Society's ChildS


Pistol

US soldier killed and 2 injured in Somalia gun attack

Suspected al-Shabaab militants
© Mohamed Abdiwahab / ReutersFILE PHOTO: Suspected al-Shabaab militants sit next to weapons after their arrest on May 5, 2016 in Mogadishu. Somalia.
A US service member was killed in Somalia during a firearms attack. Two others were injured in the same incident.

The troops in question were part of the US 'advise and assist' mission to the Somali government, which is fighting against militant group Al-Shabaab, US Africa Command reported on Friday.

The incident happened on Thursday near Barii, a town some 60km west of the capital, Mogadishu, the report said.

The command said the mission in Somalia is crucial due to Al-Shabaab's ties with Al-Qaeda and is aimed at degrading the group's ability to "recruit, train and plot external terrorist attacks."

Star of David

Palestinian shot by Israeli border guards in alleged stabbing attempt

Palestine Israel border guard checkpoint
© REUTERS/ Ronen Zvulun
According to a press service of the Israeli police, a Palestinian was wounded by Israeli border guards in the West Bank after he tried to stab them with a knife.

A Palestinian was wounded by Israeli border guards in the West Bank after he tried to stab them with a knife, a press service of the Israeli police said Thursday.

"The border police noticed a suspect running to them with a knife in his hand at a checkpoint near the The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. One of the soldiers shot him and managed to stop him," the police said.

Fire

Explosions at hazardous waste plant in Spain leave 37 injured

Arganda del Rey chemical plant explosions
© AFPA handout picture released on May 4, 2017 by 112 Comunidad Madrid shows black smoke billowing after an explosion hit a warehouse containing hazardous waste in Arganda del Rey, east of Madrid.
Several explosions ripped through a recycling site for hazardous chemical waste near Madrid on Thursday, injuring 37 people, three of them seriously, and forcing the evacuation of nearby schools, officials said.

The blast in Arganda del Rey sent up a huge column of black smoke, but emergency services said several air quality measuring stations in the area showed normal readings, easing concerns about toxic pollution.

Thirty seven people were injured in the blasts and fire at the plant, the Arganda del Rey city hall said in a statement.

Firefighters said three of the injured were in serious condition, two for burns and one with a fractured pelvis.

It was unclear whether the injured were all workers at the plant.

Madrid's emergency services center said on Twitter there had been "several explosions" at the site about 30 kilometers southeast of the Spanish capital.

The authorities are investigating the cause of the blasts.

Cell Phone

Brief worldwide Twitter outages day after WhatsApp panic

Twitter outage
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
Twitter users worldwide were unable to access the social media platform for around 15 minutes early Friday - which was enough to instill horror in thousands of users not knowing where to check if Twitter was really down.

The outage, although brief, was reported in multiple countries, with uptrends.com showing the entire world cut off from the social media except for the US. Tweets in English, Spanish, German and other languages sprang up after the network went up, with people wondering what has just happened.

On Wednesday evening, it took hours for the popular Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp to fix outages around the world. The situation sent shockwaves around social media as disconnected users had to resort to using alternative messengers, or simply freak out and panic.


Twitter did not immediately comment on the reason of the website's crash.

However, as some tweets suggest, what followed the May the Fourth WhatsApp outage might have been the Revenge of the Fifth.

People

Half of young Europeans skeptical of democracy - YouGov Survey

protestors
© FILE PHOTO Christian Hartmann / Reuters
Only around half of young Europeans think of democracy as the best form of government, a new survey has revealed, while three-quarters see the EU as more of an economic pact rather than a group of nations sharing core European values.

The YouGov survey, the results of which were published on Thursday, was commissioned by the German TUI Foundation, which promotes dialogue on European issues. Between February and March, it polled 6,000 people aged between 16 and 26 from France, Britain, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, and Spain.

Overall, only 52 percent of the respondents saw democracy as the best form of government. That figure was higher in Germany (62 percent) and Greece (66 percent), the birthplace of democracy, while France, Poland, and Italy were most skeptical (42, 45, and 42 percent, respectively). The latter three countries are home to strong populist, nationalist movements, some of which have been described as far-right.

