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Bullseye

'We will behead you': Swedish nationalist leader and his 4 year-old son get death threats from Daesh

Jimmie Akesson
© REUTERS / Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency
Jimmie Akesson
A right-wing Eurosceptic party is poised to win record support in Sweden's upcoming general election, capitalizing on voter discontent over issues such as immigration, crime and health care.

The leader of the Sweden Democrats Party (SD), Jimmie Akesson, has received a letter with a death threat as the party is gearing up for Sunday's vote, The Daily Mail reported.

The chilling missive, featuring the Daesh Islamist terrorist group's flag at the top, contains threats both against Akesson and his four-year-old son, along with a demand that he "immediately resign from the election."

"We will behead you if you do not withdraw from the election by the end of this week," the letter warned, while making a similar threat against Akesson's son.

The Swedish Security Service (SAPO) is investigating the incident.

Eye 2

Billionaire OxyContin dealer Richard Sackler set to rake in more money with patent on addiction treatment drug

opioids oxycontin
© Associated Press/Toby Talbot
Billionaire drug baron Richard Sackler, whose family has enriched themselves with the help of a widely abused opioid, is expected to get even richer off a drug used to help wean people off of opiates.

That's because in January he was awarded a patent for a new kind of buprenorphine, the most popular brand of which is Suboxone, which is used to help opiate addicts deal with cravings but is also abused recreationally. The new drug is said to be more "abuse-resistant" in its dosage form in the patent application. Suboxone manufacturer Indivior made $887 million from the drug in 2017 alone, according to the Financial Times, so Sackler's replacement in expected to rake in some serious cash.

Sackler and his family own Purdue Pharma, which manufactures a popular form of Oxycodone called OxyContin, an opiate that is one and a half times as powerful as morphine. In 2007, as the opioid epidemic wreaking havoc across the United States was in its early stages, the company and three of its executives pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding customers and regulators by downplaying the addictiveness of the drug.

Comment:


Attention

UK: Man injured in knife attack; female suspect 'running around the town center' now in custody

crime scene
© Phil Noble / Reuters
South Yorkshire Police arrested a suspect after a person wielding a knife was reportedly spotted in Barnsley, putting the center on lockdown. One passerby was injured in the incident, according to police.

Police initially reported a "serious incident" Barnsley, South Yorkshire, on Saturday morning, asking residents to stay vigilant. It came after reports of a stabbing on the town center. A kitchen knife discovered at the scene is currently being examined by police.

It was later confirmed that a man suffered minor injuries after the incident and that a female suspect was put in custody. The arrested woman's identity has not been revealed and investigators are trying to understand whether it was an isolated incident.

Telephone

Sweden: Steady increase in hotline calls from girls seeking a way out of child marriage

child bride
© Spencer Platt/Getty
According to the National Suppression of Honor Prevention of Childhood and Forced Marriage, a hotline set up for victims, the number of calls from those wanting to get out of forced or child marriages has steadily increased in Sweden.

Set up just over four years ago, the organisation's hotline has seen 101 children and young people come to them for help in getting out of forced marriages between 2014 and 2018, SVT reports.

This year, however, the number of calls has dramatically increased with the hotline operators claiming to have received 132 calls relating to child and forced marriages, which is set to pass last year's total of 139.

Despite being able to identify 101 potential victims of forced or child marriage, both of which are illegal in Sweden, only six cases have actually seen court convictions.

Although the absolute figures are relatively small, especially compared to other Western nations with more developed forced marriage and child abuse problems, they are significant in formerly low-crime, low-population Sweden. With just 9.9 million residents - a figure that has lately seen a historic rise - the whole nation is the population equivalent to the U.S. state of Michigan.

Comment: Child marriage in Sweden: Govt treads softly due to fears of 'cultural insensitivity'


Attention

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's health rapidly degrading while confined in Ecuadorian Embassy

Julian Assange Wikileaks Embassy Ecuador
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's health is degrading rapidly while he remains cooped up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, according to his attorney, and his life may be in jeopardy if he does not obtain medical treatment soon.

A member of the WikiLeaks legal team told iTWire Friday that Assange has been cut off from proper medical attention for half a dozen years and is facing the music as a result. "If there is not a resolution to his case - in other words, the UK guaranteeing that he will not be extradited to the US - the reality is Julian's health will deteriorate to the point where his life is in serious danger."

If Assange exits the embassy, British police are prepared to arrest him. While he is in the embassy, however, Assange is officially beyond the reach of UK law enforcement.

"This is a cruel and inhumane stance from a government professing to be a liberal democracy," said Greg Barns, an Australian attorney who works on Assange's legal team.

Bullseye

'Stop BEZOS' Act: Jeff Bezos makes over $11,000,000 an hour, lowest paid Amazon worker gets $12

Jeff Bezos
© Manjunath Kiran / AFP
The founder and CEO of one of the world's largest marketplaces is a very, very rich man. But how deep are Jeff Bezos' pockets compared to average Amazon employees?

