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Bernini's Elephant and Obelisk, one of Rome's most famous sculptures vandalized

Chiara Palazzo
The Telegraph
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 14:33 UTC
vandalized statue Bernini Elephant and Obelisk
© ANSA via EPA
Damaged Bernini's Elephant and Obelisk in Piazza della Minerva.
Police in Rome are examining CCTV footage in efforts to discover who damaged one of the city's most famous sculptures, Bernini's Elephant and Obelisk.

The landmark work, tucked away in Piazza della Minerva, a little square near the Pantheon, features an elephant carrying the obelisk on its back and was first placed there in the 17th century.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the leading sculptor of his age, oversaw the sculpture of the elephant, which had the tip of its left trunk broken off in the incident on Sunday night.
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Tornado1

World bank study: Natural disasters drive 26 million into poverty annually, toll underestimated by 60%


RT
Mon, 14 Nov 2016 14:58 UTC
Typhoon Haiyan survivor
© Erik De Castro/Reuters
A housewife does laundry outside her bunkhouse at a transitional shelter for Typhoon Haiyan survivors in Tacloban city, Philippines.
A new study by the World Bank suggests the impact of natural disasters on the poor is more devastating than previously thought, with 26 million people pushed into poverty every year.

The poor are twice as likely to live in fragile housing in vulnerable areas and work in sectors (such as agriculture) highly susceptible to extreme weather events, the report found. They also receive much less government and community support for recovery.

The human and economic costs of disasters, caused by extreme weather and earthquakes, are underestimated by up to 60 percent, according to the study, with annual consumption losses of $520 billion. The discrepancy was explained by the ignorance of the high cost on consumption and the related well-being of the poor.

"Poor people need social and financial protection from disasters that cannot be avoided. With risk policies in place that we know to be effective, we have the opportunity to prevent millions of people from falling into poverty," said Stephane Hallegatte, the author of the report and a lead economist at Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.
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Smoking

Man hospitalized for back surgery is furious to find hospital photo used as cigarette pack warning


RT
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 14:33 UTC
Cigarette
© Andrea Comas / Reuters
A Spanish man is taking the hospital where he had spinal surgery to court after he discovered pre-operation images of his face were being used to advertise the dangers of smoking on cigarette packs.

"Smoking can cause embolisms and disability," the caption under the photo said.

The man, identified only by the initials FJTA, was recognized by neighbors, who pointed out that he looked like the image on the packet.

Comment: See also:

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Family

Survey of children in developing countries show one-third miss school to work


RT
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 15:58 UTC
child labor
© Mohammad Ismail / Reuters
One-third of children in developing countries are forced to miss school in order to work, including most kids in Afghanistan, according to a new survey. Thirty-two percent also said their schools were not always safe.

The 'Small Voices, Big Dreams' survey, conducted by the ChildFund Alliance, interviewed 6,226 children between the ages of 10 and 12 who live in 41 countries - 31 of which are developing nations across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Of the students surveyed, 3,658 were from developing nations.

While 98 percent of those surveyed said that education is important, the research identified several hurdles that stand between children and their access to safe, quality education.

When asked whether they have missed school to go to work, 31 percent of children in developing countries said they had done so - compared to just 8 percent of children in developed nations.

Comment: Compare this to the precious snowflakes that hold cry-ins and ask teachers to cancel exams over a Presidential election not going the way they wanted.

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Megaphone

More than half of those arrested at anti-Trump protests in Portland either didn't vote or weren't registered to vote in Oregon

Kyle Iboshi
KGW Portland
Mon, 14 Nov 2016 15:43 UTC
Portland anti-Trump protests
© ANKUR DHOLAKIA/AFP/Getty Images
More than half of the anti-Trump protesters arrested in Portland didn't vote in Oregon, according to state election records.

At least sixty-nine demonstrators either didn't turn in a ballot or weren't registered to vote in the state.

KGW compiled a list of the 112 people arrested by the Portland Police Bureau during recent protests. Those names and ages, provided by police, were then compared to state voter logs by Multnomah County Elections officials.

Records show 34 of the protesters arrested didn't return a ballot for the November 8 election. Thirty-five of the demonstrators taken into custody weren't registered to vote in Oregon.

Twenty-five protesters who were arrested did vote.

KGW is still working to verify voting records for the remaining 17 protesters who were arrested.

This article originally stated that 35 people were registered to vote and did not. One woman who was arrested told KGW she recently moved to Washington and did vote in Washington. She was also registered to vote in Oregon.
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Propaganda

Let's be real: Fascism exists in Ukraine, not in America

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Mon, 14 Nov 2016 13:43 UTC
Ukraine fascists
The mainstream media refuse to recognize the fascist regime in Ukraine as such, let alone associate Wahhabist terrorism with fascism. Yet the term is batted about in very unusual places.

In a recent interview, I was asked if the term fascism is batted around too much. I responded by saying it is used too little. Certainly this is the case when there are actual fascists on Europe's doorstep whose crimes are being ignored.

