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Catalans use independent response to Barcelona attack to help make case for statehood

Esteban Duarte
Bloomberg
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 06:58 UTC
Catalonia independence
© David Ramos/Getty Images
For separatist politicians in Catalonia, acting like an independent state may be a lot easier than becoming one.

The authorities in Barcelona grabbed the limelight as the semi-autonomous Spanish region responded to last week's terror attacks. Setting the stage for breaking away from Spain will be more difficult with support for independence on the wane thanks to an economic recovery and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy adamant a referendum planned for Oct. 1 won't happen.

It was regional government and police officials who updated the world on the hunt for the terrorists while Spanish security services complained they had been excluded from the investigation. The Barcelona and Catalan administrations -- not the central government in Madrid -- called an anti-terror demonstration that's due to take place in the city Saturday.

Rajoy "basically left all the space for the Catalan government so they could widely flag the idea that they are a self-sufficient state," said Veronica Fumanal, a former communications adviser to politicians including Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez and Albert Rivera, the head of Ciudadanos, the largest political party in Catalonia favoring union with Spain.
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Info

Heads found missing on 10 ancient cliff-side Buddha statues in China

Mo Hong'e
ecns.cn
Wed, 23 Aug 2017 16:42 UTC
Missing Buddha heads in China
© West China Metropolis Daily
Local police launched an investigation after the heads of ten 500-year-old Buddha statues carved on a cliff of Pang Po Cave in Jiajiang County, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, were found missing, West China Metropolis Daily reported.

Preliminary probes indicate the heads were stolen between the evening of August 19 and morning of August 20, according to a staff member of Jiajiang County's administration for cultural relics protection.

The stolen Buddha heads were carved about 500 years ago, during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), according to the report.

Pang Po Cave is located halfway up a mountain, with steep cliffs surrounding it. There were 53 Buddha statues, carved in two rows (26 in the upper row and 27 in the lower), along a cliff about seven to eight meters high between two horizontal platforms. Five heads from each row went missing, with newly chiseled cracks left on the necks of each.
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Question

California could start jailing people who don't use transgender pronouns

Anders Hagstrom
Daily Caller
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 18:02 UTC
transgender flag
© Benson
A bill that passed the California state senate and is now moving through the Assembly could threaten jail time for anyone who refuses to use a transgender person's preferred pronoun.

The law is currently limited in its effects to nursing homes and intermediate-care facilities, but if passed, those who "willfully and repeatedly" refuse "to use a transgender resident's preferred name or pronouns" could be slapped with a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison, according to the California Heath and Safety code. The state senate passed the bill 26-12 at the end of May. Since then, the Assembly Judiciary committee recommended the bill unanimously and the General Assembly held its first hearing on the legislation Wednesday.
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Newspaper

Wall Street Journal staff 'furious' after editor tells them to 'tone down anti-Trump bias'

Tom Ciccotta
Breitbart
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 19:49 UTC
Wall Street Journal
Gerard Baker, the editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, criticized his staff this week for smuggling too much anti-Trump opinion into the news coverage of President Trump's Arizona rally.

"Sorry. This is commentary dressed up as news reporting," Baker wrote in a 12:01 A.M. email Wednesday morning to a group of Journal reporters and editors. The message was in response to a draft of the rally article that was intended for the newspaper's final edition.

"Could we please just stick to reporting what he said rather than packaging it in exegesis and selective criticism?" Baker wrote in a follow-up email.
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Heart - Black

Fat-shaming school principal tells female students they shouldn't wear leggings unless they are a size 0 or 2

Alanna Vagianos
Huffington Post
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 18:50 UTC
classroom
© Pexels
A South Carolina high school principal told female students that they shouldn't be wearing leggings unless they are a size two or zero.

Local news station WCBD News 2 reported on Thursday that Stratford High School Principal Heather Taylor discouraged students from wearing leggings as pants during a 10th grade assembly on Aug. 22 about the school's dress code.

"I've told you this before, I'm going to tell you this now. Unless you're a size zero or a two and you wear something like that, even though you're not fat, you look fat," Taylor is heard saying to students in a recording obtained by WCBD News 2.

The school's dress code states that "leggings, tights, yoga pants and spandex must be worn under clothing that cover to mid-thigh," but it does not specify that young women can or should wear leggings as pants if they are a size zero or two.
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Wolf

8-year-old boy listed in serious condition after family pit bull rips his throat in Amsterdam, New York

Anne McCloy
cbs6albany.com
Thu, 24 Aug 2017 18:41 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
Police say an 8-year-old boy is listed in serious but stable condition following a vicious attack by the family pit bull in Amsterdam Wednesday.

The boy's mother was also injured by the dog while trying to help free her son.

