC
Yellow vest
© Reuters / Benoit TessierA truck burns during today's "Yellow vest" protest in Paris
Tear gas and a water cannon were deployed in Paris as protesters again flooded the streets against fuel prices hikes. Thousands have been protesting across France against the measure, which resulted in massive blockades.

The tense standoff between riot police and demonstrators - some of them masked - escalated as law enforcement were pelted with bottles. Police fired back with tear gas and water cannon spay.


Comment:

Update: Nov. 25, protesters dumped manure on the doorstep of a government building:


From France 24:
The French government cast blame for the unruly protests on far-right politician Marine Le Pen, claiming she egged them on.


But Le Pen rejected that accusation saying she had "never called for any violence whatsoever" and in turn accused the government of "organising the tension" and seeking to make her a scapegoat.

Meanwhile, opposition parties on both the right and left accused the government of trying to reduce the protests to just the sporadic scenes of violence, and turning a deaf ear to the demonstrators' grievances.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the radical left France Unbowed party who attended a separate march Saturday protesting violence against women, tweeted that the action on the streets was "a mass protest of the people" which signalled "the end for [interior minister] Castaner".

Rural frustrations

A week ago, two people died and over 750 people, including 136 police officers, were injured in sometimes violent demonstrations that have shone a light on frustrations in many rural areas and small towns of France.

The "yellow vests" hail overwhelmingly from non-urban areas of France. They feel overlooked and penalised by policies they see as being pushed through by elitist politicians in Paris.

Former investment banker Macron was elected on a pledge to put more money in workers' pockets. But the effects of his pro-business reforms on unemployment and purchasing power have been limited so far.

Many of the often low-income "yellow vest" protesters are particularly incensed at his decision to hike anti-pollution taxes on diesel, while scrapping a wealth tax on the rich.

"I'm not just fighting against the price of fuel. It's about tax, what we pay," protester Catherine Marguier told AFP near the village of La Gravelle in northwest France.

Meanwhile, in a separate protest in the southern city of Marseille, police fired teargas at bottle-throwing demonstrators upset by the "gentrification" renovation work on the town's biggest square. Around 1,200 demonstrators took part and two were arrested.

'Gap between rich and poor'

Revolts against taxes have been a feature of French public life for centuries. Citizens still pay some of the highest in Europe as a percentage of GDP, and fuel-price protests are a common modern occurrence.

Previous rounds pitting the government against drivers took place in 1995, 2000, 2004, and 2008, often when tax increases coincided with high oil prices -- as they have this year.

A poll by the Odoxa research group for Le Figaro newspaper this week found that 77 percent of respondents described it as "justified".
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Dollar

Pew Research: Americans find meaning in money more than friends or religion


BBC
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:01 UTC
thanksgiving
© Getty Images
As Americans gather with their family and friends for Thanksgiving dinner, they're being fed some grim home truths from the Pew Research Centre.

Asked to rate what gave their life meaning, researchers found more people mentioned career and money, than friends or religion.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said family was a source of satisfaction.

But close to a third also cited work, while 23% said their finances made their lives meaningful.

Comment: The headline is a little misleading, since in both surveys family was deemed most important. Still, this may be a sign of more and more Americans finding it difficult to make ends meet. Money certainly takes on more importance when you don't have any.

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Brick Wall

US shuts down border crossing as hundreds of migrants attempt to breach fence, agents respond with tear gas

Amy Guthrie
Associated Press
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 01:22 UTC
Migrants tear gas
© Hannah McKay/Reuters
U.S. border agents fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants protesting near the border with Mexico on Sunday after some of them attempted to get through the fencing and wire separating the two countries, and American authorities shut down border crossings from the city where thousands are waiting to apply for asylum.

The situation devolved after the group began a peaceful march to appeal for the U.S. to speed processing of asylum claims for Central American migrants marooned in Tijuana.

Mexican police had kept them from walking over a bridge leading to the Mexican port of entry, but the migrants pushed past officers to walk across the Tijuana River below the bridge. More police carrying plastic riot shields were on the other side, but migrants walked along the river to an area where only an earthen levee and concertina wire separated them from U.S. Border Patrol agents.
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Star of David

Israeli El Al airline faces ultra-Orthodox Jewish boycott threat

Michal Raz-Chaimovich
Globes
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 20:33 UTC
El Al israel airplane
A haredi rabbi has demanded an apology from the airline over the New York-Tel Aviv flight ten days ago that disembarked sabbath-observant passengers in Athens.

The story of El Al's flight from New York to Tel Aviv last week that made an unscheduled stop in Athens in order to avoid desecration of the Sabbath refuses to die down. A haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) rabbi has warned El Al CEO Gonen Usishkin that unless he issues an unreserved apology by this evening, the haredi community will boycott the airline.

On Friday a week ago, El Al flight 002, which had taken off late from New York, had to land in Athens in order to avoid flying on the Sabbath. After the passengers were disembarked from the plane, it continued to Tel Aviv with the crew and baggage. Sabbath observant passengers stayed in Athens while the rest continued to Tel Aviv with Israir.
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Smoking

Smoking ban hits Switzerland's train stations


The Local - Sweden
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 11:04 UTC
No smoking!
© Fotolia/vege
Smoking openly inside Swiss train stations will be banned from 1 June 2019.

From this date on, smokers will have to use designated smoking areas or smoke in front of the train station.

This development comes following three different types of smoking trials, implemented by the Association of Public Transport (VöV), in six Swiss stations on 1 February 2018.

These tests saw Basel, Nyon and Zurich Stadelhofen go completely smoke-free, while smoking areas and lounges were introduced in Bellinzona and in Neuchâtel respectively.

Better air quality, less pollution and saving money on cleaning are being cited as the key reasons behind the smoking ban decision.
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2 + 2 = 4

Priming: Swedish school adds required #MeToo course to curriculum


RT
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 18:23 UTC
Pokret Metoo
A school in Sweden has added an extremely modern course to its curriculum, requiring all 15-year-olds to take a two-hour lesson on the #MeToo movement.

The first round of students at the Tullbroskolan school in Falkenberg sat through the course this week, with the school believing it is important to teach students that the message of the movement doesn't only exist in Hollywood.

"They know quite a bit about the #MeToo movement already, but what's hard for them is to understand is that it applies to them as well," Anna-Karin Nilsson, a civics teacher at the school, told Swedish broadcaster SVT.

Boys and girls split for part of the lesson so that males didn't feel attacked. "We have male teachers working with those who identify as men, so that they don't feel that they're just being blamed, and realize that we should instead talk about how to have a more equal society," Nilsson said.
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