Society's ChildS


Music

Festivals in UK to allow revellers to test drugs before they take them

Joe Nerssessian
The Independent
Mon, 22 May 2017 13:28 UTC
revellers
The scheme to allow festival-goers to test drugs before they take them is expected to be rolled out to between six and 10 events this year
Some of Britain's biggest music festivals are poised to allow revellers to test their drugs before they take them.

For the first time this summer, Reading and Leeds festivals and a number of other live music events are aiming to introduce the testing of illegal drugs for attendees with the support of local police forces.

Melvin Benn, head of Live Nation subsidiary Festival Republic, revealed the pioneering scheme to the Press Association and expects it at "between six and 10 festivals this year".
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Bizarro Earth

Lost the plot: US lawyers to argue female genital mutilation is constitutional


RT
Tue, 23 May 2017 13:09 UTC
female genital mutilation
© iegfried Modola / Reuters
Lawyers will argue in a landmark trial that female genital mutilation is a right under religious freedom protected by the First Amendment. Two Detroit doctors and one of their wives are facing multiple federal charges for cutting two seven-year-old girls.

Defense lawyers will argue the doctors didn't cut the girls' genitalia and only scraped it, and that the government's prosecution is culturally and religiously insensitive and their clients were practicing their beliefs, according to the Independent.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) has been banned in the US since 1996. The practice involves removing part of the clitoris or clitoral hood, and is common in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.


Comment: Female genital mutilation is barbaric and anyone who thinks it's OK to mutilate a young girl should have their head examined!

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Heart - Black

Elite New Hampshire boarding school shows total lack of awareness, bungled previous sexual abuse report


RT
Tue, 23 May 2017 12:56 UTC
St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
St. Paul's School in New Hampshire has become the latest elite boarding school to publish a report outlining "substantiated claims" of misconduct by former faculty and staff members and admitting the school failed to protect students.

At the request of the private Episcopal school, the Boston, Massachusetts-based law firm of Casner & Edwards conducted an independent investigation into 34 allegations of sexual misconduct by former faculty and staff.

Their damning 73-page report found 13 substantiated claims of sexual misconduct by former faculty and staff who were named, 10 other reports of sexual misconduct by former faculty and staff who were not named, and 11 unsubstantiated claims of sexual misconduct by current and former faculty and staff.
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Family

Record 60% of Britons in poverty are in working families - study

Patrick Butler
The Guardian
Mon, 22 May 2017 17:11 UTC
Record 60% of Britons in poverty are in working families - study
In-work poverty is the most distinctive characteristic of poverty today. For the first time, it outstrips the levels of poverty in workless households.
A record 60% of British people in poverty live in a household where someone is in work, according to researchers, with the risk of falling into financial hardship especially high for families in private rented housing.

Although successive governments have maintained that work is the best route out of poverty, the study by Cardiff University academics says the risk of poverty for adults in working families grew by a quarter over the past decade.

Low pay is a trigger for in-work poverty but the primary determinant is the number of workers in a household, with single-earner families at a very significantly elevated risk of hardship, the study says.

Comment: Also see:

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Map

Supreme Court rules North Carolina Republicans broke the law by using race remap voting districts


RT
Mon, 22 May 2017 03:19 UTC
racial redistrict North Carolina
Supreme Court's decision in Cooper v. Harris
North Carolina's GOP-led legislature illegally used race to redraw congressional districts, the Supreme Court has ruled. It's the latest case where justices ruled against race-based redistricting, even after tossing many protections for minority voters.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that North Carolina relied too heavily on race when redrawing two congressional districts in the Tar Heel State. The justices unanimously rejected the "reshuffle" of voters in District 1 and voted 5-3 to reject that of District 12. The decision upheld a lower court's ruling from last February.

"The Constitution entrusts states with the job of designing congressional districts," Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the majority. "But it also imposes an important constraint: A state may not use race as the predominant factor in drawing district lines unless it has a compelling reason."
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Che Guevara

The Frail Palestinian Bodies Resisting Israeli Occupation Strike Fear into the Hearts of their Captors

Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban
21st Century Wire
Mon, 22 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Jamila Bouheirad.
© Archive PhotoJamila Bouheirad.
Article written by Dr Bouthaina Shaaban, Political & Media Advisor to Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad

Algerian hero Jamila Bouheirad once told me when I met her in 2008:
"The French colonial authority condemned me to death when I was only eighteen years old. My mother came to see me, and it was supposed to be the last visit. My mother told me not to cry or fear anything, because Algeria would remember me, and that Algeria deserves all of our souls. My mother was never weak, she did not cry, instead she saluted me and she was assured of our final victory. After she left, the French prison guard that was watching us and listening in on our conversation was crying, and I thought she was crying because I was going to be executed. So I asked her, 'why are crying? My mother and I did not cry, so why do you cry?' She responded, 'I weep for France, because I'm certain that we will leave Algeria as long as Algerians have this strong faith and determination."
Determination and faith were the basis of every people's victory again colonials, tyrants, and mercenaries, and they are the foundation of the national liberation movement that spread across Africa and Asia against Western colonialism.