Earlier this week, e-commerce giant Amazon briefly became the world's second trillion-dollar company after Apple, adding $434 billion to its market value. It goes without saying that nobody benefited more than its founder. Jeff Bezos added $67 billion to his net worth in 2018, bringing his total fortune to $167 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Simple calculations show that Bezos, who made $67 billion in 250 days of the current year, earns $268,000,000 per day, or a whopping $11,166,666 per hour. The number is nearly a million times higher than the average Amazon warehouse worker's pay of just $15 for an hour, according to the Glassdoor.com, a website for anonymous reviews of companies and their management by employees and former employees.

Attention

US & UK joint operations at airports target child female genital mutilation among Muslim and migrant communities

FGM, Female genital mutilation
Authorities from the UK and U.S. are undertaking joint operations at airports in attempts to tackle the growing problem of child female genital mutilation (FGM) amongst their Muslim and migrant communities.

Operating at New York City's JFK Airport and airports across Britain, police and border patrol officers look for signs of abuse, including girls having trouble walking or standing - signs associated with the procedure where the most severe forms of FGM involve the total removal of the clitoris, labia, and the intentional narrowing of the vaginal orifice.

Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have begun talking to parents on targetted flights from countries where the abuse is practised to inform them that it is illegal.

Both countries have signed intelligence-sharing agreements, including with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which focuses on information related to when and where victims may be taken for cutting.

Comment: FGM is child abuse: There's no excuse for the practice


Magnify

How the heck did this giant plane turn up in the middle of a jungle in Cambodia?

malaysian airlines
© Edgar Su/Reuters
A British man is sticking to his claim that the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 may be in the Cambodian jungle, after a Chinese satellite firm disputed his find. Ian Wilson now wants the site to be examined by helicopter.

Wilson has discovered what looks like the shape of an aircraft on Google Earth amid a thick patch of forest in Cambodia. The unusual find prompted him to speculate that the pixelated shape is none other than the Boeing 777-200ER which went missing in 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The story, first reported by the Daily Star, was picked up by other tabloids and soon led many to believe that the site of the long lost flight had finally been found.

Google Maps plane
© Google Maps 12°05'22.4"N 104°09'05.9"E
While other potential findings of the plane had previously been dismissed as other aircraft flying in mid-air by experts, Wilson believes his was the real deal. Speaking to the Daily Star, he said that the aircraft he found in Cambodia was at ground level because Google Earth offers the option to "escape ground view" when close to the jet in the app.

Comment: It's obviously not MH370. But still, how did that huge plane get there?!

See also:


Bizarro Earth

Refugees or ISIS fighters? Cyprus authorities fear the worst after finding incriminating photos

Suspected ISIS fighters
© http://politis.com.cy
Suspected ISIS fighters
Cypriot authorities suspect that ISIS fighters posing as refugees may have entered their country, a local daily reported, amid appeals to the EU to help with an influx of asylum seekers overloading the small island nation.

During a random check on asylum seekers' mobile phones at the country's refugee processing center, Cypriot authorities found saved photos of 'refugees' posing with weapons and dressed in Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) regalia, Cypriot newspaper "Politis" reported. The newspaper obtained two photographs, both showing men dressed in black holding AK-47s. One of the men is seen raising his index finger - a popular "salute" among Islamic State fighters and other jihadists. The refugees in question reportedly came from Dara province, which was liberated by the Syrian army in July.

The photos are currently being examined by the country's security services and the suspected Islamic State members are being closely monitored, the paper said.

Comment: The influx of migrants and refugee's into Europe over the last few years is causing a unbearable strain on public services and, amid the chaos, they are evidently incapable of providing the necessary background checks, so why are some leaders, like France's Macron, insisting countries take in more, while at the same time threatening to create more? Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis


Eye 2

Gaza Health Ministry: Teenager killed, 395 injured in latest border clashes (VIDEOS)

Medics helping to the wounded Palestinian
© Said Khatib / AFP
A 17-year-old Palestinian was killed by an Israeli sniper during Friday's 'Great March of Return' protest. Nearly 400 others, including journalists and paramedics, were injured in clashes with the IDF along the Gaza border.

Israeli snipers have once again been active along the Gaza-Israeli border as Palestinian protesters continue to put pressure on the frontier in weekly protests that started on March 30. The latest march drew at least 7,000 activists, who, among other things, protested against Washington's recent move to cut some $60 million in funding from the UN Work and Relief Agency (UNWRA).

Amid tense confrontation just east of the Rafah crossing, one of the snipers shot 17-year-old Bilal Mustafa Khafaja in the chest, killing the teenager, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Comment: See also: 'Extremely violent riots': 2 killed, 310 injured and Israeli drone shot down in latest Gaza clashes