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Horrific human trafficking is booming in Yemen as the war enters its fifth year

Ahmed Abdulkareem
MintPress News
Fri, 13 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
People walk in a shelter for displaced persons in Ibb, Yemen
© Nariman El-Mofty | AP
People walk in a shelter for displaced persons in Ibb, Yemen, in this Aug. 3, 2018, photo.
The offensive war on Yemen, the most impoverished nation in the Middle East, was launched in 2015 by a U.S.-backed coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, the richest nation in the Middle East. It has plunged a nation already struggling to provide basic services to its citizens into chaos, a nation now ruled by a ragtag consortium of different groups all thirsting for power. The result? A complete absence of law and order that has given rise to a black Suq (market) of human trafficking on a scale never before seen in Yemen.

Thirty-five-year-old Tawfiq hails from Amran, a small city in west-central Yemen famous for its ancient mud-brick high-rises dating back two millennia to the Sabean kingdom. Tawfiq was among 17 Yemeni victims of human trafficking who agreed to speak to MintPress about their harrowing ordeals. In 2016, Tawfiq — desperate to bring money home to his family, as the then-fledgling war decimated the already shaky Yemeni economy — was told by a friend that he could earn as much as $7,000 for one of his kidneys. Days later Tawfiq was on a bus to Saudi Arabia, traveling through al-Wadeeah port on the Yemen-Saudi border.

Today, Tawfiq suffers from complications arising from his kidney extraction and is now unable to carry heavy objects. He told MintPress, "I thought that removing a kidney would be a simple arrangement, but now I live in a hell of pain and suffering." Tawfiq's operation was crude and involved no follow-up care.
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Laptop

Google search outage triggers existential crises as panicked users scramble for alternative info sources


RT
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 13:23 UTC
Google outage
© downdetector.com
A Google search outage had users panicked around the world as their search queries returned "internal server errors," forcing them to use DuckDuckGo or (shudder) Bing - or take to social media to complain.

Internet users worldwide found themselves plunged into unexpected darkness as their Google queries returned...nothing. Only a mysterious server error where once there had been answers.

Rushing to Twitter to see who else was suffering in this 21st century dark age, they found temporary solace in the fact that they were not alone - the outage appeared to be widespread, with no explanation available other than a promise that "engineers have been notified and are working to resolve the issue."

"I'm just trying to do homework and it's doing this," complained one user. "But why is the google broken? did the internet break?" pondered another.
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Ambulance

Man shouting 'Allahu Akbar' stabs Italian soldier in neck with scissors

Yaron Steinbuch
New York Post
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 16:31 UTC
Milano Central Station
© NurPhoto via Getty Images
An Italian soldier was stabbed in the neck Tuesday by an attacker brandishing a pair of scissors in front of Milan's central train station — and later shouting "Alahu Akbar," according to a report.

The man fled after the unprovoked attack shortly after 10:45 a.m. in Piazza Duca d'Aosta and ran toward Via Vittor Pisani but was stopped by paramilitary Carabinieri police officers, according to Milano Today.

He apparently shouted "Allahu Akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great!" — as he was being arrested, the news outlet reported.

An investigation was launched to determine if the attack was terrorism-related.

The 34-year-old soldier was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the report.
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NPC

NYC NPC official suggests replacing Central Park's male statues with women


RT
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 16:19 UTC
Alexander Hamilton
© REUTERS/Mike Segar
A statue of Alexander Hamilton stands in New York's Central Park July 28, 2015.
A conspicuously 'woke' New York City official has proposed that male statues inhabiting the metropolis's famed Central Park should be replaced with monuments honoring women. This is a great idea, nobody on Twitter said.

Hank Willis Thomas, a painter who serves on the Public Design Commission, told his fellow commission members that there are five or six male statues in the park that could "easily" be torn down and swapped with tributes to famous women, the New York Post reported.

Elaborating on his idea, Thomas singled out statues of Scottish poet Robert Burns and Christopher Columbus as candidates for reassignment surgery. He argued that there aren't many people who would miss the Burns statue, while Columbus already had a monument in his honor just a "few hundred yards away."

Central Park currently has 23 statues - all male - and Hank's commission has been tasked with rectifying this problem.

Thomas' vision for a new-and-improved Central Park was rejected by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who wants to see new statues erected but opposes removing existing ones.

His bold renovation plan was similarly panned by the Twitterati, who expressed nearly unanimous disgust with the proposal.
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Clipboard

A new way to understand America's cultural and political realignment

Richard Tafel
Quillette
Mon, 16 Sep 2019 14:58 UTC
Trump air force one
© whitehouse.gov
Understanding American politics has become increasingly confusing as the old party labels have lost much of their meaning. A simplistic Left vs. Right worldview no longer captures the complexity of what's going on. As the authors of the October 2017 "Pew Survey of American Political Typologies" write, "[I]n a political landscape increasingly fractured by partisanship, the divisions within the Republican and Democratic coalitions may be as important a factor in American politics as the divisions between them."

To understand our politics, we need to understand the cultural values that drive it. The integral cultural map developed by philosopher Ken Wilber identifies nine global cultural value systems including the archaic (survival), tribal (shaman), warrior (warlords and gangs), traditional (fundamentalist faith in God), modern (democracy and capitalism), and postmodern (world-centric pluralism). When combined with Pew's voter typologies, Wilber's cultural levels offer a new map of America's political landscape.

Comment: Mr. Tafel has presented an interesting analysis of the current political climate in the US. It will be fascinating to see if the presidential election results bear him out.

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Eye 2

Donetsk village resident says Ukrainian bombings are methodically destroying homes street by street

Eva Bartlett
In Gaza
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Zaitsevo shelling
Zaitsevo, a village in the north of the Donetsk People's Republic, has been relentlessly shelled by Ukrainian forces/paramilitaries since 2014, and continues to be bombed nearly every day and night.

