Society's ChildS


Pocket Knife

Train knife attack: One man killed, policewoman and passenger injured in Flensburg, Germany


RT
Thu, 31 May 2018 09:53 UTC
Police ribbon
© Lukas Barth
A man has been shot dead by police after he attacked a person on a train with a knife and then injured a policewoman on a train near Flensburg station in northern Germany.


The man allegedly took out his weapon at around 7 pm local time (1700 UTC) while on board the fast train that had traveled to Flensburg via Cologne and Hamburg, according to Bild.
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Airplane

Aircraft window cracks in violent turbulence forcing emergency landing in China


RT
Wed, 30 May 2018 22:54 UTC
China airplane
© tnk_b2727 / Instagram
Frightened passengers of a Beijing Capital Airlines flight said their aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing after one of its windows cracked amid violent turbulence.

About an hour after flight JD421 departed the Chinese city of Hangzhou on Tuesday, en route to Nha Trang in Vietnam, the Airbus 321 experienced unexpected turbulence. The aircraft was affected so hard it was forced to return for an emergency landing.

"After flying for more than an hour, the plane suddenly bumped violently," a passenger identified as Mr. Zheng told one of the local newspapers. "After so many plane rides, I have never encountered such severe air jolts. Many children in the cabin were frightened and crying."

Passengers reported seeing a "crack on the windshield" after the pilot announced that the plane suffered a malfunction. The airline, however, later stated that its plane was forced to turn around because of a "general aircraft failure," and that a crack was actually in the porthole outside of the cockpit.

Capital Airlines provided a 400 yuan ($62) compensation to each of the 211 passengers before flying them out on an evening flight.

Tuesday's incident happened just weeks after Sichuan Airlines 3U8633 made an emergency landing in southwest China, due to a broken cockpit window that sucked a co-pilot halfway out of the aircraft at 32,000 feet. Despite the terrifying experience, the co-pilot and another crew member suffered only minor injuries.


Comment: Chinese pilot lands flight after window falls off, copilot nearly sucked out of plane
"The windshield cracked suddenly and gave a huge bang. I looked aside and found half of the co-pilot's body was already outside the window. Fortunately his seat belt was fastened,"



Comment: A lot of extreme turbulence is being reported of late. From Fasten your seat belt - severe turbulence is on the rise:
"It is predicted there will be more and more incidents of severe clear-air turbulence, which typically comes out of the blue with no warning, occurring in the near future as climate change takes its effect in the stratosphere," Dr Paul Williams, a Royal Society research fellow at Reading University, said last week.
Has something changed in the stratosphere? See also:

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Meteor

Instant Karma: Big game hunter gored to death by wild buffalo moments after killing another member of its herd

Tom Barnes
The Independent
Thu, 31 May 2018 00:00 UTC
African buffalo
© RexAfrican buffalo can weigh up to 1,000 kg

A big game hunter was reportedly gored to death by a wild buffalo moments after he had killed another member of its herd.

Professional hunter Claude Kleynhans had been leading a group on an expedition along the banks of South Africa's Levubu River in the northern province of Limpopo.

The 54-year-old and his party had shot and killed a buffalo and were preparing to load it into their vehicle when they were blindsided by another member of the herd, the Bosveld Review reported.

Another guide ran back to the hunting lodge to seek help, but the animal's horn reportedly pierced Mr Kleynhans' femoral artery - killing him almost instantly.
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Arrow Up

Russia's retail business likely to see a boom with increased tourism

Paul
Russia Feed
Tue, 29 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Moscow
Hard times in Russia do teach happy economic lessons in sometimes-painful ways.

Not very long ago in Russia the towns with populations of over one million were the regional equivalent of Home Depot, Tedesco, Walmart and IKEA all rolled into one. People would takes days off to travel from the outlying towns and villages to shop in the cities for just about everything that was simply unavailable to them locally.

This of course changed, and over time and throughout the first decade of this millennium the construction of hypermarkets and planned retail trade centers spread like a wildfire throughout the country. In most cases, the result was "cookie-cutter" retail. A hypermarket in Vladivostok, Ekaterinburg St. Petersburg, or Moscow contained pretty much the same retailers and stocks with prices varying to reflect shipping costs to deliver the goods to shelves.

This replication, or standardization, was seen not only cross-country, but also increasingly cross-town. Sameness and standardization allowed for reduced overheads on the one hand, but played into the strongest aspects and capabilities of e-commerce on the other hand - a conflict conundrum. Hypermarkets and malls became boring in the eyes of many Russian consumers, and increasingly seen as inconvenient.

Comment: And on the manufacturing, trade and big industry front there's this:

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Bizarro Earth

Gaza in despair: Fathi Harb burnt himself to death in protest. Will the world even notice?

Jonathan Cook
Mondoweiss
Wed, 30 May 2018 21:24 UTC
Fathi Harb suicide gaza
© via Social MediaFathi Harb
Fathi Harb should have had something to live for, not least the imminent arrival of a new baby. But last week the 21-year-old extinguished his life in an inferno of flames in central Gaza.

It is believed to be the first example of a public act of self-immolation in the enclave. Harb doused himself in petrol and set himself alight on a street in Gaza City shortly before dawn prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.

