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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Ambulance

Out-of-control van plows into pedestrians in China

china bus crash
© Twitter/@RFA_Chinese (L)/Twitter/@WuYeah2 (R)
At least one person has been reported killed and several others seriously injured after an out-of-control van ploughed into pedestrians and motorcyclists in the southern Chinese city of Nanning before crashing into a pole.

CORRECTION: Initial headline suggested this crash occurred in London, UK.

The accident occurred on a road in front of the Taoyuan Road District Hospital just after 11.30am on Thursday morning, with eyewitnesses saying the van was transporting tableware at the time of the crash.

Images of the aftermath shared on social media show a devastating scene with bodies and debris scattered across the road. Hospital workers worked frantically to resuscitate victims, while a group of passersby helped to lift the van off people who were trapped underneath.

Bad Guys

Top steel manager De Cooman falls to his death from iconic haunted Moscow building

The House on the Embankment haunted
© Vladimir Sergeev / Sputnik
The House on the Embankment in Moscow.
Mystery surrounds the death of the vice president of Russia's top steel producing company, who lost his life in a freak fall from the window of one of Moscow's most enigmatic and superstition-laden buildings.

Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) said it was shocked and saddened by the death of one of its top managers, Bruno Charles De Cooman, who fell from the window of the iconic House on the Embankment, overlooking the Kremlin in Moscow.

De Cooman's friend told Mash Telegram channel that the Belgian businessman told him he needed to briefly go up to his ninth-floor apartment, and asked to wait for him downstairs.

A few minutes later, he fell from the window onto the pavement and died before paramedics could arrive.

Chart Bar

US consumer confidence highest in 18 years

shopping us
Americans' consumer confidence rose in August to the highest level in nearly 18 years as their assessment of current conditions improved further and their expectations about the future rebounded.

The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 133.4 in August, up from a reading 127.9 in July. It was the highest reading since confidence stood at 135.8 in October 2000.

Consumers' confidence in their ability to get a job and the overall economy are seen as important indicators of how freely they will spend, especially on big-ticket items such as cars, in coming months. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Comment: While Trump does appear to be doing a great deal for the American economy, the corruption wrought over many decades has taken its toll and much more drastic measures will need to be implemented to save the country: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Atlantic Trade War? How Trump Breaking Iran Deal Could Dismantle US Empire


Coffee

Blimp of London mayor Sadiq Khan in yellow bikini to be flown over London in protest at 'Trump Baby'

sadiq khan blimp
© Jamie Wiseman
Yanny Bruere, 28, organiser of a 'Make London Safe Again' raised more than £58,000 online to pay for the bikini-clad blimp of Mayor Sadiq Khan following the furore over the 20ft balloon, dubbed 'Trump Baby'
He was accused of putting a dampener on Donald Trump's visit to London last month by allowing a giant balloon of him dressed in a nappy to fly over the capital.

But now Sadiq Khan is to face his own humiliation as protesters prepare to launch an inflatable showing the London mayor dressed in a bright-yellow bikini.

Organisers raised more than £58,000 online to pay for the blimp of Mr Khan following the furore over the 20ft balloon, dubbed 'Trump Baby', which was granted permission to rise above Parliament Square during the US President's visit last month.

The inflatable depicting a bikini-clad Mr Khan, which is slightly larger than its rival at 29ft, will be flown in the same Westminster location on Saturday morning.

Comment: Whatever happens with the blimp, does it really add much of value to the debate about free speech? One wonders whether the money raised couldn't have gone to a more constructive activity: Also check out SOTT radio's:


Footprints

My recent visit to North Korea

north korea pool
© Jay Tharappel
On the 24th of July I arrived in Pyongyang in a travelling party with five others, including Dr Tim Anderson, lecturer in Political Economy at USyd. At the jet bridge we were greeted by Tammam Suleiman, who used to be the Syrian Ambassador to Australia, but who now serves as the Syrian Ambassador to DPR Korea.

What follows is not an academic account that takes into consideration every aspect of the country, but simply what I saw in a thousand words.

Most foreigners go through Koryo Tours and get shown the absolute best of the country, but because we went through the DPRK Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries they showed us a lot more of daily life, from humble farming households, to department stores, to the educational facilities on offer to Korean children.

Guiding us through these landmarks was our lead guide and translator Mr. Kim Jong-nam, who told us that he didn't "consider [us] as tourists but as a cultural exchange delegation." This probably had something to do with why we never felt like we were being controlled in any way. Our only limitation was that none of us knew Korean.

