Society's ChildS


Brick Wall

HRW director for Israel & Palestine barred from entering Bahrain over 'support of BDS movement'

protester holding boycott israel sign
© Michael Bunel / Global Look Press
A Human Rights Watch (HRW) official who was barred from entering Bahrain over his support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has accused the Gulf state of infringing on free speech.

HRW director for Israel and Palestine Omar Shakir was detained for 18 hours at Manama Airport before being extradited back to the US. Sakir planned to attend a FIFA conference to raise awareness of the world football governing body's inaction against Israeli football clubs based in illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

Shakir told RT that he traveled to Bahrain to "raise the issue of FIFA sponsoring matches in illegal Israeli settlements... to hold meetings with delegates and representatives from FIFA and representatives to FIFA on the issue of Settlement clubs."

Comment: Further reading: Top Israeli "sabotage" strategist admits BDS is winning


Mr. Potato

Fox News host Roginsky speaks Russian on air in outburst to 'potential Russian overlords'

anti-Trump protesters
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
In an apparent episode of what the Kremlin called "Russian obsession," an American TV host and Democratic Party strategist, Julie Roginsky, has addressed her audience in Russian in an outburst against what she called "a hostile foreign power."

Roginsky opened her show in Russian, saying - and now we have to translate it back in English - "Welcome to our ClapBack show with Julie Roginsky, where we protect Twitter from all the people who send us horrible, horrible things every day."

Comment: Endless nonsensical entertainment. Trump is right, Russia and the World must be laughing at the US: Trump tweets: "Russia must be laughing", Comey better watch out, press briefings can't always be accurate


Info

Norway's largest trade union votes to boycott Israel over Palestine

protester holding boycott israel sign
© Michael Bunel / Global Look Press
Norway's largest trade union body has voted in favor of economic, cultural, and academic boycott of Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. In response, Tel Aviv said that the union "placed itself shoulder to shoulder with the worst enemies of Israel."

The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) made the decision at the Congress on Friday, local media report. The Congress is the organization's highest authority and holds its meetings every four years.

The Confederation should launch an effort "to achieve an international economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel," representatives at the gathering stated. It is not yet clear, however, how the proposed ban would be implemented.

Airplane

Disabled woman's service dog gets her barred from Virgin Atlantic airport lounge

disabled woman_virgin airlines
© Micaela Bensko / YouTube
A woman with a spinal condition who requires a wheelchair was denied entrance into a Virgin Atlantic airport lounge because of her service dog. The woman, desperate to lie down to relieve neck pain, recorded her interaction with a Virgin employee.

Micaela Bensko recorded a recent encounter with a Virgin Atlantic lounge employee at JFK International Airport in New York. The staff member would not allow Bensko to enter the lounge even though she had paid for access in order to lie down before her flight.

The California woman says she specifically bought access to the lounge in order to rest given her condition arachnoiditis and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) of the spine, doesn't allow her to stay seated for more than 30 minutes.

Handcuffs

Prosecutors and defense file appeals - Sweden Facebook rape case

phone facebook
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
Both the prosecutor and defendant are appealing the sentence in the infamous rape case from earlier this year, in which a Swedish woman's gang-rape was broadcast live on Facebook.

Police in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, were called in January after concerned viewers tipped them off about a gang-rape that was being broadcast live to a closed Facebook group with over 60,000 members. Three men aged 18, 21 and 24 were arrested, and their claim that the woman consented to the act was rejected by the Uppsala District Court in April, which gave them sentences of one year, two years four months, and six months, respectively.

The court ruled that the woman, reportedly aged 31, was heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol, which is considered a particularly vulnerable situation under Swedish law. The 18-year-old and 21-year-old, both Afghan nationals, were convicted of rape, while the 24-year-old, a Swedish citizen of Afghan descent, who was behind the camera, was found guilty of gross defamation and failing to report the incident. In addition to their jail time, the men were ordered to pay a total of 300,000 kronor (US$33,890) in damages to the victim.

Comment: More background


Pistol

Refugee kills 20 wounded Syrian soldiers, jailed in Austria

shackled hands
© CC BY 2.0 / Victor
The 27-year-old, who has not been identified because of strict privacy laws in Austria, told people at a refugee shelter in the Tyrol that he had shot dead soldiers in President Bashar al-Assad's government while he was fighting with an Islamist rebel group called the Farouq Brigade, which was linked to the Free Syrian Army. After a trial in the city of Innsbruck he was found guilty of 20 charges of "murder as a terrorism offense."

