Society's ChildS

Cell Phone

Apple apologizes to customers for 'misunderstanding' over slowing down older iPhones

Apple phone
© Damir Sagolj / Reuters
Following a strong backlash for conceding they reduced the processing speed of aging iPhones, Apple apologized to customers and lowered the price of the out-of-warranty battery replacements by $50.

The tech giant is currently facing nine lawsuits in relation to how the company handles the power management of its batteries in older iPhones.

In response, the company sent a letter to customers Thursday, attempting to clear up what it said were some "misunderstandings" about the issue.

"We've been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process," Apple said. "We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize. There's been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue."

Comment: See also:
Woman sues Apple for nearly a trillion dollars for deliberately slowing down older iPhones
Apple's chief executive Tim Cook now only uses private jets to travel & gets hefty pay increase


Fire

At least 12 dead in 5-alarm apartment fire in Bronx borough of New York, cause of fire unknown

Apartment fire Bronx December 2017
© NYFD / ReutersNew York Fire Department ladder trucks deploy at a building fire in the Bronx borough of New York City, New York, U.S. December 28, 2017.
Over 160 New York firefighters have knocked down a 5-alarm blaze inside a Bronx apartment that has left at least 12 people dead and many more seriously injured.

The fire started before 7:00pm Thursday on Prospect Avenue near East 187th Street on the third floor of a five-story building, WABC reported.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio arrived on the scene for a briefing, where it was confirmed that one of the 12 dead is a 1-year-old child. Four other people are in critical condition. Two people suffered other injuries.

Newspaper

2 children, 2 adults killed in Troy were targets

Deaths inside Second Avenue apartment were not random acts, chief said

Charles Mayben Jr
© Skip Dicksen, Albany Times UnionCharles Mayben Jr., right, a basketball coach for one of the murdered children, is comforted by clergy member Rev. Charles Burkes after a press briefing on Wednesday, Dec 27, 2017, at City Hall regarding the quadruple murder that was discovered Tuesday in Troy, N.Y.
Police Chief James Tedesco called it an act of "savagery": two adult women and two children found murdered in their Second Avenue basement apartment the day after Christmas. On Wednesday, it was a crime shrouded in secrecy.

Tedesco assured the public that while officials aren't releasing details on any suspects, the two women, ages 36 and 22, and two children, a 11-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl, appear to have been targeted. Officials want people to come forward if they have information.

Fire

Arkansas man sets house explosion to cover up toddler's murder

Ricky Carter
© HandoutRicky Carter has been charged with Arson and Murder in connection with the death of a 2-year-old boy, which police say he tried to cover up.
An Arkansas man was burned by his own wicked plan.

Ricky Carter has been charged with first degree murder and arson in connection with the death of a 2-year-old child, Arkansas State Police confirmed in a statement posted on their Facebook page.

The 27-year-old was arrested one day after the Paris Police Department responded to a call reporting an explosion. Officers arrived on the scene, where they spotted a home on fire.

One of the responding officers entered the burning dwelling and helped Carter carry four children to safety, police said in the press release.

Three of the four children and Carter were uninjured in the incident. The toddler, later identified as Ryatt Reese, was transported to a local hospital, NWA Homepage reports.

Bomb

Bomb explodes near police station in Southern Turkey

Ambulance in Turkey
© AP/Emrah Gurel
The Dogan news agency news agency reports of a blast near a police station in a town in Southern Turkey.

According to the Dogan news agency, the explosion occurred in the town of Seyhan, in Adana province at around 7:10 p.m.

The police and medical teams were sent to the scene, while no information on possible casualties has been provided yet.

"We believe it was a home-made bomb, like a sound bomb," Anadolu quoted Adana Police Chief Selami Yildiz as saying. "We are continuing our inspections."


Dollars

JMU pays teachers $250 to become more 'inclusive'

Seminar will teach instructors 'inclusivity and multiculturalism'

diversity cloud
© Shutterstock
A public university in Virginia is offering instructors $250 to undergo training in order to become more "inclusive."

The program at James Madison University, offered by the school's Center for Faculty Innovation, is a semester-long "institute" that will allegedly help professors "hone their skills for appreciating, leveraging, and responding to diversity within their classrooms."

Newspaper

Woman falls in sewer and finds a missing boy

Tatasstan, Russia sewer
© Sputnik/ Maksim Bogodvid
It's an old adage that no matter how bad you have it, there's always someone worse off. One Russian woman discovered the literal truth of this when she stumbled upon a lost child.

A volunteer woman, who participated in the search for a missing 10-year-old boy in the village of Cheremshan in Tatarstan, Russia, fell into a sewer and discovered the child trapped there.

Stormtrooper

'They beat me with their boots and rifles': Palestinian teenage boy in viral photo released on bail

Palestinian teenager boy Israeli soldiers viral photo
© Wisam Hashlamoun / Twitter / @marro_lbA photo of Junaidi being arrested, taken by the Palestinian photographer Wisam Hashlamoun, went viral on social media on Dec. 7, 2017.


The Palestinian child was released on bail but will have to appear before the military court in 10 days over stone throwing charges.


An Israeli court released on bail Palestinian teen Fawzi Junaidi, whose photo blindfolded and handcuffed as more than 20 Israeli soldiers arrested him went viral few weeks ago during protests over the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Middle East Eye website reported Wednesday.

