Society's ChildS


Butterfly

'We all support him and are proud of him': Palestinian icon Ahed Tamimi under fire for praise of Hezbollah leader


Sputnik
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 19:20 UTC
Ahed Tamimi
© AP Photo/ Ariel SchalitAhed Tamimi
Teenage Palestinian icon Ahed Tamimi is infuriating critics after she heaped praise on Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

Tamimi was imprisoned by Israeli authorities in December after she was caught on video slapping an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier who entered her family's property during a protest against illegal settlements near the residence in the occupied West Bank town of Nabi Saleh.

Tamimi confronted the soldier after the IDF had shot her 15-year-old cousin from close range in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet. She was sentenced to eight months in prison for the act and released in late July.
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Magnify

Head of Russia's prison agency orders regular human rights reports after 'torture' video leaked online


RT
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 14:54 UTC
Security cam in Yaroslavl Penal Colony No1
© Novayagazeta / YouTubeA still frame from a video made with a body-mounted security cam in Yaroslavl Penal Colony No1.
The head of Russia's prison agency has ordered all penal institutions to regularly report on conditions in which inmates are kept after a newspaper released a video allegedly showing prisoners being beaten by staff.

Earlier this week, the Russian Justice Ministry registered the order by the Federal Service for Execution of Punishment, Gennadiy Korniyenko, to compile full monthly reports about the situation in their facilities, prisons and pre-trial detention centers alike, and send the reports to Moscow, Life.ru news website reported Friday.

The reports will not only record complaints about alleged beatings or torture, but also any incidents involving work injuries, illnesses or refusals to eat food.

Korniyenko's order also introduces a system of "statistical reporting about observation of laws and human rights in the Federal Service for Execution of Punishment."
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Dollars

Amazon paying employees to tweet nice things about warehouse working conditions, praise company


RT
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 16:46 UTC
Amazon employees paid to tweet
© Pascal Rossignol / Reuters
After a series of horror stories about Amazon workers peeing into bottles to avoid missing their targets, a number of accounts popped up on Twitter praising the company.

TechCrunch discovered that all the accounts had Amazon's smile logo as backgrounds, identical structures to their bios and the title 'FC Ambassador' in their name, followed by a cardboard box emoji. Each account also promoted a link to schedule a tour at one of Amazon''s North American fulfillment centers.

The accounts frequently appeared to defend the online retail giant in response to random Twitter users criticizing its poor pay and working conditions. Amazon has confirmed to Business Insider that the FC ambassadors were real people, being paid to spread the firm's message.

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Bizarro Earth

Abandoned KFC served as a front for drug-smuggling tunnel from Mexico to Arizona


RT
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 16:42 UTC
US Border Patrol released a video of the tunnel.
© RuptlyUS Border Patrol released a video of the tunnel.
US federal authorities have unearthed a secret drug-smuggling tunnel that stretched from a house in Mexico to an abandoned KFC restaurant in the state of Arizona.

The former fast food restaurant lies just 600ft (180 meters) inside the border, making it an ideal location for smugglers to establish a base in the US. The sophisticated passage was so large that people could walk through it.

On the Mexican side smugglers could enter the tunnel through a trap door beneath a bed. However, on the US side its entrance was only 8 inches in diameter, KYMA reports. Authorities believe that narcotics smuggled through the tunnel were pulled to the surface using a rope.
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Stop

Israeli government prohibits sale of nicotine vape

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
Breaking Israel News
Thu, 23 Aug 2018 18:03 UTC
JUUL vaping e-cigarette
© JUUL/screenshot
Starting September 1, the Israeli government will prohibit the sale of a small piece of plastic that looks like a disk-on-key device but is filled with highly concentrated nicotine. This device has been causing millions of young Americans to become addicted.

The import and sales of JUUL vaping e-cigarette will not be allowed, Prime Minister (and health minister) Benjamin Netanyahu decided this week following urgent requests from Health Ministry officials, who said the product poses "a grave danger to public health."

The small container's contents, which is inhaled, is so inconspicuous that some students even use them during class and charge them by plugging the devices into their laptop computers.

In each JUUL pod, there are 59 milligrams of nicotine for every milliliter of liquid, an amount much more potent than the six to 30 milligrams in other e-cigs. Although the US Food and Drug Administration has not barred its sale and import, the European Union has prohibited it because its limit of nicotine is 20 milligrams per milliliter.