Comment: See also:


Bulb

Human rights groups celebrate Israel's high court ruling that policy of denying Gaza patients access to medical treatment as leverage over Hamas is 'ineffective and illegal'

Palestinian man
© Ashram Amra/ APA Photos)
A Palestinian man gestures outside Rafah border crossing demanding to travel for treatment in the southern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2017.
Israel's High Court overturned on Sunday evening the security cabinet's previous decision to prevent five Palestinian women, mostly cancer patients, from Gaza from receiving life-saving treatment in occupied East Jerusalem on the basis that the women had relatives that were active in the Hamas movement.

According to a joint statement from rights groups Gisha, Al Mezan, Adalah, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel - who filed the petition earlier this month on behalf of the women - the court ruled that "the decision to deny Gaza patients access to medical treatment as means of leverage over Hamas was ineffective and illegal."

In its decision, the court also confirmed that the patients themselves "did not pose any threat to Israel's security," the statement said, adding that the women's lawyers argued that denying them passage through Israel to reach the hospitals in East Jerusalem "was illegal and effectively constituted a punitive death sentence for reasons entirely out of their control."

Health

Pennsylvania Dept of Correction puts all prisons on lockdown after reports of staff sickened by unknown substance

Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility
© Reuters (file photo)
Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has puts its facilities on lockdown after reports multiple staff members were sickened by unknown substances . This comes after a similar emergency in an Ohio prison.

"The safety and security of our employees is my number one concern,"John Wetzel, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary, said as he announced the lockdown.

"Our state prisons, especially, those in the western part of the state, have experienced recent incidents in which employees have been sickened and we need to get to the bottom of this issue now."

Effective immediately, all of the state's 24 prisons are locked down, all visits have been suspended, mailrooms indefinitely closed to non-legal mail, and staff have been instructed to don protective clothing and equipment, the department said on Wednesday.

Comment: See also: Two dozen people at Ohio prison treated for suspected opiate poisoning


Red Pill

Londonistan: Vesti special report on 'success' of UK's multicultural experiment

tommy robinson london muslims
This is an excellent 1 hour investigation by the top Russian TV News Channel of London neighborhoods, including Luton, which have become majority Islamic immigrant areas. Tommy Robinson is featured for much of the film as he takes the team around for an 'insiders' tour of these hellholes.

It is a real eye-opener, and damning indictment of the UK, globalist elite's failed policies of multiculturalism.

In addition to Robinson, the film interviews other anti-immigration activists, and a handful of Muslims, who present the other side of the argument.

Very high quality work. You won't find this on the BBC.


Ambulance

Two dozen people at Ohio prison treated for suspected opiate poisoning

ross correctional institute opiate overdose

Staff members became ill on Wednesday after being exposed to a substance that was possibly the powerful opioid Fentanyl, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Two dozen people at the Ross Correctional Institution in Ohio, including five nurses, 15 correctional officers and an inmate, required medical attention after experiencing overdose symptoms due to exposure to an unknown substance.

The Ohio Highway Patrol (OHP) was notified that people were sick and passing out at the prison at around 9 am, with officers and medics heading to the facility, Chillicothe Gazette reported.

Those affected were given a special medication, used to quickly reverse opioid overdoses, called 'naloxone.'

At least 19 overdose victims were taken to the Adena Regional Medical Center. The hospital's CEO, Jeff Graham, told reporters that "the majority will be treated and released."

Arrow Up

Puerto Rico ups the death toll of Hurricane Maria to 2,975 from an initial 64

Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria
© Carlos Barria/Reuters
Jayuya, Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria
Almost 3,000 people died in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which battered Puerto Rico last September, the US territory announced after a new study.

Governor Ricardo Rosselló made the official announcement on Tuesday, following the publication of an independent study estimating the casualties at 2,975.

Commissioned by Governor Rosselló and carried out by the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, the study found that the death toll was considerably higher than original reports.

In estimating the true death toll of Hurricane Maria, researchers looked at historical data to estimate how many people would have died had the storm not hit the island. That figure was then compared to the number of deaths reported from September 2017, when the hurricane hit, to February 2018, when the island still struggled with blackouts and a shortages of essential supplies on the road to recovery.

The study found that all age and income groups were affected by the sharp rise in mortality, but that the risk of death was markedly higher among the island's poor. Among low-income Puerto Ricans, the risk of death was 45 percent higher.