Society's ChildS


Fire

Update: 2 dead, at least 6 injured in massive blast at BASF chemical plant in Germany


Daily Mail (UK)
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:59 UTC
BASF fire
© Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa via APSmoke and fire rise from a facility belonging to chemical firm BASF in Ludwigshafen, southwestern Germany, Monday Oct. 17, 2016. The company said that several people were injured in a late-morning explosion.
An explosion at a facility belonging to chemical firm BASF in southwestern Germany killed two people and injured at least six others on Monday, authorities said. Another two still were missing hours after the blast.

The explosion occurred in the late morning at a river harbor in Ludwigshafen that is used to unload flammable liquids and liquefied gas.

Plant manager Uwe Liebelt said it was preceded by a fire in a pipeline between the area where the liquids are unloaded and storage tanks. The explosion happened after the company's fire service arrived at the scene.

"How the explosion happened is not clear at the moment," Liebelt told reporters. He added that it wasn't yet known what substances were involved and didn't elaborate on the identities of the victims.

Earlier in the day, the company had reported that one person had died in the explosion.

BASF confirmed on Monday evening that the death toll had risen to two, spokeswoman Silvie-Kristin Wemper said.

A large column of black smoke rose over the site. Residents in parts of Ludwigshafen, where BASF is based and has a sprawling plant, and Mannheim, on the other side of the Rhine river, were advised to stay indoors and keep their doors and windows closed.

Comment: Four injured, several missing as fire engulfs factory of German chemical manufacturer BASF

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Arrow Down

Structurally unsound, mold and vermin infested: Over 40% of British live in squalid, substandard homes


RT
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 10:14 UTC
UK substandard housing
© Neil Hall / Reuters
More than four in 10 homes in Britain are falling short of an acceptable standard to live in, with many not having hot or cold water and being infested with mold or pests, according to an alarming new report.

The housing charity Shelter asked Britons if their homes met a series of conditions which together make up what it calls the "Living Home Standard," and 43 percent of homes apparently failed the test.

The criteria came up with 39 tests to meet the standard which it divided into five areas - affordability, decent conditions, space, stability and neighborhood.

Comment: In addition to deplorable living conditions, the housing crisis which has caused rents to skyrocket is also forcing many people out of homes they have occupied for decades and has also caused a surge in homelessness.

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Books

Beard hysteria! French high school student threatened with expulsion for his 'sign of radicalization'


RT
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 20:15 UTC
Bearded
© AFP
A student of a French high school was threatened with expulsion after he refused to comply with the headmaster's demand to shave his beard, which the headmaster considered a "sign of radicalization."

"You cut it or you leave," the headmaster reportedly told the student, as reported by newspaper Le Parisien. The head teacher also reportedly claimed that the student's beard is an apparent "sign of radicalization."

When the headmaster first asked the student to shave or shorten his facial hair, the young man, 21, explained that he had been cultivating his beard for two years for religious reasons.

"The Prophet [Muhammed] was wearing one. It is something important to me," the student, who wanted to remain unidentified out of fear of "being stigmatized even more," told Le Parisien, recalling his conversation with the head teacher.

He also added that the head teacher's "threats put pressure" on him and he "ended up" writing a letter to inform him that he was leaving the school. According to Le Parisien, the student has not attended school since October 13.
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Sheriff

Fool me twice? Top police organization apologizes for 'historical mistreatment' of minorities


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
speech
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
A formal apology from the International Association of Chiefs of Police to "communities of color" for "darker periods" in law enforcement is garnering a mixed reaction. Some are calling it appeasement, while others see it as paying phony lip service.

Clearly, this is a challenging time for policing," Chief Terrence M. Cunningham of the Wellesley Police Department in Massachusetts told a massive convention audience in San Diego on Monday.

Cunningham is the top police chief of the IACP, which represents some 18,000 police chiefs worldwide, many of whom attended the conference where all attendees reportedly rose to their feet in applause for Cunningham's address, an apology on behalf of the organization to minorities "for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society's historical mistreatment of communities of color."

Reactions on social media and from civil rights organizations as well as from other police organizations were not as unanimous as the reception in San Diego.
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Attention

Red Cross expects 1 million Iraqis displaced due to siege of Mosul, can only help 300,000


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:58 UTC
Mosul, Iraq
© AFP 2016/ MARWAN IBRAHIM
The International Committee of the Red Cross expects up to 1 million to join the number of internally-displaced people in Iraq due to the ongoing siege of Mosul, but is prepared to provide only 300,000 of them, a representative told RT.

"We at the International Red Cross have offices in the north. Our teams are there, and we will be ready to provide emergency relief - food, hygiene kits, cutlery, stoves, blankets, anything these people are going to need. Today we can provide up to 300,000. We are increasing our stocks because we expect it to be huge," told RT Sarah Alzawqari, ICRC spokesperson for Iraq.

