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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Not for the faint-hearted - Chinese snow sweeper clears skywalk at 2,000 meters height

Snow Sweeper
© Still from AP Video
A Chinese snow sweeper was captured in hair-raising footage doing a job for which most people are unlikely to volunteer - shoveling away snow on a shaky path 2,000 meters above the ground.

26-year-old Zhang Dongdong gained popularity among netizens after he was videoed clearing a skywalk at the cliff on one of the Five Great Mountains of China, Huashan Mountain (Mount Hua) in northwest China's Shaanxi province, according to local media. It usually takes Zhang around an hour to get rid of the snow.

Heart - Black

Teenage girl killed along Turkish border in missile attack from Kurdish militants in Syria

Turkey border missile attack
© Reuters/ Osman Orsal
Missiles fired from Syria have hit the Turkish border district of Reyhanli in the southern Hatay province, killing a teenage girl and injuring at least one civilian, local media reported on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the NTV channel reported that at least two people had been injured in southern Turkey's Reyhanli as a result of rocket fire from Syria. According to the channel, those injured were taken to a hospital, with no information on their condition available.

The Anadolu Agency later reported that an injured teenage girl had died in hospital from wounds sustained in one of the attacks, carried out by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party's (PYD) militants. One more civilian was reportedly injured, two houses and several cars were also damaged.

Gear

Sweden grants Iraqi man custody of children he conceived with 13 year old cousin he married and raped

immigrant child girl burka
© Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
The Swedish government is under fire from critics after giving an Iraqi man custody of children he conceived with a then-13-year-old girl who was raped by the man after being sent to Iraq to marry him in 2007.

The girl, given the name "Alicia" to hide her identity, travelled to Iraq to marry her 23-year-old cousin in 2007 and said she was raped by him on the night of their wedding, Dagens Nyheter reports.

She then became pregnant sometime later that year and travelled back to Sweden where she gave birth to twins in Gothenburg. In 2009, Alicia travelled back to Iraq where she asked for a divorce, which was supported by her father if she gave up her rights to her children under "Iraqi law".

"After my divorce, my ex-husband's family came to me. They pushed the children out of my arms, pushed them into a car and left. I just cried and screamed," Alicia told Swedish media.

Attention

Amtrak train carrying Republican Congressmen derails after colliding with garbage truck

Train wreck
An Amtrak train carrying several members of Congress was involved in an accident with a large truck Wednesday afternoon.

According to The Atlantic's Elaine Plott, the train was carrying the congressmen to a Republican retreat in Greenbrier, West Virginia.

Multiple injuries have already been reported. It is not yet clear what caused the accident, but photos from the scene show that the truck has sustained extreme damage.

It appears that the injuries are minor and all members, their families and staff appear to be unharmed.

The driver of the truck has reportedly died on the scene.

Chart Bar

CBS News poll: Three quarters approve of Trump's State of the Union address

CBS poll Trump
© CBS news


Views of the speech


Three in four Americans who tuned in to President Trump's State of the Union address tonight approved of the speech he gave. Just a quarter disapproved.

How did the speech make you feel?

Eight in 10 Americans who watched tonight felt that the president was trying to unite the country, rather than divide it. Two-thirds said the speech made them feel proud, though just a third said it made them feel safer. Fewer said the speech made them feel angry or scared.

CBS news poll Trump
© CBS News

Comment: For the full results of the survey, see the embedded document at the bottom of the source link.

A snap CNN/SSRS poll: Almost half of viewers responded positively to Trump's SOTU speech


Arrow Up

More male BBC presenters will get a pay raise; new report finds no bias against female staff

The BBC
© XYZ PICTURES/ Global Look Press
The BBC has opened itself to further backlash over its gender pay gap as more men than women will receive a pay rise after auditors found there is "no bias" against female presenters.

Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that of the nearly 200 on-air staff needing a pay rise under a new "transparent" structure announced by the BBC in a bid to tackle widespread complaints of pay inequality, there were 98 male presenters and 90 female presenters.

It comes after BBC managers ordered a review of presenters' pay in a bid to tackle widespread allegations of discrimination against women.


PwC subsequently found no "bias" against women, though the gender pay gap stands at 6.8 percent.

News of the pay boost scheme being more in favor of men than women caused an outcry on social media, given recent reports that put the overall pay gap at the BBC at 9.3 percent.

Handcuffs

Oxford University Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan arrested in Paris on rape charges

Tariq Ramadan
© Mike Segar / Reuters
Tariq Ramadan
An Oxford professor accused of rape has been arrested in Paris. Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan has had multiple rape allegations made against him since November, and was suspended by the world's top university as a result.

The senior research fellow of St. Antony's College was accused in November of rape by French author Henda Ayari. She alleges that Ramadan violently assaulted her in a Paris hotel room in 2012 following one of his lectures.

"He literally threw himself on me like a wild beast," Ayari said. He "strangled me... I really thought I was dying, I was certain tonight that if I kept pushing him he would kill me."

Comment: See also: In office, Hillary overturned ban to let Islamist with ties to terrorist funding into US, now he's accused of rape


Pirates

Show this short video to anyone who still thinks White Helmets are 'heroes'

White Helmets
© Abdalrhman Ismail / Reuters
A member of the 'Civil Defence', also known as the 'White Helmets'
Vanessa Beeley presents a condensed overview of the evidence for the White Helmets being a creation of Western governments embedded with terrorist factions inside Syria. Show this to anyone who still can't believe our leaders would be cynical and psychopathic enough to nominate mercenaries, fakers and mass-murderers for a Nobel prize, or that our media would be craven enough to let this grotesque lie go unquestioned.


Comment: More on the PR operation known as the White Helmets:


People 2

Almost half of viewers responded positively to Trump's SOTU speech

trump
© Toya Sarno Jordan
Nearly half of those who watched President Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday reacted "very" positively to the speech, according to a snap CNN/SSRS poll.

According to that survey, the results of which were announced on-air on CNN, 48 percent of respondents said they had a "very positive" reaction to the speech - Trump's first since taking office. Only 22 percent said they had a "somewhat positive" reaction to the speech, while 29 percent reacted negatively.

The results of that poll came less than two hours after Trump finished delivering his speech, in which he touted the tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks of his first year in office and outlined his ambitions to revitalize the nation's infrastructure and take on immigration reform.

Attention

Sweden at epicenter of illegal adoptions scandal

Sweden Swedish flag
© Reuters/ Bob Strong/File
A former head of the Chilean Child Care Agency has claimed that an unknown number of children were victims of the "child trade" to Sweden, which is otherwise known for having the highest per capita proportion of international adoptees in the world.

Many of the children adopted from Chile by Swedes during the 70's and 80's were taken from their mothers without their consent, an investigation by Chilean journalists in collaboration with Swedish national broadcaster SVT has shown.

Between 1971 and 1992, largely during the Pinochet era, over than 2,000 Chilean children were adopted by Swedish couples from Chile. Over the years, these adoptions have been questioned due to allegations of coercion and kidnapping.