In part, Harb was driven to this terrible act of self-destruction out of despair.

After a savage, decade-long Israeli blockade by land, sea and air, Gaza is like a car running on fumes. The United Nations has repeatedly warned that the enclave will be uninhabitable within a few years.

Comment:

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Star of David

Proposed ban on filming IDF soldiers called 'absurd', meant to limit freedom of press and speech in Israel


RT
Wed, 30 May 2018 21:09 UTC
palestinian woman
The proposed ban on filming of IDF soldiers is "absurd" and means the "end of democracy," experts told RT, adding that the images showing abuse by Israeli soldiers show "how morally corrosive the occupation" has become.

The proposal, lobbied for by Israeli right-wing politicians, states that anyone who "filmed, photographed, and/or recorded soldiers in the course of their duties, with the intention of undermining the spirit of IDF soldiers and residents of Israel, shall be liable to five years imprisonment," Israeli media reported.

The draft bill accuses human rights groups, including B'Tselem, Machsom Watch Women, and Breaking the Silence, which repeatedly filmed the abuses committed by Israeli soldiers, of waiting for any IDF activity "that can be presented in biased and tendentious form."
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Snakes in Suits

How Italy ended up with a pro-austerity fmr IMF director it never voted for as its PM


RT
Wed, 30 May 2018 21:02 UTC
Carlo Cottarelli
© Reuters / Tony GentileFormer senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official Carlo Cottarelli
Italy's March elections were followed by months of negotiations, which ended with the president's move to block the will of people and pick an ex-IMF director as the new interim PM. Let's recap how it happened.

Improbable as it first seemed, a League-Five Star Movement coalition was formed nearly three months after the country voted. The elections of March 4 resulted in two winners - the center-right coalition led by the League that, collectively with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, won 37 percent; and the Five Star Movement, which won nearly 33 percent.

The unlikely allies had contrasting missions during their electoral campaigns. While the League vowed to staunchly fight to ease taxation and introduce new measures to deal with illegal migrants, the Movement gave an impression of leaning more to the left. Widely supported in the south of the country, Naples-native Di Maio was expected to deal with some of the most painful issues, such as unemployment and sloppy local government. With their missions framed differently, the two parties did not immediately begin talks.
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Brick Wall

Access denied: RT journalist barred from attending Macron press conference


RT
Wed, 30 May 2018 21:00 UTC
macron
An RT journalist has been barred from attending a conference hosted by Emmanuel Macron in Elysee palace. The reporter was told that the president "was clear" about RT: access for the channel's staff is denied.

Kyrill Kotikov, working for RT France, was stopped by security at the gates of the palace where Macron was due to give a speech at the international conference on Libya on Tuesday.

Kotikov had the conversation recorded. "The president was clear about Russia Today," one of the officers is heard saying after journalist's documents were checked. Kotikov was carrying a press card as instructed by the palaces' press office.
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Bad Guys

Tensions rising: Tommy Robinson supporters threaten judge behind ex-EDL leader's jail term


RT
Wed, 30 May 2018 19:40 UTC
Tommy Robinson
© Tommy Robinson / YouTubeTommy Robinson
Tommy Robinson fans are lashing out at the media and Judge Geoffrey Marson QC, who sentenced him to 13 months in jail. Marson has been called a "traitor", "pedophile" and some have demanded his address be made public.

It is understood that police are acting on several threats made on social media against Marson, including calls for him to "live in fear every second until Tommy Robinson is freed". Marson has been the target of an online hate campaign, including a video set to strange orchestral music zooming in on a photo of the judge's face.

Comment: Tommy Robinson seems to have a colorful history prior to his emergence as free-speech crusader:

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No Entry

They say the economy is booming - just not for you


No More Mister Nice Blog
Mon, 28 May 2018 00:00 UTC
mindtheincomegap
© cambridgenews.co.uk/KJN
Axios reports on some frank talk by our corporate overlords about how screwed the rest of us are:
... executives of big U.S. companies suggest that the days of most people getting a pay raise are over, and that they also plan to reduce their work forces further.

... This was rare, candid and bracing talk from executives atop corporate America, made at a conference Thursday at the Dallas Fed. The message is that Americans should stop waiting for across-the-board pay hikes coinciding with higher corporate profit; to cash in, workers will need to shift to higher-skilled jobs that command more income.

Troy Taylor, CEO of the Coke franchise for Florida, said he is currently adding employees with the idea of later reducing the staff over time "as we invest in automation." ...

The moderator asked the panel whether there would be broad-based wage gains again. "It's just not going to happen," Taylor said. The gains would go mostly to technically-skilled employees, he said. As for a general raise? "Absolutely not in my business," he said.

John Stephens, chief financial officer at AT&T, said 20% of the company's employees are call-center workers. He said he doesn't need that many. In addition, he added, "I don't need that many guys to install coaxial cables."
So much for Paul Ryan's claim that, as a result of "corporate tax reform" in the 2017 tax bill, "on average, American families will see a wage increase of at least $4,000 annually" -- although...

Comment: "...the rich have too much money and too much power, and democracy is unresponsive to the rest of us." Scrap it all and start over!

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