Society's ChildS


Blue Planet

World Bank predicts that by 2030 90% of the world's poor will be in Africa

Prinesha Naidoo
Bloomberg
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 16:13 UTC
Lagos woman
© Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Mosafejo slum area of Lagos.
Africa could be home to 90% of the world's poor by 2030 as governments across the continent have little fiscal space to invest in poverty-reduction programs and economic growth remains sluggish, the World Bank said.

That's up from 55% in 2015 and it will happen unless drastic action is taken, the lender said in its biannual Africa Pulse report released Wednesday, in which it also cut growth forecasts for the region's key economies.

The rate of poverty reduction in Africa "slowed substantially" after the collapse in commodity prices that started in 2014, resulting in negative gross domestic product growth on a per capita basis, according to the report. "As countries in other regions continue to make progress in poverty reduction, forecasts suggest that poverty will soon become a predominantly African phenomenon."
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Arrow Down

800,000 Bay Area residents will be affected by PG&E power outages, electricity could be out for a week

J.D. Morris and Michael Cabanatuan
San Francisco Chronicle
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 16:03 UTC
PG&E employees
© Paul Kuroda / Special to The ChroniclePG&E employees work at the Emergency Operations Center where the shut-offs throughout the Bay Area were confirmed.
California's wildfire crisis will enter an unprecedented new stage Wednesday as PG&E plans to begin cutting power to about 800,000 customers, shutting down the electric lines that have sparked many of the state's worst blazes and setting off a chaotic scramble of people preparing for an outage that could last a week in some places.

Read the latest version of this story here.

As word spread Tuesday of the preemptive shut-off — which is set to hit the Bay Area at noon — those in the locations expected to go dark stockpiled water and canned food and emptied store shelves of batteries for flashlights and cell phones. They made a run on gas pumps, causing lines that sometimes extended for blocks. And they hurried to help loved ones whose medical needs require electricity.

Transportation officials worked, mostly successfully, to keep open roads, bridges and tunnels, including the eight-lane Caldecott Tunnel that links Oakland and Berkeley to the suburbs to the east. Meanwhile, firefighting agencies staffed up. And school leaders canceled classes Wednesday on dozens of campuses, including UC Berkeley.
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Attention

Mexico mayor kidnapped, tied to a truck and dragged for not fulfilling his promise to repair local roads


RT
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 15:45 UTC
mexico mayor kidnapping
The residents of one Mexican city have grown so dissatisfied with their mayor over unfulfilled election promises that they turned vigilante to make their feelings known, kidnapping the man and dragging him behind a truck.

Jorge Luis Escandon Hernandez, mayor of the southern city of Las Margaritas, was abducted from his office on Tuesday before being unceremoniously tied to a truck and dragged around the city by angry locals.

The incident was apparently fueled by their unhappiness over the politician's failure to follow through on election campaign promises to repair local roads. Incredibly, he escaped the incident without serious injury.
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Blue Planet

The importance of reviving critical thinking skills in a deepfake world

Helen Buyniski
RT
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 15:33 UTC
deepfake
© Youtube / VillainguyA deepfake combining Steve Buscemi's face with Jennifer Lawrence's body
Deepfakes are keeping people from all walks of life up at night - just one photo can place anyone in a compromising situation. How can we judge reality in a post-deepfake world, when what we see is no longer what we get?

Rooted in the porn industry, deepfakes - computer-generated video forgeries - are pouring into the mainstream. There are 14,678 deepfake videos online, according to a report published last month by DeepTrace, which monitors "synthetic media" cyber-threats. While just four percent of those videos are not porn, that percentage is bound to increase as the tools for manufacturing deepfakes become more widely available and the rewards for making them increase.

Many social media users shocked by how far deepfake technology has advanced since a faux Barack Obama appeared on Youtube in 2017 shouldn't be. They've been helping its makers along for years with every photo they upload to Facebook and apps like FaceApp that transform a photo subject into an older, younger, male or female version of themselves. FaceApp uses generative adversarial networks to age photos - the same tech used by deepfake producers like Face2Face to make photos move.

Comment: From fake news to fake porn to fake reality - it's clear we're on a dangerous path

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Pills

Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $8 Billion after Risperdal drug causes man to grow breasts

Zack Budryk
The Hill
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 15:19 UTC
gavel
A jury on Tuesday said drugmaker Johnson & Johnson must pay $8 billion to a man who accused the company of failing to properly warn that its antipsychotic Risperdal could cause breast growth in men, according to Reuters.

