Society's Child

#GreatReturnMarch: 2 Palestinian deaths reported as protests gather for the 4th week

RT
Fri, 20 Apr 2018 14:47 UTC

Two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire near Gaza's border, according to local medics and the Gaza Health Ministry. The reports come as protesters gather for the fourth week of 'Great March of Return' demonstrations.

A 25 year old man died earlier this morning after he being shot east of Jabalya, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health as cited by local media. Later, a 24 year old man was reportedly shot dead by Israeli fire in the northern Gaza strip.

According to the IDF, some 3,000 Palestinian protesters are taking part in Friday's demonstrations, the Times of Israel reports.

The six-week protest began on March 30 and is due to continue until May 15, the anniversary of Nakba, which Palestinians refer to as the mass exodus from their land during the establishment of the state of Israel. Israelis celebrate this as Independence Day.

To date, at least 35 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded by Israeli gunfire.

Orban victory? George Soros may close his NGO's Budapest office amid 'political hostility'

RT
Fri, 20 Apr 2018 16:25 UTC

George Soros' Open Society Foundations (OSF) may close their office in Budapest and move Eastern European operations to Germany, due to the "political hostility" it faces in Hungary, Austria's Die Presse newspaper reported.

The office may shut down, reportedly, by the end of August and then move to Berlin or to Vienna. The report came a week and a half after Hungarian parliamentary elections, in which the conservative, anti-immigrant Fidesz party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, secured a decisive victory.

In a press release on Thursday night, the Open Society Foundations neither confirmed nor denied the report, saying that it is "closely monitoring the situation" but emphasizing that, in any case, it will "remain committed to Hungary."

Comment: At least one European country has finally roused itself to defend its sovereignty. When will others take notice and what will they do?

British man jailed for only 16 years after hurling acid at aspiring model & cousin

RT
Fri, 20 Apr 2018 14:40 UTC

A man caught on CCTV hurling acid at an aspiring model and her cousin, leaving them with "dreadful and life-changing" injuries, has been sentenced to 16 years in jail.

Resham Khan had been out celebrating her 21st birthday with her cousin Jameel Muhktar, 37, when they were attacked in Beckton, east London. They were both left with severe burns and in need of skin grafts after the attack in June. Muhktar was so badly injured he had to be put into an induced coma.

John Tomlin, 25, from Colman Road, Canning Town, admitted intentionally causing the pair grievous bodily harm. He was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court, where Khan said her birthday "turned into a day where my face was taken away from me.

"I have been looking at myself in the mirror, it upsets me, it brings back the incident on the day, it doesn't look like me," she added in her victim impact statement.

Comment: See also:

Note that this was a white Brit doing it to Muslim Brits, not the other war around.

Ex-MI5 officer: Formula for nerve agent used against Skripals is 'out in the wild'

RT
Thu, 19 Apr 2018 16:11 UTC

The formula for the toxic nerve agent used against the Sergei and Yulia Skripal could have been used by anyone in the world as it is "out there in the wild," a former British intelligence official told RT.

The UK government's square accusations against Russia of it being responsible for the attack on the Skripals has been plunged into further doubt as Annie Machon, an ex-MI5 officer, told RT that the nerve agent's formula was published in a book by a Russian defector to the US in 2008. The nerve agent therefore could have been reproduced by any lab in the world, she explained.

"It could've been developed... by up to 20 different laboratories in many different countries around the planet, so of course Britain should not have immediately jumped to the assumption that, because it was developed under the Soviet Union, it must therefore be used by Russia now."

Comment:

Who will protect our election system from US oligarchs?

Paul Street
Truthdig
Wed, 18 Apr 2018 15:31 UTC

citizens united oligarchs political donations

I recently heard on cable news that special counsel Robert Mueller wanted to interview some "Russian oligarchs" about their supposed influence on the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Liberal talking heads at such organizations as MSNBC and CNN keep warning that nothing has been done yet to protect the integrity of our voting process against "Russian interference" as the 2018 midterm elections loom ever closer on the nation's horizon.

What about the American oligarchs, I wondered, people like businessman Richard Uihlein, who regularly distort U.S. elections at every level-local, state and federal? Who will protect our "democracy" from the plutocratic "wealth primary" power of the American oligarchy?

Grim reality of UK's poorest families revealed: Households without power & food

RT
Fri, 20 Apr 2018 10:26 UTC

Many British families have no electricity and some are going without meals - purely because they can't afford it. Two surveys have revealed the harsh truth of living below the poverty line, raising questions for the government.

Citizens Advice and the Living Wage Foundation have revealed just how hard it is for those struggling across the UK. According to Citizens Advice, as many as 140,000 households are without power because they can't afford to top up their prepay meters.

Citizens Advice Chief Executive Gillian Guy said it's "unacceptable that so many vulnerable households are being left without heat and light." She added that "for some people self-disconnection is easily managed, but for many others it is an extremely stressful experience that can have harmful physical and emotional effects."

The Living Wage Foundation, a group that campaigns for fair pay across the UK, has revealed in its own survey that parents in poorer families - as many as a third of working parents on low incomes - are skipping meals regularly due to lack of money. Around a half of those families have also fallen behind with household bills. The Living Wage Foundation suggests that the unofficial living wage is £8.75 ($12.31) an hour, jumping to £10.20 an hour if you live in London. More than 4,000 employers offer this wage.

UK government prevented raid on company suspected of tax fraud and money-laundering because 'it's the largest Tory donor'

RT
Fri, 20 Apr 2018 07:26 UTC

The UK reportedly prevented a raid on a mobile company suspected of money laundering because it donated to the Conservative Party, despite the Home Office vowing to implement the toughest anti-money laundering plan in a decade.