CBS 6 has learned this isn't the mom's first incident involving dogs that have attacked.

Amsterdam Police say the 4-year-old pit bull attacked the child while a total of nine children were home.

Eric Pantalone lives nearby.

"It's got to be terrifying, I'm sure the kid will never feel safe around dogs ever again," Pantalone said.
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Eye 2

Child was beaten, raped and starved by stepdad then passed around to other pedophiles for years while social services did nothing

GERALDINE MCKELVIE
Mirror
Sun, 13 Aug 2017 18:35 UTC
Abuse victim Danni Smith
© Nicholas Bowman/Sunday MirrorAbuse victim Danni Smith
Tragic Danni Smith suffered an appalling childhood - beaten, starved, imprisoned and raped by his stepdad for nine years. He had to rummage through bins for food and was handcuffed for days in a locked bedroom covered in animal mess.

The stepdad passed Danni to other ­paedophiles to be abused and by seven he had repeatedly tried to kill himself. Social workers knew about the abuse for at least two years yet did not take him from the house of horror.

Danni, now 26, has won a five-figure payout from Brighton and Hove Council after a bitter 11-year fight to get the files which reveal the shocking negligence.

Council chiefs repeatedly tried to block him from accessing the records showing the horrors by cynically claiming it would be bad for his mental health.
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Attention

The New Inquisition: How Title IX "gender equity" denunciations are ruining American campuses

Nicholas Wolfinger
Quillette
Thu, 24 Aug 2017 17:46 UTC
inquisition
In recent years higher education has been roiled by new challenges. We hear constantly about threats to free speech, typically originating from students protesting right-leaning (or putatively right-leaning) speakers or professors. Fanned by conservative pundits, altercations at Evergreen, Middlebury, and other schools have consumed the lion's share of media attention. Yet something equally corrosive to higher education has flown under the radar: the wanton abuse of Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. This has cost universities and taxpayers untold millions of dollars, and destroyed many lives in the process. Yet institutions of higher education have been largely successful in keeping Title IX cases out of the spotlight.

Public scrutiny has finally arrived, most prominently in the work of Northwestern University scholar Laura Kipnis. Her April 2017 book, Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus, is a sweeping indictment of how Title IX, originally intended to remedy campus sexism, has become a blight on American higher education.

Comment: Author Stuart Taylor's advice for young men in college is apropos:



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Dollars

Poor investment: Donors handed Tories record £25mn for election fight, yet Theresa May still lost majority


RT
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 17:53 UTC
Theresa May
© Eddie Keogh / Reuters
Tory donors handed Theresa May a record £25 million to fight an election in which she lost 13 seats, new figures have revealed. The sum is almost three times the amount Labour received.

The Electoral Commission says political parties received £40.1 million (US$50 million) in the three months leading up to the June election. More than half the cash went to the Conservative Party, which took almost £24.8 million, compared to the £9.5 million for Labour.

The Liberal Democrats raised about £4.4 million, while UKIP managed £150,000, the Greens around £175,000, the Women's Equality Party almost £300,000 and the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru just £5,300.

The total was £9.4 million more than the previous highest quarter on record, which coincided with the 2015 general election.
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Megaphone

Boris Johnson's cash pledge to Libya to help with refugees will only "trap them in a war zone" - MSF - Update: Traffickers brag about bribing Coast Guard


RT
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 15:44 UTC
boris johnson
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has pledged to give Libya £9 million (US$11.5 million) to help stem the flow of migrants to Europe. He has provoked a widespread backlash from NGOs, however, which claim the policy traps refugees in a war zone.

Speaking on a trip to Libya's capital, Tripoli, Johnson said the UK would support the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) to "reduce the number of illegal migrants heading for Europe."

Libya has been in crisis ever since the UK-backed ousting of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, which left the country divided between two opposing factions.

"Libya is the front line for many challenges which, left unchecked, can pose problems for us in the UK - particularly illegal migration and the threat from terrorism," the foreign secretary said.

"That's why it is so important that we work with the Libyan government and our partners to help bring stability to Libya, stopping it from becoming a fertile ground for terrorists, gun runners and people traffickers in close proximity to Europe."

Comment: RT now reports that migrant traffickers have been bragging about bribing the UK-backed Libyan Coast Guard in order to smuggle people to Libya and in the process make millions in profits. Messages from the smugglers, shown to RT UK, reveal the extent of the operation:
"Our mission is to co-ordinate illegal immigration trips from Libya to Italy. We have made an agreement together with them (coastguard)," one message reads.

"Our trips are taken from Sabratha beach.

"On the wooden boats one person is equipped and taught."
The smugglers also wrote that they are able to track rescue vessel boats using apps on their phones:
"We have internet apps which show us the positions of the ships"


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