© Sputnik / Alexei Druzhinin
Society's Child
Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken part in making traditional Chinese dishes during his visit to the Asian country.
During their meeting in the Chinese city of Tianjin, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, had given the audience something to chew on. When the two leaders tasted the traditional local delicacies, the Russian president took part in making goubuli (dumplings) and pancake wraps, stuffed with meat and vegetables. A member of the Chinese delegation complimented Putin's culinary skills.
© Omar Sobhani / Reuters
Afghans greet each other outside the Shah-e Doh Shamshira Mosque, on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in Kabul, Afghanistan
Afghans greet each other outside the Shah-e Doh Shamshira Mosque, on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in Kabul, Afghanistan
The announcement comes after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday declared his own unconditional, week-long ceasefire against the Taliban, but not against other militant groups. The armistice will coincide with Eid celebrations at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, which comes next Thursday.
Ghani's ceasefire comes after the recommendation from a group of Islamic clerics, and it will last until June 20. The Taliban have not specified when their ceasefire will begin or end, Reuters reports.
Somewhat to my surprise, ordinary Russians were also quick to openly criticize President Vladimir Putin for his autocratic tendencies and his willingness to continue to tolerate corruption, but everyone I spoke to also conceded that he had generally acted constructively and had greatly improved life for ordinary people. Putin remains wildly popular.
One question that came up frequently was "Who is driving the hostility towards Russia?" I responded that the answer is not so simple and there are a number of constituencies that, for one reason or another, need a powerful enemy to justify policies that would otherwise be unsustainable. Defense contractors need a foe to justify their existence while congressmen need the contractors to fund their campaigns. The media needs a good fearmongering story to help sell itself and the public also is accustomed to having a world in which terrible threats lurk just below the horizon, thereby increasing support for government control of everyday life to keep everyone "safe."
© The Free Thought Project
"Families are being abused, and in some cases, destroyed, as a result of laws that are inappropriate," said Dwight Mitchell, the lead plaintiff in the case and founder of the parents' association. "This is legal kidnapping."
The Star Tribune reported that growing parents' movement "Stop Child Protection Services From Legally Kidnapping, said it has documented nearly 50 cases in 23 counties across the state in which children were wrongly removed and placed into foster care, based on false or disputed evidence."
The organization, which represents a coalition of civil rights groups, black parents and attorneys, seeks a court order declaring that specific state laws governing circumstances under which a child can be removed from the home deprive families of due process and are unconstitutional.
Stop Child Protection Services From Legally Kidnapping argued in the letter that "Minnesota's laws wrongly criminalize parents for what they consider to be routine parental discipline and have a disproportionate impact on black families," according to the Star Tribune.
© Andres Stapff / Reuters
The chilling story occurred in Jodhpur on Thursday, when Nawab Ali Qureshi, 26, decided to make a "sacrificial offering" to God during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, local media report. On that day, Qureshi bought some sweets and lured his daughter Rizwana, who at the time was staying at her grandmother's place, into his house.
Late at night, the man took Rizwana to a room on the ground floor, cited verses from the Koran, and slit her throat, Jodhpur police official Rajan Dushyant told the Times of India. He then went back to sleep.
Qureshi's wife, Shabana, woke up early in the morning to find the lifeless body of her daughter lying on the veranda. Police searched the crime scene and summoned Qureshi for questioning.
© AFP 2018 / YURI CORTEZ
Ambulance in Mexico - file photo
Ambulance in Mexico - file photo
Puron stood outside the building of a state university with a woman who asked him for a photo when a killer approached him from behind, fired a shot at the back of the head and fled the scene, El Universal newspaper reported, publishing a CCTV video of the incident.
Comment: Sadly, Mexico keeps descending down the spiral of barbarism.
Russia’s aging but still highly effective T-90A battle tank
Russia is sharply curtailing the number of Soviet-era tanks that is planning to scrap. In previous years, Moscow had planned to send some 10,000 of its older model tanks to the junk yard for disposal, now that figure could be reduced to as few as 4,000.
"Initially, when the program was drafted, it was planned that about 10,000 Soviet-made armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) stored in warehouses...will be scrapped," Lt. Gen. Alexander Shevchenko, chief of the main armored directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry, told the TASS news agency.
As TFTP reported last year, Sustaita's bestiality made national headlines but once investigators secured search warrants for his computer, some 200 videos and images of child pornography were discovered, some involving a family member's daughter.
According to the Houston Chronicle, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake handed down Sustaita's lengthy 27-year prison sentence. In addition to his time spent in prison, Lake also ordered Sustaita to a lifetime of supervised release as a registered sex offender. The judge also ordered Sustaita to have no contact with children without the express permission of a probation officer.
Judge Lake described the images found on Sustaita's electronic devices, which showed babies and children being sexually abused, as "some of most horrific" he had ever seen. Lake was particularly troubled that the collection of kiddie porn included multiple lewd videos made after a child was invited over to the officer's house for a sleepover in 2015. The victim's mother addressed Sustaita:
Comment: The general inmate population don't take too kindly to these types, for example: Poetic justice: Pedophile who raped baby found dead in cell with penis chopped off
© The Free Thought Project
While the annoying cultural cliche suggests that our years in school should be the best times of our lives, for many of us it is actually a traumatizing experience that has lifelong consequences for our mental health. After graduation, many of us are left to work through issues such as anxiety, depression, low-self esteem, dependence on authority, need for external validation and a long list of mental health problems that can lead to drug and alcohol abuse, antisocial behavior, or worse.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for people over the age of 15, and the third-leading cause for those over 10. According to statistics from the CDC, over the past 10 years, the suicide rate for White children and teens between the ages of 10 and 17 was up 70 percent, and up 77 percent among African-American children. Since mental health is such a serious problem among teens, it is time to start examining the place where they spend the vast majority of their time.
Peter Gray of Psychology Today and The Foundation for Economic Education has pointed out that suicide rates among teens actually increase during the school year, citing numerous studies.
Surprisingly, the ban was supported by nearly 70 percent of the city's voters.
"San Francisco's groundbreaking law stands-and will stop the tobacco industry from targeting kids, African Americans and other populations with menthol- and candy-flavored products, as the industry has done for far too long. The San Francisco vote gives a powerful boost to growing efforts around the country to end the sale of flavored tobacco products," Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids President Matthew Myers said in a statement.
E-cig liquid has been targeted for the ban because critics say that it is marketed to children because it is colorful and flavorful. However, children are not the only human beings on the planet who like to add flavor to something that they are enjoying. Lawmakers point to the fact that E-cigs have become especially popular among young people, but tobacco products have always been popular among teens - this is not a new or recent phenomenon.
Comment: Destroying families is the sort of thing that results when social practices are forced to change beyond what's reasonable for the sake of some ideal. 'Lets traumatize for life a toddler by taking him away from their parents - but for the love of God, don't spank him!'