According to BuzzFeed News, Britain refused to assist French authorities in their investigation of Lycamobile, a UK telecom company suspected of money laundering and tax fraud. The British government cited the fact that it was the "biggest corporate donor to the Conservative party" and gives money to a trust founded by Prince Charles.

French prosecutors arrested up to 19 people over their alleged use of the company's accounts to launder money from organized criminal networks in 2016. It followed on from a BuzzFeed News exposé of the company's reportedly suspicious activities in the UK. Yet while France took immediate action, the Conservative Party not only carried on accepting donations, but also refused the French government's request to carry out raids at Lycamobile's HQ in London.

Comment: The UK government has been well aware of Lycamobile's potential corruption for some time:

Elite donors bankrolling Tory campaign under investigation for fraud, tax dodging

Telecoms giant Lycamobile donated £542,500 to the Tories in March. However, that same month, the company's accounts showed the firm was under two separate HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) investigations for VAT and corporation tax avoidance.

According to BuzzFeed, even the Tories compliance unit was not too sure about Lycamobile's sponsorship, with worried emails being sent between Conservative officers about the state of the company's accounts.

The communications giant was branded a "tax offender" by the former chair of the public accounts committee, Labour's Margaret Hodge.

153 arrested, a dozen children rescued in international child sexual abuse investigation

David Shum
Global News
Thu, 12 Apr 2018 15:09 UTC

Toronto police announced on Thursday that law enforcement agencies in Canada, United States and the United Kingdom have made a total of 153 arrests in connection with an international child sexual abuse investigation, which also resulted in the rescue of a dozen children.

Police said during a press conference in Toronto that the National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom first started the investigation in 2014 when they were looking into an online group allegedly involved in the sexual abuse of children.

The probe, nicknamed Project Mercury, eventually expanded to include Toronto police and law enforcement agencies in the United States.

Propaganda in action: Out of top 100 news outlets in US, not a single one questioned Syrian attack

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 19 Apr 2018 12:39 UTC

A disturbing trend has been ongoing within the mainstream media when it comes to reporting on United States foreign policy, and while some may argue that the media is typically critical of President Trump, 26 major editorials were published in response to his recent decision to launch airstrikes against Syria, and not a single one criticized the attack.

In fact, that sentiment was shared by the top 100 newspapers in the United States, according to an analysis conducted by Fair.org. Out of those papers, none of the editorials issued in response to an escalation of the war in Syria that could have sparked World War 3, condemned it. While 74 papers issued no response, the editorial teams from 20 papers showed overwhelming support, and six papers neither supported or condemned the attack.

"None of the top 100 newspapers questioned the US's legal or moral right to bomb Syria, and all accepted US government claims to be neutral arbiters of 'international law.' Many editorials hand wrung about a 'lack of strategy' or absence of congressional approval, but none so much that they opposed the bombing. Strategy and legal sanction are add-on features-nice but, by all accounts, not essential. The total lack of editorial board dissent is consistent with major papers' tradition of uniform acceptance of US military action."

Comment: Perhaps not in the US but elsewhere: Western media are beginning to challenge "chemical attack" narrative after visiting Douma

The 'Jewish nation', the central myth of Zionism, needs to be dismantled

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Wed, 18 Apr 2018 11:40 UTC

© If Not Now / Twitter
'Birthright' founder Michael Steinhardt giving anti-Birthright demonstrators the finger in New York, April 16, 2018.

Today, April 18th, is the eve of Israel's 70th Independence Day. Some are probably wondering how that may be possible, if Israel declared its independence on the evening of May the 14th. The answer is, that Israel celebrates the event as if it was a Jewish holiday, according to the moon calendar, which most often does not coincide with the Latin, sun-based calendar.

This is only one aspect in how Israel seeks to apply itself as a "Jewish State". But I am going to speak about an even more essential ideological aspect that sits at the heart of Zionism. It is not the notion of the Jewish state as such, but the notion of the Jewish nation.

First, let's jump back 100 years and look once again at the words of the British (and notably Jewish) Secretary of State for India Edwin Montagu, in his critique of His Majesty's Government's intentions to endorse a 'Jewish national home" in Palestine in 1917:

"I assert that there is not a Jewish nation. The members of my family, for instance, who have been in this country for generations, have no sort or kind of community of view or of desire with any Jewish family in any other country beyond the fact that they profess to a greater or less degree the same religion. It is no more true to say that a Jewish Englishman and a Jewish Moor are of the same nation than it is to say that a Christian Englishman and a Christian Frenchman are of the same nation: of the same race, perhaps, traced back through the centuries - through centuries of the history of a peculiarly adaptable race".

Comment: This myth of the 'Jewish nation' is why there will never be a one-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Unfortuntaly, the alternative of the two-state solution has been dead for a long time, and also because of this myth, it was never going to be long-lasting. One thing is clear: There will be no peace in Palestine while the myth exists.

Is this not a case of, The pot calling the kettle black.

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Society's Child

#GreatReturnMarch: 2 Palestinian deaths reported as protests gather for the 4th week

Orban victory? George Soros may close his NGO's Budapest office amid 'political hostility'

British man jailed for only 16 years after hurling acid at aspiring model & cousin

Ex-MI5 officer: Formula for nerve agent used against Skripals is 'out in the wild'

Who will protect our election system from US oligarchs?

Grim reality of UK's poorest families revealed: Households without power & food

UK government prevented raid on company suspected of tax fraud and money-laundering because 'it's the largest Tory donor'

153 arrested, a dozen children rescued in international child sexual abuse investigation

Propaganda in action: Out of top 100 news outlets in US, not a single one questioned Syrian attack

The 'Jewish nation', the central myth of Zionism, needs to be dismantled

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