Society's Child

'Why do we fuel the war?' French peace activists manage to stop arms shipment to Saudis - report

RT
Fri, 10 May 2019 20:45 UTC

A ship that was set to carry arms to Saudi Arabia has apparently left France without them, a day after a protest at port. Activists rallied to stop the delivery, saying the weapons could be used to slaughter civilians in Yemen.

The Bahri-Yanbu, a cargo ship that was meant to deliver the latest shipment of French weapons to the Gulf kingdom arrived in the port Le Havre on Thursday. Protesters gathered there to denounce their government's refusal to stop arms trade with Saudi Arabia after reports revealed that French weapons have been used by Riyadh in its four-year-long military campaign in neighboring Yemen.

Pennsylvania college to no longer allow frats, sororities

ABC News
Fri, 10 May 2019 03:56 UTC

Fraternities and sororities will no longer be allowed at Swarthmore College following outrage over years-old documents allegedly written by one fraternity there that contains derogatory comments about women and the LGBTQ community and jokes about sexual assault.

School President Valerie Smith made the announcement Friday in a letter posted on the college's website. Smith says the school's lone sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, can continue with its current members through the spring 2022 semester but can't recruit or initiate new members.

Swarthmore's decision comes about a week after the only two fraternities at the private liberal arts college in suburban Philadelphia decided to disband following the internal documents' release.

"The voluntary disbanding of Phi Psi and Delta Upsilon reflects a broader change in student needs and desires. Exclusive, dues-paying social organizations no longer effectively meet the needs of our residential liberal arts environment," Smith wrote in her statement.

Columbia: Anti-government protest turns violent as students hurl molotov cocktails at police using water cannons

RT
Fri, 10 May 2019 18:12 UTC

Fierce clashes broke out on the streets of Bogota, Colombia between student protesters armed with Molotov cocktails and police in armored vehicles deploying water cannon.

Violence erupted outside The National Pedagogic University as anti-government protests over education and state pension cuts proposed by President Iván Duque continue.

Florida homeowner faces $30K in fines, foreclosure for overgrown lawn

WFTS Tampa Bay
Tue, 07 May 2019 11:54 UTC

FL homeowner faces foreclosure due to overgrown lawn

A Dunedin man faces sky-high fines and possible foreclosure on his home after code enforcement cited him for overgrown grass in his yard.

Jim Ficken returned home last summer to find the grass in his yard grew more than 10 inches tall. Ficken spent most of his time in South Carolina helping take care for his late mother's estate.

Ficken says the man who mowed his yard unexpectedly died and the grass hadn't been cut.

City code enforcement officers noticed and started fining Ficken $500 a day, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Pinellas County. The fines mounted to nearly $30,000 before the city notified Ficken of the problem, according to Ficken.

"That's about five or six years of living expenses for me. So, they're really trying to take five years of my life."

Attorneys with the Institute for Justice are now representing Ficken free of charge, claiming the fines are excessive.

Air Canada plane and fuel tanker collide at Pearson Airport

CBC News
Fri, 10 May 2019 17:29 UTC

© Daniel Demers
A large dent can be seen beneath the cockpit of the Air Canada Express plane at Pearson airport following Friday morning's collision.

Five people were injured during the collision of an Air Canada Express plane and a fuel tanker truck at Toronto's Pearson International airport early Friday.

The collision occurred around 1:36 a.m. ET as Flight 8615 was taxiing to a gate at Terminal 1 with 50 passengers aboard.

The DHC-8-300 was originally headed from Toronto to Sudbury, but turned back to Pearson due to foggy conditions in the northern Ontario city.

According to Peel Regional Police Sgt. Bancroft Wright, the tanker truck struck the plane and the driver has been charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle.

Sandra Bland recorded her arrest at 2015 traffic stop - family never saw video, wants investigation into arrest and death reopened

WFAA
Fri, 10 May 2019 17:00 UTC

The family of Sandra Bland -- who died in a Waller County jail cell -- is calling for a re-opening of the criminal investigation into Bland's arrest and death after seeing footage for the first time.

New cellphone footage from the now infamous traffic stop of Sandra Bland shows her perspective when a Texas state trooper points a Taser and yells, "I will light you up!"

Bland, 28, was found dead three days later in her Waller County jail cell near Houston. Her death was ruled a suicide.