Today, we're living through a new experience that requires the Arab to have unprecedented faith and determination, because the Palestinians are facing the Israeli occupation with their frail bodies. Their bodies have become their tools to resist because all other tools for resistance were taken away from them, except for their strong determination and deep faith in Palestine, and that Palestine deserves sacrifice, and that Palestine will remain through the suffering and sacrifices of resistors and martyrs.
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Network

The sheeple are waking up: RT network reaches over 4.5 billion views, putting it well ahead of mainstream fake news outlets


RT
Mon, 22 May 2017 20:00 UTC
RT network
© Evgeny Biyatov / Sputnik In the last 12 months, the channel has been acclaimed and recognized by every major internet award ceremony, having been honored with 5 Shorty Awards, 7 Lovies, and a Webby.
Videos from RT's primary English-language channel have now been watched over 2 billion times while all its channels together have over 4.5 billion views. Both figures put RT well ahead of international rivals such as CNN, Fox News and Al-Jazeera.

"However serious the story, we always strive to make it accessible, and do our best to provide the audience with high quality, verified, informative and entertaining content. We are very inspired by the number of 2 billion views and will not let down the 2,099,490 people subscribed to RT English on YouTube," said RT's Deputy Head of Social Media Gleb Burashov.

RT registered on YouTube in March 2007, two years after the site was established. From the outset, RT focused on the online community who are deemed more proactive and independent-minded than traditional mainstream media consumers.
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Arrow Down

Obama immigration officials released nearly 600 convicted sex offenders back onto US streets

Bob Price
Breitbart
Mon, 22 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Obama ICE released sex offenders
© Charles Reed/ US Immigration and Customs Enforcement / AP
Immigration officials released nearly 600 convicted sex offender illegal aliens back onto U.S. streets, many because their home countries refused to accept their deportation.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials reported that 564 illegal aliens convicted of sex crimes were released after a judge issued removal orders. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that ICE officials cannot indefinitely jail illegal immigrants ordered deported if their countries refuse to repatriate them. The numbers reported comes from a review by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) of the latest accounting review of Fiscal Year 2015, the Washington Examiner reported.

The IRLI found that of the 564 released, 151 were due to their country of origin refused to accept them back. The immigration legal watchdog obtained records through a Freedom of Information Act request. The documents contained reports that of the 564 criminal aliens released, 194 were convicted of sexual assault, 95 were convicted of "commercialized sexual offenses," and 275 were convicted of other sexual offenses.

Comment: ICE: Hard numbers show that 75 percent of illegal immigrants we arrested have criminal records

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Rose

Russian military adviser dies in Syria trying to rescue comrade-in-arms


Sputnik
Mon, 22 May 2017 21:19 UTC
Russian forces in Syria
© Ministry of defence of the Russian Federation
Birobidzhan native Captain Evgeny Konstantinov was killed in action in Syria earlier this month while trying to rescue a fallen comrade from jihadist militants, a representative of the All-Russian veterans organization Combat Brotherhood has confirmed.

Speaking to RIA Novosti, the spokesman said that Konstantinov and another soldier were killed earlier in fighting with enemy militants.

"On May 3, 2017, during fighting, Captain Konstantinov saw that his comrade-in-arms had been wounded and could not fight off the terrorists. He rushed to help. But the forces were unequal. Evgeni received six bullet wounds. The second soldier was also killed," the spokesman said.
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X

Palestinians injured in clashes with IDF on first day of Trump's visit to Israel


RT
Mon, 22 May 2017 20:59 UTC
Palestinian protesters
© Abbas Momani / AFP
At least nine Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets and reported live fire as they clashed with the Israeli troops in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on the first day of US President Donald Trump's visit to Israel.

The violence erupted at the Qalandia checkpoint which links Jerusalem and the northern West Bank.

Dozens of Palestinian youths set tires and rubbish on fire and threw glass bottles and stones at Israeli troops.
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