There are currently 3 million internally-displaced people in Iraq. The ICRC is concerned that the number may increase by a third, as people flee Mosul, the Iraqi stronghold of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

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People

Support floods in for RT following NatWest accounts closure notice


RT
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 19:57 UTC
RT logo
© RT
The news that NatWest is closing RT UK's bank accounts without any explanation has ignited a social media storm from outraged readers and members of the public who have questioned Britain's "freedom of the press" and declared their support for RT.
Offering help & support

Countless RT readers sent messages of support and solidarity to the RT UK team, with quite a few offering services to RT to help fight the indignation.
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Cowboy Hat

New ad campaign in college papers calls out Israeli leaders' bigotry against Palestinians

Annie Robbins
Mondoweiss
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:05 UTC
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
© Palestine Advocacy Project
Palestine Advocacy Project (PalAD) has launched a dynamic new ad campaign "Israel's Leaders: In Their Own Words," directly quoting prominent Israeli officials' extremist and bigoted rhetoric.

The In Their Own Words series was created to spark conversation on U.S. college campuses seldom featured in the mainstream media. Thus far nine college campuses, including University of California-Berkeley, have agree to publish ads in their campus newspapers.

PalAd intern Maggie Liu said, "As a college student living on a politically-active campus, I know firsthand how little young people know about the reality of the situation. I hope these ads will bring some much-needed dialogue to campuses across the country."
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Post-It Note

Celebrities' endorsement earnings on social media


The Economist
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 23:22 UTC
Pay to post on social media
Having just received a fancy new watch from TAG Heuer, Cristiano Ronaldo, a footballer, posts a photo of himself, wrist aloft, to his Instagram account. He dutifully thanks them for their "kind gift" and signs off the post with the company's advertising slogan #dontcrackunderpressure.

This is the latest frontier of a rapidly growing industry. Since January, more than 200,000 posts per month on Instagram, a picture-sharing app owned by Facebook, have been tagged with "#ad", "#sp" or "#sponsored", according to Captiv8, an analytics platform that connects brands to social media "influencers". Hiring such influencers allows companies to reach a vast network of potential customers: Mr. Ronaldo has a combined following of 240 million people across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Comment: So in short, question everything, including motives because some people's motives are purely financial.

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Padlock

Flashback Locked in: The costly criminalisation of the mentally ill


The Economist
Sat, 03 Aug 2013 17:12 UTC
Prisoner's hands in a cell
Since 1994 Tracey Aldridge has been arrested 100 times, jailed 27 times for more than 1,000 days and spent a total of eight years in prison. Most of her arrests have been for trivia: trespassing, prostitution, drugs, disorderly conduct, petty theft or drinking in public, all typical of the mentally ill. Ms Aldridge is so impaired that one jail needed special arm coverings for her, like full-length oven gloves, to prevent her from ripping her veins out with her teeth. More recently, in prison, Ms Aldridge ate her protective gauntlets.

Thomas Dart, the sheriff of Cook County jail, knows Ms Aldridge will end up back in his cells soon because there is nowhere else for her to go. She is sentenced, like so many seriously mentally ill people in America, to rotate in and out of correctional facilities until she dies. Prisons and jails are the main mental-health facilities in the country, something Sheriff Dart describes as an "abomination". He is also angry about how fiscally reckless it is. At only 42, Ms Aldridge has already cost taxpayers $719,436 for her arrests and incarcerations.
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Heart - Black

Documentary filmmaker facing 45 years in prison for reporting on Dakota Access pipeline protests

Nika Knight
Common Dreams
Sat, 15 Oct 2016 18:57 UTC
Deia Schlosberg
Deia Schlosberg
In an ominous sign for press freedom, documentary filmmaker and journalist Deia Schlosberg was arrested and charged with felonies carrying a whopping maximum sentence of up to 45 years in prison—simply for reporting on the ongoing Indigenous protests against fossil fuel infrastructure.

Schlosberg was arrested in Walhalla, North Dakota on Tuesday for filming activists shutting down a tar sands pipeline, part of a nationwide solidarity action organized on behalf of those battling the Dakota Access Pipeline.
"The actions of the North Dakota Police force are not just a violation of the climate, but a violation of the constitution."
—Josh Fox,Gasland filmmaker
The filmmaker was held without access to a lawyer for 48 hours, her colleague Josh Fox wrote in the Nation, and her footage was confiscated by the police.

Schlosberg was then charged Friday with three felonies, the Huffington Post reported: "conspiracy to theft of property, conspiracy to theft of services and conspiracy to tampering with or damaging a public service. Together, the charges carry 45 years in maximum prison sentences."
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