Sheriff

Whistleblower cop now running for sheriff of America's 2nd largest county

Dominick Izzo
© Free Thought ProjectDominick Izzo
When Dominick Izzo first approached The Free Thought Project, he knew consenting to the interview would cost him his job as a police officer for the Round Lake Park, Illinois Police Department. After blowing the whistle on his boss, Police Chief George Filinko, his employment was terminated. However, that didn't stop Izzo from continually criticizing a man he believed to be inept, unqualified, and undeserving of his position as chief.


Not content with sitting on the sidelines, Izzo has now set his sights on a new mission; becoming the Police Chief of Cook County, Illinois in 2018, the same county where Chicago is located.

In a Facebook announcement Friday night, Izzo made the following statement, which one could say is quite confident.
Decision made.
I'm running for Sheriff....
And I'm going to win.
Izzo for Cook County Sheriff 2018
Izzo successfully outed his boss as a heavy-handed and unethical police chief whose department spied on its officers using their own police-issued body cameras. But more importantly, he brought awareness to police corruption at the highest levels of a small-town police department, exposing how the PD, and county, sent an innocent woman to jail and arrested whistleblowers, like the coroner, who dared question their arrests and prosecutions.

Ambulance

Suspected gas explosion in China railway tunnel kills 12, injures 12

China tunnel explosion
Authorities say 12 people were killed and 12 injured after a suspected gas explosion in a railway tunnel under construction through a coal seam in southern China.

Officials in Dafang County in Guizhou Province said on a local government website that those killed had been trapped inside the Qishanyan Tunnel after the Tuesday afternoon blast.

It took rescue teams 14 hours to recover the victims, most of them migrant workers, in an effort that ended early Wednesday.

High levels of the deadly gas carbon monoxide hampered the rescue.

The injured were taken to a hospital and the cause of the explosion was under investigation. Coal seams can emit methane, an explosive natural gas.

Light Saber

Eva Bartlett interview: Power outages and daily abuses in Gaza

Eva Bartlett
© Eva Bartlett
Thanks to Ryan Dawson for having me on to talk about the hell that is life in Gaza, as well as the struggle of Palestinian political prisoners, and solidarity with Syria.

(*Please note: webcam might be closer than it appears... Sorry for the close-up, some sort of setting or his recording program issue, I suppose.*)

You can listen to the discussion HERE.

Some points mentioned and related links:

Gaza Electricity/Sewage Crises and Related:

Snakes in Suits

Fourth man accuses Seattle's mayor of paying him for sex

Ed Murray
© Greg Gilbert/The Seattle TimesSeattle mayor, Ed Murray
In a handwritten declaration from jail, a fourth man has accused Seattle Mayor Ed Murray of paying him for sex. A Murray spokesman denied the latest allegations, calling them a "sensational media stunt."

A fourth man has accused Seattle Mayor Ed Murray of paying him for sex after being introduced to Murray as a teenager.

A Murray spokesman denied the latest allegations, made in a court filing late Tuesday, calling them a "sensational media stunt." The mayor's lawyers Wednesday morning redoubled their effort to get a judge to sanction the attorney who submitted the new court filing and is representing another man who filed a lawsuit last month.

The new accuser, 44-year-old Maurice Jones, said in a sworn court declaration he was introduced to Murray by Delvonn Heckard, the Kent man who filed last month's lawsuit claiming Murray sexually abused him as a teenager in the 1980s.

Comment: See also: Seattle's mayor accused of child rape, police cover-up alleged by one of his victims


Info

Hong Kong police on high alert over threat of ISIS-inspired lone wolves attacks

Police officers in Hong Kong
© Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters
Hong Kong faces real dangers of lone wolf-style attacks, with some extremists possibly already having sneaked into the city and planning attacks, the South China Morning Post reports citing the security units.

Law enforcement stated on Wednesday, that the terrorists, inspired by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), could be already lurking among the 7 million people of the city, the newspaper reports. Despite there being no specific intelligence data on possible attacks, anti-terrorism police are on alert to "prevent lone wolf-style attacks." They are also to devote special attention to suspicious individuals and organizations listed by the UN Security Council.