The new video -- released as part of a WFAA exclusive in partnership with the Investigative Network -- fuels the Bland family's suspicions that Texas officials withheld evidence in her controversial arrest and, later, her death.

Comment:

Going subterranean: Underground spaces are being propped up as the next place for humans to live

Ella IDE
Yahoo
Fri, 10 May 2019 16:24 UTC

Part of the Bourbon Tunnel under Naples

Solutions to the biggest threats facing our planet lie underground, according to experts who insist climate change, overpopulation and food shortages can all be tackled by going subterranean.

"We are coming to a point in our history in which we need to start looking for more space," Han Admiraal, a civil engineer with over two decades of experience in underground space, told AFP on the sidelines of this year's World Tunnel Congress.

Efforts to meet seven of the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals -- from cleaning up pollution-clogged metropolises to ending world hunger -- could be given a big boost by repurposing spaces below street level, he said.

"We don't seem to realise that we're losing a lot of arable land at an alarming rate each year (to soil degradation, urbanisation and intensive farming), where we should be increasing it to feed the growing world population.

140 migrants cross into south Texas in 3 hours

Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby
Breitbart
Thu, 09 May 2019 00:00 UTC

In a three-hour span Sunday, 140 Central American migrants crossed into Texas from the cartel-controlled city of Reynosa and surrendered to U.S. authorities with the expectation of being released shortly thereafter. The images of the crossings come at a time when the leaders of U.S. Border Patrol report record-setting apprehensions.

The images were captured by Breitbart News in an area immediately north of the Texas border in a region known as Rincon Village, under the Anzalduas International Bridge. The area has long been considered by law enforcement as a busy corridor used by the Gulf Cartel to move Central American migrants into Texas. Since many migrants are family units or request asylum, they are released in a matter of days.

African countries renew push to lift ivory trade ban

Kitsepile Nyathi
The East African
Wed, 08 May 2019 16:19 UTC

Southern African countries are pushing for the lifting of a global ban on sales of ivory in a bid to address human-wildlife conflict caused by bigger herds.

Leaders from six countries in the region who attended a summit in Botswana on Tuesday resolved to lobby the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) to lift the embargo.

They are advocating for the relaxation of the trade ban to a strictly-controlled form of business.

Zimbabwe will next month host the inaugural African Union/United Nations Wildlife summit which the countries that are part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) want to use to mobilise support for an end to the 30 year-old ban on ivory trade.

Global persecution of Christians reaches "near-genocidal levels"

Lucas Holtvluwer
The Post Millenial
Tue, 07 May 2019 16:00 UTC

A new report on Christian persecution ordered by the UK's Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Jeremy Hunt, finds that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world.

The review, led by the Bishop of Truro the Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen, found that one in three people suffer from religious persecution globally, with 80% of the persecuted being followers of Jesus Christ.

Hunt felt that given the research consistently showed that Christians are the most persecuted religious group, such a study was warranted to further investigate the nature and scope of the persecution. Hunt also added that "political correctness" played a role in not confronting the issue sooner.

The report, which is not yet finalized, defines persecution as "discriminatory treatment where that treatment is accompanied by actual or perceived threats of violence or other forced coercion."

Vax analysis that shows how deadly they are: [Link]

L. Wood

Well, FWIW, the number of sites claiming that actress Melle Stewart is dead is growing which makes the BFM's silence all the more suspect, eh...

Rowan Cocoan

Good thing semis will all be automated in the next 10 years

Bobble

I wonder if that negroid snake oil salesman was actually voted into office, or if he had some computerized remote help, like the senile deepfake....

codis

Is this the effect of geo engineering I wonder? Forcing droughts on areas and the like, surely that precipitation needs to go somewhere? Just find...

Christian83

Society's Child

'Why do we fuel the war?' French peace activists manage to stop arms shipment to Saudis - report

Pennsylvania college to no longer allow frats, sororities

Columbia: Anti-government protest turns violent as students hurl molotov cocktails at police using water cannons

Florida homeowner faces $30K in fines, foreclosure for overgrown lawn

Air Canada plane and fuel tanker collide at Pearson Airport

Sandra Bland recorded her arrest at 2015 traffic stop - family never saw video, wants investigation into arrest and death reopened

Going subterranean: Underground spaces are being propped up as the next place for humans to live

140 migrants cross into south Texas in 3 hours

African countries renew push to lift ivory trade ban

Global persecution of Christians reaches "near-genocidal levels"

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