The population has dropped from 3,500 to 1,600, including 200 children.

I interviewed Irina Dikun, head of the administration of Zaitsevo, who spoke at length on the terror civilians have faced over the years and continue to face with the Ukrainian bombing that erupts nearly every single night, targeting civilian homes and village infrastructure.

"Those who could leave, left. Mostly it's elderly remaining here. None of the ceasefire agreements (24/5) reached here. Not more than 1 or 2 days of ceasefire," she said.

"They are destroying street by street in the town. They take one street and destroy it house by house. Then they turn to another street.


Comment: We'd do well to remember that Kiev's abhorrent non-stop violence towards the peoples of Eastern Ukraine would not be happening had the US not empowered the coup that occurred during the Maidan of 2014.

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Stop

Studies find no evidence suggesting that assault weapon bans reduce the rates of homicide

Being Classically Liberal
Foundation For Economic Education
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
ban assault weapons
The studies, data, and examination of the available evidence by scholars suggest that assault weapon bans or buybacks will have little if any effect on rates of violent crime and gun violence.

Mass shootings are unconscionable acts of violence and are the most acutely disturbing form of gun violence. In the wake of such tragedies, many gun control advocates lambast gun rights supporters for allowing "weapons of war" onto the streets of America and not supporting "responsible gun reform."

The measures put forth are usually either a ban and/or mandatory buyback of "assault weapons," most of which are more accurately known as semi-automatic rifles. ("Assault weapon" is a vague term that varies state to state and can include common pistols and shotguns depending out other attachable accessories.)

While these initiatives are "common sense" to advocates, if one takes the time to examine the data and evidence, it becomes abundantly clear that gun control in this form will do little to reduce gun violence.

Comment: The real reason elements of the government are pushing for an assault weapon ban can likely be found here:

American Apocalypse Coming: The Deep State's Plot to Destabilize the Nation is Working

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Light Saber

Arizona Supreme Court strikes powerful blow in defense of free speech and religious freedom

David French
The National Review
Mon, 16 Sep 2019 22:22 UTC
Breanna Koski co-owner of Brush & Nib Studio Arizona Supreme Court January 2019
© Alliance Defending Freedom
Breanna Koski, co-owner of Brush & Nib Studio, at news conference following oral arguments at the Arizona Supreme Court, January 22, 2019.
Free speech and religious liberty are on a winning streak. Last month the Eighth Circuit Court of appeals ruled that Christian wedding photographers could not be compelled to use their artistic talents to help celebrate same-sex weddings. Today, the Arizona Supreme Court reached a similar holding, this time on behalf of Christian calligraphers and painters Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski. The case, brought by my friends and former colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom, is similar to multiple other wedding vendor cases. The plaintiffs do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation (they happily serve gay customers). They merely refuse to produce art that advances ideas they find objectionable.

Duka and Koski operate a limited liability company called "Brush & Nib Studios." The company's Operating Agreement declares its beliefs quite clearly — stating that it will not create "custom artwork that communicates ideas or messages . . . that contradict biblical truth, demean others, endorse racism, incite violence, or promote any marriage besides marriage between one man and one woman, such as same-sex marriage." As with all these cases, the core question is whether the custom artwork at issue constitutes constitutionally protected speech (the court was interpreting the Arizona constitution, but applied federal free speech precedents). If so, then the state's demand that the plaintiffs produce art for same-sex marriages constitutes a form of compelled speech, among the most egregious forms of First Amendment violation. Compelled speech violates the fundamental principle that "an individual has autonomy over his or her speech and thus may not be forced to speak a message he or she does not wish to say."

Comment: See also:

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Broom

'Regulatory guillotine': Russia cuts legal ties with Soviet past by eliminating 20K outdated laws


RT
Mon, 16 Sep 2019 20:50 UTC
demonstration Red Square nov 1967.
© Sputnik
A demonstration in the Red Square in November 1967.
From banning sofas and soft carpets in offices to seizing property from political emigrants, old Soviet laws have been hampering Russia's development for decades. But now 20,000 outdated acts will finally be made obsolete.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the so-called 'regulatory guillotine' as a measure against the excessive and ineffective regulation of business. It'll see a massive raft of legislation, signed between 1917 and 1991 in the USSR and Soviet Russia, laid to rest in early 2020.

RT has gathered the most ridiculous Soviet legislation that is, technically at least, still in force in Russia:

The 'regulatory guillotine' will finally legalize sofas and carpets in government offices across Russia. It turns out that, for the past 60 years, they've been put there in violation of the law. A 1958 resolution by the Council of Ministers of RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) banned the use of soft furniture as well as woollen and silk fabrics in the decor of state offices and public facilities, as part of a drive against vanity.
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Pistol

Homeowner shoots and kills 3 masked men in possible 'stand your ground' case

William Mansell
ABC News
Mon, 16 Sep 2019 02:11 UTC
Rockdale County Sheriff's vehicles
© WSB-TV
Rockdale County Sheriff's vehicles are pictured outside the scene where a homeowner shot and killed three men who were wearing masks early Monday morning on Sept. 16, 2019, in Rockdale County, Ga.
A homeowner in Georgia shot and killed three young masked men at his home early Monday morning, according to Rockdale County Sheriff Eric Levett.

Authorities have yet to identify the three deceased men, Levett said during a media briefing. The sheriff's office told ABC News it is waiting to release the names of the men until all three families are notified.

The homeowner, who has also not been identified by deputies, was taken to the station for questioning.

"It could be a 'stand your ground' type case, based on the preliminary [information] that we have learned so far," Levett said during the briefing.
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