Comment: See also: The epidemic of junk science in tobacco smoking research

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Fire

Explosion at Stanlow oil refinery UK caught on CCTV


Sky News
Wed, 22 Aug 2018 21:09 UTC
stanlow oil refinery explosion
© Twitter: Thomo‏ @thomodavieFlames and a column of thick black smoke have been seen at the site which produces billions of litres of petrol and diesel a year.
Firefighters tackled a blaze at a major UK oil refinery where all staff were evacuated.

The fire broke out at a Shell-owned chemical plant on the same site as the Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

Essar Oil UK, which operates the refinery and chemical plant, say that 900 employees and 500 contractors work on the site which supplies 16% of all road transport fuels.

All staff have been accounted for and the fire has now been extinguished.

Flames and a column of thick black smoke were seen after the blaze broke out on Wednesday afternoon.

Cheshire Fire Service, which was called at 2.16pm, said: "Firefighters have been called to reports of a fire at Stanlow oil refinery in Oil Site Road, Ellesmere Port.

"All staff have been accounted for and have been evacuated.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

London murder rate hits 100 in first 8 months of 2018

Richard Spillett
Daily Mail
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 15:03 UTC
A total of 100 people have been killed in the capital this year as crime rates soar. Pensioner Carole Harrison is believed to be the 100th homicide victim after she was found dead at her home this week
A total of 100 people have been killed in the capital this year as crime rates soar. Pensioner Carole Harrison is believed to be the 100th homicide victim after she was found dead at her home this week
The number of people killed or murdered in London this year has hit 100 following eight months of violence, stabbings and shootings.

Police launched the latest in an ever-rising number of murder probes after 73-year-old Carole Harrison was found dead in her house in Teddington in the south west of the capital.

Following a fire in the early hours of Wednesday, a post-mortem failed to establish Mrs Harrison's cause of death, but police say she had suffered injuries 'consistent with an assault' before the fire.

With the death toll reaching 100 before September begins, 2018 is on course to see a higher number of homicides than the 116 recorded in 2017.
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2 + 2 = 4

Marie Collins says there are still clergy who believe abuse is 'media conspiracy'


The Journal
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 14:21 UTC
Archbishop Eamon Martin was in the audience as the campaigner spoke at the RDS.
Marie Collins
Campaigner and abuse survivor Marie Collins told an audience at the RDS today that robust structures need to be put in place to hold Church leaders who protect predators to account.

There are still people in the Catholic Church, clergy and lay people, who believe the abuse issue is some kind of media conspiracy - and who think that survivors who campaign for justice are out to destroy the institution, she said.

Comment:

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Dollars

Female Democrats set records with political donations


Open Secrets
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 14:02 UTC
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
© Jerod Harris/Getty ImagesSenator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
With the 2018 elections well underway, women have led a surge in political activity, both as candidates and as donors. We are not only witnessing women setting records in the number of secured major party nominations for the U.S. House, but we are also seeing a significant increase in the percentage of congressional campaign contributions coming from women. However, over the course of this record-breaking political year, the gender gap still looms strong and the party gap even stronger.

Looking at the congressional campaign contributions from women over time, an analysis of Federal Election Commission data shows female candidates tend to benefit most from female donors.
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Heart - Black

Italy outraged by 'twisted' Charlie Hebdo cartoon of Genoa bridge collapse


RT
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:50 UTC
Charlie Hebdo Genoa bridge collapse Italy
© Charlie Hebdo/ Facebook
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has courted controversy once again after publishing a cartoon that appears to mock the Genoa bridge collapse and features an overtly racist caricature of an African migrant.

Some 38 people died when a 100m-long section of the A10 motorway bridge collapsed on August 14. Dozens of cars plummeted nearly 150ft into an industrial area of Genoa where the rescue and recovery effort is still ongoing.

In a front-page cartoon for a recent issue, Charlie Hebdo depicts cars crushed on the ground below a broken segment of the Morandi bridge. Beside the cars is a caricature of a smiling black man with large, pink lips, holding a sweeping brush. The caption reads: "Built by Italians... cleaned by migrants."

Comment: Also see:

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