For those who have little or no knowledge of the Great Patriotic War, The Holocaust or the struggles of European partisans against German, Italian, Spanish and allied puppet fascist regimes, the term fascism has sadly become a kind of de rigueur insult for anything broadly disliked or deemed to be outside of the realm of mainstream, polite emasculated western culture.

But in reality, fascism is different. It is real and it lives. It is evil and it is dangerous.
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Stop

FBI reports US hate crimes rose 7% last year, against Muslims increased 67%


RT
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 13:34 UTC
Muslim women in US
© Stephanie Keith / Reuters
Hate crime rates in America rose nearly 7 percent overall in 2015, but it was the targeting of Muslims that skyrocketed, with a 67 percent hike, according to the FBI.

Hate crimes grew 6.8 percent last year, with a total of 5,850 cases reported to police last year, according to the FBI in its latest Uniform Crime Report. In 2014, there were 5,479 incidents.

The new statistics in a snapshot show increases in attacks on gay men, up 10 percent; on blacks, up 7.6 percent; on whites, up 3 percent. The states with the highest incidents of hate crime were California, New York and Massachusetts.

Many times a hate crime case involves multiple offenses and victims. Out of the 5,850 cases in 2015, there were 6,837 offenses, and they involved 7,121 victims.

The FBI's analysis shows 56.9 percent of the cases were motivated by race, ethnicity and ancestry bias, while 19.8 percent were motivated by religious bias.
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Info

It's Trump's fault? Swedish chef violently assaulted by 'Muslim men' because he 'looks like Trump'


RT
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 13:23 UTC
Swedish chef Anders Vendel
© studioehelsingborg / YouTube
Swedish chef Anders Vendel
A Swedish chef was reportedly assaulted by three Muslim men who punched and kicked him in the face and head, sending him to the emergency room. Writing about the assault on Facebook, he said he was attacked because he looked like Donald Trump.

Writing in a post which has since been deleted, Anders Vendel explained that two men grabbed his arms from behind, while a third began punching him in the face. After about 20 blows to the face, Vendel fell to the floor, and all three men began kicking him in the head and face.

The prominent Malmo chef said he believes the attack, which left him with a "broken nose, bumps, clogged eye, mouth, lips, and jaw... even a broken right thumb," took place because he "looks like Donald Trump."

The assault apparently took place at a fast food grill in Malmo at 4:25 Saturday morning, according to Sydsvenskan newspaper.

Comment: Hmm, don't see much resemblance to Trump.

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Syringe

Chicago nursing home and rehab facility fined $100k after patients overdosed on heroin


RT
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 22:35 UTC
Rehab
© Google
A nursing home and rehab facility in Chicago, Illinois is fighting fines of over $100,000 from state and federal agencies after five patients overdosed on heroin. Two of them proceeded to take more drugs mere hours after returning from the hospital.

In February, a female visitor sold "white powder in a small zippered baggie" to several residents at Continental Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Chicago. Five patients from the same floor, all in their 40s and 50s, were then rushed to the hospital with similar symptoms. As the Illinois Department of Public Health (DPH) investigated, it turned out the residents had all overdosed on heroin.

A 33-year-old patient said she received the powder from the visitor who was visiting a relative. The resident then snorted the powder, but told investigators: "I don't remember much after that until I woke up and saw the paramedics standing over me."

A second resident who overdosed said he paid the visitor $25 for the heroin and told her he could triple her money "in three days at the facility" if the drugs were "good," the DPH report said.

Comment: See also:

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Heart

On this day in 1959: Kennedy publishes article on television and American politics


History.com
Mon, 14 Nov 2016 17:37 UTC
President Kennedy

JFK
On this day in 1959, an article written by Massachusetts senator and presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy appears in an issue of TV Guide. In it, Kennedy examined the influence of television, still a relatively new technology, on American political campaigns.

In the article, Kennedy mused that television had the power to bring political campaigns—and scandals—immediately and directly to the public and illuminated the contrast between political personalities. Kennedy shrewdly noted that a "slick or bombastic orator pounding the table and ringing the rafters" fared poorly against a more congenial candidate and "is not as welcome in the family living room" as a candidate with "honesty, vigor, compassion [and] intelligence." Kennedy strove to convey the latter image. He also compared Woodrow Wilson's 1919 month-long cross-country railroad trek to promote his League of Nations proposal (an exhausting trip that ended when Wilson suffered a stroke) to then-President Eisenhower's ability to reach millions of voters in a 15-minute television appearance.

Comment: Kennedy was unquestionably a powerful visionary, and he is very sorely missed. Regarding his comment "the time has come when a solution must be found to this problem of TV costs" maybe, just maybe, we've finally reached the stage where the Internet's credible alternative news outlets and social media sharing combined with careful and caring discernment can become more powerful than what has obviously become a very rigged and biased mainstream media.

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