Nicholas Murray had previously been awarded $1.75 million in the case in 2015 after a jury found the company failed to warn of the risk of the condition, gynecomastia. While a Pennsylvania appeals court upheld the verdict last February, it reduced it to $680,000.

Plaintiffs in the mass tort case were previously prohibited under a 2014 ruling that found a New Jersey law prohibiting punitive damages should apply to all cases, as J&J is headquartered in New Jersey.

Comment: See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Daesh suicide bombers attack Kurdish military positions in Raqqa, 'clashes still ongoing'


Sputnik
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 12:42 UTC
daesh bomb kurd
© REUTERS / Zohra Bensemra/File Phot
According to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), at least three Daesh suicide bombers on Wednesday attacked its military positions in Syria's Raqqa.

The SDF stressed in a statement that the Daesh* terrorists took "advantage of an imminent Turkish invasion", adding that "clashes still ongoing". The SDF has not provided further details including casualties or damage inflicted by the terrorist attack.

Raqqa was seized by Syrian opposition forces in 2013 and then captured by Daesh, which then proclaimed the city its de facto capital. In 2016, the SDF, backed by the US-led military coalition, launched a campaign to liberate the city. The operation culminated in the 2017 Battle of Raqqa, which brought the city back under SDF control.

Comment: US begins withdrawing troops from Syria, Trump announces end to Cheney's 'endless war', Turkey prepares operation, Russia sends in reinforcements - UPDATES

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Sherlock

Dutch lawmakers begin probe into Ukraine's role in MH17 downing


RT
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 11:46 UTC
MH17
© REUTERS/Maxim ZmeyevA Malaysian air crash investigator inspects the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17
Dutch lawmakers have voted to launch an investigation into Ukraine's involvement in the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. The Netherlands has blamed Russia for the tragedy - a stance that has been criticized by Malaysia.

Dutch MP Chris van Dam, the spokesman for the investigation into the 2014 MH17 crash, announced on Tuesday that his country's parliament had unanimously passed a resolution aimed at shedding light on Kiev's role in the incident.He said the probe would focus on why Ukrainian airspace "was not closed" over Donetsk in the summer of 2014, which at the time saw fierce fighting between pro-Kiev forces and the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic.

MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was downed over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board. A subsequent Dutch-led probe into the tragedy has been heavily criticized, particularly because Ukraine, a suspect in the incident, was part of the international investigative team.
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Fire

'Completely unacceptable': Anger as power company shuts off supply to 800,000 over California wildfire fears


RT
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 11:37 UTC
electric lines
© REUTERS / Elijah Nouvelage
Around 800,000 PG&E customers in California are facing power cuts this week after the company announced it would take the drastic measure in order to limit the risk of their power lines sparking serious fires.

Some 20,000 customers are already affected, as the roll-out began in some places at midnight local time and will continue to be widened out to 34 counties across California.

Law enforcement in the affected areas are warning motorists to take extra care on the streets and to bear in mind that traffic lights will not be functioning over the shut-down period.

The power cut is being implemented out of fears that unusually high winds could bring lines down, sparking forest and scrub fires that could burn out of control. This summer, the company permanently retired a high-voltage line that sparked the worst wildfire in the state's history.
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People 2

Hundreds of young trans people seeking help to return to original sex

Sally Lockwood
Sky News
Sat, 05 Oct 2019 20:39 UTC
ruby detransitioning trans
Ruby is now 21 years old but first began identifying as male at 13.
Hundreds of young transgender people are seeking help to return to their original sex, a woman who is setting up a charity has told Sky News.

Charlie Evans, 28, was born female but identified as male for nearly 10 years before detransitioning.

The number of young people seeking gender transition is at an all-time high but we hear very little, if anything, about those who may come to regret their decision.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

At least 19 cars burned and EXPLOSION rocks barber shop in Stockholm suburb


RT
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 17:59 UTC
Gothenburg
© AFP / TT News Agency / Adam IhseFILE PHOTO. Burned cars are pictured in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Some 19 cars have been torched in the northern Stockholm suburb of Marsta, while a small explosive device went off near a local barber shop. No suspects have been detained so far.

The early hours of Monday turned out to be very restless for the residents of the area, as they were woken up by at least two loud bangs which triggered a massive police and firefighter response.

It turned out an explosive device went off in front of a barber shop, heavily damaging its entrance, while cars were set alight in at least three locations across the neighborhood. Some 19 vehicles were destroyed by fire, according to local media.

Footage from the scene shows the smashed up barber shop, as well as multiple cars ablaze.

Comment: One wonders just how much longer the people of Sweden will tolerate the escalating crime epidemic: Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis

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