The 16-year-old had been in detention for 20 days before the judge allowed his release for a bail payment of US$3,000. However, he would have to appear before the court on Jan. 7 over "stone-throwing" charges. Junaidi, a minor and a civilian, is being tried in an Israeli military court.

According to MEE, the Palestinian teen told his lawyer, Farah Bayadsi from Defence for Children International, a non-profit organization that advocates for children rights, that he was running away from Israeli tear gas in a street in Hebron city to his aunt's house, when Israeli soldiers hiding between buildings arrested him.

Comment: Israeli soldiers get their kicks out of bullying, attacking and arresting children - and then many of them are tortured in prison. From our recent article on the arrest of Palestinian teenage girl Ahed Tamimi:
Sadly, what is happening to Ahed is not the exception. Since 2000, at least 8,000 Palestinian children as young as 12 have been arrested and prosecuted by the Israeli military. The Israeli military detention system is notorious for the ill-treatment of children.The extent to which Shin Bet interrogators practice torture has been described as 'institutional'. In its 2016 report, Amnesty International found that Israeli forces and Shin Bet personnel had "tortured and otherwise ill-treated Palestinian detainees, including children, particularly during arrest and interrogation", with methods such as "beating with batons, slapping, throttling, prolonged shackling, stress positions, sleep deprivation and threats".

According to research of Defence for Children International - Palestine, almost two thirds of Palestinian children detained in the West Bank had endured physical violence after apprehension. In several cases (23% in 2013, for example), children have been either shown or made to sign documentation, presumably 'confessions', in Hebrew - a language they do not understand.



Mr. Potato

Kathy Griffin blames Trump for ruining her life and calls backlash 'sexist'

kathy griffin trump1
© Getty/TMZ
Comedian Kathy Griffin claims the infamous bloody shock photograph of herself clutching the fake, decapitated head of President Donald Trump would have blown over within days had Trump himself not responded to the photo on social media.

In an interview with Politico this week, the 57-year-old My Life on the D-List star said she still cannot book stand-up concerts anywhere in the United States, seven months after the photo was first published by TMZ.

"I think it would have been gone in a week without his tweet," Griffin told Politico. "Trump knows what would be perceived as something hysterical and he loves hysteria. There are millions of people who think I'm a member of ISIS to this day."

The photograph - taken by photographer Tyler Shields - first hit the Internet on May 30. Griffin issued an apology the same day, saying the image had gone "too far," but months later apparently retracted her apology, explaining she didn't believe she had done anything wrong.

Comment: Griffin is delusional and an example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect in action. She thinks she's funny but she's not (and never was). Annoying might describe her better. But her claim to fame is that it's all Trump's fault because he called her out on her tasteless stunt. She just can't seem to realize that everything else after that was her own doing. Nice one Griffin, just keep on digging your hole deeper.

More from her remarks to Politico, courtesy of The Daily Wire:
She went on to claim that the photo really wasn't that bad, but that Donald Trump had escalated matters by using her stunt as a "tool" to distract from "his bad news of the day."

"After that, I had to go offline because of the death threats," she said. "He didn't use my handle in his tweet, so he didn't have my followers coming after him."

Of course, it's not as though Donald Trump doesn't have his own detractors. Or that anyone watching the drama play out was somehow unaware of whom Trump was referencing.

Given that Griffin has often translated her own misfortune into success in stand-up, it's hard to believe that she's not wanted anywhere in the United States simply because of Donald Trump, but for now she's keeping to YouTube and other self-publishing platforms (except Twitter) where she can exert some measure of control over feedback.

"My YouTube is lit. I really do have a real story to tell. In my live act, I talk about the interrogation with the feds and how everybody turned on me on every platform," she said. "I still can't tweet a picture of my new puppies without getting all hateful responses in broken English."
And, in case you missed it: Freak-show: Anti-Trump American celebrity Kathy Griffin sez she's on Interpol watch-list


Vader

Hero Ahed Tamimi, Palestinian teenage girl who slapped Israeli soldier, to face charges for 'aggravated assault'

Ahed Tamimi Palestinian teenager girl Israeli prison
© REUTERS/Ammar AwadPalestinian teen Ahed Tamimi enters a military courtroom escorted by Israeli Prison Service personnel at Ofer Prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah, December 28, 2017.
Ofer Prison, West Bank - A 16-year-old Palestinian girl who slapped an Israeli officer two weeks ago will face assault charges in an Israeli military court, prosecutors said on Thursday.

The Dec. 15 incident in the occupied West Bank was captured on video and posted on the Internet, drawing attention on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide.

Palestinians hailed the teenager, Ahed Tamimi, as a hero. Israelis debated whether the officer, who along with another soldier was also kicked by her, had done the right thing by opting not to strike back.


Comment: Except they did strike. On this video of the incident, at 00:13 you can see he slaps at her before she starts slapping at him.


But more importantly, this incident took place after they shot her cousin in the face and shot smoke bombs through the windows of her house. Evidently, she was not the aggressor.


Comment: The more the Israelis seek to 'exact a price' from Ahed Tamimi, the more they will make a heroine of her.

Ahed Tamimi Brave tweet Twitter
© Twitter
For more context on this story, see: The IDF vs The Teenage Girl: Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi Arrested For Slapping Soldiers Who Shot Boy