The man, who had reportedly grown up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, was arrested in June last year after being denounced by a Syrian migrant. He had reportedly boasted to other asylum seekers of having been part of the Farouq Brigade and executed injured Syrian government soldiers near the city of Homs in 2013 and 2014.

The man initially confessed to the killings but later tried to retract his testimony, claiming it had been wrongly translated from Arabic into German. But the translator stuck to his guns, telling the court: "The defendant told me he had shot badly wounded soldiers. I asked him to repeat his claim and he did."

Killing injured soldiers is prohibited under the Geneva Convention. He is thought to be the first person tried for war crimes in Syria under Austrian law.

Comment: Another indication of movement towards a global community and the complexity intrinsic to the displacement of millions of people adjusting to a life beyond their borders.


People

Over 80% of Russians approve of President Putin's work, the government not so much

Vladimir Putin
© Sputnik/ Aleksey Nikolskyi
82.1 percent of Russians approve the work done by Russian President Vladimir Putin, while 55.8 percent of the respondents approve of the government's work, according to a poll.

The work done by Russian President Vladimir Putin is approved by 82.1 percent of Russians, while the approval rating of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is at 52.8 percent, a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) showed Thursday.

According to the survey, 55.8 percent of the respondents approve of the government's work, while 32 percent do not.

USA

Marines who share nude photos will be sacked, says new memo

soldiers
© AFP 2017/ SSGT Jason. D. Beckstand/ USMC
In response to the US Marines' nude photo scandal that's sent shockwaves through the military, the Corps issued a memo this week saying that servicemembers found guilty of sharing inappropriate photos could be kicked out.

The nonconsensual sharing of sexually explicit images has been added to the sexual harassment section of the Marine Corps manual that details involuntary separation proceedings. "The distribution or broadcasting of an intimate image, without consent, if done for personal gain; or with the intent to humiliate, harm, harass, intimidate, threaten or coerce the depicted person" is now considered a violation, according to the amendment, Military.com reported.

Changes to the service's social media guidelines were ordered shortly after the exposure earlier this year of a 30,000-member Facebook group called "Marines United," where retired and active duty corpsmen shared nude photos of their female colleagues, often without their knowledge or consent.

Sometimes the posts would include the woman's name, rank and duty station.

Comment: See also:


Heart - Black

More airline hijinks: Virgin boots disabled woman out of their lounge for having a service dog

Micaela Bensko with her service dog.
© CBS LAMicaela Bensko with her service dog.
A Santa Clarita woman in a wheelchair said she was kicked out of an airline lounge because of her service dog.

Micaela Bensko was in tears, crumpled in pain when she said she was denied access to the Virgin Atlantic lounge at JFK International Airport in New York because she had a service dog.

In 2011, Bensko's spine was severely injured in an accident, leaving her in a wheelchair. Service dog, Blue Bell, helps pull her.

She cannot sit for more than 30 minutes, That is why she said she paid for the Virgin Atlantic lounge so she could lie down before her flight.

But a lounge employee said no and Bensko caught it on video, which showed the employee saying: "With Virgin Atlantic policy with any service animal, you have to have some sort of paperwork."

Arrow Up

Japan blacklists companies violating labor laws in effort to prevent suicides and death from overwork

death by overwork, japan karoshi
© Reuters Japan has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, at 83.3 years, bu also has the highest suicide rates.
The Japanese government has for the first time announced a list of over 300 businesses nationwide that have broken labor laws. Officials want to protect employees from abuse and prevent "karoshi," or death by overwork.

The list includes major companies such as advertising agency Dentsu and electronics maker Panasonic, who are blamed for illegal overtime. A local unit of Japan Post, a subsidiary of Japan Post Holdings is accused of failing to report work-related injuries.

Companies that abuse workers have been called "black" by the local media. The problem intensified when a young worker at Dentsu committed suicide in 2015. The death was recognized as "karoshi," encouraging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to push for labor reforms.

Comment: 'Karoshi': 20% of Japanese employees risk death from overwork, survey shows
The Japanese are notoriously known for their strict work culture and putting in long hours. Hundreds of deaths from overwork are recorded every year, most of which are due to strokes, heart attacks, or suicide. Suicides are an especially acute problem. According to National Police Agency statistics cited by the Japan Times, 2,159 people took their own lives due, at least in part, to work-related problems in 2015.